D&D 5E MtG D&D Commander Legends: Battle For Baldur's Gate Announce!

[doctorbadwolf]

They weren't planning on killing it, they assumed a third party publisher would snap up a licensing deal, they didn't, yet. Companies try and externalities costs all the time like this, it's just this time it blew up in their face this time.

To “blow up in their face” there would have to be a meaningful negative consequence.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

fenraar asked:

"What was the rationale for setting the next commander legends in Balders Gate? From the original commander legends reactions it seems there were a number of MTG legends that people still wanted to see printed whereas Elminster seemed to be the only one that I really saw people missing from AFR. Balders Gate is also just one city in the forgotten realms so presumably this limits options for legends vs the whole of the forgotten realms or other worlds/settings like Greyhawk or Eberron?"

"The second Commander Legends needed a theme and we thought the audience would enjoy another D&D set. There are going to be many opportunities to make more legendary characters from Magic’s past. We even have a whole premier expansion coming, Brothers War, set in the past with a lot of Magic characters people have been asking for."


Alot of folks have been complaining that setting this next Commander Legends in FR means they won't be getting characters that have been going cardless, without realizing that they probably partly made CL: BfBG a FR set is so CL didn't step on the toes of Brother's War.

 

[Parmandur]

fenraar asked:

"What was the rationale for setting the next commander legends in Balders Gate? From the original commander legends reactions it seems there were a number of MTG legends that people still wanted to see printed whereas Elminster seemed to be the only one that I really saw people missing from AFR. Balders Gate is also just one city in the forgotten realms so presumably this limits options for legends vs the whole of the forgotten realms or other worlds/settings like Greyhawk or Eberron?"

"The second Commander Legends needed a theme and we thought the audience would enjoy another D&D set. There are going to be many opportunities to make more legendary characters from Magic’s past. We even have a whole premier expansion coming, Brothers War, set in the past with a lot of Magic characters people have been asking for."


Alot of folks have been complaining that setting this next Commander Legends in FR means they won't be getting characters that have been going cardless, without realizing that they probably partly made CL: BfBG a FR set is so CL didn't step on the toes of Brother's War.

Honestly a brilliant move. And just because Baldur's Gate is in the title, thst doesn't terribly limit the possibilities of characters.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They simply didn't care.

THE ONLY THING BUSINESS CARES ABOUT IS PROFIT MAXIMISATION.

They didn't want to support the staffing of individuals who would manage this.

Because they could make more profit employing people to manage the game. You have X resources. You can employ those resources to do A, which is profitable, or you can employ them to do B, which is more profitable.

It's not as if Wizards was authoring the books, or that the RPG team was needed to support an author.

The books could have been authored by a random word generator, based on the quality. They only sold because of the brand. But authors always need support. Publishing houses employ people to support the authors. Hasbro is a toy company, not a publishing house, so doesn't have that expertise. They could employ the people with the expertise, but that is inefficient - you have the costs of running two businesses, not one. With the D&D brand it becomes even more expensive, because you need to employ people to ensure consistency between the book business and the game business as well.

Here is an important rule for running a successful business: focus on what you are good at.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Novel reading is starting to make come back.

Speaking as a teacher, any sort of reading is going out, not just the novel. If it aint video the kids aint interested.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Honestly a brilliant move. And just because Baldur's Gate is in the title, thst doesn't terribly limit the possibilities of characters.

Baldur's Gate 2 wasn't even in Baldur's Gate at all.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Baldur's Gate 2 wasn't even in Baldur's Gate at all.

True, it was mostly set in Amn, hence the subtitle Shadows of Amn. It was called Baldur's Gate 2 on the basis of being a sequel to Baldur's Gate 1. Which doesn't affect the point, Baldur's Gate has high name recognition (thanks to the classic CRPG), which is no doubt why it is being used for the MTG set. I doubt it will have much connection to the location.

 

[Parmandur]

True, it was mostly set in Amn, hence the subtitle Shadows of Amn. It was called Baldur's Gate 2 on the basis of being a sequel to Baldur's Gate 1. Which doesn't affect the point, Baldur's Gate has high name recognition (thanks to the classic CRPG), which is no doubt why it is being used for the MTG set. I doubt it will have much connection to the location.

Well, they shared one piece of art that has the city in it, so non-zero.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Redirect Notice

Forbes article, although they get the Quart wrong, CL: BfBG is coming out Q2 not Q3 or Q4, it does confirm not in addition to new mechanics, original CL mechanics are coming back to CL: BfBG.

Not surprised by Partner returning, I'd be surprised if it didn't return, but surprised by the others. The other 3 mechanics from the original CL were (not including Legendary Creature reprints) are Cascade, Monarch, and Encore.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

BTW IF some mechanics from AFR also return, this set will likely be higher complexity then the original Commander Legends by a fair amount, as long as you exclude the 32 Legendary Creature reprints, which only rarely appeared anyways in an Etched Foil slot.

Also given the lessons from AFR I could see some other mechanics like Experience, maybe Party, but I doubt it, Sagas, etc...