D&D 5E (2014) How do you run a game in Ravnica?

[Shades of Eternity]

This is book that started my reduction of interest in 5e books.

It's not the worst, but I never figured out how to run a game in this world.

It has all the complaints of Forgotten Realms NPCs interfering with the addition that you're allowed to do even less to avoid messing up the status quo.

The other MTG 5e d&d book, Theros, is way better and has way more wiggle room, as well as all of Greco-Roman history and mythology to crib from.

So how do you run a game, what are the stakes, and how do your plucky band of adventurers make a difference?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

This is book that started my reduction of interest in 5e books.

It's not the worst, but I never figured out how to run a game in this world.

It has all the complaints of Forgotten Realms NPCs interfering with the addition that you're allowed to do even less to avoid messing up the status quo.

The other MTG 5e d&d book, Theros, is way better and has way more wiggle room, as well as all of Greco-Roman history and mythology to crib from.

So how do you run a game, what are the stakes, and how do your plucky band of adventurers make a difference?

The novel I read was a police procedural (rather like the movie Bright). It was quite good, and would work as a RPG set up.

Generally, I would look at cyberpunk type scenarios. Could convert stuff from Shadowrun.

The adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault would suit the setting.

 

[Necropolitan]

Ravnica wasn't created with the idea that it would be used as a campaign setting, that's the main problem.

Add in the issue that the storyline immediately after The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica was released was War of the Spark which resulted in a massive shift of Ravnica's status quo and it just gets worse.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Ravnica is all about Guilds, so my central questions are...
Which players will be from which guilds? Will they all be from the same guild or all different??
Which Guilds do you understand and/or can portray?
How well can you manage fractional conflict? One group like something but another group hates that same something; how does it play out??

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Add in the issue that the storyline immediately after The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica was released was War of the Spark which resulted in a massive shift of Ravnica's status quo and it just gets worse.

A good example of why metaplot is so terrible. It's best to assume the timeline does not advance, and campaigns always start in the same year zero, as Eberron does. But in this case, no reason to assume any familiarity with Ravnica (MTG). Ravnica (D&D) is it's own thing, for doing modern urban fantasy (Dresden Files, Rivers of London etc) in D&D.

Ravnica is all about Guilds, so my central questions are...

And many of the guilds are so actively hostile to each other.

Session zero is very important in this case, so players can agree on complimentary guilds. This can also establish the themes of the campaign, as related to the priorities of the player's chosen guilds.

Alternatively, you can begin with: "In this campaign, you play as members of guild X, who are doing Y. The main themes are Z. Who wants in?"

 

[Horwath]

Since I'm from Croatia, I run it mostly plain...

 

[Necropolitan]

A good example of why metaplot is so terrible. It's best to assume the timeline does not advance, and campaigns always start in the same year zero, as Eberron does. But in this case, no reason to assume any familiarity with Ravnica (MTG). Ravnica (D&D) is it's own thing, for doing modern urban fantasy (Dresden Files, Rivers of London etc) in D&D.

That's completely false.

Eberron has a metaplot that's advanced through the Editions, so you're factually wrong again.

There's nothing wrong with having a metaplot, it allows for changes without needing to retcon things every single time and means fans have multiple time periods to choose from for campaigns.

Ravnica isn't even a "modern urban fantasy" setting, you're wrong there too. Ravnica is nothing like the modern real life world.

Most city vehicles are drawn by living beings, trains are reserved for the elite, plumbing is new for the lower classes, being able to see a play indoors is a status symbol, and the main ranged weapons are bows.

Ravnica is a city that takes up the majority of the Plane it's on that's run by 10 Guilds that have ruled it for thousands of years.

Real life doesn't have a 10% of all the world's power held by a sadomasochistic demon cult of insane serial killing torturers that views exploding in front of a crowd as the best form of retirement.

Real life doesn't have 10% of all the world's power held by a loose collection of primativist tribes that seek to tear down modern civilization by force.

Real life doesn't have 10% of all the world's power held by biologists obsessed with hybridizing all life who test bioweapons in the street and view tentacles as badges of honor.

Etc.

 

[Tonguez]

.

Ravnica isn't even a "modern urban fantasy" setting, you're wrong there too. Ravnica is nothing like the modern real life world.

Most city vehicles are drawn by living beings, trains are reserved for the elite, plumbing is new for the lower classes, being able to see a play indoors is a status symbol, and the main ranged weapons are bows.

Ravnica is a city that takes up the majority of the Plane it's on that's run by 10 Guilds that have ruled it for thousands of years.

Real life doesn't have a 10% of all the world's power held by a sadomasochistic demon cult of insane serial killing torturers that views exploding in front of a crowd as the best form of retirement.

Real life doesn't have 10% of all the world's power held by a loose collection of primativist tribes that seek to tear down modern civilization by force.

Real life doesn't have 10% of all the world's power held by biologists obsessed with hybridizing all life who test bioweapons in the street and view tentacles as badges of honor.

Etc.

So your saying its more 19th Century "Gilded Age"? — robber barons, monopolies, Pinkertons, luddite rebellions, urban migration and rur dispossessed, utopian communes, mad darwinist, carnival sideshows and seedy cabarets.

I could see adventuring in that era

 

[Necropolitan]

So your saying its more 19th Century "Gilded Age"? — robber barons, monopolies, Pinkertons, luddite rebellions, urban migration and rur dispossessed, utopian communes, mad darwinist, carnival sideshows and seedy cabarets.

I could see adventuring in that era

That's the thing, the tech levels vary wildly because the overwhelming majority of science is segregated between two Guilds and any technology the other Guilds develop is so specialized it rarely ends up being used in the mainstream.

The Simic hold the monopoly on biological science and the Izzet hold the monopoly on chemical and mechanical science.

And since the Izzet are more interested in doing things than getting reproducible results or caring about safety measures most tech that could change the status quo tends to blow up along with whoever invented it.

Ravnica's Guildpact was created by an order-obsessed imperialist Planeswalker specifically to eternally preserve the status quo.

Anyone who'd try to violently change the system gets their violence turned against those threatening the status quo (the Boros), forced to do so without the technology that would let them actually win (the Gruul), or ends up a member of the insane murder cult I mentioned (the Rakdos).

Anyone trying to change the system through legal means faces a legislative system where representative are voted on by the legislative system and negative order by removing conflict is valued over justice (the Azorius) and a bloodline-obsessed oligarchical Guild that can purge independent thoughts where they can enslave your soul after you die if you owe them money (the Orzhov).

The point of the Guildpact is to preserve the Guildpact, not the people.

Then the events of the storyline happened, the metaplot advanced, and things kept changing for the better as the status quo was disrupted while still leaving plenty of room for adventures and creating new opportunities for them.

Ravnica has endless possibilities for adventures, it's just that it wasn't designed with them in mind so the actual setting details that would help DMs design adventures aren't there, most of the protagonist roles are filled by canon characters, and DMs have to either pick a previous era or deal with whatever revelations the next Ravnica storyline brings about.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Since I'm from Croatia, I run it mostly plain...

best joke on ENWorld in months