D&D 5E Hypothetical Zendikar Campaign Guide

[gyor]

Now it's not a certainty, but some of us believe a proper Zendikar Campaign Setting Guide is going to be coming, most likely 2021, to tie in with Zendikar Rising MtG set.

For lore sources it will likely pull from the Zendikar Block, MtG Zendikar Artbook, Zendikar Rising, as well as any Zendikar novels and short stories, comic books, ect...

Also it's of course of value to look at the Zendikar Planeshift article, although a lot has likely changed by various events and Zrndikar Rising which comes out later this year, plus certain things that have happened in D&D.

Like I think the line up of races will change. Vampires and Kor will likely say in, but I think that now that Minotaurs are playable race, even in Theros where they were previously almost completely monsterous prior to Theros Beyond Death, that they will be playable in Zendikar as well.

I think Goblins and Elves will be handled differently. Goblins will get another reprint, but they won't bother with Goblin subraces, and I think they will likely just use the PHB Elf subraces to represent to the different Elf cultures, although I'm less certain about this.

Tritons will likely just be reprinted to represent Zendikar Merfolk which walk on two legs like Theros Tritons do, instead of the now outdated religion based subraces found in the planeshift article.

Also in the Planeshift article its hinted that races like Tiefling and Yaun Ti could be found living in ruins, so its possible races not shown in the previous Zendikar block could be shown emerging from ruins now that the Eldrazi Titans are gone. This could lead to Tieflings, Yuan Ti Purebloods, Dwarves, Halflings, ect... being playable. Heck some or all these could even make it into the Zendikar Rising set, I mean Zendikar was supposed to be inspired by D&D compared to other MtG settings, so finding away to make more D&D races fit into the setting makes sense.

I'm not sure what kind of subclasses could be in the book, but I could see a grappling/rope themed Ranger subclass fitting the setting, and Lithomancer subclass as well, but for what class I'm not sure, cleric or Druid maybe, maybe wizard.

I suspect Zendikar Rising will have some kind of plot twist as well.

With the Eldrazi Titans gone I think some kind of civilization is going to start to remerge.

Any speculation from you guys?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

As much fun as Zendikar is, I find it getting a book unlikely. It's cards release is set for October 2020, so a setting book for Zendikar would be at the latest 6 months after, like the timing of Theros and its setting book. That's not impossible, but I'd be surprised if Wizard's would release another MtG setting book less than a year after the Theros one (the difference between Ravnica and Theros is not about a 1.5 years).

Not impossible, but I suspect if another MtG setting book comes, it will be timed with the release of a card set that is yet to be announced, in 2021 or 2022.

 

[gyor]

As much fun as Zendikar is, I find it getting a book unlikely. It's cards release is set for October 2020, so a setting book for Zendikar would be at the latest 6 months after, like the timing of Theros and its setting book. That's not impossible, but I'd be surprised if Wizard's would release another MtG setting book less than a year after the Theros one (the difference between Ravnica and Theros is not about a 1.5 years).

Not impossible, but I suspect if another MtG setting book comes, it will be timed with the release of a card set that is yet to be announced, in 2021 or 2022.

Zendikar was inspired by D&D in the first place, a lot of it's mechanics reflect D&D, no way they miss this opportunity for a Zendikar book. You can't go by Ravnica and Theros time gap, Ravnica was the first true D&D 5e setting book, it was a test, and they wanted to see how well it would do in sales, so taking extra time before starting on the next MtG setting, if at the time they decided to do one at all.

Plus the intervening setting of Eldraine was too new, no one knew if it was going to be popular.

And they had other books at the time to put out.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I noticed that Vampires are in a bunch of MtG worlds, though D&D Vampires are typically beyond what's viable for PCs, but I wonder if they ever thought of making Dhampirs (half-Vampires from Balkan folklore and some Dragon article of the past) or Vampyres (a vampiric mortal race introduced in one of the Ravenloft MCs of 2e) into playable races. Though technically Dhampirs and Vampyres could very well be the same thing.

 

[robus]

I noticed that Vampires are in a bunch of MtG worlds, though D&D Vampires are typically beyond what's viable for PCs, but I wonder if they ever thought of making Dhampirs (half-Vampires from Balkan folklore and some Dragon article of the past) or Vampyres (a vampiric mortal race introduced in one of the Ravenloft MCs of 2e) into playable races. Though technically Dhampirs and Vampyres could very well be the same thing.

That's one aspect of the Magic planes that I don't love. Half-vampires sounds like a way to make it interesting for a PC.

 

[Remathilis]

I noticed that Vampires are in a bunch of MtG worlds, though D&D Vampires are typically beyond what's viable for PCs, but I wonder if they ever thought of making Dhampirs (half-Vampires from Balkan folklore and some Dragon article of the past) or Vampyres (a vampiric mortal race introduced in one of the Ravenloft MCs of 2e) into playable races. Though technically Dhampirs and Vampyres could very well be the same thing.

There is also the vryloka (from 4e) that are humans with vampire traits, and BG3 has vampire spawn as a player option.

That said, MTG vampire's after very different (Ravnica offers one as an example). The 5e vampire monster is more like powerful lords while normal vampires are closer to PC race powerful.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Zendikar was inspired by D&D in the first place, a lot of it's mechanics reflect D&D, no way they miss this opportunity for a Zendikar book. You can't go by Ravnica and Theros time gap, Ravnica was the first true D&D 5e setting book, it was a test, and they wanted to see how well it would do in sales, so taking extra time before starting on the next MtG setting, if at the time they decided to do one at all.

Plus the intervening setting of Eldraine was too new, no one knew if it was going to be popular.

And they had other books at the time to put out.

Wizard's is pretty well known for their glacier release pace, and in the past couple years that hasn't really changed much. I'd be extremely surprised if they start making annual setting books for Magic the Gathering; that takes away a lot of their bandwidth from other projects being worked on by the core Wizard's team, especially since a big adventure every year is something they also consistently deliver.

I do think that Wizard's is planning on releasing an annual setting book, but the pattern they've set so far, alternating between a Magic setting and an established D&D setting like Eberron makes more sense to me. We also know that Eberron has had a pretty successful sales launch (Tito mentioned its sales on a livestream).

I also think this year, getting two settings, Wildemount and Theros, is an anomaly. Wildemount is a work of love that looks like almost all of the writing effort belongs to Mercer himself, and that the Wizard's team really only did art layouts and editing. So minimal effort on the core Wizard's team.

Now, I don't know what setting will be released after Theros. I'm personally hoping for Planescape, and a lot of the UA material released recently seems to hint at that, but there's no concrete proof for anything.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My bet is for Eldraine. My opinion is this is the easiest setting to be adapted to some media project. The lore or backgroun allows a lot of different styles, since kid-friendly stories until supernatural romances for young adults.

 

[Bupp]

Zendikar was the first to receive a Plane Shift article. Plane Shift: Zendikar

Both Zendikar and Ixalan came with playable vampire races as well.

 

[Parmandur]

As much fun as Zendikar is, I find it getting a book unlikely. It's cards release is set for October 2020, so a setting book for Zendikar would be at the latest 6 months after, like the timing of Theros and its setting book. That's not impossible, but I'd be surprised if Wizard's would release another MtG setting book less than a year after the Theros one (the difference between Ravnica and Theros is not about a 1.5 years).

Not impossible, but I suspect if another MtG setting book comes, it will be timed with the release of a card set that is yet to be announced, in 2021 or 2022.

They've done three Setting books in 3 Fiscal Quarters now: spacing might not be their concern if there is money to be made.