Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is an expansion set for Magic: The Gathering (Magic) released in July 2021. The world of the Forgotten Realms was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a paracosm for his childhood stories and premiered as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1987). This expansion set is the third collaboration (but the first to result in a Magic set) between Magic and D&D; both teams are part of Wizards of the Coast.
Setting
The Forgotten Realms is a fantasy world setting, described as a world of strange lands, dangerous creatures, and mighty deities, where magic and supernatural phenomena are quite real. It is also one of the most popular D&D settings. The setting often focuses on the sub-continent of Faerûn on the planet Abeir-Toril. Economically and technologically, Faerûn is comparable to Western Europe during the late Middle Ages. However, the presence of magic also exists in the world. Faerûn is home to a number of human and non-human creatures of varying degrees of civilization or barbarism. Most of the population of Faerûn consists of farmers, who are organized somewhat loosely in a semi-feudal system. There are also a number of notable cities, and trade between nations is common, as in the Renaissance era. Likewise, there are regions where more barbaric tribes and customs persist.
Many D&D characters appear in this set such as: Bahamut, Mordenkainen, Lolth, Zariel, Volo and the Companions of the Hall (Drizzt Do'Urden, Wulfgar, Catti-brie and Bruenor Battlehammer). The set also includes creatures from the Monster Manual (such as beholders, mind flayers, and displacer beasts), along with notable D&D items (such as the vorpal sword and a +2 mace). Xavier Johnson, for Dot eSports, reported that the set's design team wanted to evoke both the Forgotten Realms setting "and the feeling of actually playing D&D".
Development
This expansion set is the third collaboration between the Wizards of the Coast's Magic and D&D teams. Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook.com, reported that there was constant collaboration between the D&D team and the Magic team during development of the set, as there had been for the campaign setting books Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica (2018) and Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). Hoffer wrote that the D&D team "provided extensive feedback on both the visuals and lore of the Forgotten Realms". Game designer James Wyatt highlighted that this top-down set was "an opportunity to look at the deep worldbuilding of the Forgotten Realms and find what was most essential to get across in a Magic set, as a way to introduce not just the world of the Forgotten Realms but the fun of playing D&D to Magic players as well. [...] There’s the added job here of trying to communicate some of the feeling of actually playing D&D, which is a little different than the feeling of exploring the world of the Forgotten Realms. I’d say the balance, by and large, tips toward the world, with just enough nods in the direction of the D&D experience".
Canon
Several D&D characters appear in this set as planeswalker cards; these are typically characters who have traveled the planes within the multiverse of D&D. These characters, however, do not "have a Planeswalker Spark" as defined in Magic's lore since Adventures in the Forgotten Realms is not considered to be a part of the "story continuity" of [[Multiverse (Magic: The Gathering)|Magic'''s multiverse]] per Mark Rosewater. Blake Rasmussen, senior public relations manager at Wizards of the Coast, told Polygon that "for now this is not canon in the Magic universe. [Likewise] Magic is not canon in the Dungeons & Dragons universe — but we reserve the right to change our mind in the future".