Ravnica Update: Focus on Five Guilds

Do you want to explore the undercity of Ravnica as guest or enemy of the Golgari Swarm? What challenge does the leader of the Selesnya Conclave face? Do you want a large d10 with a guild symbol on each face? Here is an update on what we know about D&D Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica.


On Sept 27, the Dragon Talk Podcast with Ari Levitch and Greg Tito provided a new preview about Ravnica. Daily MTG provides additional details on five guilds.

The Guildmasters’ Guide opens right after the events of Return to Ravnica for Magic the Gathering. The guildmasters are the same, but dangerous events are in motion and life is becoming precarious. Jace the Planeswalker has left Ravnica taking the enforceable peace of the Guildpact with him.


The Golgari take the long view—all institutions both physical and society will all crumble away eventually. Sometimes they speed things along—assassins to create instability and proclaimers to plant the spores of future revolution. With Jace away, these plans may come to fruition.

Ravnica is ancient. Layers and layers deep. The Beneath the streets is the vast Undercity where the Golgari dwell. Dungeon delves are possible as the Undercity dives deep. Exploration into its depths will take out the comforts of city civilization from player characters.


In the Guildmasters’ Guide, the Undercity is not always depicted as grubby or muck covered but is an actual kingdom beneath the streets, an otherworldly sometimes beautiful place. But with fungus. The Golgari Swarm embraces life and death as a cycle. They appreciate the entire spectrum.


The Swarm is home to many elves, which are like the drow of other worlds. Some Golgari are findbrokers that collect trash from the surface and extract valuables from them. Recyclers, including necromancers, raise fungus zombies to shambling unlife with spores. Death and necromancy can combine with druidic magic since death is part of the cycle of life. The spore druid embraces this ideal. Proclaimers are ready to reclaim the surface for when the Golgari return to the surface and take over.

Their Guildmaster is Jarad, an elven lich lord. Ambition to pursue personal goals is part of this guild and leadership cycles through many guildmasters. Assassination or political maneuvering leads to a change of leadership—cutthroat like the natural world. Savra, Jarad’s sister, used to run the guild before she was killed by Szadek who took over leadership. Jarad took the life of Szadek along with his leadership.

The Selesnya Conclave follow Mat'Selesnya the World Soul. The guild believes that society and nature should co-exist. They want to build a city that curbs the natural world but keeps it growing as well. The massive world-tree Vitu-Ghazi serves as the focus and guildhall of the guild. The Guildmaster is Trostani, a dryad connected via one tree trunk to three bodies representing harmony, life, and order.


The Selesnya are home to elves, like wood elves on other worlds, and the elephant loxodons. Elves ride wolves as Ledev Guardians. The serve as emissaries and evangels of the faith and make excellent soldiers as well.

Trostani used to speak in one voice, but now there is disharmony between the three voices. They may be hearing different things that the World Soul is saying. Perhaps a quest to restore harmony is needed.

A set of Ravnica dice will be sold in a decorated tin with the seal of all ten guilds on it. The oversized D10 has a guild symbol on each side so you can randomly roll a guild when needed.

D&D Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica releases November 9 game stores and November 20 everywhere.

This article was contributed by Charles Dunwoody as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program.We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
 

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Charles Dunwoody

Charles Dunwoody


My main issue with Ravnica as 2018's "Eberron Meets Planescape You Never Asked For It But Hasbro Said We Must" sourcebook is - this Planet City setting feels so much OVER THE TOP and BUSY AND CROWDED compared to a typical fantasy world that is developed with care and balance between urban and wilderness adventure. It has so much going on all the time and everywhere and the artwork of the Magic cards represent that.

Players and DM often have trouble maintaining an urban adventure in a huge megapolis with complex political environment. I've had games where players, after being very busy with the urban schemes and adventures, needed some fresh air going out and feeling on a trek or vacation to some classic adventure before returning. Ravnica is ALL CITY, ALL THE TIME. Even that forest is actually a park in some district. It is mindblogging to have a city spanning a whole content, or a whole planet. Every travel is basically navigating streets, every day, all the time. You enter a forest only to emerge from it on the other side and join a market district - one of ten of millions across the planet. How long until the uniqueness of the single place is basically washed out by the random generation of streets, quarters, and places that goes into seve-nine digit number. How long until players feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the insane downpour of shapes and buildings and PEOPLE everywhere they go.

If only we had this marketing crossover at better times, such as Kaladesh. Hindi-inspired setting with technology, mixing Indian mythology, Eberron-like magic is everywhere. Artificer Dwarves, dark-skinned humans with Hindi class segregation and political conflict. Technology where everything is made of fine golden-colored parts weaved like embroidery... It was really interesting setting to play in. But Ravnica is basically TOO MUCH, AT ONCE, ALL THE PLACE, EVERYWHERE YOU GO.

What kind of adventures does such place inspire?
 


TwoSix

Dirty, realism-hating munchkin powergamer
Players and DM often have trouble maintaining an urban adventure in a huge megapolis with complex political environment. I've had games where players, after being very busy with the urban schemes and adventures, needed some fresh air going out and feeling on a trek or vacation to some classic adventure before returning. Ravnica is ALL CITY, ALL THE TIME. Even that forest is actually a park in some district. It is mindblogging to have a city spanning a whole content, or a whole planet. Every travel is basically navigating streets, every day, all the time. You enter a forest only to emerge from it on the other side and join a market district - one of ten of millions across the planet. How long until the uniqueness of the single place is basically washed out by the random generation of streets, quarters, and places that goes into seve-nine digit number. How long until players feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the insane downpour of shapes and buildings and PEOPLE everywhere they go.

I'm going to be honest, you pretty much just sold me on the campaign book.
 

scottieboy86

Explorer
Please speak for yourself. I have wanted Ravnica as a campaign setting for a long time. Hasbro didn't need to tell wotc to make a Ravnica campaign setting. They could have just asked me.
 

jgsugden

Legend
It is a setting you can buy and use if you want to buy and use it. Nothing in it is mandatory.

I think it will be a fun and unusual setting, but I would rather they'd started with a less unique MtG setting, like Dominaria, or made a general MtG book and had chapters on many settings within the M:tG universe.
 

I’m looking forward to pillaging this for content, absolutely. Some of the setting stuff sounds like it’d fit into my homebrew nicely. And the Circle of Spores druid subclass looks to be really cool and different.
 


Weird Dave

Adventurer
Publisher
I'm really hoping Ravnica gets opened up on the DMsGuild. I'd love to add details about the guilds of Ravnica across the planes in my Codex of the Infinite Planes articles, though likely as a separate appendix. Selesnya's connection to Arborea, the Rakdos Cult in the Abyss, Golgari spawning pits in the Plane of Ooze, Azorius watchtowers in the Plane of Air, etc. Ideas on using the guilds in the planar landscape of D&D. Lots of really cool applications there that I'm excited to explore!
 

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