NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Remathilis" data-source="post: 7687802" data-attributes="member: 7635">It's not just WoW's module, its another giant fantasy game worth millions that is a lot closer to home: Magic: the Gathering. I just got back into magic after years of not-playing. (I think I quit around Mirage, if that means anything to anyone) so going into the game again, I'm amazed at how much the story of the game has changed: each set focuses around a particular world or story, with its own antagonists and heroes, but also with recurring characters (Planeswalkers) and interconnected results. The story appears via the card text, artwork, and in all the supplemental material as well, as well as ALL the promotional material. The current story is happening on the plane of Zendikar (a place that was visited many sets ago) where a group of Cthulioids named Elderazi are attempting to destroy the plane, forcing the five colors to unite to save it. After this story ends in April, they're returning to another previously visited plane; the realm of Innistrad (with a very gothic/horror theme). Now, what I see going on here is something that can very easily be adapted to D&D via ITS storylines. Specifically:* Each major release is surrounded by a single story that forms its backdrop. The theme carries through its artwork, AL adventures, and major modules.* Major recurring characters and new ones intermixed: ToD had Tiamat (very recognizable), EE had the elemental princes along with heavy focus on the prophets (who were new), RoD have drow, Drizzt, and of course the Demon Lords. Even the Core books had Iconic baddies (Accerack, Snurre, and Xanthar). * New mechanics introduced: We've didn't see much of this in ToD or EE (except elemental races), but RoD has the madness mechanic on display. I can see a horror one making use of Fear/Horror checks for example. * Multiversal "support": Planeswalkers visit a variety of planes, each with different themes (Greek Heroes, Asian Myth, Horror, etc). Sounds slightly similar to D&D's Multiverse of Worlds, especially when you consider the idea of "Stories linked to APs" filling a similar niche. Perhaps we get a Planar AP that uses Sigil/Planescape as a background, or Barovia/Ravenloft for another horror AP, and then Eberron for a Xen'drik story, or Greyhawk for an "Against Iuz" AP. Rather than full campaign guides with support supplements, we get enough story background to run the AP and if you like the setting and want to do more, get older material or make it up. * Cycling: Magic is widely supported by its Tournaments, key among them is Standard. Standard is constantly in flux; the cards you used in it last year aren't all available this year as new sets cycle in to replace old ones. I could easily see 5e books working like this; rather than continuous additions of splat that bloats the system, tying "rules" to settings could allow them to cycle out as the storyline finishes; once the Eberron AP is done, you don't have to worry about warforged or how the warforged interact with RoD's madness rules or the Purple Dragon Knight. (If you want to use them together, pull out your Rulings, not Rules hat). Already, AL is doing this with "Story Origins" so I can definitely see the trend continue. It will be a different style of game that 4e/3e had, and VERY different than AD&D, but the concept of trying everything to a story has worked for Blizzard via WoW and WotC via Magic, so I imagine they think it can work for D&D.</blockquote>

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