flamingcouches
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 28, 2018 21:05:33 GMT
Greetings to anyone who's come across this thread. I recently got intrigued with the vast expanse of Dungeons and Dragons stories (I had played a little bit of DnD beforehand but had no idea the storyline and world was so vast and immense, nor did I really know what I was doing at the time), and decided I might try building a Magic set from it. ...Or multiple, which will probably be the eventual case -- I'm aware of how large the collection of stories is.
I got interested in this via my Magic playgroup, the host of which was giving away a huge set of DnD chronicles, given to him for free by WoTC (The playgroup is sponsored by them, which is very nice). I was recommended the Dragonlance chronicles to begin with and so I begin my exploration of the universe there. I so far have finished the first book of the trilogy - Dragons of Autumn Twilight - as well as several chapters of the second, and it was at this point I decided to try and create a set around it, to enhance my understanding of the lore and also to have some fun. However, because I'm so new to the world (and to official setbuilding) I will probably need some advice and assistance getting started.
To review the main information I have gathered so far about the place from the one book I have read (and the map provided with it), and draw my conclusions from it: -The world appears to be titled Ansalon, and so if I were to create one set I would probably name it that. Additional sets would probably be named similarly to the relationship between Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan, although I haven't read enough to be able to conclude what it might be named. I intend to cross that bridge when I get to it. -The story takes place between Qualinesti and Newsea, some time after the Cataclysm (of which I know few details aside from the fact that man betrayed the gods) and as such I know not of the locations on the map farther away and times before or after at this time. -The main characters of the protagonist party (looking at the front of the book) are Tanis Half-Elven, Sturm Brightblade, Goldmoon, Riverwind, Raistlin Majere, Camaron Majere, Flint Fireforge, and Tasslehoff Burrfoot. I'm aware of others but their names don't come to mind at the moment and I don't want to look through the book to search for them. I can provide the details of the characters for ideas if need be.
This all being said, some advice of any kind would be greatly appreciated -- particularly on set name, symbol ideas, how much of the DnD story I should cover in a single set, etc. |
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Post by CanterburyEgg on Jun 28, 2018 22:20:42 GMT
WotC generally focuses on four or five different story hooks per set. I don't know the story of your world, but imagine breaking it down into Story Spotlights (like Battle at the Bridge) that you could feasibly represent in single cards. Once you've done so, evaluate how far into the story five spotlights get you, and if you don't like the amount of story it covers, try getting either more or less granular with your spotlights. A lot of MTG sets are spent developing the world, rather than the story. I'd focus more effort on making sure that a random smattering of your cards (perhaps a booster pack) tell the story of your world, rather than your story. The story is usually augmented by your cards rather than told through them. If you'd rather do it the herziquerzi way, I'd check out the way in which he's spoiled sets in the past, using the cards and FT to tell his story rather than writing it out. It's a little lazy but when done properly it's just as effective as telling the story in novel form. |
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flamingcouches
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 28, 2018 23:50:43 GMT
Ah, I wasn't really aware of the fact that most sets are based on the world, and not the story. Well, that explains my failed attempts to figure out the story of some of the sets based solely on the cards. I think it'd be the better way to design this set, considering the story's already been written and I'm just recreating the characters and world, more or less.
If I may, a couple questions:
-Do you mean the same thing by "story hooks" and "story spotlights?"
-I'm still generally inexperienced at balancing the number of rares, uncommons and commons in a set, and what the ratio should be. Should it be something along the lines of a booster pack's ratio, or something different? |
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Post by cajun on Jun 29, 2018 1:25:48 GMT
Your story hooks would be the handful of major events that hit all the important bits, like "The characters arrive during The Inventor's Fair, where they find one of their long-lost parents, but it's a trap. Our heroes are arrested so they don't cause trouble at her execution, and with the opposition dealt with, the villain makes his move to take over the city." A lot of people are just playing for the cards and aren't looking for novels as background, so WotC and many custom designers will make sure these easy to read plot points are available. The spotlights for wotc sets are collected here. |
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Post by burntsquirrelman on Jun 29, 2018 4:05:48 GMT
To build a set around the story you are currently reading (Luckily, I know these books and have read them, even if they are the only books set in a D&D world that I have read), you will want to know the full story all the way through first. This means reading all the books for that story, of which I think there are three (there may be more books that take place in the Dragonlance setting, but I think the story line you are following only has three books to it).
Be sure you know the characters, the places, the events, the items, and so on and so forth. Notable locations can easily be made into Land cards. Specific events can be recalled through instants, sorceries, enchantments, or even just flavor text. Be sure to have the main and important characters represented through proper color identities, and have relevant abilities to them and your set as a whole.
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flamingcouches
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Favorite Card: Progenitor Mimic/Clever Impersonator
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 29, 2018 7:34:12 GMT
Okay, thanks to all of you for your advice. I'll continue reading through the plot and then see what I can do when I'm finished. If that's the case, it might be better just to create a set around the trilogy (You are correct, there are only three to my knowledge and I'm currently working through the second) as opposed to the entire world. Perhaps Dragons of Ansalon might be a better title?
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Post by burntsquirrelman on Jun 29, 2018 13:30:57 GMT
Doing some quick research, the world is actually called Krynn. Ansalon is simply the continent that the stories take place on.
You can still have the first set be called 'Ansalon' or 'Krynn' or whatever, and simply follow those books for the time being, and then, when you do a different story line within the setting, make a new set with new cards and call it something else. As I'm pretty sure there's a whole story that revolves around the Black Moon, you could create a set called 'Black Moon of Krynn'. And then later have another set about something else and name it 'Something Something Krynn'.
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Post by CanterburyEgg on Jun 29, 2018 17:54:46 GMT
As for rarity balancing, here's a skeleton you can use that closely mirrors WotC's set design philosophies by color/rarity. There's a card breakdown in the Set Info tab if you're interested in being strict or if you're having trouble coming up with effects at lower rarities. This uses Cajun's mainframe template so make sure to have that installed before opening the file. |
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flamingcouches
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 29, 2018 20:24:20 GMT
@burntsquirrelman I realized that as well, and while the majority of the story (as of the first book and a several chapters of the second) takes place in the southwestern part of Ansalon, it appears that problems of similar status appear all across Krynn at this time, and so I'll have to figure out what to call it as I progress.
@canterburyegg I found the file you referenced and downloaded it, but I'm not entirely sure I installed it correctly. I'm not accustomed to installing new templates; I've only worked with the base ones provided and the original update file I retrieved from sourceforge.net back when I was still attempting to figure out how to use the program and debating whether or not I should join the community. I added the folders from the file to the data folder of MSE but it stated that about half of the files already existed, so I decided to skip the addition of those files, as I wasn't sure what to do. I also ran across a multitude of errors in the console when I launched the skeleton with the template, although the program still seemed to work okay. If I did something incorrect in implementing the files let me know, because I'm somewhat confused at this point. I'm still fairly new to MSE as you've probably noticed.
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Post by CanterburyEgg on Jun 29, 2018 20:28:24 GMT
No problem! I'd suggest redoing the install and overwriting the files with the same names - some of them may require the update. If you do that and the skeleton still throws a ton of errors at you, let me know.
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flamingcouches
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Posts: 14
Favorite Card: Progenitor Mimic/Clever Impersonator
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 29, 2018 20:58:12 GMT
By "redo the install" do you mean the install of MSE or of the template?
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Post by CanterburyEgg on Jun 29, 2018 21:43:43 GMT
Just the template.
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flamingcouches
0/0 Germ
Posts: 14
Favorite Card: Progenitor Mimic/Clever Impersonator
Color Alignment: Blue, Black, Green
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Post by flamingcouches on Jun 29, 2018 23:34:06 GMT
Okay, that helped, and there's no more bugs. Thank you very much for your help.
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