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

Parmandur

Book-Friend
I hope that guild membership does not give more mechanical benefits. It should give more social benefits among the guilds. But a guildless hero could inspire a lot more of the common people and end up with more support if less money and resources. I hope this is explored, but even if it is not I will likely take the Folk Hero background and make it happen.

The guildless, to me, are just as fascinating as the guilded. Fighting the man and all that.

Guild membership will be part of new Backgrounds, based on what they have said so far.
 

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Right. I'm just hoping guild membership is not better mechanically than a regular background.

If you are living in Ravnica, the support you can access by being a member of a guild is likely to be far in excess of the support you could gain be being (say) a member of a religion (Acolyte background).

Whether you consider that a "mechanical" advantage or not is open to debate.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
If you are living in Ravnica, the support you can access by being a member of a guild is likely to be far in excess of the support you could gain be being (say) a member of a religion (Acolyte background).

Whether you consider that a "mechanical" advantage or not is open to debate.

From the chatter the WotC has been giving, it is the Background system mixed with the Faction Reknown system in the DMG. Nothing new, really.
 



gyor

Legend
Hiya!



See? See this? THIS is where, imnsho, WotC should be focusing on for D&D DM's and Players. THIS is the first time I'm hearing of this whole "Guildless" thing and that the MAJORITY of the population don't belong to one. Now, when playing MtG and building a deck, I would assume that having a specific Guild is a major benefit...which would lead to the whole "Guild's vie for power" marketing thing. Sells more cards that way.

BUTT... (and that's a full-sized Jimmy Castor, Bertha Butt Boogie sized BUTT)... the Guildmasters Guide to Ravinica is written primarily for D&D gamers. And with TTRPG's, the PC's tend towards "We do our own thing...". And with DM's, they tend towards "Cool...BUT...I think my idea to X, Y and Z would make it better...".

So WotC needs to play up the whole "Guildless" thing. Focus more on what the DM can do with the setting to make it his own, and how Players can create all those "antisocial-miscreants" they want to. How they can do their own thing...kinda play up a sort of purely fantasy "Shadowrun" type thing. See...that could be cool. That could be interesting.

Thanks for the info! You got me to look into it a bit more now...or at least keep my ear out for release dates and whatnot.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I'd be surprised if the Gateless don't get a mention, so that will likely be explored somewhat, Gateless might or might not get it's own background (or any none guild background might count as Gateless). I don't think the Gateless (which what none guild members are called), will get the same level of detail or focus, nor the same advantages (or disadvantages), but it should be a viable option.

Also note that Guilds are planet wide organizations and then some, with plenty of factions and room to craft new ones inside each Guild. Also given the history of the plane, it's likely each guild has absorbed regional organizations, religions, and tribes, as they grew in power.

Examples Golgori has devotees to the Zombie God, more Primal Spirit type worshippers, Necromancers who are more interested in arcane knowledge then religion, various monsters who ended up Golgori because they really didn't fit into respectable Ravnica society, Zombies, Rot Farmers, Savangers, Dark Elves, Bug People tribes (I forget their name), and so on and that it just in the capital. So their at factions based on race/species, religion, occupation, and beliefs on what the Golgori should do and so on.

The Boros have the main military legions, but they also have the Wojeks, who are like cops, but the Wojeks only work in the Capital, outside that it's mostly the Haazda or the Azorius Arrestors (interestingly the only type of murder in the Capital that is directly a crime is murdering a Wojek), there are different units and jobs, some Boros also sell their services as body guard, others serve as clerics, and so on.

Azorius have three columns, basically cop types, lawyer types, and judge types, with support staff mix in there, and some weird stuff like Spectre Guard (which is a group of ghosts that are assigned guard duty on Azorious terf, and gain physical manifestation while on Azorious territory, but disapate outside of such turf without special permissions.

The Orzhova have a host of different religious orders, fincial/business institutions, and powerful Cartels/Families, so I think it has the potential to be among the most diverse. You have things like the Deathpact Order for clerics, Lawmage Firms, competing Cartel Families like the Korvos, business people, Enforcer Orders and Executionaires. You have faithless cyniacs and those who are truly devote. All ruled by Ghost Council. Lots of room room their to explore all kinds of different characters.
 

Rossbert

Explorer
My knowledge is all from the first trilogy (set) when the guildpact was still magically binding.

As far as guild politics go, Rakdos (cult of allegedly cannibalistic hedonists) and Gruul (wilderness guarding tribes) care little for such things. In fact the only times the Rakdos guild leader (the demon Rakdos) appears is during enormous riots that usually come close to destroying the capital of the plane.

Deal with the Azorious (legislators) or Orzhov (necromancer-lawyer-mobsters) and the game will become guild politics fast.

The Selesnya (unity nature church) and Boros (military and cops) lend themselves to more of a cop/wandering hero theme with the wojeks and ledev, respectively.

The Izzet (mad scientist wizards) and Simic (bio-engineers) lend themselves to magical research and/or damage control plots in addition to politics. Those experiments often cause explosions, or devestating plagues, accidently or intentionally.

Golgari (necromancer farmers) rule the undertown and have lots of room for traditional dungeon crawls.

The Dimir? The rumored tenth guild run by a vampire lord that seek to destroy the balance of the guilds from the shadows and throw the entire plane into turmoil? I don't believe they exist.



Astute readers may have noticed I mentioned wilderness. Ravnica is frequently struck by devastating plagues (definitely not intentionally created by the Simic so they can gain favor for curing them) that cause large regions to be depopulated and quarantined for centuries which then need to be pioneered, usually with the added incentive of unclaimed riches lost in the ruins.

Not one of the elite members of a guild? You might get token membership by buying your business license from the Orzhov, making it an actual crime to assault you or your business (trade violations and guild violence are crimes, guildless don't usually count legally) You might be a common laborer for projects where Rakdos labor is undesired and zombies are unsuitable. You might be an enterprising prospecter in a reclaimation zone risking cave-ins, rivals and unknown monsters to make your fortune. You might be a skilled artisan, scholar or wizard looking to develop the skill and reputation to gain membership in a guild and thus access to their resources. Most greatly skilled people end up guilded for the prestige, protection and resources.
 

gyor

Legend
My knowledge is all from the first trilogy (set) when the guildpact was still magically binding.

As far as guild politics go, Rakdos (cult of allegedly cannibalistic hedonists) and Gruul (wilderness guarding tribes) care little for such things. In fact the only times the Rakdos guild leader (the demon Rakdos) appears is during enormous riots that usually come close to destroying the capital of the plane.

Deal with the Azorious (legislators) or Orzhov (necromancer-lawyer-mobsters) and the game will become guild politics fast.

The Selesnya (unity nature church) and Boros (military and cops) lend themselves to more of a cop/wandering hero theme with the wojeks and ledev, respectively.

The Izzet (mad scientist wizards) and Simic (bio-engineers) lend themselves to magical research and/or damage control plots in addition to politics. Those experiments often cause explosions, or devestating plagues, accidently or intentionally.

Golgari (necromancer farmers) rule the undertown and have lots of room for traditional dungeon crawls.

The Dimir? The rumored tenth guild run by a vampire lord that seek to destroy the balance of the guilds from the shadows and throw the entire plane into turmoil? I don't believe they exist.



Astute readers may have noticed I mentioned wilderness. Ravnica is frequently struck by devastating plagues (definitely not intentionally created by the Simic so they can gain favor for curing them) that cause large regions to be depopulated and quarantined for centuries which then need to be pioneered, usually with the added incentive of unclaimed riches lost in the ruins.

Not one of the elite members of a guild? You might get token membership by buying your business license from the Orzhov, making it an actual crime to assault you or your business (trade violations and guild violence are crimes, guildless don't usually count legally) You might be a common laborer for projects where Rakdos labor is undesired and zombies are unsuitable. You might be an enterprising prospecter in a reclaimation zone risking cave-ins, rivals and unknown monsters to make your fortune. You might be a skilled artisan, scholar or wizard looking to develop the skill and reputation to gain membership in a guild and thus access to their resources. Most greatly skilled people end up guilded for the prestige, protection and resources.

Guiildmaster's Guide to Ravnica is set before the current Ravnica block of sets, but after the previous one.

For Rakdos the working class flavour it started out with got deemphasized in favor of psycho carnival flavour/entertainers. Both will likely be mentioned in GGR, but the focus will be on the entertainers and dark magic practicianers.

Boros Wojeks seem to almost have been displaced by Azorous Arresters to some degree, but they appear to still be around. For the Boros the focus has been mostly on the military and Angels, with Wojeks not getting much attention. Still I'll be surprised with Wojek's don't get mentioned at all. Perhaps it was partly because the Wojeks experienced such high casualties. The Gateless (those without a guild) have their own police force, the Haazda, more for outside Ravnica Capital. The Ledev kind of function as a highway patrol. The Boros themselves seem to be acting more like a Paramilitary and Military organization.

Simic now have a more aquatic them, with Merfolk becoming dominate. They control access to the Oceans. So they are biotech magic, but also control trade with the Oceans. That could make them major competitors for food production with the Golgori, what would most people prefer, rot grown food or Simic sea food?

Izzet is still Izzet.

Dimir stopped being a secret after the first guildpact. Now they have a front as more benign information brokers, librarians, couriers, and so on.

Orzhov is weird. It's like they mashed every medevil social class into a single guild. People compare them to the mob, but it's more like a feudal society in function. They are the church, the aristocrats, the merchants, and the peasants/surfs, all tried together by religion (but a dark twisted vice ridden version, with undead and thrills) and business into a single guild. No King however, instead a ghost council at the top.

Golgori are still basically Golgori.

Gruul are still much the same.

Azorous got taken over by a wise Sphinx, Isperia, and seem to do most of the policing now.

Selysnia is no longer ruled Directly by Mat'selsynia, who is now more a God figure. It's ruled by a Trio of Dryads that fused together with wood.

And the Guild Pact which was a magical written document was destroyed and eventually the none magical one didn't work out so ancient magic made a Planeswalker named Jace Beleren the living guild pact (basically he is both magically enforced treaty, constitution and it's sole judge).









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