The last thread I made, about races that should be added to 5e, got a lot of traction talking about races from both earlier editions and the MTG books. So I figured, why not make a new thread about it?
In recent years, WotC has given us three delightful hardcover books based on three classic worlds of MTG: Ravnica (of course), Strixhaven, and Theros. But there are a lot of other worlds out there, some discussed in the Plane Shift PDFs, and some only in stories, that have a lot of potential lore and story for them. And since the MTG books sold really well, it's safe to assume there's probably gonna be at least one more MTG book in the future.
So what do you think the next such book should be about? Kaladesh? Innistrad? Phyrexia? Amonkhet? Discuss it here!
The last thread I made, about races that should be added to 5e, got a lot of traction talking about races from both earlier editions and the MTG books. So I figured, why not make a new thread about it?
In recent years, WotC has given us three delightful hardcover books based on three classic worlds of MTG: Ravnica (of course), Strixhaven, and Theros. But there are a lot of other worlds out there, some discussed in the Plane Shift PDFs, and some only in stories, that have a lot of potential lore and story for them. And since the MTG books sold really well, it's safe to assume there's probably gonna be at least one more MTG book in the future.
So what do you think the next such book should be about? Kaladesh? Innistrad? Phyrexia? Amonkhet? Discuss it here!
Amonkhet. I don’t know much about, admittedly, but the talk about an Anubis inspired race (even if it is not playable) is just so cool! I like weird random things like Egypt and Sharks. A shark race actually sounds pretty cool.
The last thread I made, about races that should be added to 5e, got a lot of traction talking about races from both earlier editions and the MTG books. So I figured, why not make a new thread about it?
In recent years, WotC has given us three delightful hardcover books based on three classic worlds of MTG: Ravnica (of course), Strixhaven, and Theros. But there are a lot of other worlds out there, some discussed in the Plane Shift PDFs, and some only in stories, that have a lot of potential lore and story for them. And since the MTG books sold really well, it's safe to assume there's probably gonna be at least one more MTG book in the future.
So what do you think the next such book should be about? Kaladesh? Innistrad? Phyrexia? Amonkhet? Discuss it here!
Amonkhet. I don’t know much about, admittedly, but the talk about an Anubis inspired race (even if it is not playable) is just so cool! I like weird random things like Egypt and Sharks. A shark race actually sounds pretty cool.
Amonkhet is a really cool setting, not gonna lie- I avidly read the entire storyline on the website, and the way everything is put together is awesome! I'm especially interested in the possible rules for a campaign about the Five Trials if they do take that route. Another possible way I hope they go is with Kamigawa- the different kami, the Kitsune, kickass magical technology and an Oriental-style campaign setting for once? I'd buy that shit in an instant!
I'd like to play as one of those four-armed snake people from the old Kamigawa setting. I suppose they're just reskinned yuan-ti.
The setting deadass just calls them "snakes" lmao
But yeah, that would be an awesome race! My guess is they'd be a bit more similar to the Plane Shift: Amonkhet naga, but maybe with a few more arms. Always loved the idea of having a snake boi with no legs, only a thicc tail. The yuan-ti purebloods just kinda ruined the "snake-people" vibe for me, something like this would definitely be much cooler!
Amonkhet as currently exists in MtG lore could make for a good campaign book and that's about it. The entire plane is mostly uninhabitable desert with a single city. That city is inhabited by multiple races and they exist for the sole purpose of proving their worth as warriors to be subsequently killed and turned into super zombies called eternals to serve as part of the God Pharaoh's army when he returns. They are raised and train as groups called crops, because they are to be harvested. When they come of age, a crop enters the five trials as a group and those who pass all of them are ritually killed and made into eternals while those who fail by dying too soon are turned into lesser zombies that are used to maintain a semblance of civilization by doing all the work to support a living population that exists for the sole purpose of dying. It existed in this state for thousands of years before the plot of MtG came to it, when it was revealed that the God Pharaoh they've been waiting for is Nicol Bolas, the BBEG of the entire setting at that point and an elder dragon bent on ascending to godhood and conquering all of the multiverse with a giant army of super zombies. The planeswalker heroes, a group called the Gatewatch, arrive just in time to try to stop Bolas, teaming up with some local rebels who have decided that they don't want to be zombies but then Bolas kicks their asses and leaves with his enormous super zombie army that now includes several zombified gods. That is the plot of the Amonkhet sets. Bolas later invades Ravnica (this takes place pretty much immediately after the timeframe the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica is set) where the real final showdown happens and Samut, a young rebel from Amonkhet who awakened as a planeswalker during the aformentioned events, does take part but that's still about it.
TLDR Amonkhet is a single city full of zombies in the middle of a giant barren desert and that's it. As lore currently exists it does not have enough substance to make a proper setting though you could do a campaign book following the a plot parallel to that of Samut's experiences growing up, taking the trials, and rebelling against her gods. Such a campaign would be pretty much just one combat after another until the Gatewatch shows up at which point they basically say hello before Bolas makes his big triumphant entrance as the God Pharaoh and the PCs would pick a side for the following giant fight. That's really all there is.
Kaldheim or Kamigawa (the current, pseudo-futuristic magitech cyberpunk one) would both make great settings. Those both have a buttload of setting lore, locations, factions, and all the other things that make for a setting you can have all sorts of adventures in. Kaldheim is heavily based on Norse mythology so there's lots of snow, it has a cold and dark feel to a lot of it, there are giants, elves, dwarves, gods, and iirc a dozen different demiplanes based on the World Tree model. Kamigawa is basically a futuristic cyberpunk anime with magic, shinto-inspired spirits, plus things like ratfolk biker gangs, ninja hackers, magical samurai, mechasamurai, and flying mecha that can be potentially augmented/possessed by spirits. Both of those have myriad potential avenues for all sorts of one shots and full on campaigns.
Personally I'd love to see Innistrad but D&D already has Ravewnloft for the gothic horror niche so it would be largely redundant to cover that same ground twice. My favorite description of it goes "This is a world so full of danger and terror on a daily basis that when ginormous world devouring eldritch monstrosities from beyond time and space attack the typical peasant farmer's reaction is 'Mabel, get my big axe.'"
Eldraine could be pretty good overall as it's an adaptation/amalgamation of all sorts of classic European fairy tales in a "standard" western midieval setting. It's the kind of thing that seems pretty generic, but if you're specifically looking for just a bunch of locations, monsters, and NPCs to base your medieval Eurofantasy adventure plot around then it would fit the bill.
I mentioned this on the last thread since it was relevant mostly to the race discussion, but I think Amonkhet and Kamigawa would be the most sensible choices.
1. They are both very different in tone from the Euro-centric planes we tend to get
2. They each add a large number of new races. Kamigawa has kitsune, moonfolk, nezumi, and orochi; Amonkhet has khenra, naga, and avens (though I'd argue avens are redundant with owlin and aarakokra).
3. Kamigawa was the best selling set for its release window of all time.
4. Both sets were recently enough that they are still in the memory of many players--particularly Kamigawa which just came out.
5. Both have some fun, recognizable high-level monsters, such as the dragons of Kamigawa and the Gods of Amonkhet. Amonkhet's are probably better, since there's a bit more diversity, but either would work.
I would also point out that, for those pointing out Amonkhet is really just a city, Strixhaven has little to offer outside the school. A smaller setting sometimes works better--it is easier to shoehorn into any campaign as "generic magic school" or "generic Egyptian city". Wizards might not want to do two smaller scale Magic books in a row, but its small size does not preclude it from consideration, particularly given its other advantages.
Some other possibilities: Zendikar, which has a pretty big following; Dominaria for obvious reasons; and, one day, Ixalan, though I'd like to see Torrezon in before we receive a D&D expansion for it.
I have a friend who is working on putting together a New Capenna campaign. Should prove rather interesting--I thought the setting was much better than the actual set.
I would also point out that, for those pointing out Amonkhet is really just a city, Strixhaven has little to offer outside the school. A smaller setting sometimes works better--it is easier to shoehorn into any campaign as "generic magic school" or "generic Egyptian city".
Strixhaven does have a world around it. The D&D book focuses on the school, as does the lore of the MtG set, but the rest of the plane of Arcavios actually exists. Amonkhet has one city and that's literally all there is worth mentioning. And it is't a "generic Egyptian city," it's a military academy geared to produce soldiers who are born for the singular purpose of learning to fight really well then get turned into zombies that are put into storage in the vaults. Aside from farms, forges, and other support facilities to feed, house, and equip those zombies to be (which are all operated by lesser zombies) there is no actual civilization on Amonkhet. Strixhaven characters can go off campus for a field trip to explore ruins from the Blood Age or anything from whatever other setting a DM might import the campus into. Amonkhet's biggest draw as a setting, as far as comments here and elsewhere are indicative of, is "jackal people because we need more furry races!"
Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty would need a lot of playtesting about modern technology and possible firearms. Maybe in the future but not now. It seems to have been designed as a hook for the otaku community. (sorry, is the term otaku allowed as politically correct or too pejorative for Japaneses?)
The last word about Eldraine hasn't said yet. It may return.
Phyrexians are monsters relatively easy to be adapted to videogame crossovers. Dreadful but not too gore.
I would also point out that, for those pointing out Amonkhet is really just a city, Strixhaven has little to offer outside the school. A smaller setting sometimes works better--it is easier to shoehorn into any campaign as "generic magic school" or "generic Egyptian city".
Strixhaven does have a world around it. The D&D book focuses on the school, as does the lore of the MtG set, but the rest of the plane of Arcavios actually exists. Amonkhet has one city and that's literally all there is worth mentioning. And it is't a "generic Egyptian city," it's a military academy geared to produce soldiers who are born for the singular purpose of learning to fight really well then get turned into zombies that are put into storage in the vaults. Aside from farms, forges, and other support facilities to feed, house, and equip those zombies to be (which are all operated by lesser zombies) there is no actual civilization on Amonkhet. Strixhaven characters can go off campus for a field trip to explore ruins from the Blood Age or anything from whatever other setting a DM might import the campus into. Amonkhet's biggest draw as a setting, as far as comments here and elsewhere are indicative of, is "jackal people because we need more furry races!"
In terms of Magic, Arcavios was probably less fleshed out in the TCG than the area surrounding the city of Amonkhet. Recall that we had a fair number of demons and old gods from the desert released as cards. I also think you are selling the city short - the city itself had a fascinating culture built around a series of five trials one could compete in to win glory, renown, and being considered an eternal (whoops).
For a D&D book, that’s great - it’s a city, trials within the city, and some surrounding areas you can plop down in the middle of any desert, rather than a whole plane that would render the book only applicable to someone who wanted a campaign on the plane.
The last word about Eldraine hasn't said yet. It may return.
I feel there isn’t much else left for Wizards to do with Eldraine. They got pretty much all of the major fairy tales, and I doubt they want to go with things like “The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage” or other similarly obscure tales. I mean, I would personally find that delightful, but it probably would not move product.
I don't know anything about MTG, but whatever is the opposite of Theros. That setting reintroduced several duplicates of creatures we already have, Greek Mythology is already really well know in fantasy, they'd have been way more diverse if they had posted an Asian or ancient American setting with monsters they've failed to adapt in 5E, especially with variations on creatures that Forgotten Realms has shoehorned into typified roles, like Dragons of different anatomy. I'd rather not see a MTG setting ever again, but that's the one thing it's good for, offering a different perspective on things that are too stagnant. Fizbans Treasury of Dragons was terribly redundant.
New Cappena because I've always wanted to be a murderhobo rogue.
In all seriousness, I would like New Cappena adventures and campaign setting because it seems very much like a lot of RP and free reign plus maybe it would have new downtime activities.
Also, I read magic stories and all the crime families seem to have a fleshed out personality.
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The following is the entirety of the description of that city from the MtG Wiki:
The only known settlement was the city of Naktamun, where the gods dwelled among the population and acted as stewards for the God-Pharaoh until his return. The people within the city were divided into several districts that prepared for the trials of the five gods, an elaborate series of tests overseen by viziers. Groups of warriors were referred to as "crops" that prepared to take the trials together. Dissenters against the God-Pharaoh's teachings were either locked into sarcophagi or banished into the Broken Lands.
It's a fortress/boot camp in the uninhabitable wilds and everything inside it is geared at the Trials. Characters don't explore, haggle with merchants, or solve mysteries because there are no merchants and there are no mysteries. There are mindless zombies growing food and forging weapons for the living who train to enter the trials until they do so then they die. The only culture that exists is "follow the teachings of the gods to become strong then die impressively when it's your turn in the Trials." That isn't a setting book, it's an adventure module about undergoing the trials in a manner similar to a straight up, grindy dungeon crawl that you can add to with the arrival of the Gatewatch and return of Nicol Bolas to interrupt them with a big fight involving monsters coming out of the inhospitable wilds (which is the plot to both MtG sets in a nutshell).
Arcavios isn't fleshed out much better aside from various mentions of ruins from the Blood Age that can be explored. It doesn't really need to be developed because the entire point of it as an adventure setting is the whole school drama and things that go on within the campus. Yes, you can fairly easily plop Strixhaven's campus down into any other setting with little or no modification but it's still a setting in and of itself. People go there to do things that happen in that setting; they attend classes, interact with other students in sports, poetry contests, plan and prosecute prank wars against each other, have romance arcs, investigate students and/or interlopers that are secretly part of some weird secret society or cult ,and all the other school drama stuff. If you do the same with Naktamun the party shows up and gets "Do you want to test yourself in the Trials and prove yourself worthy of serving the God Pharaoh forever in death? If not please go away, because that's literally all we do here."
The following is the entirety of the description of that city from the MtG Wiki:
The only known settlement was the city of Naktamun, where the gods dwelled among the population and acted as stewards for the God-Pharaoh until his return. The people within the city were divided into several districts that prepared for the trials of the five gods, an elaborate series of tests overseen by viziers. Groups of warriors were referred to as "crops" that prepared to take the trials together. Dissenters against the God-Pharaoh's teachings were either locked into sarcophagi or banished into the Broken Lands.
It's a fortress/boot camp in the uninhabitable wilds and everything inside it is geared at the Trials. Characters don't explore, haggle with merchants, or solve mysteries because there are no merchants and there are no mysteries. There are mindless zombies growing food and forging weapons for the living who train to enter the trials until they do so then they die. The only culture that exists is "follow the teachings of the gods to become strong then die impressively when it's your turn in the Trials." That isn't a setting book, it's an adventure module about undergoing the trials in a manner similar to a straight up, grindy dungeon crawl that you can add to with the arrival of the Gatewatch and return of Nicol Bolas to interrupt them with a big fight involving monsters coming out of the inhospitable wilds (which is the plot to both MtG sets in a nutshell).
Arcavios isn't fleshed out much better aside from various mentions of ruins from the Blood Age that can be explored. It doesn't really need to be developed because the entire point of it as an adventure setting is the whole school drama and things that go on within the campus. Yes, you can fairly easily plop Strixhaven's campus down into any other setting with little or no modification but it's still a setting in and of itself. People go there to do things that happen in that setting; they attend classes, interact with other students in sports, poetry contests, plan and prosecute prank wars against each other, have romance arcs, investigate students and/or interlopers that are secretly part of some weird secret society or cult ,and all the other school drama stuff. If you do the same with Naktamun the party shows up and gets "Do you want to test yourself in the Trials and prove yourself worthy of serving the God Pharaoh forever in death? If not please go away, because that's literally all we do here."
I think you are selling the set short, focusing on a brief blurb rather than the art and flavour text clearly showing a thriving city with impressive architecture, farming, and, from art depicting individuals fighting in the trials, hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators for every combatant. Yes, everything is built around the trials, but it is fairly clear there is a functioning city as well.
The set was focused around the end days of the plane, but there’s clearly a good deal there they could work on. It’s every bit as fleshed out as Strixhaven, with different factions and a central story they can utilise to make a part adventure, part sourcebook as with Strixhaven.
Those spectators are other crops still training for and awaiting their turns at the trials, watching to learn from the example of their worthy elders. The entire living population consisted of either the crops or a very small group of "viziers" who oversaw and administered things that couldn't be done by lesser (non-eternal) zombies. That functioning city you keep talking about is operated entirely by zombie drones for the express purpose of supporting the crops. Presumably there's some sort of breeding program for trainees to produce a few at some point offspring before dying in the trials, and childcare is handled mostly by those robot-like zombies which are also used to do every form of menial labor which encompasses everything that isn't "preparation for the trials." The Trials are the culture of Naktamun and the living residents focus on them to the exclusion of all else. Living, sentient beings are not artisans or craftsmen, there are no artists, and there is no need for merchants because the "economy" is entirely based on "give the crops whatever they need to prepare for the Trials." The city existed in cultural stasis since it was first constructed after Bolas destroyed everything else of note on the plane. Those beautiful buildings were constructed at that time and have been since maintained unchangingly by zombie drones.
There are some isolated catacombs as well as ruins that can be found in the Broken Lands by those who manage to survive long enough to find them which are remnants from the previous civilization. Any study of these things gets one labeled as a Dissenter and marked for death. That's what happened to Samut when she went exploring and learned that those ancient ruins contain records referring to the God Pharaoh (Bolas) as the "Great Trespasser." Those ruins can make for good plot development for an adventure module paralleling Samut's story (since she's a central figure to the plot of the Magic set) but serve no other purpose other than what they did to propel her into Dissent and rebellion. That all would make for a great single path adventure module but that's the only thing that can be done with it unless you add stuff that simply wasn't there. The entire plane is specifically designed by Bolas to be a factory for blindly loyal undead soldiers and it's culture specifically excludes and represses anything not related to that singular purpose.
Amonkhet setting sounds like a dark domain within the Demiplane of the Dread.
My theory is if it has published as planeshift article, then it will be not a sourcebook.
New Capena is fantasy-noir, and this mean dieselpunk magitek, a lot of work to be playtested for the game designers. Not only the weapons but also vehicles and modern technology.
Why Ilkoria, land of kaijus, isn't mentioned usually?
Why Ilkoria, land of kaijus, isn't mentioned usually?
Offhand, I would guess the need to design and playtest rules to replicate/represent the mutate mechanic in a satisfactory way that is both balanced and also understandable to DMs who can't understand how to properly balance an encounter on their own to begin with. Also it's only had one set and is a bit light on the actual details of how the world works. Good for survival based games but the only real factions are giant monsters, humans that don't want to be eaten or stepped on by giant monsters, and bonders who want to go au naturale and live with the monsters. The human factions don't bother competing with each other because they're too busy holding the aggressively carnivorous jungle at bay. There's probably potential there, at least more than with Amonkhet, but they'd need to spend more time writing detailed lore to fill out anything resembling an actual setting book.
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The last thread I made, about races that should be added to 5e, got a lot of traction talking about races from both earlier editions and the MTG books. So I figured, why not make a new thread about it?
In recent years, WotC has given us three delightful hardcover books based on three classic worlds of MTG: Ravnica (of course), Strixhaven, and Theros. But there are a lot of other worlds out there, some discussed in the Plane Shift PDFs, and some only in stories, that have a lot of potential lore and story for them. And since the MTG books sold really well, it's safe to assume there's probably gonna be at least one more MTG book in the future.
So what do you think the next such book should be about? Kaladesh? Innistrad? Phyrexia? Amonkhet? Discuss it here!
Amonkhet. I don’t know much about, admittedly, but the talk about an Anubis inspired race (even if it is not playable) is just so cool! I like weird random things like Egypt and Sharks. A shark race actually sounds pretty cool.
Call me Blond. James Blond.
The new cyberpunk Kamigawa set would be a cool DND setting
Amonkhet is a really cool setting, not gonna lie- I avidly read the entire storyline on the website, and the way everything is put together is awesome! I'm especially interested in the possible rules for a campaign about the Five Trials if they do take that route. Another possible way I hope they go is with Kamigawa- the different kami, the Kitsune, kickass magical technology and an Oriental-style campaign setting for once? I'd buy that shit in an instant!
I'd like to play as one of those four-armed snake people from the old Kamigawa setting. I suppose they're just reskinned yuan-ti.
The setting deadass just calls them "snakes" lmao
But yeah, that would be an awesome race! My guess is they'd be a bit more similar to the Plane Shift: Amonkhet naga, but maybe with a few more arms. Always loved the idea of having a snake boi with no legs, only a thicc tail. The yuan-ti purebloods just kinda ruined the "snake-people" vibe for me, something like this would definitely be much cooler!
That sounds cool, too!
Call me Blond. James Blond.
I'd like to play in the Antiquities War and be instrumental in causing or preventing the Ice Age.
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Amonkhet as currently exists in MtG lore could make for a good campaign book and that's about it. The entire plane is mostly uninhabitable desert with a single city. That city is inhabited by multiple races and they exist for the sole purpose of proving their worth as warriors to be subsequently killed and turned into super zombies called eternals to serve as part of the God Pharaoh's army when he returns. They are raised and train as groups called crops, because they are to be harvested. When they come of age, a crop enters the five trials as a group and those who pass all of them are ritually killed and made into eternals while those who fail by dying too soon are turned into lesser zombies that are used to maintain a semblance of civilization by doing all the work to support a living population that exists for the sole purpose of dying. It existed in this state for thousands of years before the plot of MtG came to it, when it was revealed that the God Pharaoh they've been waiting for is Nicol Bolas, the BBEG of the entire setting at that point and an elder dragon bent on ascending to godhood and conquering all of the multiverse with a giant army of super zombies. The planeswalker heroes, a group called the Gatewatch, arrive just in time to try to stop Bolas, teaming up with some local rebels who have decided that they don't want to be zombies but then Bolas kicks their asses and leaves with his enormous super zombie army that now includes several zombified gods. That is the plot of the Amonkhet sets. Bolas later invades Ravnica (this takes place pretty much immediately after the timeframe the Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica is set) where the real final showdown happens and Samut, a young rebel from Amonkhet who awakened as a planeswalker during the aformentioned events, does take part but that's still about it.
TLDR Amonkhet is a single city full of zombies in the middle of a giant barren desert and that's it. As lore currently exists it does not have enough substance to make a proper setting though you could do a campaign book following the a plot parallel to that of Samut's experiences growing up, taking the trials, and rebelling against her gods. Such a campaign would be pretty much just one combat after another until the Gatewatch shows up at which point they basically say hello before Bolas makes his big triumphant entrance as the God Pharaoh and the PCs would pick a side for the following giant fight. That's really all there is.
Kaldheim or Kamigawa (the current, pseudo-futuristic magitech cyberpunk one) would both make great settings. Those both have a buttload of setting lore, locations, factions, and all the other things that make for a setting you can have all sorts of adventures in. Kaldheim is heavily based on Norse mythology so there's lots of snow, it has a cold and dark feel to a lot of it, there are giants, elves, dwarves, gods, and iirc a dozen different demiplanes based on the World Tree model. Kamigawa is basically a futuristic cyberpunk anime with magic, shinto-inspired spirits, plus things like ratfolk biker gangs, ninja hackers, magical samurai, mechasamurai, and flying mecha that can be potentially augmented/possessed by spirits. Both of those have myriad potential avenues for all sorts of one shots and full on campaigns.
Personally I'd love to see Innistrad but D&D already has Ravewnloft for the gothic horror niche so it would be largely redundant to cover that same ground twice. My favorite description of it goes "This is a world so full of danger and terror on a daily basis that when ginormous world devouring eldritch monstrosities from beyond time and space attack the typical peasant farmer's reaction is 'Mabel, get my big axe.'"
Eldraine could be pretty good overall as it's an adaptation/amalgamation of all sorts of classic European fairy tales in a "standard" western midieval setting. It's the kind of thing that seems pretty generic, but if you're specifically looking for just a bunch of locations, monsters, and NPCs to base your medieval Eurofantasy adventure plot around then it would fit the bill.
I mentioned this on the last thread since it was relevant mostly to the race discussion, but I think Amonkhet and Kamigawa would be the most sensible choices.
1. They are both very different in tone from the Euro-centric planes we tend to get
2. They each add a large number of new races. Kamigawa has kitsune, moonfolk, nezumi, and orochi; Amonkhet has khenra, naga, and avens (though I'd argue avens are redundant with owlin and aarakokra).
3. Kamigawa was the best selling set for its release window of all time.
4. Both sets were recently enough that they are still in the memory of many players--particularly Kamigawa which just came out.
5. Both have some fun, recognizable high-level monsters, such as the dragons of Kamigawa and the Gods of Amonkhet. Amonkhet's are probably better, since there's a bit more diversity, but either would work.
I would also point out that, for those pointing out Amonkhet is really just a city, Strixhaven has little to offer outside the school. A smaller setting sometimes works better--it is easier to shoehorn into any campaign as "generic magic school" or "generic Egyptian city". Wizards might not want to do two smaller scale Magic books in a row, but its small size does not preclude it from consideration, particularly given its other advantages.
Some other possibilities: Zendikar, which has a pretty big following; Dominaria for obvious reasons; and, one day, Ixalan, though I'd like to see Torrezon in before we receive a D&D expansion for it.
I have a friend who is working on putting together a New Capenna campaign. Should prove rather interesting--I thought the setting was much better than the actual set.
Strixhaven does have a world around it. The D&D book focuses on the school, as does the lore of the MtG set, but the rest of the plane of Arcavios actually exists. Amonkhet has one city and that's literally all there is worth mentioning. And it is't a "generic Egyptian city," it's a military academy geared to produce soldiers who are born for the singular purpose of learning to fight really well then get turned into zombies that are put into storage in the vaults. Aside from farms, forges, and other support facilities to feed, house, and equip those zombies to be (which are all operated by lesser zombies) there is no actual civilization on Amonkhet. Strixhaven characters can go off campus for a field trip to explore ruins from the Blood Age or anything from whatever other setting a DM might import the campus into. Amonkhet's biggest draw as a setting, as far as comments here and elsewhere are indicative of, is "jackal people because we need more furry races!"
Kamigawa: Neon Dinasty would need a lot of playtesting about modern technology and possible firearms. Maybe in the future but not now. It seems to have been designed as a hook for the otaku community. (sorry, is the term otaku allowed as politically correct or too pejorative for Japaneses?)
The last word about Eldraine hasn't said yet. It may return.
Phyrexians are monsters relatively easy to be adapted to videogame crossovers. Dreadful but not too gore.
A possible crossover Innistrad-Ravenloft?
In terms of Magic, Arcavios was probably less fleshed out in the TCG than the area surrounding the city of Amonkhet. Recall that we had a fair number of demons and old gods from the desert released as cards. I also think you are selling the city short - the city itself had a fascinating culture built around a series of five trials one could compete in to win glory, renown, and being considered an eternal (whoops).
For a D&D book, that’s great - it’s a city, trials within the city, and some surrounding areas you can plop down in the middle of any desert, rather than a whole plane that would render the book only applicable to someone who wanted a campaign on the plane.
I feel there isn’t much else left for Wizards to do with Eldraine. They got pretty much all of the major fairy tales, and I doubt they want to go with things like “The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage” or other similarly obscure tales. I mean, I would personally find that delightful, but it probably would not move product.
I don't know anything about MTG, but whatever is the opposite of Theros. That setting reintroduced several duplicates of creatures we already have, Greek Mythology is already really well know in fantasy, they'd have been way more diverse if they had posted an Asian or ancient American setting with monsters they've failed to adapt in 5E, especially with variations on creatures that Forgotten Realms has shoehorned into typified roles, like Dragons of different anatomy. I'd rather not see a MTG setting ever again, but that's the one thing it's good for, offering a different perspective on things that are too stagnant. Fizbans Treasury of Dragons was terribly redundant.
New Cappena because I've always wanted to be a murderhobo rogue.
In all seriousness, I would like New Cappena adventures and campaign setting because it seems very much like a lot of RP and free reign plus maybe it would have new downtime activities.
Also, I read magic stories and all the crime families seem to have a fleshed out personality.
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HERE.The following is the entirety of the description of that city from the MtG Wiki:
It's a fortress/boot camp in the uninhabitable wilds and everything inside it is geared at the Trials. Characters don't explore, haggle with merchants, or solve mysteries because there are no merchants and there are no mysteries. There are mindless zombies growing food and forging weapons for the living who train to enter the trials until they do so then they die. The only culture that exists is "follow the teachings of the gods to become strong then die impressively when it's your turn in the Trials." That isn't a setting book, it's an adventure module about undergoing the trials in a manner similar to a straight up, grindy dungeon crawl that you can add to with the arrival of the Gatewatch and return of Nicol Bolas to interrupt them with a big fight involving monsters coming out of the inhospitable wilds (which is the plot to both MtG sets in a nutshell).
Arcavios isn't fleshed out much better aside from various mentions of ruins from the Blood Age that can be explored. It doesn't really need to be developed because the entire point of it as an adventure setting is the whole school drama and things that go on within the campus. Yes, you can fairly easily plop Strixhaven's campus down into any other setting with little or no modification but it's still a setting in and of itself. People go there to do things that happen in that setting; they attend classes, interact with other students in sports, poetry contests, plan and prosecute prank wars against each other, have romance arcs, investigate students and/or interlopers that are secretly part of some weird secret society or cult ,and all the other school drama stuff. If you do the same with Naktamun the party shows up and gets "Do you want to test yourself in the Trials and prove yourself worthy of serving the God Pharaoh forever in death? If not please go away, because that's literally all we do here."
I think you are selling the set short, focusing on a brief blurb rather than the art and flavour text clearly showing a thriving city with impressive architecture, farming, and, from art depicting individuals fighting in the trials, hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators for every combatant. Yes, everything is built around the trials, but it is fairly clear there is a functioning city as well.
The set was focused around the end days of the plane, but there’s clearly a good deal there they could work on. It’s every bit as fleshed out as Strixhaven, with different factions and a central story they can utilise to make a part adventure, part sourcebook as with Strixhaven.
Those spectators are other crops still training for and awaiting their turns at the trials, watching to learn from the example of their worthy elders. The entire living population consisted of either the crops or a very small group of "viziers" who oversaw and administered things that couldn't be done by lesser (non-eternal) zombies. That functioning city you keep talking about is operated entirely by zombie drones for the express purpose of supporting the crops. Presumably there's some sort of breeding program for trainees to produce a few at some point offspring before dying in the trials, and childcare is handled mostly by those robot-like zombies which are also used to do every form of menial labor which encompasses everything that isn't "preparation for the trials." The Trials are the culture of Naktamun and the living residents focus on them to the exclusion of all else. Living, sentient beings are not artisans or craftsmen, there are no artists, and there is no need for merchants because the "economy" is entirely based on "give the crops whatever they need to prepare for the Trials." The city existed in cultural stasis since it was first constructed after Bolas destroyed everything else of note on the plane. Those beautiful buildings were constructed at that time and have been since maintained unchangingly by zombie drones.
There are some isolated catacombs as well as ruins that can be found in the Broken Lands by those who manage to survive long enough to find them which are remnants from the previous civilization. Any study of these things gets one labeled as a Dissenter and marked for death. That's what happened to Samut when she went exploring and learned that those ancient ruins contain records referring to the God Pharaoh (Bolas) as the "Great Trespasser." Those ruins can make for good plot development for an adventure module paralleling Samut's story (since she's a central figure to the plot of the Magic set) but serve no other purpose other than what they did to propel her into Dissent and rebellion. That all would make for a great single path adventure module but that's the only thing that can be done with it unless you add stuff that simply wasn't there. The entire plane is specifically designed by Bolas to be a factory for blindly loyal undead soldiers and it's culture specifically excludes and represses anything not related to that singular purpose.
Amonkhet setting sounds like a dark domain within the Demiplane of the Dread.
My theory is if it has published as planeshift article, then it will be not a sourcebook.
New Capena is fantasy-noir, and this mean dieselpunk magitek, a lot of work to be playtested for the game designers. Not only the weapons but also vehicles and modern technology.
Why Ilkoria, land of kaijus, isn't mentioned usually?
Offhand, I would guess the need to design and playtest rules to replicate/represent the mutate mechanic in a satisfactory way that is both balanced and also understandable to DMs who can't understand how to properly balance an encounter on their own to begin with. Also it's only had one set and is a bit light on the actual details of how the world works. Good for survival based games but the only real factions are giant monsters, humans that don't want to be eaten or stepped on by giant monsters, and bonders who want to go au naturale and live with the monsters. The human factions don't bother competing with each other because they're too busy holding the aggressively carnivorous jungle at bay. There's probably potential there, at least more than with Amonkhet, but they'd need to spend more time writing detailed lore to fill out anything resembling an actual setting book.