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Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons & Dragons-themed set of cards for Magic: The Gathering, is introducing something special — and free — for fans of D&D. A substantial role-playing adventure will be made available for download starting around June 29. Wizards made the announcement earlier this month during a private press event.
In the past, new sets of Magic cards have been heralded by some excellent digital fiction — lengthy and well-written short stories that set the mood for the coming cards. This time around, publisher Wizards of the Coast is taking a different tack. Instead of short stories, it’s releasing a module for characters level eight through 10. Meris Mullaley, world-building and narrative design manager at Wizards, said that there would be five adventures. Each will run between 15 and 20 pages in total.
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While the new set of cards includes lots of fan-favorite characters, it also introduces new heroes such as planeswalker Ellywick Tumblestrum and the dragonborn paladin Nadaar. Wizards told Polygon neither of those characters will appear in the adventure.
Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is intended to appeal to diehard fans of the original role-playing game, providing them an onramp into the world of Magic. But it’s also clearly a way to reach out to fans of Magic and get them to try their hand at role-playing. If you’re interested in playing D&D, there’s nothing wrong or overly challenging about stepping in at eighth level. There are plenty of pre-generated, low-level characters online, and freely available tools to quickly advance them to mid-level. For more tips, check out our beginner’s guide to D&D.
Update (July 1): Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Episode 1: In Scarlet Flames is now available. The 14-page document includes everything DMs need to run the adventure — save for a party of characters level 6-8. Episode 2: The Hidden Page should arrive soon.
