Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty

[LuisCarlos17f]

Shadowrun is our real world with fantasy and cyberpunk, and lots of creatures and races. Kamigawa is only a "country", and the number of humanoid lineages is lower.

* Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty sounds like a perfect setting for fanfiction crossovers with manganime characters, but it is a (urban fantasy+)cyberpunk setting with high-tech too advanced to can be used with the D&D 5th Ed. Of cours we can recycle the "crunch" from d20 Future and Starfinder SRDs but we haven't enough experience to find the right power balance for the encounters where enemies can use firearms or high-tech gadgets. In some games the PCs are civilians, and some weapons and armors are only for military. In others PCs are allowed to use heavy weapons, and the encounters have to be redesigned. If there is a future D&D sourcebook about a M:tG plane, you shouldn't bet for Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty.

 

[Bitbrain]

There's a new MtG Kamigawa set out which I thought was surprising since I thought that setting didn't score very well with players. I've spent time looking through spoiler lists and looking at the art of the various cards, I'm not sure what genre (cyberpunk? Neonpunk, does punk even need to be part of the name) you'd call it but I think it'd make for a cool DnD setting.

The setting still has powerful spirits, samurai, ninja, and spellcasters, but also has things like skyscrapers (one which walks), mecha, mecha pilots, and neon. I never got all that excited about the original Kamigawa set, but this one I'm hoping gets made into a setting book.

Here's the link to the spoiler list I used to look through the cards: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty | MythicSpoiler.com

Don’t know much about Kamigawa myself, but my old DM is so excited about Neon Dynasty he can barely string two words together, much less an entire sentence. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he’s already started up a Kamigawa campaign.

 

[Marandahir]

I'm glad they found a way to update the setting, differentiate it from Kara-Tur and Rokugan, and bring in cultural consultation and collaboration unlike every other "Oriental Adventures" setting ever made. Old Kamigawa had cool ideas but was ultimately a "Last Samurai"-esque white man's endeavour to play in the fantasy anime playground for Magic: The Gathering. It was never going to work as a D&D setting.

Neon Dynasty, on the other hand, leans into anime's greatest hits beyond Warring States Japan fantasy (InuYasha, Twelve Kingdoms, etc), letting it cover cyber-punk and sci-fi stories like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Gundam as well. Essentially, it's the animesque setting, and because it's got Japanese collaborators working on its design, it was clearly redesigned not just for Magic but also for D&D.

Thus it serves multiple niches that D&D has yet to dive into. Eberron is 1920s-style Dungeonpunk, not 1980s-style Cyberpunk. And among the M:tG settings, Kamigawa is probably the one remaining that (A) doesn't have a Plane-Shift article, and (B) has fans of the setting. Note that the old Kamigawa block itself wasn't that popular due to poor mechanics, but the setting always was, despite its cultural insensitivity. I always said they'd never touch Kamigawa with D&D because of that. But they did the one thing I didn't expect with it: advanced it centuries into the future and transfigured it into a setting that actually can and SHOULD be adapted.

Note also that the Moonfolk are literally just Harengons with a different cultural background. No need to reinvent the wheel like they did with Leonin in Theros (and that Leonin/Tabaxi divide I'd argue was largely due to predating the relaxation of ability score bonuses).

Expect this as an upcoming D&D-cross-MtG Campaign Setting book. It might not be the immediate next one (wouldn't be surprised to see that Norse-mythology based setting show up, though that one is still a bit close in release to Icewind Dale), but it's going to happen in the next few years for sure.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I was expecting cyberpunk, not anime. Oh well. Better luck next set.

 

[Marandahir]

I was expecting cyberpunk, not anime. Oh well. Better luck next set.

I mean, it's both. Cyberpunk Science-Fantasy anime setting.

 

[Mannahnin]

The art and play in this set seems excellent. Leagues better than the original Kamigawa.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I don't know the lore enough, why aren't there firearms in Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty, any taboo, or cheap anti-gun magic to defend the homes?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

There's a new MtG Kamigawa set out which I thought was surprising since I thought that setting didn't score very well with players. I've spent time looking through spoiler lists and looking at the art of the various cards, I'm not sure what genre (cyberpunk? Neonpunk, does punk even need to be part of the name) you'd call it but I think it'd make for a cool DnD setting.

The setting still has powerful spirits, samurai, ninja, and spellcasters, but also has things like skyscrapers (one which walks), mecha, mecha pilots, and neon. I never got all that excited about the original Kamigawa set, but this one I'm hoping gets made into a setting book.

Here's the link to the spoiler list I used to look through the cards: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty | MythicSpoiler.com

As far as I know, OG Kamigawa is not popular due to the card mechanics, not the story/setting.

I'll add, New Kamigawa is so far in the future it is functionally a different setting, and was originally planned to be its own plane.

 

[cbwjm]

As far as I know, OG Kamigawa is not popular due to the card mechanics, not the story/setting.

I'll add, New Kamigawa is so far in the future it is functionally a different setting, and was originally planned to be its own plane.

I was talking to my friend and he mentioned something along the line of quite powerful rares and underwhelming commons/uncommons so you may be right about that.

 

[Marandahir]

As far as I know, OG Kamigawa is not popular due to the card mechanics, not the story/setting.

I'll add, New Kamigawa is so far in the future it is functionally a different setting, and was originally planned to be its own plane.

This is correct.

And it's why the set popularity polls and how they've been used to project when a MtG setting will be returned to in Magic should not be considered in isolation of the ability to re-imagine that setting with a new block. Especially now that any MtG setting that is considered to be revisited has to be run by the D&D team for its potentiality to be explored in a crossover event with D&D, for the profits of both brands. Doesn't mean that every block and set released will get a D&D campaign book, but that it's a major consideration that wasn't part of the discussion even 6 years ago when the Magic coffee-table book for Innistrad and Curse of Strahd happened to line up by coincidence. Any lining up is no longer coincidence, it's by design. Magic settings sell like hotcakes.