Why no WotC M:tG and D&D crossover?

[NeuroZombie]

I have played MtG only once and was not impresses, but I picked up a whole slew of the comics from a stores quarter bin and loved every one of them. I would be addicted to an rpg based in the world, as a change of pace from the cookie cutter worlds that are out there. The bredth of the setting from those comics are staggering.

 

[Zappo]

Basically it's because some of the brand people for Magic didn't want a crossover monster book unless the book could maintain the Magic brand's tenets, including collectability.

Trust me, the idea of a Magic RPG, or even just a Magic monster book, was a VERY popular idea among the RPG designers (and possibly the Magic designers as well, though I didn't talk to many of them about it).

Bummer. When 3E was first out, I kinda hoped in a Magic RPG, but I had a dread "too cool to be true" feeling.

Same feeling I get when I hear about, y'know, cold fusion, FTL travel, good D&D movies, that sort of things.

 

[FCWesel]

I could easily see a book full of two-sheet entries on MTG stuff. Each entry would have one with the image from the card and the relevant text/stats on it, and the other could have "flavour text" and some DM and player oriented text on how to bering this item/beast/location/etc into "your game".

Further dividing the book into sections would even make it better.

I would think that WOTC could print the art-work in this way at not extra (or little extra) cost on theri part, which would make the book cheaper. But maybe I am wrong and their contracts with the artists don't allow that?

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm not a fan of the card game but enjoy the setting. I could see some very interesting templates coming out of that weird techno-dimension and some very interesting artifacts, monsters and magic items linned up for player consumption.

 

[Halivar]

I would think that WOTC could print the art-work in this way at not extra (or little extra) cost on theri part, which would make the book cheaper. But maybe I am wrong and their contracts with the artists don't allow that?

It's possible that the artists retain the copyright to their art; many artists do when they use it commercially. But I can't see WotC paying them to do it without getting full rights to use the art in whatever medium they chose.

 

[Pramas]

There have been multiple attempts to do a Magic RPG at WotC. Two different teams tried it before the TSR buyout. I was involved in the third attempt, and in fact that was what I was hired at WotC to work on. This was in 1998, in the latter days of 2nd edition. Again, a team was assembled. Jonathan Tweet was to design the rule book, I was to design the world book, John Rateliff was to edit, and Jesper Myrfors (the original art director for Magic) was to art direct. About two months into my new job, the whole project was cancelled due to political infighting.

A year later there was an attempt to revive the idea in more limited form. This time it was to be a big book of Magic monsters for D&D. Since there was tons of pre-existing (and already paid for) beautiful color art, this seemed like a no brainer. Mike Selinker started knocking off a few critters, and I was assigned to work on it later. Then there was a big dust up between Roleplaying R&D/Brand and the Magic Brand Team. The Magic guys clearly didn't want to do it, so they started throwing up excuses. Peter Adkison really wanted it to happen, so he kept shooting down their excuses. This went on for several weeks until the Magic guys found an excuse that would stick. "Why do this monster book now," they said, "when 3E is coming out next year? Surely WotC's marquee product line deserves first class treatment as part of the new edition."

They got their way, the book was cancelled, and no one ever brought it up again (while I was there anyway), even after the successful launch of 3E.

Later that year I would participate in round three of this nonsense when I was involved in the abortive attempt to do a Magic miniatures game. Can you guess who was responsible for shooting down that game?

 

[Warbringer]

What a shame by the magic branding team...

And what complete and utter hogwash. To not expand the concept because part of the branding needs to be collectability? (not that that is a word)..

Where the comics a collectable (read chase) item?
Where the soemtimes barely readable novel(la)s?

Hasbro has a great brand in magic..leverage it!

Now magic the minatures game... there's a collectable game with a crossover into d+d...

YOU LISTENING HASBRO?



OK spooky .. I was writing this as Chris posted!

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I haven't played/collected Magic since the Ice Age set, but I was always pretty amazed at how much story they managed to fit into the game just on the little card flavor text section.

I would love to see a set of MTG books. I would probably never use the setting myself in a campaign but I think it would make for some interesting reading.

And I don't see how it could cheapen D20 moreso than...say..Diablo D20 or Warcraft D20.

DS

 

[frankthedm]

It's possible that the artists retain the copyright to their art; many artists do when they use it commercially. But I can't see WotC paying them to do it without getting full rights to use the art in whatever medium they chose.

Wotc was not always a large compny, contract made in older times would of allowed the artists to keep thier rights in such matters. Nowadays Hasbro / wotc's contracts may be diffrent and vary artist to artist.

Hasbro will not intrested in a Magic D&D setting mainly because it would 'compete' with FR.

TBH a campaign based on MTG would be difficult if the power scales of the MTG game were kept. doing so would either require the player to be epic level casters or a group of 'normal' characters living in dread of when a plainswalker calls forth a Wrath of God or a pestilence virulent enough to kill dragons swept the reigion.

 

[sparxmith]

I've been a M:tG player for about 9 years now and a DnD player only since 3.0 came out. I'm a far bigger fan of Magic, which according to my count, puts me in the minority.

IMHO, Magic and DnD would not work well together. Apart from the aforementioned spell-colouring, the true powers from M:tG would hardly even be covered by the Epic Handbook, much less be useable by a level 1 mage. The closest thing to WoG ("Wrath of God: Destroy all creatures in play, they can't be regenerated"--one of the better spells from game) is an epic spell. In M:tG, its castable on turn 4, or really turn 2 if you know what you're doing--I doubt that the epic spell is as remotely useable (When cast, it deals something like 280d6 to you, which is a pretty stiff penalty). Sure there's Lightning Bolt, a spell that perfectly translates, as well as fireball, but both of those can be cast on turns 1 or 2. At what level do you gain those spells in DnD?

So forth and so on, ad infinum, ad nauseum. Like I said, I just dont' think it works well.


Sincerely yours,

Sparxmith


Anyway, there's my 2 pence worth. Didn't really say much, but what the hell. It's Halloween.