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

[Imperialus]

I would have to agree with FrankTheDM. Though I haven't played MtG in years (since alliances) I used to be a rabid collector. I often toyed with the idea of modifying D&D (first 2nd ed then 3rd) to play a MtG game but ran into the same problem as Frank. Planeswalkers are so rediculously powerful that they can quite casually call insanely powerful demons from the depths of hell or cast a spell that will destroy huge tracts of forests, mountains or island chains.

This leaves you with the other option. You could play as one of the cards. However even wandering around as one of the more powerful cards like the Baron Senger (sp?) you would still be plucked up at random by this godlike being to be used as a liveing pawn in his crazy battle.

All that could really be done is to add some free form role playing to a group that normally gets together and plays the card game. You could play a game sort of like Risk, attacking and defending various locations on a map to try and get bonus's in the actual card games. Even that would be increadably difficult though as you would have to have such an amazeing knowlage of the cards that you could possibly assign diffenet bonus's or penalties based on an individual deck and have it still be interpreted as fair.

 

[Tewligan]

Well, if I were trying to do D&D with a M:tG feel, I certainly wouldn't feel obligated to try to mimic the card game's gameplay that exactly - the planeswalkers that players represent in M:tG are obviously on a totally different scale of power than any D&D character is. I would think of PCs as being equivalent to a Northern Paladin or a Prodigal Sorceror, except they aren't being swept up by the godlike Planeswalkers to fight in their wars, and they don't have access to the Planeswalkers' battlefield-levelling magic. They're doing their own thing, exploring Dominaria and encountering Scryb Sprites and Shivan Dragons like PC's do on any other campaign world. Saying that you can't play D&D in a M:tG setting because planeswalkers are too powerful is like saying that you can't play D&D in a Norse setting because the gods are too powerful to be PCs.

 

[Dragonblade]

Saying that you can't play D&D in a M:tG setting because planeswalkers are too powerful is like saying that you can't play D&D in a Norse setting because the gods are too powerful to be PCs.

Well said! Hear! Hear! I would love to see Magic as a campaign setting. And, yes, I think they should even have Planeswalkers, although they are not necessary as so eloquently pointed out above. But, I do think that WotC needs a campaign setting that allows epic gaming and that fully utilizes the epic level handbook.

I submitted an idea for the campaign setting search that would encompass both epic level gaming and standard D&D power levels. A DM could choose the power level of their game, and play from level 1 to level 100 was fully supported and balanced. I thought I was being original and clever, but in hindsight, I think my setting was probably similar enough to Magic's that they didn't pick it (and of course competing with the brilliant submissions from my fellow ENWorlders and others around the world ). I don't even know that much about Magic's backstory and metaplots, so unless I'm psychic, the similarities are definitely superficial ones, but when rereading my submission and holding it up to what I do know about Magic, I guess I can see some similarities.

Anyway, there is no setting that could truly use the epic level handbook, except for maybe Planescape. And Magic is very cool from what I hear from friends who play a lot. WotC is really missing an opportunity here.

 

[Michael Morris]

I just got into Magic: The Gathering, and I can't help but look at all the cool cards and say, "I want to see that statted out for d20."

M:tG has several "settings" that sound really cool and interesting, like Mirrodin and Ice Age. Why doesn't WotC capitalize on M:tG's popularity to boost D&D sales? There is a dearth of imaginative creatures and artifacts for each themed setting that would provide an instant base of material to put a new D&D campaign setting together.

Thoughts?

They're afraid. At Gencon 2000 I brought this very question up before Ryan Dancey. He embarrassed the Hell out of me by deflecting the question to the room with a show of hands. Not much support at all. I've been in the MtG rooms and much the same sentiment has been shown over the question in, say, #apprentice on the efnet IRC system.

Can a crossover be done? I believe it can, and can be done successfully. There are certain principles in MtG that translate very, very well into D&D. Thankfully, these principles and concepts can be expressed many different ways, and that's what I intend to do.

Art of Magic has strong structual ties to MtG, although there's a lot it doesn't include because of copyright restrictions. However, where you to want to run games set in the MtG multiverse you will find the book indispensible.

It is due for publication by ENPublishing next summer, as indicated in my 'sig.

 

[Wombat]

I dunno

The cards keep coming out, but I think the world that would be created using them would be an absolute mess. Do you retool the magic system to allow for taking power from Lands? Do you include Arabian Nights? How powerful are the creatures relative to each other, given the changes in the expansion packs over time?

Nope, I think such a game would be a mess.

 

[Gez]

A big monster book (in a first time, maybe) would sell really well.

Maybe several monster books, like an encyclopedia.

Here's how it should be done: Each creature would get its art pic (or pics) in a greater format than on the card. Each would get a little blurb with its Magic rules (summoning cost, attack/defense, and possible special capacities). It takes very little place. The description of these special capacities (like trample, phasing, banding, etc.) would be printed only once in the introduction, so it would really not be invasive.

Then, each would get D&D 3.5 stats.

Magic fans would buy it to have a "complete collection" of the creature, even if not in card format, with greater pics to look at.

D&D fans would buy it -- they are suckers for monster books anyway.

IIRC, WotC releases two or three extensions a year. Well, a yearly compendium would contain all the monsters from these extensions.

If this is popular (and I think it would be) they could mimics that for spells and artifacts. And eventually, publish a Planeswalker book that would be really epic rules.

 

[SpuneDagr]

I would totally buy a Magic monster collection. Probably not a setting book, but I'm a sucker for monster books.

 

[Michael Morris]

I dunno

The cards keep coming out, but I think the world that would be created using them would be an absolute mess. Do you retool the magic system to allow for taking power from Lands? Do you include Arabian Nights? How powerful are the creatures relative to each other, given the changes in the expansion packs over time?

Nope, I think such a game would be a mess.

You don't do a direct facsimile. You instead work to capture it's spirit. I'd go into this in more detail, but that's why I'm working on a book I'd like you all to buy.

 

[seankreynolds]

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.

IIRC the version that I playtested was much more like "Magic creatures in a D&D setting." One PC was a Hurloon minotaur, I was a prodigal sorcerer (he had normal spellcasting ability like a wizard, but at any time he could cast a magic missile at caster level 1 without draining any of his prepared spells, thus the quote, "At any time I can tap myself for 1d4+1 points of damage."), etc.

So unless you want the PCs to be planewalkers (the spellcasting being that the Magic player is representing when they go head to head in a Magic match) you could easily use normal D&D.

 

[Mathew Lankard]

I've roleplayed DnD and many other games for 8 years and I use to play Magic a lot several years ago but got sick of trying to keep up with expansions. Although my initial reaction to this is "please god no" the idea mentioned by the original poster of a Ice Age campaign setting just seems so cool that I would give it a chance. It also always amazed me how much story they could fit in a set of card text.