Fragments of Cosmos

Developing a fan set for Magic: the Gathering.

This site hosts a project I have come back to off and on for years, making a custom Magic: the Gathering set (about 250 cards) in an original setting. It's heavily informed by Mark Rosewater's Nuts and Bolts articles, but also by design conversations I've had over the years in the Ranged Touch fan community. When I began the project in late 2022, it was a very tumultuous time in my personal life, which ended up lasting for the better part of two years. However, from the outset I made the commitment to myself that the project would someday be completed. No specific deadline, but no fizzling out indefinitely either.

Originally, I had a dedicated page on Cohost where the development of this project was tracked. With the closing of that platform in October 2024, I have migrated the original posts to the blog portion of this website, where I'll continue to post updates.

Design Goals

My interest in building a full M:tG set is for "limited" play (draft and sealed), almost exclusively. Anyone is welcome to pick up these cards for other forms of casual play, but It's not front of mind from a design perspective. My hopes for the set are:

  1. Evocative card designs, gesturing to a shared setting without fully inscribing it
  2. Dynamic gameplay and mechanics, and
  3. Approachable total design, targeting a complexity level a little above a core set, but lower than the trickiest official Magic sets

Worldbuilding with Systems

Most of my experience building original settings has come from TTRPG prep, and it's probably my favorite part of running tabletop campaigns. I'm not the "100 page binder" GM, but I find procedural generation systems really exciting and fun. I enjoy the process of narrativizing incongruous dice rolls together and the texture of the results you get. As much as I enjoy Magic, to some extent the project is also an excuse to play around with RPG systems towards a final product without running a whole RPG.

Card Art

At this point, art for this project is an open question. Art is very important for MtG cards, but I'm not much of a visual artist, especially for the number of cards in a set. I'm not willing to use "AI" generated art, but might lean on creative commons sources etc. If you're an artist and you want to contribute, feel free to reach out and we can discuss some options.