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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You have WotC's sales data?

Are you a store owner? If you have data on how well these books sold in your store . . . that doesn't really say much of anything towards how well they sold overall.
If you are not going to pay attention to the thread and jump in half way through a conversation, at least go back and read what has already been posted about that part of the topic. Go back to my first analysis of the data linked by another poster from Alpha Stream. You might be more informed for continuing the discussion then.
 

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Someone did (partly) and they did pretty well it seems
Uh, I wouldn't say pretty well. Ravnica did fine at 4th out of 9. But the other two only did 7th & 8th. Only Dragon Lance did worse. I wouldn't say that "pretty well"
So there might be some discrepancy between 'buzz' within the D&D community (low) vs the actual sales (high)
High sales? I don't get the same conclusion from the data. Given that as above, Ravnica was the best one but it still only did as well as a average or less adventure.
I think that WotC has learned from Hasbro that crossovers are generally low-effort, high-return projects, that if you pace them right, are an absolute no-brainer.
Now this is a conclusion I agree with. I think these are rather low effort because they don't have to develop a new setting or worry about offending an existing D&D crowd who knows a previous version of the setting. I hope they keep doing them, because they just might turn out something stellar.
 

I would rather to create a uchrony or variant version of Ravnica, with the same factions but a little more post-apocalypitic after the phyrexian invasion and an infernal power creating troubles style Duskmourn but in a smaller scale. And like if this wasn't enough then we add the factions from Planescape, and even a toroid ring around the planet because the mercanes tried again to create a planar-trade cosmopolis as rival for Sigil. The adventage of this crazy mash-up is the players who have read all the lore can't be totally safe about what they will find.
 


Everything I know about Lorwyn-Shadowmoor I learned this week. But it does strike me that the dual aspected plane hits themes that D&D has already been exploring. Lorwyn is somewhat similar to Witchlight's fey whimsy, and Shadowmoor wouldn't be at all out of place in Ravenloft.

If they're doing a two-for-one of revisiting those themes, it probably says a lot about internal sales data and survey responses.
 

I guess we might find in a month or so, when there's some UA released about material from this setting. I predict probably a couple of new species, though some they're just going to go with existing D&D player options that best fit in.

Could anyone anticipate if there's going to be new subclasses? I don't think there's going to be anything like the Oath of Glory Paladin that made the amazing journey of first appearing in Theros and then becoming a Core book subclass.
 

I guess we might find in a month or so, when there's some UA released about material from this setting. I predict probably a couple of new species, though some they're just going to go with existing D&D player options that best fit in.

Could anyone anticipate if there's going to be new subclasses? I don't think there's going to be anything like the Oath of Glory Paladin that made the amazing journey of first appearing in Theros and then becoming a Core book subclass.
I hope they add new species, it would be slightly disappointing if they went with "use halfling traits for a kithkin!" or whatever.
 


I guess we might find in a month or so, when there's some UA released about material from this setting. I predict probably a couple of new species, though some they're just going to go with existing D&D player options that best fit in.

Could anyone anticipate if there's going to be new subclasses? I don't think there's going to be anything like the Oath of Glory Paladin that made the amazing journey of first appearing in Theros and then becoming a Core book subclass.
I would not be surprised if we see a UA as early as the coming week: they clearly wanted to keep this under wraps for the MagicCon reveal for the hardcore enfranchised MtG fandom, and the last UA survey I think wrapped dup recently or along?

Hard to speculate on what they might add Subclass wise, since it has been nearly 20 years since the last Lorwyn card set and plot and the one this ties into hasn't been previewed yet.

In terms of broader speculation: it seems they are looking to add a fifth Artificer Subclass to Ebwrron, based on the art, though they haven't shown anything for that yet, and they have subclasses for 8 of the PHB Classes, which would give each of 9/13 Classes 5 Subclasses for 2024 (even though older Subclasses will still work on the new chasis), which would leave the following lacking a fifth:

  • Barbarian (Red Mana?)
  • Druid (Green Mana?)
  • Monk (White Mana?)
  • Warlock (Black Mana)
 

I hope they add new species, it would be slightly disappointing if they went with "use halfling traits for a kithkin!" or whatever.
If Kender got yheir own option, surely Kithkin are sufficiently different since they don't share Halfling type in Magic cards.

I think there will be new Species, and the rich environment for that is probably a big part of why this card Set is getting the big D&D tie-in.
 

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