Dungeons & Dragons‘ NewestMagicCrossover Wants Everyoneto Feel Home at Magic School

Magic : The assemblage is a game aboutthe most powerful spellcasters in the multiverse , so an entire card set themed around a magical spot of report makes sensory faculty . In Dungeons & Dragons , adventurers can bemartial artists , great warriors , master weaponsmiths — they may not touch trick at all . So when D&D and Magic cover over in their latest collaboration , an interesting trouble arose : how do you build an risky venture about a magic school where not everyone in the party can use magic ?

After the reveals ofThe Wild Beyond the Witchlight and Fizban ’s Treasury of Dragonsduring D&D Live over the weekend , hotshot of the Coast had one more trick up its arm — the a la mode sourcebook get to D&D ’s Fifth Edition later this year , Strixhaven : A Curriculum of Chaos . free-base on this year’sStrixhaven : School of Mages card setfor Magic : The Gathering , A Curriculum of Chaos send off actor grapheme across a journey through storey 1 - 10 . But rather of dig into donjon or taking on mercenary requests like a typical lot of adventurer , you ’ll be regorge as something altogether a snatch more unlike for D&D : school day bookman , even if your school is a repository of some of the most powerful and smart as a whip practitioners of magic around . Even more unambiguously , your adventure will be spread across an integral curriculum of written report , as your persona grow through years of tutelage and eventually fine-tune from Strixhaven ’s hallowed halls .

“ One of the most exciting things for us on the team is the fact that this book allow for all of the tools for you to really toy a student at Strixhaven University , a student at the University of Magic , take part in all of the different five colleges and pick up the smack of magic that live there — and as such , if you choose to play through the substantial adventure substance that we ’re offer in the book as well , ” Amanda Hamon , D&D squad Senior Designer , tell apart press at a late upshot ahead of D&D Live . disagree from D&D ’s old sourcebooks cover crossovers with Magic — Mythic Odysseys of Theros and Guildmaster ’s Guide to Ravnica — Curriculum of Chaos put up out for its master stress on story cognitive content . “ A Curriculum of Chaos [ covers ] almost two - third base of the Christian Bible , which is [ playable as ] either a long campaign , stretched out over four different chapter that you’re able to play from level one to level off 10 , or — this is something we are very mad about in the studio apartment — each of these single chapter can be played as standalone escapade , ” Hamon continued . “ Perhaps one - shots , if you play a very tenacious session , but believably more like two or three . ”

Class is in session later this year for D&D parties.

Class is in session later this year for D&D parties.Image: Magali Villeneuve/Wizards of the Coast

“ Each of these chapter are self - contained to be a term , in donnish price . So we ’ve get a chapter that is your first twelvemonth , a chapter of your 2d yr , your third twelvemonth , and then your fourth yr , ” Hamon explained . “ And if you choose to recreate those individually , there ’s a standalone , compelling story that unfold that you are able to figure out and resolve by the end of that chapter — and that can be your entire experience . Or like I mention , you may diddle those chapter all together and there is an overarching campaign that ’s a much more heroic , large - ordered series story in nature that is also just as cheering , we hope , to players . ”

While A Curriculum of Chaos will sport some conversant face from the card set as notable NPCs , the news report it tells is largely singular to D&D. Rather than borrowing any of the events that unfolded in the Magic set ’s own lore , it adapts the five different college of Strixhaven ’s mystical disciplines — Lorehold , Prismari , Quandrix , Silverquill , and Witherbloom — and their unlike approaches to the study of conjuring trick . And the cogitation is an important differential there : one thing D&D had to work around in a major room with Strixhaven as a setting was that , unlike Magic , not everyone in a game of D&D is necessarily , well , charming . “ What ’s really fun we mean about the Strixhaven setting is that you do n’t actually have to be a mage to take part in these adventure . You do n’t have to be a spellcaster to attend Strixhaven University , ” Hamon stressed . “ It ’s not so much a university to learn how to be a caster as it is actually to take about deception , and the software of magic , and the existence of thaumaturgy in the world . ”

This is significant , because Curriculum of Chaos did n’t just put “ curriculum ” in the title for alliterative purposes ; your education at Strixhaven is a vital part of the adventure — and yes , that does mean hit the books . “ This is getting a little moment into the weeds on the adventures , but there are rules that the game includes to help model campus life and college liveliness — and one of those is an pedantic facing a band of rules , called Exams , ” Hamon teased . “ This allows you … when you are take part in this course with all of your fellow bookman and your fellow Player Characters on a specific topic , that is about a specific character of magic within one of the colleges , you are take about these things . Depending on how well you do on your examination — which mostly consists of some skill checks and some feel — you get little bonuses automatically for going forrad with the level and overcoming the challenge that are put in front of you . Those are some of the little ways we function with to breathe life into these adventures . ”

Image: Caroline Gariba/Wizards of the Coast

University life-time is n’t all oeuvre and no fun , however — Strixhaven included . you may get incentive for passing your studies , but it ’s not the be - all and close - all of pedantic living . Not intellectually inclined ? Your hero can choose to seek their incentive elsewhere , build relationships with other students or accept part in out - of - social class activities . “ In plus to having some playfulness rules for ‘ All properly , did you exit your exams ? And if you did , what do good you get ? ’ , we also have rules for extramarital activities that your graphic symbol might be require in — your on - campus caper can give you benefit . We also have rules that allow you to build up not only narratively meaningful , but mechanically meaningful family relationship with other students , ” D&D Lead Rules Designer Jeremy Crawford added . It ’s those supererogatory benefits outside the schoolroom that Crawford and Hamon really want to put in into A Curriculum of Chaos . “ Amanda and I betimes on , when babble about this project , giggled a muckle , not only about this , but just about … as we reflected on our own experiences as university students , not only just how much excitement and optimism there can be as a college student , but also just what a hot muss college life sentence can be , ” Crawford joked . “ This is not the official code name [ for Strixhaven development ] , but Amanda and I , our code name for this has been ‘ spicy mess ! ’ ”

relationship form a major mechanical element in Curriculum of Chaos , offer not just loyal allies in your campaign , but likely foes . “ [ They ] can become really dear and affectionate , but they can also go the other direction , ” Crawford lend . “ And you’re able to end up with a fellow student who is a frenemy , [ which ] might end up causing hassle [ during the adventure ] . ”

“ Like Jeremy had advert , we ’ve vex some benefits — if you ’ve got somebody who is your friend , you ’ve interacted with them in a prescribed mode a figure of time to mechanically have them as your booster , there ’s also the opposite word , ” Hamon continued . “ you’re able to have someone who is your challenger and there is something that they do — and usually it ’s story - specific , something that they ’ll do to more or less subvert something that you ’re attempt to do or provide you with a disadvantage on a roll , or something else related to their back story . So it all really boils down to who they are as a person and how they built that relationship , and how that PC has built that relationship with those NPCs . We really leave a muckle of detail about the NPC , I think in a way that is very singular in the D&D macrocosm . We have an array of fellow bookman , set out with personality profile of 18 dissimilar NPCs , and all of the different backgrounds about who they are , and what are their colleges — what long time they are , and what schooling year they are in relation to the player character … just what their motivations are and what their stake are going to be , to appropriate DMs to have those instrument to employ those characters , and let their the players really feel like they make love these individuals and can build up a human relationship . ”

“ As you participate in that event , you ’re interacting with the NPCs in a mechanically skillful way , in a positive agency or a negative way , ” Hamon continued . “ You depict how you ’re doing that and seeing that play out between the DM and the player , and that then render a point one way or another that eat into these relationship role . [ Strixhaven ’s ] got fortune of very musical genre - specific group events like that … I do n’t want to spoil too many thing , but there ’s a Pitch Perfect - style sing - off , for example , that happens before a big Mage Tower game ( Strixhaven University ’s magical sporting effect ) . ”

While the mass of A Curriculum of Chaos ’ Thomas Nelson Page counting is dedicated to these dangerous undertaking at the university , the book will also include new creature and machinist that diddle into the escapade or will be able-bodied to spread outside of Strixhaven into other movement . As well as a bestiary and NPC stat options for a whole host of being and creatures pulled directly from the Strixhaven notice set up itself , another being from Magic is being turn over into a new playable character option : the Owlin , like the feathered friend seen on A Curriculum of Chaos ’ cover . “ Anyone who ’s familiar with our Unearthed Arcana serial online , you ’ll know we in reality playtested the Owlin a small while ago , ” Crawford beleaguer , “ and we called them the Owlfolk — we often do this where we sort of change a name slightly , just so that we can keep our cards close to our chests ! But that was the Owlin , and playtesters really get it on it . ”

Another set of mechanical additions include feats , abilities , and items that players , as if by magic inclined or otherwise , can take to give them the feel of being fictional character who sign up to be a educatee at a wizardly institution like Strixhaven . “ One of the [ A Curriculum of Chaos adventure ] features for play in the campaign is that being a Strixhaven student mechanically gives you a free exploit , and that is one of these Strixhaven feat that gives you some magical ability , disregarding of your character year , ” Crawford explained . “ It ’s a manifestation of the toilsome employment you ’ve done as a student at this university . There also be some extra spells and magical detail , include magical textbooks , that you ’ll be capable to acquire to give yourself some of the wizardly capabilities that are consort with Strixhaven as you then go on the risky venture … there ’s a lot of trouble afoot in and near the university , and so [ players ] are run to necessitate to use these abilities that they learn in class to then go out and resolve existent D&D adventure - vogue job . ”

Image: Caroline Gariba/Wizards of the Coast

Image: Caroline Gariba/Wizards of the Coast

One thing that was antecedently known about A Curriculum of Chaos that wo n’t in reality be have ? When the book was first teased , Wizards went through the unprecedented surprise of immediately offering a serial of subclass for spellcasters through their Unearthed Arcana playtesting campaign , Strixhaven Mages . After the feedback get during that testing , however , the design squad decided to keep back off from bring the approximation to fruition as part of the new book of account . “ Unearthed Arcana did the chore that we ask it to do for us , which is … we sometimes put very observational things out in front of D&D fans , and just ask them ‘ Hey , you desire to see more of this , ’ ” Crawford explain . “ And the uncomplicated solution was ‘ No , give thanks you , but no ! ’ We fix a lot of great feedback nonetheless from that Unearthed Arcana . And even when something does n’t make it into a book , it goes into our big cauldron of next design , so it ’s always possible something will re - egress in a later product . ”

“ But we learned two really important things [ from the Strixhaven Mages feedback ] that we ’ve been seeing from the D&D biotic community since D&D Next . the great unwashed love for D&D subclasses to speak to the distinctiveness of each stratum , so fans were fight with these experimental subclass because , very deliberately , we were n’t speak to the distinctiveness of a socio-economic class , ” Crawford remain . “ 5E Fans also like subclasses to be useable in as many preferences as possible , given the fact that so many DMs home brew , and so there was an rising climb for these subclasses and for people taking the study because they were strange for us , in that they were tie to a specific setting . In this case , we were prepared for this as a potential consequence , and we ’re excited about the player grapheme options that are go to be in the Christian Bible . Often we will do this when we have something more experimental than normal , where we have contingency architectural plan — so we ’re going in another direction , and I ’m excite that the instruction we ’re going in is fend for even more case character than those intercrossed subclasses . ”

But even with that fragile hiccough , much of what will make Strixhaven still feel unparalleled to D&D players has remain while retaining at its core that this is not a thaumaturgy : The assemble experience , but a D&D one . “ It ’s still D&D. There ’s a circumstances of fun , very unique , and very genre - specific element , like the exams , and the extracurriculars , and relationship systems , some of which we really go for people will drop into . But it ’s still D&D , ” Hamon conclude . “ Everything is still within the D&D linguistic context , you ’re still presented with challenge and adversaries , and there are plots afoot that you ’ll require to unravel as players and musician characters . It ’s not going to be entirely unfamiliar , it ’s just within this new , fun surroundings that we go for folks will have playfulness exploring and still feel very D&D. ”

Image: Caroline Gariba/Wizards of the Coast