Those who have been following here a long time should know that I have a liking for Magic the Gathering artwork – not necessarily the game, but the art tends to be gorgeous. (Some of the new stuff doesn’t quite appeal to me, but that’s a different story).
Now, you may or may not know this, but some time ago, Wizards of the Coast announced that they were going to be doing a big cross-over type of event for Magic. And it turns out that they went with the Dungeons & Dragons setting for Forgotten Realms.
Now, the Forgotten Realms is one of my favorite settings of all time. It is incredibly deep, there’s lore practically everywhere, and you can always find an unexplored corner of the world to launch a campaign in of your own. However, the modern iteration of it seems to take part mostly in the Sword Coast region. That region was always important as it contained Waterdeep (some of the older folks here might remember the computer games called Eye of the Beholder, which took place underneath Waterdeep) and Baldur’s Gate (probably more of you that know THAT particular computer game), as well as Neverwinter and Icewind Dale (the last is debatable, but Wizards of the Coast included it there).
But the world goes FAR beyond that. It has a region of evil wizards, a nation ruled by an insane spellcasting queen (and, at the time she was published, the – by some margin – most powerful spellcaster in the multiverse, who wasn’t an immortal. And she could still overpower a number of those too), to a region ruled by “not-Genghis Khan,” a continent called Maztica (essentially the Mayan and Incan empire in D&D), and many, many more.
So why am I bringing all this up?
Well, that’s because the new Magic the Gathering expansion is for the Forgotten Realms, and NOT for one of their normal IPs. With each new set, MTG normally introduces (or reintroduces) a setting unique to Magic, but not this time. And what’s more, this is the new standard set and the first in a block of 3. And this could mean that we’ll be able to see other D&D universes enter the Magic scene. (Considering how Magic has placed so much importance on planeswalkers in recent years, I personally would love for them to revive Planescape – both as a D&D setting (preferably), but barring that, I’d love to see it come back alive in Magic).
So what does this mean for you as a player of D&D? Well, hopefully, that you’ll find yourself surrounded by new players who are interested in these new worlds and who will want you to enlighten them with what’s happening.
For Magic, will it drag in more D&D players? Maybe, but I have my doubts. This seems to be an easy way for Wizards of the Coast to convert Magic players over to D&D as well, while not having to invent an entirely new world when they have one of the most celebrated campaign settings as their fingers tips.
What about you? Are you planning on picking up the Magic Deck and going on an adventure in the Realms?
Until next time, or as they say in the Realms “Until Swords part.”
Kim Frandsen
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