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!

 

[Blazestudios23]

When are D&D settings going to start showing up in Magic. It would be awesome if they had Dark Sun release in both at the same time. I feel like that would be a smart business move and make fans go crazy. Not sure why WOT doesn't start doing stuff like this.

I know they are doing the opposite with Magic into D&D, but I'm pretty sure some D&D fans would love to get cards that represent their favorite characters and items in campaign settings, even if they never planned to play magic. Imagine, having cards of the actual NPCs in your game, you could show them to your players as face cards. The you could show them the equipment cards to represent magic items found, it's a win-win for all involved.

 

[Weiley31]

Let's say my mind was enough open to admit this could possible.

Do you think Throne of Eldrain will be the next?

I mean, since Wizards DIDN'T GIVE ME my Gingerbread Planeswalker yet, Throne of Eldarin would be A-OKAY in my book.

I have to rectify that mistake somehow.

 

[Zarithar]

Odd timing given the recent KS fulfillment of this excellent book: Odyssey of the Dragonlords

Still... if you can't already tell from my avatar I am a big fan of the mythos so I am happy about this!

 

[TrippyHippy]

Greek mythology, which has been neglected a bit previously in the RPG hobby, seems to be becoming all the rage right now.

 

[Fenris-77]

I like this, Greek themed D&D sounds like a hoot. Different enough to be cool but still with a weatlh of awesome source material. I'll be getting this.

 

[pukunui]

Odd timing given the recent KS fulfillment of this excellent book: Odyssey of the Dragonlords

Still... if you can't already tell from my avatar I am a big fan of the mythos so I am happy about this!

Yes, I’m looking forward to being able to mine this book for content to use in my Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign, especially the [redacted].

 

[slobster]

When are D&D settings going to start showing up in Magic. It would be awesome if they had Dark Sun release in both at the same time. I feel like that would be a smart business move and make fans go crazy. Not sure why WOT doesn't start doing stuff like this.

I know they are doing the opposite with Magic into D&D, but I'm pretty sure some D&D fans would love to get cards that represent their favorite characters and items in campaign settings, even if they never planned to play magic. Imagine, having cards of the actual NPCs in your game, you could show them to your players as face cards. The you could show them the equipment cards to represent magic items found, it's a win-win for all involved.

There's a SUPER NERDY reason for this, that also brings in matters of branding and IP ownership.

The basic thing is that every "official" MtG set takes place in a single multiverse setting, which includes within it a number of setting constants like planeswalkers, the nature of travelling between planes, and mana (how magic works). Bringing in a D&D setting would clash with that lore, requiring one of the two properties to retcon how planes and magic and so on work in their world. Imagine how annoyed Great Wheel fans would be if it was retconned that, nope, the Great Wheel isn't the metaphysical foundation the world works on, it is just one more world in a sea of endless worlds, and the actual foundation of reality in the realms is 5 colors of mana that just haven't been noticed by anyone up until now. Also, a bunch of previously unknown characters of godlike power (greater than the gods really because they can travel the planes and gods physically can't) now exist and are these big damn heroes that play at a level beyond anything Elminster could have ever dreamed.

I think not everyone would be happy with such a thing.

There are cards that are printed that are essentially joke cards, they are printed in silver borders so you know you can't play them in tournaments, but you can play them for fun with friends. Some cards have already been printed in silver border for D&D crossover:

https://i2.wp.com/www.sageadvice.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mtgdnd2.jpg

There have also been tournament legal cards printed that make some oblique references to D&D without having to explicitly bring any D&D world into MtG's multiverse. Most prominently, the recently printed bag of holding:

So yeah, for brand identity and canon reasons, it looks unlikely that we'll get so-called "black border" D&D cards anytime soon, but we could always be surprised. And it looks likely that we will get silver border "joke" D&D cards soonish, which could be cool as well.

 

[jayoungr]

So am I imagining things or has 5e gotten a lot of Geek mythology love as compared to 3.x and 4e especially in such a short amount of time?

While I've enjoyed everything I've seen, I kind of wish someone would branch into Rome instead. Fantasy Rome has a lot of potential.

 

[OblivionDrive]

Not super geeked at the idea of another M:TG-inspired book so close on the heels of Ravnica (it's barely been a year), but like usual, I'll end up picking it up for inspiration and ideas.

At the very least, I think a Greek-inspired setting is gonna have more I can plunder for potential usage than Ravnica had and will probably be a more interesting read...

 

[Zarithar]

While I've enjoyed everything I've seen, I kind of wish someone would branch into Rome instead. Fantasy Rome has a lot of potential.

That would be cool, but as you know, Rome had a major infatuation with all things Greek, and they umm... "borrowed" so many elements of classical Hellenistic culture. It could almost be an add on to a Greek-themed book.