Unearthed Arcana New Unearthed Arcana: Rune Knight, Swarmkeeper, The Revived

Another new Unearthed Arcana! "In today’s Unearthed Arcana, three classes each receive a playtest option. The fighter gets a Martial Archetype option: the Rune Knight. The ranger gains a Ranger Archetype option: the Swarmkeeper. And the rogue acquires a Roguish Archetype option: the Revived."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You haven't looked in Magic discussion circles, then. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't happening. And, hey, guess what, it is.

The Magic people are too busy playing Magic to play D&D. I meet them sometimes in the shop. Most of them seem unaware the D&D crossover book exists. The people who bought it are D&D players, and they bought it because they like Circle of Spores Druid and the new monsters. But more people I know bought Acquisitions Incorporated than bought Ravnica.

The book has adventure generation material, which is what most people use over prewritten adventures, and the prewritten adventures can be repurposed to any setting anyways. Also, the DMsGuild is right there.

Not much quality stuff for Ravnica on the DMsGuild. And there would be even less if there was two/three/twenty equally stand-alone cookie cutter MTG campaign settings for people to divide their efforts between.

The AL is experimenting with some wild stuff for Eberron this coming year, they could well do something similar for future settings.

That's the absolute minimum that needs to be done, Did AL do anything at all related to Ravnica? But a lot of D&D players don't play AL (although sometimes the modules get used anyway - the grung stuff seems to be popular).

 

[cbwjm]

The book was well written and new. But if it continues to stand alone and unsupported it's ongoing sales are just going to rot. WotC need to release more content (e.g. a major adventure) to encourage people to actually use the setting*, not churn out an endless stream of unsupported cookie cutter setting books and expect people to continue to buy them.

In comparison, Eberron has a huge amount of 3rd party content either out now or out soon, and the source book isn't even out yet. And Greyhawk and Planescape have more support from WotC, even though they don't have setting books yet.


*As I've said before, I haven't seen any evidence of Ravnica set campaigns, the people who have bought it cannibalise it as a splat book.

You just need to go on Reddit. They have a subreddit dedicated to the setting with people asking others for ideas because their final boss battle against Orzhov is coming up or how should they run a Rakdos carnival. The setting is getting plenty of use I'd say.

 

[dave2008]

Have they? That's a little concerning. I like a lot of M:tG stuff but most of the settings seem like a pretty poor fit for D&D and Ravnica did little to dispel that feeling for me. .

Everyone's different. I don't play MtG or know the lore, but I think the Ravnica book was one of the best D&D books I've purchased in the last few years. I like it better than MtoF or XGtE for sure. There is, to me, just a ton of interesting stuff I can steal from the book for my games.

 

[dave2008]

*As I've said before, I haven't seen any evidence of Ravnica set campaigns, the people who have bought it cannibalise it as a splat book.

There are over 2 dozen products for Ravnica on DM's Guild, seems pretty robust.

Now I bought it to cannibalize it as a splat book, of course that is the same reason I will buy the Eberron book and any other setting book.

 

[Parmandur]

The Magic people are too busy playing Magic to play D&D. I meet them sometimes in the shop. Most of them seem unaware the D&D crossover book exists. The people who bought it are D&D players, and they bought it because they like Circle of Spores Druid and the new monsters. But more people I know bought Acquisitions Incorporated than bought Ravnica.

The plural of anecdote is not data: as @cbwjm points out, it is not hard to find people playing Ravnica.

 

[Parmandur]

There are over 2 dozen products for Ravnica on DM's Guild, seems pretty robust.

Now I bought it to cannibalize it as a splat book, of course that is the same reason I will buy the Eberron book and any other setting book.

It is also not hard to find people talking about their Ravnica games, or streaming them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There are over 2 dozen products for Ravnica on DM's Guild, seems pretty robust.

Now I bought it to cannibalize it as a splat book, of course that is the same reason I will buy the Eberron book and any other setting book.

I said quality. And compared to how much there is for each of the other enabled settings, it's not many.

But that's the thing, it's pretty clear to me that what people really want is splat books*. Churning out setting books instead is poor policy.



* with the exception of a few much loved settings.

 

[Parmandur]

I said quality. And compared to how much there is for each of the other enabled settings, it's not many.

But that's the thing, it's pretty clear to me that what people really want is splat books*. Churning out setting books instead is poor policy.



* with the exception of a few much loved settings.

Based on talking to the people at your local game store? Gosh, all WotC has is years of intense market research...

There are not splat books in 5E, because hyper-focused books like the Complete * [splat] don't sell as well as something with a bit for everyone: which is precisely what a book like Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica is: expect to see way more of that

 

[dave2008]

I said quality. And compared to how much there is for each of the other enabled settings, it's not many.

And the other settings are decades older (in D&D) with a lot of established D&D lore. Most of them have been available for DMsGuild a lot longer too. Hardly surprising there is more content.

I can't speak to quality of any of the products, so I can't say if the Ravnica ones are better or worse.

But that's the thing, it's pretty clear to me that what people really want is splat books*. Churning out setting books instead is poor policy.
* with the exception of a few much loved settings.

I am not sure what constitutes a "splat" book as I have never bought any (or setting books for that matter) in previous editions, but if the setting books continue to be like Ravnica, I will buy them.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not sure what constitutes a "splat" book as I have never bought any (or setting books for that matter) in previous editions, but if the setting books continue to be like Ravnica, I will buy them.

Usually what people mean by "splat book" these days, and what I assume is meant here, is "book with primarily player rules in it." Not fluff, not DM stuff. This is not what WotC is doing these days, any book has to pull quadruple duty.

What the term originally meant was a hyper-focused book on a particular topic aimed at very specific players as part of a series: "Complete Book of Elves", "Complete Book of Bards, "Complete Book of " with the "" being a fill-in-the-blank that people would call a "splat" like a squished bug. That sort of book ain't happening, because it's bad business.