Magic: The Gathering’s Strixhaven setting comes to D&D in a new campaign book

07.06.2021

Two young mages look at scrolls in a dusty dungeon while laughing.

Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering have another crossover event scheduled for later this year. Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos will be the latest in a long line of D&D books that will allow players to have role-playing adventures in the world of Magic. Wizards of the Coast senior designer Amanda Hamon will be the story lead. The campaign setting won’t launch until Nov. 16, but fans can get a preview as soon as June 8.

Strixhaven is a brand new plane in the Magic multiverse that debuted in April with Strixhaven: School of Mages. The full set of cards presents fans with more than just another random corner of the sprawling universe. Instead, it feels like an attempt to give the original collectible card game a new narrative focus. Strixhaven poses a lot of interesting questions: What if all the known spells in the universe were archived in one place? What if the students hungry for that knowledge were powerful young mages with a smattering of sexy co-eds? And what if one of the professors was living a secret double life?

Fans will be able to preview some of the new rules for character creation on June 8. That’s when publisher Wizards of the Coast will debut new playtest materials titled Unearthed Arcana: Mages of Strixhaven. Fans can try those rules out and submit feedback that will ultimately impact the final version of the book.

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos is just the latest in a long line of similar crossover campaign settings. The series began in 2016 with Plane Shift: Zendikar, which was made available as a free download. That book was followed by Plane Shift: Innistrad, Plane Shift: Amonkhet, Plane Shift: Kaladesh and Plane Shift: Ixalan — all of which remain free to download. The publisher started charging for these kinds of products in 2018 with Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica.

Crossovers go both ways, of course. You can expect Magic: The Gathering Adventures in the Forgotten Realms — a full set of cards starring author R.A. Salvatore’s Drizzt Do’Urden — in July.