D&D 5E Why Ravnica?

[CapnZapp]

No additional mechanics systems like psionics or magic item crafting are required to port it over. So that means they can stick with what they are already comfortable designing

Which is exactly why it is a letdown.

(Not a huge one, given I didn't even know Ravnick existed yesterday, but still..)

 

[Zardnaar]

I see this as an attempt to cross-pollinate their gamers. Get a few MtG players into D&D and get a few D&D players hooked on crack... I mean Magic!

Drug habit can be cheaper than Magic.

 

[gyor]

I've been doing some research on MtG planes both to figure out why Ravnica out all those planes and what MtG plane might be next.

Of MtG planes, most are too small and in many ways sparely populated, most D&D setting have small regions that are bigger. Other planes seem like adjuncts to the main planes.

The ones that I saw that would be big and extensive enough to fill a hard cover book that haven't been done in a planeshift article already are: Ravnica, Domaria, Mirridon, Theros, Rabiah, and Alara.

Domiria is too much like FR, if they want to branch out thematically it's not the place to start, but I'd be shocked if it's not planned already.

Rabiah is not originally part of MtGs planes, it was an Arabian Nights themed deck based on earth originally, but got changed into 1001 planes of Rabiah, mirror universes basically. Still it has locations like Baghdad a real world city, so it has major issues and WotC I believe have made it clear they don't intend to visit it again.

Mirridon/New Phlaxian (I will correct my spelling later), is too unfriendly to D&D in mechanics and nature IMO.

Theros, Ravnica, and Alara have potential.

Theros has at least 3 major human cities (polis), two Zombie Necropolis), at least one major Leonid Den, Ruins from a previous empire among others, mysterious seas and forests, a plane of the Gods (Nyx, perhaps a region of the Astral Sea), a Plane of Underworld (Shadowfell?), and a number of smaller polis. This world has potential, I mean it could use exploring some of the smaller Polis, especially of none human races, but I could see this filling a hard cover book of reasonable size. But it's not different enough from FR to go to it this soon.

That leaves Alara and Ravnica. Both appear to be vast settings with diverse races, very different from FR. I think Ravnica one out because of the Guilds and that it was easier to translate to D&D, yet far different then any classic D&D Setting, even Eberron. Also because of Ravnica's cosmopolitan attitude to different races and species and it's diversity, it's easy to fit preexisting D&D races into Ravnica, Especially if it's inherited being the Nexus of the Multiverse from Dominaria, which would help explain it's new connection to Classic D&D worlds.

Next up for MtG to D&D settings I believe will be Alara and then Dominaria or Theros IMO.

 

[Pauper]

I'm not really sure what you mean by this. I don't recall TSR publishing a campaign setting book using documentation they already had in house.

It was more along the lines of putting something out 'on the cheap', including recycling a lot of art assets -- TSR was infamous for that in the '90s, to the point where just that issue is one of the big reasons their own entry into the CCG market, Spellfire, tanked so badly.

As I noted above, WotC doesn't buy all rights to the art they put on their cards, so if you see reprinted card art, it'll likely be specific pieces that WotC's folks went back to the artist to arrange a different rights assignment, which is good -- it means they'll have to be picky about the art they recycle, and that it won't be that much less economical for them to just commission new art for the book. I can't really speak to the mechanics and other 'crunch' until we see the book, but it seems more likely that, if the book takes shortcuts, that's where it'll be.

Not to mention that there are a few other reasons to see a Ravnica book:

- The concept has a champion in James Wyatt that it never really had before -- previously, there were D&D folks who were curious about the potential (I know because I've spoken with them), but didn't have the time/resources/what-have-you to pursue the concept for previous editions. (One nice thing about 5E is that mechanical design is downplayed, so is simpler to execute. A 3.5-era Ravnica setting would necessarily be far more crunchy and thus more time-consuming to design and execute.)

- Magic's 25th anniversary: not a bad thing to remind old Magic players that the game they used to love (and play while waiting for their D&D games to start) is still around.

There's a confluence of factors coming together on this: the 'we can use our setting bible as a resource' is likely a big factor, but that's always been true, and we haven't seen a D&D product like this before.

Could still be feats too of course (like how Eberron dragonmarks are effectively nothing but more feats).

The idea I'm seeing is that dragonmarks in the new Eberron book (as opposed to the original first-pass Eberron conversion guide released via Unearthed Arcana) effectively replace your character's subclass with a subclass defined by the mark -- which is a really interesting idea, but also one that leads itself way more to optimization than simple feats do. ("Why are you a rogue with the Storm mark? That's just a waste.")

--
Pauper

 

[CapnZapp]

The idea I'm seeing is that dragonmarks in the new Eberron book (as opposed to the original first-pass Eberron conversion guide released via Unearthed Arcana) effectively replace your character's subclass with a subclass defined by the mark -- which is a really interesting idea, but also one that leads itself way more to optimization than simple feats do. ("Why are you a rogue with the Storm mark? That's just a waste.")

--
Pauper

EDIT: See below

That is indeed stronger customization.

Sadly each character can only ever have one subclass so it does not deepen the build complexity.

Thanks for the heads up though.

EDIT: It's actually subrace. As in your dragonmark replaces your subrace. Example:

If you’re making an elf character, you can choose to take the Mark of Shadow instead of being a wood elf or high elf.

For humans et al (that don't have subraces) it's a new variant race instead.

This means that only Half-Elves can choose House Medani, and so on. (They haven't created Medani subraces for all races)

There's also a selection of Greater Dragonmark feats: your character can take the one associated with your house.

(Don't know if this is compatible with the UA non-great dragonmark feats though)

The mechanics of a mark involve an Intuition die. At first, you add a d4 to your chosen skill or tool check(s). Each source of "intuition" upgrades this die one step (d6, d8...). For Medani, this covers Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Insight) checks.

 

[Cyber-Dave]

I wonder if, to some degree, Ravnica is also a paid playtest for Planescape ideas... just a thought. It might be wishfull thinking on my part.

 

[cbwjm]

I wonder if, to some degree, Ravnica is also a paid playtest for Planescape ideas... just a thought. It might be wishfull thinking on my part.

From listening to one of the videos where Mearls talks about the guilds, it very much sounds like something that could easily be adapted for Planescape.

 

[gyor]

In their video they talk as if your guild choice replaces/becomes your background - it determines your fluff special ability, contacts, enemies etc.

Could still be feats too of course (like how Eberron dragonmarks are effectively nothing but more feats).

Mechanically nothing to set you apart from another character of the same race/class.

Actually Dragonmarks are subraces and a background as well as feats in 5e.

 

[Craig Fox]

Obviously, they were wanting to do an ecumenopolis for a D&D setting. (Doesn't everyone, at some stage?)
So they searched about, and found a readymade one in Ravnica. Then they had to lure it over from the Magic side and slap it into D&D-shape. So far, it's looking good.