I've got good news for everyone who have been clamoring for an official conversion: you've got it. Plane Shift: Zendikar is an official D&D conversion to the Magic Setting (specifically, Zendikar). The design is VERY clearly based on the Art Book, so this makes a good companion. I know we've had a lot of users coming here for help making just this!
I AM SO EXCITED AND AM SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING CANCELING MY OTHER DND CAMPAIGN TO DO THIS
EDIT: More seriously this was my comment for their survey:
This is perhaps the best idea you've done ever. I am so excited that you might produce more content like this. For a very long time I've longed to make pretend the Magic setting in a DnD campaign, specifically some implementation of the color wheel, but also particularly the Zendikar setting which has a lot of nostalgia value with me and my best friend. The reason I'm not writing in allcaps is because I'm seriously try to communicate clearly. My only real gripe with the current version is that it's not as professional looking as it could be, while being properly formatted there are some things that look more amateurish than the normal DnD books. But I totally understand the tradeoff of this being an experimental free product. This will make me buy The Art of Zendikar. Thank you for doing so much work for your customers.
Hope we get a Theros one! I wish we had a vague map of the planes. Otherwise, great idea.
I'm working on that! I've had to slow down because of school, but I'm picking things back up. I should have Zendikar finished soon. Innistrad will be next, followed by Tarkir and then maybe Theros.
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Vorthos Cartography - Check out my completed maps of Zendikar and Innistrad!
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
I was hoping for a bit more but I am pleased none the less and won't complain. It would be a very interesting product if the added Zendikar feats, weapons, base classes, prestige classes (tidecaller, lithomancer, ect) and spells. Also while using other monster templates for eldrazi works just fine, at least one actual Eldrazi (preferably one for each brood, the titans would be too much and the stand ins they suggest work very nicely) with stats and abilities would have been really cool.
If you want maps, make sure to participate in the poll, it's one of the options they have in terms of content you'd like to see.
Great idea! I just voted for maps and to get Theros next. I hope they do a Theros art book as well. It's funny how much larger Theros and even Innistrad are when one reads more lore.
Innistrad will be next. They will probably coincide with the art books I'm thinking.
That would be very welcome. Some people have said that Innistrad is too similar to Ravenloft, but I feel that the two realms/planes are very different from one another, and so I would be excited to see what WotC would say for an Innistrad setting.
I get giddy whenever I think of the idea of beautiful, hardcover setting books all depicting Magic Planes for use in D&D (and other RPGs)!
I'd be interested to see a Ravnica version to see how the guilds fit into the D&D world, along with a map of the Ravnican city plane, possibly with the Implicit Maze outlined somehow
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
When I saw this, I was super excited! I actually did a fairly extensive 4e campaign based on the Zendikar story line and had a lot of materials that I created for it.
I was a little disappointed at the execution of this, but considering it's free, I'm not complaining too much. I really wish there were some MTG spells converted into D&D, and a little more care spent on the monsters instead of just "need a griffon, use the griffon stats".
If they released a product for purchase that was more detailed, I would definitely buy it.
I believe that, should this become a real thing, they will definitely expand on it. The pdf is about 32 pages? If you take the survey I believe there is a bit about which format you would like the final product to be in, and the physical copy was over 300 pages.
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Currently Playing:
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
Never played D&D before but this site made me want to try. A really intriguing concept for Wizards to try. I hope they do more as well. Seeing some magic "classes" like someone mentioned (lithomancer, roilmage) would be cool too. Are Zendikari vampires really lawful though? Never struck me as that way tbh. I get the logic for why, and I suppose it's more likely that a random Vampire would be lawful and bound to the hierarchy than, say, Drana who is the main one I feel like doesn't feel lawful to me, and the thralla of Ulamog are explicitly on a mission to crush the free will of the allied vampires. But I dunno, as I said I don't know much about D&D to be able to judge.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
I would love to see one of these for Kamigawa and Ravnica. The only thing I wish this had was more maps, especially of important locations. I've always been curious to see how these places were laid out geographically.
Never played D&D before but this site made me want to try. A really intriguing concept for Wizards to try. I hope they do more as well. Seeing some magic "classes" like someone mentioned (lithomancer, roilmage) would be cool too. Are Zendikari vampires really lawful though? Never struck me as that way tbh. I get the logic for why, and I suppose it's more likely that a random Vampire would be lawful and bound to the hierarchy than, say, Drana who is the main one I feel like doesn't feel lawful to me, and the thralla of Ulamog are explicitly on a mission to crush the free will of the allied vampires. But I dunno, as I said I don't know much about D&D to be able to judge.
Crushing the "Free will" of others is one of the things on the side of Lawful Evil, there are a good many Devil* Lords that have Tyranny as their domain, and the Lawful Evil Dragon Goddess Tiamat actually has had Law in her domain. I can see Zendikar Vampires being Lawful Evil because they have a very strict caste system and the Bloodlords do rule with Iron Fists. Even Drana who is on the side of the Protagonists in BFZ shows some very big signs of Lawful Evil.
Demons and Devils are separate Races in DND, Demons are always Chaotic Evil, Devils are always lawful evil.
Never played D&D before but this site made me want to try. A really intriguing concept for Wizards to try. I hope they do more as well. Seeing some magic "classes" like someone mentioned (lithomancer, roilmage) would be cool too. Are Zendikari vampires really lawful though? Never struck me as that way tbh. I get the logic for why, and I suppose it's more likely that a random Vampire would be lawful and bound to the hierarchy than, say, Drana who is the main one I feel like doesn't feel lawful to me, and the thralla of Ulamog are explicitly on a mission to crush the free will of the allied vampires. But I dunno, as I said I don't know much about D&D to be able to judge.
Lawful tends to mean more 'following a structure or hierarchy' than what you're thinking. The vampire tribal system of Zendikar would qualify as Lawful. I'm not a D&D expert either, but that's generally how I view it.
Thanks for the heads up! I had rather missed the survey!
I voted for maps, more proper new creatures rather than just re-skins, and for custom classes.
It's really easy to miss!
By the way, I've been plugging your blog, and I'm not sure if you noticed but it's where I direct people for most pre-mending stuff in the Story Resources thread (at the beginning).
Lawful tends to mean more 'following a structure or hierarchy' than what you're thinking. The vampire tribal system of Zendikar would qualify as Lawful. I'm not a D&D expert either, but that's generally how I view it.
Yeah, the Ghost Council of Orzhova could be the poster children for Lawful Evil and the Zendikari Broodlords act in something of the same fashion. Drana did not betray the Eldrazi for the good of Zendikar she did it because The Eldrazi destroying the plane would have dismantled her power structure.
Lawful tends to mean more 'following a structure or hierarchy' than what you're thinking. The vampire tribal system of Zendikar would qualify as Lawful. I'm not a D&D expert either, but that's generally how I view it.
Yeah, the Ghost Council of Orzhova could be the poster children for Lawful Evil and the Zendikari Broodlords act in something of the same fashion. Drana did not betray the Eldrazi for the good of Zendikar she did it because The Eldrazi destroying the plane would have dismantled her power structure.
See, I think this was my problem with Drana specifically. I didn't get the impression she joined the Allies because it would defend her power structure specifically-- while that was a very useful end result for her, it felt to me more like she wanted to fight Eldrazi on the principle of freedom and free will. Her people were slaves to the Eldrazi in the past, and she wanted that no more, which was in direct contrast with Kalitas thralls who willing to prostate themselves to Ulamog and lay low vampires who won't do the same, which I do think is pretty lawful.
I know it's subjective and not every vpire would be lawful, since as far as I know alignments for races aren't hard and fast. As I said I think most vampires are lawful, Drana just stuck out to me in particular.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
I do not think those are quite mutually exclusive things, she still viewed her "people" as belonging to her. If after the Eldrazi are Gone Drana's Chosen decides "i wanna go hang with the Kor, see you later Drana" I have some doubts if she is gonna let that happen.
I do not think those are quite mutually exclusive things, she still viewed her "people" as belonging to her. If after the Eldrazi are Gone Drana's Chosen decides "i wanna go hang with the Kor, see you later Drana" I have some doubts if she is gonna let that happen.
Eh... Vampires do actually commingle with the other races on Zendikar often enough according to the artbook. They just often choose not to because of social bias and I think most probably prefer their decadent lives among other vampires. I never got the impression the Bloodchiefs actively dissuaded other vampires from going and doing their own thing. But the relationship between a bloodchiefs and their clan isn't really expounded upon.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
I like the idea so much. In the end rules for planes walking would be great.
And I want the magic colors somehow in the system. I want to say that my character is green and blue for mechanical effects.
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Drop your knees to the floor
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
I'm thinking of replacing the D&D schools with the five colors of magic. I'll be deciding what spells are what colors on a case by case basis. Thoughts?
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Lycanthropy Awareness Day.
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
I'm thinking of replacing the D&D schools with the five colors of magic. I'll be deciding what spells are what colors on a case by case basis. Thoughts?
Abjuration is pretty white, Divination is pretty Blue, Illusion is Blue, and Necromancy is obviously Black, which narrows down the need for case by case basis. Some of the other schools can be restricted to just a few colors as well, I think.
Demons and Devils are separate Races in DND, Demons are always Chaotic Evil, Devils are always lawful evil.
They're separate races in Magic too, though the alignment of the races is different. Demons are usually either lawful evil or neutral evil, but can be chaotic evil. Devils seem to only show up in certain settings, and are pretty much universally chaotic evil. I'm not very familiar with D&D, but I believe that Magic's representation of demons as powerful infernal lords and devils as impish minions is reversed in D&D too.
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A polite player might call my card choices "interesting." At my budget, "interesting" is the only option.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
I WILL BUY EVERYTHING THEY MAKE OF THIS SERIES
I AM SO EXCITED AND AM SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING CANCELING MY OTHER DND CAMPAIGN TO DO THIS
EDIT: More seriously this was my comment for their survey:
This is perhaps the best idea you've done ever. I am so excited that you might produce more content like this. For a very long time I've longed to make pretend the Magic setting in a DnD campaign, specifically some implementation of the color wheel, but also particularly the Zendikar setting which has a lot of nostalgia value with me and my best friend. The reason I'm not writing in allcaps is because I'm seriously try to communicate clearly. My only real gripe with the current version is that it's not as professional looking as it could be, while being properly formatted there are some things that look more amateurish than the normal DnD books. But I totally understand the tradeoff of this being an experimental free product. This will make me buy The Art of Zendikar. Thank you for doing so much work for your customers.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I'm working on that! I've had to slow down because of school, but I'm picking things back up. I should have Zendikar finished soon. Innistrad will be next, followed by Tarkir and then maybe Theros.
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I get giddy whenever I think of the idea of beautiful, hardcover setting books all depicting Magic Planes for use in D&D (and other RPGs)!
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
I was a little disappointed at the execution of this, but considering it's free, I'm not complaining too much. I really wish there were some MTG spells converted into D&D, and a little more care spent on the monsters instead of just "need a griffon, use the griffon stats".
If they released a product for purchase that was more detailed, I would definitely buy it.
Standard - Some kind of control
Modern - UB Mill (casual)
EDH - Meren's Grave Shenanigans
But the people behind the barrier knew.
Crushing the "Free will" of others is one of the things on the side of Lawful Evil, there are a good many Devil* Lords that have Tyranny as their domain, and the Lawful Evil Dragon Goddess Tiamat actually has had Law in her domain. I can see Zendikar Vampires being Lawful Evil because they have a very strict caste system and the Bloodlords do rule with Iron Fists. Even Drana who is on the side of the Protagonists in BFZ shows some very big signs of Lawful Evil.
Demons and Devils are separate Races in DND, Demons are always Chaotic Evil, Devils are always lawful evil.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
It's really easy to miss!
By the way, I've been plugging your blog, and I'm not sure if you noticed but it's where I direct people for most pre-mending stuff in the Story Resources thread (at the beginning).
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Yeah, the Ghost Council of Orzhova could be the poster children for Lawful Evil and the Zendikari Broodlords act in something of the same fashion. Drana did not betray the Eldrazi for the good of Zendikar she did it because The Eldrazi destroying the plane would have dismantled her power structure.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
See, I think this was my problem with Drana specifically. I didn't get the impression she joined the Allies because it would defend her power structure specifically-- while that was a very useful end result for her, it felt to me more like she wanted to fight Eldrazi on the principle of freedom and free will. Her people were slaves to the Eldrazi in the past, and she wanted that no more, which was in direct contrast with Kalitas thralls who willing to prostate themselves to Ulamog and lay low vampires who won't do the same, which I do think is pretty lawful.
I know it's subjective and not every vpire would be lawful, since as far as I know alignments for races aren't hard and fast. As I said I think most vampires are lawful, Drana just stuck out to me in particular.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Eh... Vampires do actually commingle with the other races on Zendikar often enough according to the artbook. They just often choose not to because of social bias and I think most probably prefer their decadent lives among other vampires. I never got the impression the Bloodchiefs actively dissuaded other vampires from going and doing their own thing. But the relationship between a bloodchiefs and their clan isn't really expounded upon.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
And I want the magic colors somehow in the system. I want to say that my character is green and blue for mechanical effects.
Hands to the sky
Give a round of applause
For the great Miss Y!
Hoping for a cure, or at least an outbreak.
Level 1 Judge (yay)
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
They're separate races in Magic too, though the alignment of the races is different. Demons are usually either lawful evil or neutral evil, but can be chaotic evil. Devils seem to only show up in certain settings, and are pretty much universally chaotic evil. I'm not very familiar with D&D, but I believe that Magic's representation of demons as powerful infernal lords and devils as impish minions is reversed in D&D too.