D&D General Teased Lorwyn-Shadowmoor Supplement Crosses Magic: the Gathering and D&D

WotC has teased an upcoming Magic: The Gathering / Dungeons & Dragons crossover supplement. No info has been given other than a mention of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor and an art piece by Jesper Ejsing.

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Lorwyn-Shadowmoor is a Magic: the Gathering plane. The official MtG page for it describes it as:

Lorwyn is an idyllic world where races of fable thrive in perpetual midsummer. Its dark reflection, Shadowmoor, exists in perpetual gloom, its citizens bitterly transformed and locked in a desperate battle for survival.

Lorwyn is the land where the sun never set. Covered with dense forests, meandering rivers, and gently rolling meadows, it knows no nights or winters. One of the few planes without humans, it's populated by the short-statured kithkin, hot-tempered flamekin, petty-thief boggarts, territorial treefolk, diplomatic merfolk, iconoclastic giants, and mischievous faeries, all living together in harmony.

Also among them: the elves, Lorwyn's most favored and feared race. In a world of unspoiled nature, they consider themselves the paragons of this beauty. Signs of elvish supremacy are widespread, from their gilded forest palaces to their mercilessness toward "lesser" races. Despite the elves' dominion, Lorwyn's people thrive, respecting community and tradition.

The land itself, ancient and verdant, is locked in a perpetual cycle—and every three centuries, that cycle transforms the plane into Shadowmoor.

The mirror-image of Lorwyn, Shadowmoor is a realm of perpetual dusk and gloom. Here, the plane's races, without knowledge of their previous selves, are locked in a life-and-death struggle for survival. Like the plane itself, its denizens are transformed into darker versions of themselves.

The kithkin, once communal and cooperative, are isolated and xenophobic. The helpful, silver-tongued merfolk are now assassins and saboteurs. The boggarts, once mischievous and hedonistic, are vicious and warlike. The blighted treefolk are murderous. Wrathful giants drag around huge pieces of the land.

The transformations of the flamekin and elves are perhaps the most dramatic. Once bright and seeking transcendence, the flamekin are now smoking skeletons seeking revenge. Meanwhile, the vain elves are humbled and heroic in Shadowmoor, protecting every glimmer of beauty and light.

Only one race and one place remain unchanged: the faeries and their home of Glen Elendra. The fae are the fulcrum of this transforming plane—for it was their queen, Oona, who caused it.


This isn't the first such crossover--Ravnica, Strixhaven, and Theros were all Magic: the Gathering settings. Additionally, over the past few years, WotC has put out PDF D&D supplements for the MtG worlds of Amonkhet, Dominaria, Innistrad, Ixalan, Kaladesh, and Zendikar.
 

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When Ravnica came out, I rolled my eyes because I thought it was an obvious cash grab and I had no interest in Magic the Gathering. But it turned out to be a cool sourcebook. Theros also turned out cool. Strixhaven suffers from the era of them trying to combine setting, adventure, and bestiary all in one source, making each of them too insubstantial (think Spelljammer and Planescape). But the setting itself was kinda cool. I love the idea of this new setting and would probably make it my next campaign.

Again, I have no interest in Magic the game, but their settings are fun. They're new and creative in a way that many recent D&D settings have not been.
 
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Unfortunately Merfolk have fish tails
Honestly, I don't think that's too hard to work around.

Pathfinder 2e has a playable merfolk ancestry with a feat option down the road that allows them to swap their tail for a pair of legs when on land - PFS gives this feat to merfolk PCs at level 1 for free. Exploring Eberron does pretty much the same thing, using a slightly modified triton statblock to represent merfolk.

It's not universal, by any means, but I've seen more than a few stories/worlds/etc. in recent years using merfolk that can optionally switch between having a tail or legs as needed.

Mobility aids are also an option - Pathfinder includes those as well.

Not a TTRPG, but the manga/anime One Piece does both - mermaids after a certain age gain the ability to split their tail into a pair of legs, and those who don't/can't frequently wear floating bubble "reverse-life preservers" when out of the water that essentially let them hover slightly above the ground.
 
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Honestly, I don't think that's too hard to work around.

Pathfinder 2e has a playable merfolk ancestry with a feat option down the road that allows them to swap their tail for a pair of legs when on land - PFS gives this feat to merfolk PCs at level 1 for free. Exploring Eberron does pretty much the same thing, using a slightly modified triton statblock to represent merfolk.

It's not universal, by any means, but I've seen more than a few stories/worlds/etc. in recent years using merfolk that can optionally switch between having a tail or legs as needed.

Mobility aids are also an option - Pathfinder includes those as well.
In Theros, at least, Merfolk were represented by Tritons in D&D terms.
 



Well, yeah, but unrestricted Lorwyn changelings wouldn’t work as a playable D&D species. You’d either need to compromise and make them closer to Eberron changelings, or not make them playable.

I think either it will ge a playable weaker subset of Changelings that will he playable, with more powerful Changels as monsters or they simply won't be playable.

Also side note I found out that creatures simular to Lorywn Flamekin, but for other elements, but stylistically the same, were in stuff like Core Sets, so it might be more then just Flamekin, but Leafkin, Lighteningkin, Cloudkin, etc..., they could all be playable.
 


Also side note I found out that creatures simular to Lorywn Flamekin, but for other elements, but stylistically the same, were in stuff like Core Sets, so it might be more then just Flamekin, but Leafkin, Lighteningkin, Cloudkin, etc..., they could all be playable.
I don’t know where you “found out” about that, but it’s not accurate. I mean, elementals are a thing throughout Magic and some of them look kinda humanoid sometimes. But there definitely aren’t groups of elementals similar to flamekin with the elements changed out.
 

In Theros, at least, Merfolk were represented by Tritons in D&D terms.
That’s been the standard for merfolk in Magic since 10th edition - the very next set after Shadowmoor block. It’s funny, they went through so much trouble experimenting with different species to replace merfolk as the blue-aligned humanoids because of the tail problem, worked around it in the worldbuilding for Lorwyn so they could bring them back, only to immediately decide “wait, why don’t we just give them finned legs and still call them merfolk?”
 

That’s been the standard for merfolk in Magic since 10th edition - the very next set after Shadowmoor block. It’s funny, they went through so much trouble experimenting with different species to replace merfolk as the blue-aligned humanoids because of the tail problem, worked around it in the worldbuilding for Lorwyn so they could bring them back, only to immediately decide “wait, why don’t we just give them finned legs and still call them merfolk?”
Double weird since, frankly, MtG is abstract enough that I don't think the card game lore really needs to worry about that compatability the same way that a D&D party does?
 

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