So I've been at it a while trying to homebrew as little as possible to maximize the MTG feel of the Plane Shift: 5th Edition supplements. Among other things, I have 2 big tasks; Incorporating mana, and incorporating colors of mana/magic. I'd love it if it were possible to simply enough add something to the rffect of "make mana bonds from [insert appropriate terrain type here] get colored spell slots/spell points of [insert appropriate color here] to cast [insert appropriate spells here], esp if color identity could play a role, such as always being a minimum White Kor, minimum Green Elf, etc" BUT I realize that may be a tall order, so I more so am hunting any input on mechanically instigating *roleplaying* the relationship with lands/terrain types, mana bonds, mana, mana colors, "drawing/gathering" mana, and appropriately flavored color identity to spells. So that things evoke relatable magic concepts, like a Green Elf, or Red Barbarian, Black Warlock, Red and/or Black Innistrad(ian) Vampire PC, Blue Wizard or a little more lightly, White Mage, Red Mage, etc.

Does anyone have any experience dabbling in this sort of aspect of the game? I'd appreciate any constructive feedback available. I just don't want a huge disconnect with mana, color, and spells. (Any advice on how to steer less Magic-savvy players to utilising their abilities to better fit cohesive roles (there's no "Lullmage/Roilmage" Wizard Tradition, but spells that COULD simulate that are buried deep among loads of other unrelated spells, for example)

Are you talking about tweaking the D&D M:TG tie-ins to make them feel more like M:TG?
If you want players to bond with locations then I would advise an exploration-based campaign.

While that is a fine focus, I'm more so referring to my hopes to gear the game (even if it's primarily roleplayed, I still hope to discover a mechanical method to make that portion of roleplaying feek like it belongs) towards spellcaster PCs meaningfully depicted as having mana bonds with particular examples of terrain, and that being analogous to their spellcasting resources (spell slots, or the arcana point variant) and thus their spellcasting. I'd like a tiny mechanical reason to ask the Elf Wizard to recall an island or coast they've been to in their lifetime (or since the game started) and make an action simulating "drawing" 'blue' mana from said coast to cast Sleep, or the Human Cleric of Emeria to recall a set of plains visited, take an action to "gather" white mana from those plains, and cast Bless or Shield of Faith. Going out on a limb to say it would even be ideal if said Elf Wizard could have some magical properties that could be identified as "green", or further still, a Merfolk Barbarian having a reason to recall a particular Mountainous area they visited, draw on red mana for some spell-like effect in-flavor with their Rage or something equivalent.

Hmm this would be easier in something like GLOG where you could just use different-colored dice.
Maybe when a character levels up and gets new spell slots they have to record what type of terrain that "mana bond" came from? To make a bond of a specific color, you'd have to cite a place you've adventured. This would determine the type of magic that spell slot provides.
Some spells would require a certain type of mana bond/spell slot, and others would have their effects change depending on the mana used. Just replace "cone of cold" with "cone of (element)" and have the same spell work as a cone of light, blight, fire and uh... maybe there isn't a green one? Charm person could be cast with a red or blue spell slot, but would manifest as a jedi mind trick or super charisma depending. Invisibility would require a blue spell slot. This system would give more variety to spells but make it much harder to cast a specific effect repeatedly.

Right, something like that is a project I'm willing to take on, but I primarily expected the main advice to consist of something to the effect of "simplicity is the key", and I was willing to explore what methods could be simple AND evocative of my goal(s). On the less-simple side of solutions, I've got a lot of spell altering/customization ahead of me lol But surely an interesting experience as well.

Have you considered modeling mana off of the psionics power structure where one accumulates points and then spends them on powers? That seems like the most analogous of the power structures to work with when trying to replicate gathering and spending mana.

Which psionics power structure? The UA Mystic class?

Originally I was thinking the old 2nd Ed D&D Psionicist with power points (sometimes stored in gems), that could be cashed in for spell effects, but yes, the UA Mystic fits what I had in mind as well.

What about cleric types that pray to avatars/maro spirits and get access to mana that corresponds with the maro to whom they pray? You could leave it up in the air as to whether or not they're literally praying to a maro or if they're really tapping land but viewing it through a lens of prayer.

I think the obstacle isn't clarifying from whence to obtain mana, but redefining every class's available spells as colored, substituting plane shift, other "interplanar" spells, etc and renaming spells containing canon names to be either plain (ex: Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion to Mage's Magnificent Mansion a la Pathfinder) or more appropriate to the setting at hand (Hunger of Hadar to Hunger of Ulamog)

The spell point system seems really compatible, perhaps each spell could require 1 out of 1-3 dfferent colors of mana per spell level and the rest can be default spell points, and besides perhaps 1-2 freebies @ 1st level (perhaps 1 or both required to reflect your race's color alignment) the way to get colored mana is to make mana bonds and turn default spell points into that color mana.

I'm currently still looking for a method to more so FLAVOR the act of spellcasting without 2. DM (me) chiming in, 2. "Produce Flame is a red spell, so you need x red mana, so you need x points worth of mountainous mana bonds, pay no mind that you're a Green Elf Druid." C. "Elves/Druids only cast green spells, thus I took Produce Flame off of the Druid spell list. Yeah. You should have been a Sorcerer or something." While also still being able to properly encourage things LIKE "Kor are associated with White mana, so are Clerics, though kind of Black too, if you're looking to be a flavorfully-correct character of this sort, let me highly suggest you be a Lawful/___, ___ Good, or Lawful Good Kor Cleric of Kamsa, and you should stick to preparing spells like healing/protecting/buffing/light because that's what White spells do, your character is implied to have bonded with Grasslands otherwise known as Plains, what your character does before casting a spell is draw white mana from one or more grasslands he/she has forged a bond with" (no quite as lecture-y as that, but more so still given the opportunity to guide character creation, development, and roleplaying to keep these things in mind. I feel like just turning all that info to a huge brochure-type document is overkill and unintuitive, where something more like a mechanical guideline that could facilitate choice towards coherent spellcasters is what I'm striving for. I know that's very narrow "this, but not that, that but not this."

I'm still pretty sure the main issue is trying to fit MtG flavor into D&D's framework. You are trying to ram a square peg through a round hole. Put everyone on a spell point or psi point system and be the final arbiter of flavor. The class structure of D&D is your enemy. As is probably the alignment system.

I suppose this may be an answer to my own question: I suppose if a given player is already Magic savvy, I can ask what kind of (hopefully not awfully broad) character they'd like to emulate, I can simply say "okay, to stay in character, I highly recommend you roleplay a not-too-brief moment of connection with a terrain we encounter, once for each spell level you'd like to cast, and then I'll just sprinkle the flavor on top when you go to cast said spell(s)" As for non-acquainted players, help them get the gist during character creation workshop day. Optional to add a bit of extra flare if they're a Goblin casting a Red-associated spell, or a Druid casting a Green-associated spell.

So then, better question, anyone know any diverse areas of terrain on Zendikar or Innistrad where it counts? Like "So, Ondu's over here, and Akoum's over heeere, so you're likely to find something that passes for Mountains, Forests, and Swamps in some sort of intersection" for example, so once I have it ready and have a party, I can be aware the Elf Druid wants to cast an occasional fire spell, or the Kor Ranger wants to cast some white spells, or even the Merfolk Wizard wants to act as a lullmage, thus anything that puts creatures into a stupor, thus blue spells. So then I can go, okay, it'd be perfect flavor if the first part of the quest puts them somewhere where forests, mountains, grasslands, and a coast can be found nearest one another.

On Innistrad, Nephalia would have a lot to offer. It's predominantly because it's at the coast, has lots of streams and lakes, seagrafs and probably the occasional swamp or salt marsh. But we learned in SOI that it also has mountains, that's where The Gitrog Monster's Highland Lake is. There's probably room for some plains in Nephalia, too, flat expanses of land shouldn't be that hard to come by there. The only thing that explicitly doesn't exist there is because Nephalia is known for its lack of trees.
Stensia is mostly but has a fair share of with the Somberwald and some other forested pockets. There are also dark bogs in some of the valleys, so there's your .
Gavony is mostly , but I'm sure you'd get away with adding a few small groves and orchards here and there for . The River Kirch flows through Thraben and into the Lake of Herons, so that would be (some of the Islands also show rivers in Gavony on the cards).
Kessig should be mostly , with forests and farmland and all that, but maybe you could justify mana if you're close to the Devils' Breach.

Having said that, you might want to look at the non-basic lands from all Innistrad-related sets for inspiration. Woodland Stream would help you justify some local mana in Kessig for example, and Sulfur Falls could be in Stensia.
Here's a link to the Planeswalker's Guide for reference: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar ... 2011-11-02

I've never really immersed myself in the geography of Zendikar, so that's a big blind spot in my Vorthosian frontal lobe (mixed anatomical metaphors are great). The only thing I can tell you is that Guul Draz should work as , and since Smoldering Marsh claims it's totally volcanic all of a sudden, some random seems to occur there, too. Same tip as with Innistrad: have a quick look at the lands in Gatherer. The Roil might help you justify a few silly things, too.

Awesome. Thanks fot the heads-up. Kaladesh won't even need colors/mana really. If James Wyatt doesn't include something for artificers, I may have to homebrew a way to operate spels like abilities that require points flavored as alotted Aether (with Consulate-- I mean DM rationing said points differently over the course of the game) to "cast" such "spells" as "Fabricate" or "Heat Metal" as abilities utilised via tool sets that don't resolve until short/long rests after beng "cast".

As for druids on all 3, I figure I'll alter class featues mildly. For Zendikar mostly just alter Wild Shape to bestow the druid with an animalistic aura andd temp HP a la Totem Armor instead of turning into an animal, perhaps another variant that temporarily summons beasts and/or plant creatures (Kiora will be custom made with her own stat block if she appears, and will simply have a legendary action that lets her summon sea creatures, since even a Zendikari Kraken reaches CR 13 I think. Nissa just won't possess the Totem Armor feature on her stat block if she appears) Wild Shape on Innistrad will give Druids a familiar, with some Soulbond flavor. Kaladeshi druids will just "craft" beasts as summoned creatures with the Construct monster type with options to augment and optimize.