New D&D book is more than just a Magic: The Gathering crossover

At first glance, the next book for Dungeons & Dragons looks like just another crossover with The Gathering is Magic. But, after speaking with co-lead designer Amanda Hamon, I’m suddenly very excited for its release. Strixhaven: Curriculum of ChaosThis could be the best-selling new product Wizards of the Coast has released this year. Here’s how it’s going to work.

The Strixhaven School of MagesSet of Magic The original collectible card game’s cards were released in April. It received cards with a great deal of enthusiasm. It’s very clearly a bit of a Harry Potter goof, but it has its own flavor. Strixhaven, which is located on the plane Arcavios and is basically Harvard for mages. There are five colleges here, all founded by dragons. Each college has its own flavor — Lorehold loves its history, Witherbloom are the biology goths, Prismari is full of extravagant art students, etc. This set had equal parts powerful spells with sexy female co-eds. It certainly was well received by its core group of supporters.

Shuvadri Glintmantle, a humanoid owl. “Her peers are often surprised when they learn Shuvadri is interested in joining Silverquill College.” — “Silverquill is a college of eloquence,” Hamon said. “They’re Shakespearean writers, they’re the Richard Burton actors, but they’re also the villainous character actors.”

The truth is that not everybody is as into it. Magic. So, Hamon said that one of the book’s major design goals was to make it so players can file off the serial numbers and drop the college of Strixhaven — or whatever they want to name it — into any setting that they can imagine.

“It’s a campus that is self contained, that can be dropped within any setting, as it makes sense for other people’s campaigns,” Hamon told Polygon in an interview. “That was very important for us. We wanted it to be its own world.”

Of course, you can do that with any of D&D’s published adventures and collections, like Candlekeep MysteriesIt focuses solely on one library. The Dungeon Master (DM) should find it much easier to implement the idea from the beginning. Your own home campaign is yours to run how you see fit, and mixing and matching things — character classes, monsters, encounters, villains, locations — is really part of the fun. Hamon’s team took this idea even further.

Modularity also extends to campaign duration and speed. The bulk of the book, Hamon said, is taken up by four arcs, one for each year a character spends at college (there’s no option for a fifth year, so study hard, kids). The arcs may be completed in a matter of hours. Or you could break them down and make them smaller or multi-task.

A sample page from the book showing the college of Silverquill itself. Large ink-filled fountains and pen-like spires dot the campus. — “The Rose Stage is on Silverquill’s campus,” Hamon said. “There is an improv festival that is held on that stage, and you as the players are invited to participate.”

“If you do not want to commit to a level one through 10 experience,” Hamon said, “if you’re just wanting to play a side game in between [another adventure you’re running] as a regular group, or if you’re just wanting to dip your toe into Strixhaven to see if your players like it, you can run each chapter as a stand-alone adventure — as a module. Every chapter should be an entire story. The book gives you the instructions to alter the story if you choose. [how to inform your players on] what it is that is driving the action forward, and what the satisfying resolution is if you play each chapter.”

This modularity could be used to great advantage by clever DMs in a multitude of ways. The best one might be as a flashback for your party’s powerful magic user. What were their university chums? Who were their chums at university? How did they establish themselves before joining the current group? Just have all the other players at the table roll up a quick level-one character to help flesh out the story and you’re on your way to some serious character backstory building.

The Silverquill Student background includes proficiencies in Intimidation and Persuasion.

It promises to provide a variety of new and exciting systems that can be used in any campaign. Hamon says there’s a system for gamifying romantic relationships with non-player characters, a system for taking exams, and a vaguely Quidditch-like ruleset for the popular intramural sport of Mage Tower. Those portions of the book were handled by principal designer Jeremy Crawford, meanwhile James Wyatt — the man behind a bunch of previous free-to-download crossovers with past sets of The Gathering is Magic cards — is handling world-building and continuity.

Toss in a bestiary with more than 40 monsters — including stat blocks for each of Strixhaven’s five powerful dragon lords — and you’ve really got something special. Strixhaven: Curriculum of ChaosDecember 7th, 2010: On sale You can pre-order yours now in the friendly game shop or online.

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