D&D 5E Official D&D Greek-Themed 'Mythic Odysseys of Theros' Setting Coming In May

My inbox just exploded! It looks like Penguin Random House accidentally leaked an upcoming book listing for D&D, before removing the entry. It's dated for May 19th, and it's called Mythic Odysseys of Theros.

What's Theros? It's a Greek(ish) themed Magic: the Gathering world! This will make it the second, after Ravnica, to make it to an official D&D campaign setting. Here's what the MTG wiki says about it:

"Theros is a plane governed by the gods of Nyx, where heroes face monsters, the sea rages, people offer burnt offerings and adventures take place. It is defined by mankind's struggle against the primal forces of the world, and mankind's conflict with the many other sapient races that populate the world."

In ancient times, the archons of Theros held a massive empire, tyrannizing the world in the belief that they were imposing a strict justice. The most notable of these Archon tyrants was Agnomakhos, who used the leonin as an army. Eventually, the Archon empire fell, being instead replaced by the poleis, and the remaining Archons now lash at these, slighting the "honor" they feel was stripped from them.

There's an enormous list of races, too -- though how many of those will translate from MtG to D&D, I don't know. Some of these are clearly 'monsters' in the D&D sense rather than 'races'. It includes cats, centaurs, gorgons, merfolk, minotaurs, satyrs, spirits, zombies, archons, basilisks, chimeras, cyclopses, demons, dragons, giants, hags, harpies, hounds, hydras, krakens, lamias, manticores, pegasi, phoenixes, spines, and sirens.

There's a whole bunch of Greek-themed or inspired D&D settings, including:

• Arkadia by Arcana Games. "Arkadia is a combined setting and players handbook for 5e - inspired by the history and myths of Ancient Greece. The book contains 100 pages of densely packed all new Greek themed content for both Players and GMs."
• Hellenistika from Handiwork Games. "From the Pillars of Herakles in the West to the Silken Cities of the East, from the isle of Hyperborea in the North to the Mountains of the Moon in the South, the world spreads before you, alive with gods and marvels."
• Odyssey of the Dragonlords from Arcanum Worlds. "Odyssey of the Dragonlords is an epic fantasy campaign for the fifth edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game. The Player’s Guide is a 28-page companion booklet that will provide you with everything you need to begin your career as a prospective hero in the forgotten land of Thylea."
• Land of Myth by Seven Thebes. "A Fantasy Setting in Mythical Ancient Greece.A world of Heroes, right after the end of
  the Trojan War, steeped in myth and conflict."

Of course, this all assumes this isn't come kind of epic troll on WotC's part -- they have recently started putting placeholder names on products on Amazon and then changing them at the most minute, although with limited success. This could be a more elaborate attempt at that!

 

[slobster]

I don't think there is any real canon with D&D, not sure about Magic.

Magic has a ton of canon. More to the point, Magic has a ton of grognards who absolutely BITCH about the slightest perceived contradiction to canon.

As an example, the rules of planeswalking say (as mentioned before in this thread) that individuals with the planeswalker spark are the ONLY living things in existence that can survive a trip between the planes. Everything else, every other being or even item that used to be alive, cannot pass through the nothingness between worlds without being utterly unmade (Eldrazi are different and special, smartass, shut up).

Then last year they introduced a new planeswalker, Jiang Yangu, who has a cute dog companion. Yangu can planeswalk and bring his pupper pal with him, which is adorable.

Cue absolute nerd fury about the violation of sacred canon. Eventually, after like a million reddit posts and tweets and people threatening never to buy a magic card again for this blatant betrayal of the magical physics underpinning this children's card game, WotC explained that actually the dog is just a stone statue of a dog animated through magic that also has the dog subtype as a card instead of construct because SHUT UP.

So yeah, these are the reasons I think WotC will be real careful about printing a D&D expansion and unifying the multiverses. I kind of hope they do the former but punt on the latter, printing a black border set that is just a fever dream or what-if set or the mad ramblings of Teferi's unhinged mind after one too many trips through the timestream.

TL;DR, nerds rage about canon.

 

[dave2008]

Magic has a ton of canon. More to the point, Magic has a ton of grognards who absolutely BITCH about the slightest perceived contradiction to canon.

Well "technically" D&D has a ton of cannon too, and people rage about it. But it has not impact and it changes as needed to fit the game. Both of these are games first, not works of literature (and of course literary cannon changes too). They idea that the WotC, let alone individual DMs need to be beholden to any idea of cannon is laughable IMO.

 

[slobster]

Well "technically" D&D has a ton of cannon too, and people rage about it. But it has not impact and it changes as needed to fit the game. Both of these are games first, not works of literature (and of course literary cannon changes too). They idea that the WotC, let alone individual DMs need to be beholden to any idea of cannon is laughable IMO.

Oh hey boss, DMs aren't accountable to anyone for canon. I'd never say that! If you want your party to cross from Dark Sun to Theros in the hot tub time machine their Ork jedi invented, more power to you.

D&D has always been an incredibly decentralized game in that way, because every party has their own canon and their own GM whose word is law within that private canon. Magic has a centrally curated tradition of a central canon, which is then portrayed in the cards to a greater or lesser amount of success. (Magic also has a tradition of shitting on its own canon through novels of questionable quality, but I digress)

The clash of canon between those two traditions is why I'd really prefer, as a fan of both, if they never OFFICIALLY cross over. I'd bet money that WotC is thinking the same thing, and spending a lot of effort on trying to square that particular circle.

But I never tell a GM what to do at their own table!

 

[dave2008]

The clash of canon between those two traditions is why I'd really prefer, as a fan of both, if they never OFFICIALLY cross over.

What do mean by "officially" cross over? We have an "official" MtG D&D product setting (Ravnica) and we are getting another one (Theros). I believe Ravnica had a connection to the wider D&D multiverse (but I could be getting that mixed up with Eberron), and this one, from the description, might involve Volo somehow. If that is not "official," what would be required to be an "official" cross over?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

.

 

[slobster]

What do mean by "officially" cross over? We have an "official" MtG D&D product setting (Ravnica) and we are getting another one (Theros). I believe Ravnica had a connection to the wider D&D multiverse (but I could be getting that mixed up with Eberron), and this one, from the description, might involve Volo somehow. If that is not "official," what would be required to be an "official" cross over?

Crossing over as in, they take place in the same canon, officially. What we have right now is a D&D book about a setting in a completely different multiverse than any other D&D setting. Once Theros will be out, official canon will be that Theros and Ravnica are linked within their multiverse, while FR and Eberron and so on all have their own multiverse and their own canon. The two aren't officially linked.

In Magic, the current tradition is that every black border (i.e. tournament playable) set takes place within a single multiverse, the big canon of Magic the Gathering. What I'm hoping for is that they find a way to bend their own rules so that they can have a D&D set in black border, but not have to then say that, officially, D&D worlds and characters are now sharing a creative universe with Magic planes and lore.

Obviously what happens at people's individual D&D tables or in their head canon is different, go freakin' nuts y'all.

 

[Azzy]

I'm pretty apathetic on this book. If the mechanical options in the book seem cool enough once I have chance to puruse them, I may pick it up. I'm just not overly hyped on a Greek-ispired setting even though I would have been all over this back when I was 11 or 12.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Well "technically" D&D has a ton of cannon too, and people rage about it. But it has not impact and it changes as needed to fit the game. Both of these are games first, not works of literature (and of course literary cannon changes too). They idea that the WotC, let alone individual DMs need to be beholden to any idea of cannon is laughable IMO.

I don't know how other people view this, but the D&D settings/worlds have canon, the game itself does not. Rules are not canon, the Fluff is the canon.

 

[Azzy]

I've probably written about this more than anyone wants, but I think the two shouldn't be officially crossed over. Leave it like the old DC/Marvel crossovers, where it's fun to talk about and maybe some people continue to have it in their head canon that the multiverses are linked, but when it comes to their representation in official products, keep them separate.

I think the official stance will be rather noncomittal--like the D&D cosmology is in effect when playing D&D (unless the DM decides otherwise, of course), and the MtG cosmology applies to the MtG game and its books.

 

[slobster]

I think the official stance will be rather noncomittal--like the D&D cosmology is in effect when playing D&D (unless the DM decides otherwise, of course), and the MtG cosmology applies to the MtG game and its books.

Yeah I think this describes the current situation too. The stocking point would be printing a tournament legal D&D set, but I'm hopeful they can do that there as well.