http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/07/22/dungeons-and-dragons-ravnica-book/
briefly, it's M:TG setting for D&D.
Of all the MtG properties, I've long thought it had the whiff of a cool RPG setting. It's a world-city magic setting with lots of detailed guilds. Does it have to be "for" anyone? It seems pretty cool to me.
Ravnica is a good setting for it. Zendikar would have matched the exploration and discovery angle of D&D right out of the gate, but Ravnica is full of dungeoneering potential and faction scheeming.
I have the five so far Plane Shift articles for D&D.
Innistrad
Kaladesh
Zendikar
Ixalan
Amonkhet
Personal favourite is Amonkhet so far.
As for the Amazon entry. This happens now and then. Sometimes for things that dont really exist. This was an issue several years ago as someone was posting Amazon listings for things like unpublished books and just games that were rumor or speculation. There has never been an explanation. They usually get taken down or changed eventually.
I think it would be really weird to put out just that one book and not the rest. So as with past incidents I look at this with ALOT of suspicion.
Quote from: Omega;1050072I think it would be really weird to put out just that one book and not the rest. So as with past incidents I look at this with ALOT of suspicion.
OTOH, it's got cover art and a blurb (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966599/), and supplemental (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966610/) products (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966602/)listed on Amazon. If it's a hoax, it's a really elaborate one.
I expect that it will be confirmed or debunked when WotC makes their next round of announcements tomorrow.
Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1050076OTOH, it's got cover art and a blurb (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966599/), and supplemental (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966610/) products (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786966602/)listed on Amazon. If it's a hoax, it's a really elaborate one.
I expect that it will be confirmed or debunked when WotC makes their next round of announcements tomorrow.
Dont count on it. We've seen some of these entries with all that. Cover, blurb. Those are all too easy to make. Exactly what they are is anyones guess. I've talked to WOTC staff on it and in two cases THEY didnt know what the item was or how it got there.
They might. But more likely they wont as its either not real or the entries gone up way to far ahead of schedule.
If there are maps of Ravnica itself and in-depth maps and coverage of specific areas I would be very happy.
I'd buy it, and it would be ab easy sell or mover at the store.
- Ed C.
on another site, there was speculation that this was a stand in for a Sigil City of Doors product. Something to do with placeholder needed......
I own a handful of Magic cards but know less than zero of the back stories.
Nope. They're actually doing it. Now, I don't play M:tG at all, but it seems crazy to me they waited this long.
The first 5e product that catches my interest!
Thank you!
It's confirmed, and its one of my favorite settings. This is probably the best thing 5e could do for me. Yes, I might be tempted to say "Dark Sun" but I've already got those books - Ravnica is something new.
In fact I already played a campaign in it and I have a LMoP conversion (http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-lost-mines-of-ravnica-i-lost-mines.html) in my blog, which basically explains why I think ravnica is the antidote to "vanilla" D&D.
Quote from: RPGPundit;1050534Nope. They're actually doing it. Now, I don't play M:tG at all, but it seems crazy to me they waited this long.
Great! Thanks for confirming this. Saves me another call to WOTC. :D
So for those who know Magic better than I. What is Ravinca? I've heard some compare it to Planescape and Sigil for its scope and feel?
Imagine Coruscant from Star Wars except it is a fantasy feel instead of technology. A city that covers an entire world and different biomes.
Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;1050642Imagine Coruscant from Star Wars except it is a fantasy feel instead of technology. A city that covers an entire world and different biomes.
Pretty much this. IIRC, its guilds are where all the two-color decks get their names; I know I used to put together a lot of Gruul (red-green) variations, especially because when I got back into MtG a few years ago the first deck I played around with was a werewolf tribal deck and all the werewolf cards are red and green.
I never read too deeply into the lore for it, but my main issue with using it for any sort of RPG campaign is that it just doesn't make sense. A place like Coruscant works because there are parts of the world that aren't populated and it has plenty of other planets to rely on for resources. Ravnica, to my knowledge, doesn't. That would have to be one of the first things addressed if I was gonna be able to use it at all without my suspension of disbelief snapping in half.
Quote from: Brand55;1050645I never read too deeply into the lore for it, but my main issue with using it for any sort of RPG campaign is that it just doesn't make sense. A place like Coruscant works because there are parts of the world that aren't populated and it has plenty of other planets to rely on for resources. Ravnica, to my knowledge, doesn't. That would have to be one of the first things addressed if I was gonna be able to use it at all without my suspension of disbelief snapping in half.
Ravnica has parks, ruins, etc, and also a guild who is a all about recycling food and growing mushrooms, and another one that seems to be and endless fountain of life. Presumably, plenty of algae too.
It's mentioned somewhere that some people just CONJURE they food, but it hurts my suspension of disbelief too, way more than a simple fireball - maybe because "creating matter from nowhere" seems to me to be more miracle than magic... Also because in Earthsea stories bread created by magic wouldn't satiate hunger etc.
Quote from: Eric Diaz;1050660Ravnica has parks, ruins, etc, and also a guild who is a all about recycling food and growing mushrooms, and another one that seems to be and endless fountain of life. Presumably, plenty of algae too.
It's mentioned somewhere that some people just CONJURE they food, but it hurts my suspension of disbelief too, way more than a simple fireball - maybe because "creating matter from nowhere" seems to me to be more miracle than magic... Also because in Earthsea stories bread created by magic wouldn't satiate hunger etc.
I could maybe see them get enough food if the population density isn't crazy high, though it would still be tough. But how would such a city about? Does it have a magical origin or a more mundane one? How do they get clothing? Ink and paper? Metal for their weapons? With no major bodies of water, how does the climate work and just where do they get enough drinking water? And so on and so forth. Food is just the tip of the iceberg, albeit an important tip. I'm curious how deeply the book will delve into setting details like that or if such things will mostly be waved off as magical.
Create Food and Drink has been a thing in D&D since the beginning.
Oh hey, a 5e book that I may port to another game.
Quote from: thedungeondelver;1050696Create Food and Drink has been a thing in D&D since the beginning.
Ravnica hasn't. So now it needs to go from just being a backdrop that's used as background flavor on some cards to being a livable, immersive environment that makes sense. If WotC doesn't address that in some way, even if it is just handwaving away issues through magic, it'll hurt the setting.
A world-spanning city means a trillion or more people and (barring super high tech/magic) nowhere to grow food. Too silly for me. I have trouble with much smaller fantasy megalopoli.
Quote from: S'mon;1050710A world-spanning city means a trillion or more people and (barring super high tech/magic) nowhere to grow food. Too silly for me. I have trouble with much smaller fantasy megalopoli.
Ummm... Ever heard of Hydroponics? Farms(open, enclosed, or underground)? Importing?
Apparently not.
And that is not even taking into account magic.
All they need are a few self sustaining large scale operations to keep the whole thing going. And obviously those things do exist somewhere in the background as the place isnt a depopulated ruin.
There also has to be extensive hydroponics or other systems just to maintain a breathable atmosphere for so many.
Its rather pathetic how many gamers need their hands held for even the most basic logic gates and cant parse it unless told something exists.
A quick perusal of the MtG wiki shows me that there are lots of "reclaimed" zones, rubble, and some actual wilderness. There's a whole guild dedicated to agriculture so it seems like some thought has been put into this. It's also described as a "pocket-dimension" so no idea if that means it is smaller or bigger than earth and what magnitude of difference.