Here's a thing about The Art of Dominaria that's been driving me crazy for ages, and I've finally resolved to make a thread about it: The book gives us the names of all current leaders of the Benalish houses, but it doesn't explicitly state the gender of most of them. Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if most of them didn't also have made up fantasy names that leave the whole thing kinda ambiguous.

I find that particularly annoying because the Council of Seven and the leaders of the houses are going to be at least somewhat relevant in the next session of my Dominaria D&D campaign, and I want to be able to at least reference some of those names along with their proper genders (especially Rache Tarmula), even if they aren't going to show up in person. (We're playing D&D in German, so the gender of any given person in a sentence is going to come up like 200 times in the grammar of that sentence alone). And even if it wasn't for D&D (I might find a way around that), I'd just want to know for the sake of completeness anyway.

Getting those blurbs for the houses in a language other than English might help, but I think the Magic artbooks are only available in English, right? Is there any other source out there that I'm missing, or are some of those names real first names after all? I'll just list each house leader and invite you to make educated guesses. Who knows, maybe there's even a WotC employee lurking in the shadows and willing to provide some exclusive information...

Aron Capashen (confirmed male)

Cerise D'avenant (confirmed female, unsurprisingly)

Eadith Croger (almost like "Edith", presumably female?)

Alvan Rosecot (presumably male?)

Rache Tarmula (No freaking clue. It's almost like "Rachel", but there's also an obscure male Cyberpunk character called Rache according to Google...)

Jerek Deniz (confirmed male)

Aveya Joryev (presumably female?)


I'm pretty confident in my educated guesses as most of the names have a clear male or female vibe to them, but I've no idea where to put Rache Tarmula. And yes, I've checked the Encyclopedia Dominia for the Benalish first names that show up there, but they are all different from the ones above...

"Rache" makes me think of A Study in Scarlet, where it is briefly suggested to be part of the name "Rachel" but is actually the german for "Revenge". A quick search suggests that, as words are gendered in german, "Rache" is also a female word even independent of being "Rachel" (die rache, rather than der rache for male or das rache for neutral, being the proper form). I would therefore expect Rache Tarmula to be female, with two counts pointing to it. (And my headcanon may insist that she be a rather angry redhead)

They'll probably clarify, but since these are new characters with little lore I hope two are nonbinary.

Hmmm... As a German, I obviously knew the word 'Rache', but it didn't occur to me that the Americans who worked on Dominaria might have used that word as a name on purpose until you pointed out the Study in Scarlet connection. I guess I wouldn't rule out that someone in Creative might have had that in mind. I'm kinda leaning towards Rache Tarmula being female as well, all things cosidered.

"A rather angry redhead" is exactly how I imagine Eadith Croger actually. She's said to be a brash young hothead or something along those lines in the artbook. Rache Tarmula is a graduate of the Tolarian Academy, in case anyone cares. As far as my D&D campaign is concerned, I've found ways around referencing certain Benalish house leaders anyway, so I'm good.

Speaking of which, there really should be a Dominaria D&D book that's faithful to the setting and gives us more in-depth information, and perhaps some plane-specific races and subclasses. D&D basically made itself the internet's laughing stock with the announcement of the Strixhaven book, why not adapt a cool Magic setting instead? Heck, I wish WotC hadn't bought D&D, or at least much later than they actually did, because they originally considered publishing a Magic RPG of their own with Dominaria as the setting. A lot of the work Pete Venters ended up putting into Dominaria in the 90's was for that RPG, but the project was abandoned with WotC's acquisition of D&D. If that had manifested, they probably wouldn't have completely abandoned Dominaria for eleven years and used it to its full potential right from the start, perhaps even with additional novels, maps etc. Thinking about all that wasted potential (or even just that eleven year gap in the card game after Future Sight) makes me genuinely angry...

There is the planeshift Dominaria but otherwise I don't really see a point in doing a Dominaria DnD book since it has nothing to really offer to DnD. Strixhaven offers a magic school setting which has been very popular in homebrew games (and in fact Pathfinder 2e is also doing a magic school adventure path after it being a high request), Theros has the Greek mythology setting and Ravnica has the urban fantasy setting. So far the crossovers have been based on adding a new type of setting and/or kinds of stories you can play that aren't so far in typical DnD. Dominaria doesn't really have anything to it not already covered in a DnD setting we already have. Not a dig to Dominaria just that its mostly high fantasy with some sci-fi and post-apocalypse themes all of which you can already do unless you want to Dominaria/Magic lore specifically. Similarly I don't think we will see an Innistrad DnD book since Ravenloft is already in DnD and Kaladesh not getting one due to Eberron.

Eberron and Kaladesh are massively different as settings.

Both are low-magic/advance tech (with a focus on artificers) magic version of "steampunk". Eberron def is more cynical and gritty than the more idealistic and positive vibe Kaladesh has (along with several other key factors) but IMO they similar close enough genre -wise that again I don't think a Kaldesh book would really add anything new overall to DnD and DnD fans would likely just want them to add more to Eberron.

Eberron is a setting comprised primarily of shaky alliances and a devastated world recovering from a decades long war. That they have magepunk (because it certainly isn't steam) and relatively advanced tech is more a buttress to the setting than the main architecture.

Comparing the two is a massive disservice to what either is actually doing. Eberron is a better comparison to Dominaria itself than Kaladesh (which is a horrendously shallow setting. If you want to say anything about why it wouldn't add anything, start there.)

I think your getting wieldy defensive here. I get the two are different enough but from a rules and adding a new genre/type of adventures you can play a lot of what you could have in Kaladesh such as stuff artificers, new magical* items, vehicles or using magic/aether/energy as fuel source, just be put in Eberron.

The part about Dominaria already being pretty close to baseline D&D is true, and I agree it's probably the biggest factor holding it back. But yeah, my frustration stems from wanting more details on Dominaria specifically, hence my mentioning WotC's old plans for a Dominaria RPG. At least in theory, getting a good and faithful setting book for an RPG should do a lot on that front, because those have to cater to different needs than just fluff for a card set. One way or another, I have access to almost everything that has ever been published about Dominaria, and I don't really need any additional help with converting it into a D&D campaign. But even if I didn't want to use Dominaria as a D&D setting and just wanted to enjoy Magic as a regular Vorthos, I'd be extremely dissatisfied with the way WotC keeps wasting the potential of their deepest and oldest setting. Magic has very little going on in terms of a unifying creative identity these days, and let's not even talk about how low we've sunk compared to the era of three-set blocks with a paperback novel for each set (in addition to anthologies and novels for older sets)... Shining a spotlight on crap like Strixhaven makes me even more ashamed of playing Magic, I really don't see this doing the hobby any good.

That said, if we're being completely honest, at least the mechanical stuff from the Theros and Ravnica crossover books is fairly generic and setting agnostic, it's not like they couldn't have introduced that in other books or other settings instead. I'd say wanting to make a Theros/Ravnica book just for the sake of making a Theros/Ravnica book was a big factor behind those releases. I only got into D&D two years ago (specifically to run a Dominaria campaign), but I've looked into older stuff as well and I absolutely understand the vocal crowd hating on the Magic crossovers and demanding established D&D settings instead. The Theros stuff in particular could have been replaced by a new book inspired by old material like On Hallowed Ground, which is basically a Planescape supplement dealing with how the gods and their realms work within the D&D cosmology. The amount of releaeses for 5E is a bad joke compared to older editions, especially when it comes to lore and setting books. Granted, D&D as a whole is a bad joke in that regard when you compare it to things like The Dark Eye, especially when you look at the number of published adventures or the amount of detail offered in the setting books. The Dark Eye is also a lot better at keeping its lore and continuity straight, but let's not open that can of worms...

Hypothetically, though, what are some thematic or mechanical elements that would make sense to include in a Dominaria D&D book? Personally, I'm gravitating towards a lot of item-related mechanics, not least because it would fit the history theme they are going for now. A lot of people keep asking for better rules for crafting items, harvesting body parts from monsters, buying and selling magic items etc. Items that grow in power or allow you to unlock additional features over time could also be a good fit, although a pretty basic version of that exists in the Wildemount book. I'd also really like to see some rules or templates for items that you can combine into better items, or items that introduce additional item subtypes or supertypes (like in Magic) and mechanics that care about them. Some of the homebrew items I made for my Dominaria campaign do something along those lines. I'm also planning to introduce a "legendary matters" payoff for legendary items (not all legendary items are going to be quite as powerful as the typical D&D ones, I'm staying closer to the flavour of Magic than D&D here), and I've got the item subypes "Snow" and "Extraplanar" in the pipeline that I also want to start giving out and eventually do something with when it makes sense. Items that need powerstones (each in a specific shape and size) to work would also be really cool. And maybe they could do something with Flowstone as well? Flowstone controlling as a Feat maybe?

One thing to do is think less on flavor, lore and personal feeling and think on function and game play. Strixhaven is used because magical school adventures are popular in ttrpgs and it filled a niche DnD didn't have already.

And to note, from Maro article on theist year it seems that Strixhavens flavor has been well received and the DnD book is set to sell well.



I agree to a point even more so with Ravnica. I'm more into the Pathfinder community but i have seen a few people waning a Greek mythology adventure/setting in both communities that Theros seemed to hit. While the rules could have been somewhere else I do know a lot of people who like for the Greek myth elements and certainly more creative than just importing the Greek pantheon into the game whole sale like older editions would just do.

Ravnica didn't add too much overall but there is a niche crowd that are really into more Urban fantasy settings and Ravnica was a safe choice to be the first DnD magic cross over that wotc wanted people to actually pay for.

That said I agree a lot with the DnD crowd that they should maybe focus bring old DnD settings back into 5e before doing more magic cross overs.



-A big focus for Artificers as they are notable on Dominaria (maybe one flavored around Thran and/or Urza teaching)

-Crafting and maybe finding and restoring magical items

-Sub-classes based on different elements of Dominaria: warlock of phyrexia, a wizard student of tolarian, paladin of the serra, ect.

-Spells flavored around noble magic spells or people from Dominaria history.

-More options for races that are on Dominaria and/or a list showing what races could work on the plane.

-An adventure path that will lead the player to board the weatherlight and travel around to show off the different places of the plane.

I can kinda get behind it in terms of D&D gameplay, but then again, there are already rules for group patrons, renown (or whatever it's called) etc., so I don't really know what exactly people are hoping to get out of this. And even if it ends up being a meaningful addition to D&D, I still shudder at the idea that people might look at Strixhaven and somehow think this is what Magic is like. I've seen my fair share of mockery and rejection directed at this from D&D folks, and rightfully so, IMO. Heck, the cover art doesn't even look like the real Strixhaven, at least I don't remember there being blue-haired, blue-skinned elves. It's like the artist forgot they were supposed to show a specific Magic plane halfway through and went for a generic D&D moon elf or something.


The thing about adapting Theros vs using the Greek pantheon in D&D is that the latter is already canon to D&D, and the gods are a major part of the Planescape setting, which is really popular and hasn't been brought to 5E yet. They could've relased a book that uses established D&D lore about various pantheons and how their realms fit into the cosmology etc. One of the things about D&D that I really learned to appreciate as I dug deeper into the lore and looked at the bigger picture is how all this familiar real-world stuff (including Earth, and an arbitrary number of alternate Earths) exists and has been worked into the D&D multiverse, be it gods, fiends, folks like Titania and Oberon, or even Yggdrasil and the River Styx. It wouldn't be the right approach for every fantasy property, but I think it's a ton of fun in D&D.




The part about items and Artificers is basically what I'm getting at, yeah. I'd say most of those subclasses are already covered by exisiting ones, though, especially the Serra and Tolaria related ones. (Sidenote: One of my players is a Human Hexblade Warlock from Urborg, and his patron is the lingering spirit of Lord Windgrace, with ties to the Heroes' Monument and the wax oracle etc., the full nine yards. It's SO. MUCH. FUN. ). I defintely agree that some Dominaria-specific subclasses would be cool, however, and races even more so. I actually started working on an expanded selection of races and sub-races that could potentially work as player races on Dominaria, listing ideas and possible templates etc. (Combining elements of Goliaths and Tritons might be a good start for a homebrew Metathran race for example). I basically looked at various published races as well as the Planeshift documents with all their variations etc., but I'm far from done yet. I don't have the time to finish the whole thing anytime soon, and it's not really a priority for me right now. I'll definitely tackle that again if we ever want to take a break from the main campaign on modern Dominaria and do a shorter adventure in the Time Spiral era. Busting out a complete hodgepodge of races sounds like a great way to capture the spirit of that era, along with all those nasty optional rules for "gritty realism" etc. I could also see an underwater adventure with various Merfolk sub-races etc. working as a short interlude.

Since we already talked about Magic D&D campaigns, has anyone else ever DM'ed one or played in one? Maybe using any of the crossover books or Plane Shift documents? Any stories you'd like to share?

I once ran a Ravnica and Dominaria campaign.
This was years ago, using the 3.5 edition rules.

.

Cool, how did it go? And if you don't mind me asking, what was the Dominaria one about, in a nutshell (setting, plot etc.)? I assume this was before Dominaria came out?


I might as well go ahead and share some of my personal highlights from my Dominaria campaign...

- The players and their characters (all friends of mine and longtime Magic players). In a nutshell, there are:



- The players prevented the ritual at Vess Manor that would have turned Josu Vess into a lich and laid him to rest with a weird ritual they learned from that copy of Nevinyrral's Necromancer’s Handbook they are carrying around. This in turn means that the Benalish army is going to be less busy in Aerona and might be convinced to send troops to Urborg to help defend the Martyrs' Tomb. The Warlock already convinced Aryel, Knight of Windgrace who he used to be friends with during her days in Urborg, so they definitely have a foot in the door.

- I'm mostly using resonant places, characters and plotlines that everyone would recognise from the Dominaria set, but I still picked the city of Estark as the starting point for the campaign for about 100 different reasons. My players just happened to be in the city when Aryel's conquest of Estark took place that's mentioned in the artbook. Remember Kirlen, that insanely old crone from Arena? I brought her back as a lich who was running things behind the scenes for the Cabal. Just as she did in that novel, she teleported away when the city was taken and is still out there somewhere. The guy playing the rogue couldn't make it for the first session, so we ended up doing a solo session where he teamed up with the Brotherhood of Pickpockets to sneak through the Sewers of Estark in order to free an NPC from the Grand Master's dungeon, just like they did in Arena. That Corrosive Ooze he met on the way out roughed him up pretty badly... I could then smoothly connect the dots from there and bring all characters together in the following session.

- Making items for this game is sooo much fun. I make item cards with text and an image for all items and print them out to give to my players. The healing potions are reflavoured as Healing Salve, Alabaster Potion and Elixir of Vitality respectively. Wand of Magic Missile is Sorcerer's Wand, Pearl of Power is Coalition Relic, that flute that makes people frightened is Bone Flute etc. Even some non-magical items have special item cards, the Warlock's normal shield is called 'Shield of the Acolytes' and looks like the one Aryel, Knight of Windgrace is carrying, the Rogue's daggers are reflavoured as jitte etc. I also reskinned the ally coloured Guild Charms from the Ravnica sourcebook with the art and flavour of the cameo cards from Invasion (the Azorius one is Seashell Charm, the Dimir one Drake-Skull Charm, you get the idea). I also made some completely homebrew ones that emulate the effects of certain cards, like Illusionary Mask for example.