Wizards of the Coast is a behemoth in the tabletop games industry, holding ownership of both Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering, titanic games in their genres. For the last two years, WotC has secretly been rewarding fans of both, and you probably didn’t even know it!
With the release of the Battle for Zendikar block of Magic cards, WotC also started releasing a series of hardcovers titled “The Art of Magic the Gathering”. These wonderful books contain a visual encyclopedia of the many planes of Magic’s diverse setting, with interesting lore details in addition to the wonderful reproductions of iconic artwork from across the game’s history.
What WotC snuck in with these books were free PDFs downloadable from WotC’s website titled Plane Shift. These articles offered fully realized guides for running Dungeons & Dragons campaigns within the worlds described in the Art of Magic books! In addition to offering guides for fitting classic D&D classes and races into the worlds of Magic, these Plane Shifts offer new races and creatures never seen in any Dungeons & Dragons book that are balanced for any game you’d like!
The current library of books also offer some unique settings that offer Dungeon Masters some much appreciated variety. Whether it’s the high adventure of the shifting world of Zendikar, the mysterious Ancient Egypt inspired Amonkhet or the filigree-littered aether-punk world of Kaladesh; there’s a lot of variety and history to explore in these excellent worlds.
Even if you’ve never played Magic the Gathering, I think any fan of fantasy could appreciate the wonderful art and lore included in each of the 5 (and counting!) Art of Magic guide books. If you’re looking for something new for your homebrewed campaigns, definitely give them a look!
Written by Stephen
