Magic inspired Dungeon World?

#1

Has anyone tried something like this before? Magic cards have nice illustrations and could be an interesting method to randomize setting elements (NPCs, locations, magic objects) for a multiplanar fantasy campaign. I think I’d use DW for the sake of simplicity, but other games might be possible too.
To be clear, I’m not talking specifically about playing in the Magic universe, but about playing in a Magic inspired game.

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#2

i have used magic the gathering cards for fantasy games, 5 cards at random for a plot, location or npc

usually i’ve done 5 batches of 5 cards, look over them and see which one inspires a location, plot or npc.

because there are themes in the packs you can insert this into the game, eg if undead show up twice then you link those elements in some way.

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#3

I used to do this as a kid (playing D&D), when I didn’t have anything prepared.

Use a Magic card deck (they were everywhere then!) as an “oracle” you can draw from to improvise monsters, locations, setpieces, and effects.

I don’t think it works all that well, now, but it served me at the time. I suppose it might be possible to design something more functional if you really put some thought into it.

#4

There’s a great podcast about using Magic booster packs as oracles, scenario starters, or spell scrolls in RPGs:

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#5

I’ve used Magic cards a little with my overdrawn draft concepting tool, but currently only for horror investigations.

The Planar Chaos set is an especially good one to draw images from, since it was a consciously divergent reality - it’d help keep things from drifting too easily to overtly derivative material

#6

I used INWO cards when I was running a conspiracy heavy game of Fudge way back in the day.

I think this kind of oracle can work pretty well - it’s basically the same idea as using tarot cards if you’re good at using tarot cards (which I’m not, despite having accumulated half a dozen decks over the years): You get content-rich inputs that can be interpreted in multiple ways and on multiple levels which fires up your brain to make new connections and feed your inspiration.

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#7

Slightly off this topic, but, if people in this thread are interested in playing Dungeon World set on Magic: The Gathering worlds, I’ve created a module for doing that with the city-plane of Ravnica—complete with custom moves and spells for each of the ten Guilds!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CWwgr0lu_QRedoXTG5kQ8Pfkl-YjpFWs?usp=sharing

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#8

I have used Magic cards for some inspiration, particularly the enchantments, artifacts, and land cards. I also ran a one shot using the Planeshift: Amonkhet supplement put out by Wizards of the Coast for 5e, but just used it as my setting for the game. It worked out well.

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