The Dungeons & Dragons Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica debuts in November. But you don’t have to wait until then to gain inspiration for your D&D game. The art and text from Magic the Gathering cards for Ravnica are filled with ideas to untap.
A trailer from YouTube from 2012 depicts many buildings in Ravnica and describes the guilds. Watching it immerses a DM in the setting. Jace, keeper of the peace through the guildpact, is both narrator and guide. This trailer from 2018 only shows one location but depicts many of the guilds of Ravnica. Secrets are kept and change is coming. Jace is nowhere to be found. The guilds can act more freely.
With these images in mind, a DM could dip into the online images of the most recent set and special planeswalker decks for inspiration in creating adventures for Ravnica or any D&D location. Type a Ravnica related word into the card database and any related cards can be found.
For example, viashino are dragon like humanoids. This staticaster, an evoker, scatters lightning. D&D has a playtest version of the race. He builds magical tech and is a member of the Izzet League, the civil works engineers of Ravnica. He might oppose PCs who try to sneak into the newly constructed steam vents during a thousand-year storm. He casts shocking grasp as a bonus action because lightning strikes have powered his lightning rod backpack device.
The Hammer Dropper can pass his skills onto others. A fire giant would be a fierce member of the Boros Guild or a mercenary company on another world. As an experienced trainer, he uses the bard’s combat inspiration (twice between long rests rolling a d8) as a bonus action when he attacks. Alongside the hammer dropper, a legion guildmage, an eldritch knight, fights and casts spells. They report to a garrison sergeant. The sergeant is a battle master who can use action surge twice a before a rest when he is in command of the Boros Guildgate.
The Dimir Guild employs sphinxes on the citywatch. Make a local neighborhood home to the rulers, wealthy, and/or magical inclined the sphinx’s lair and you have a capable and deadly city guardian. That citywatch sphinx might be guarding the hidden entrance to his guild’s headquarters, the mythical Duskmantle. Wandering its hallways are human and vampire rogues and wizards along with specters.
An adventure could require PCs to bypass the citywatch sphinx to infiltrate Duskmantle. They have to sneak by or overcome undead, wizards, and assassins to recover the glaive of the guildpact or perhaps destroy the wand of vertebrae which was used to summon undead and murder someone in a PC’s guild.
In addition to using card art, when the Guildmasters’ Guide becomes available DMs will have new art along with a map of the city. The cover of the Guide depicts an Izzet League guild member, a woman controlling storm energy and wielding her inventions. A 3D model of Ravnica was built and photographed, the image tilted and painted, and the resulting image turned into the map.
While it is couple of months before the Dungeons & Dragons Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica becomes available, there are plenty of resources to use now to enhance your D&D game. Card and promotional art along with the videos are great sources of inspiration, world lore, and guild guidance. Any mix of creatures, lands, enchantments, and artifacts could conjure up other adventure ideas. Even if you play in a different world than Ravnica, you may benefit from some of ideas of that world.
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!
A trailer from YouTube from 2012 depicts many buildings in Ravnica and describes the guilds. Watching it immerses a DM in the setting. Jace, keeper of the peace through the guildpact, is both narrator and guide. This trailer from 2018 only shows one location but depicts many of the guilds of Ravnica. Secrets are kept and change is coming. Jace is nowhere to be found. The guilds can act more freely.
With these images in mind, a DM could dip into the online images of the most recent set and special planeswalker decks for inspiration in creating adventures for Ravnica or any D&D location. Type a Ravnica related word into the card database and any related cards can be found.
For example, viashino are dragon like humanoids. This staticaster, an evoker, scatters lightning. D&D has a playtest version of the race. He builds magical tech and is a member of the Izzet League, the civil works engineers of Ravnica. He might oppose PCs who try to sneak into the newly constructed steam vents during a thousand-year storm. He casts shocking grasp as a bonus action because lightning strikes have powered his lightning rod backpack device.
The Hammer Dropper can pass his skills onto others. A fire giant would be a fierce member of the Boros Guild or a mercenary company on another world. As an experienced trainer, he uses the bard’s combat inspiration (twice between long rests rolling a d8) as a bonus action when he attacks. Alongside the hammer dropper, a legion guildmage, an eldritch knight, fights and casts spells. They report to a garrison sergeant. The sergeant is a battle master who can use action surge twice a before a rest when he is in command of the Boros Guildgate.
The Dimir Guild employs sphinxes on the citywatch. Make a local neighborhood home to the rulers, wealthy, and/or magical inclined the sphinx’s lair and you have a capable and deadly city guardian. That citywatch sphinx might be guarding the hidden entrance to his guild’s headquarters, the mythical Duskmantle. Wandering its hallways are human and vampire rogues and wizards along with specters.
An adventure could require PCs to bypass the citywatch sphinx to infiltrate Duskmantle. They have to sneak by or overcome undead, wizards, and assassins to recover the glaive of the guildpact or perhaps destroy the wand of vertebrae which was used to summon undead and murder someone in a PC’s guild.
In addition to using card art, when the Guildmasters’ Guide becomes available DMs will have new art along with a map of the city. The cover of the Guide depicts an Izzet League guild member, a woman controlling storm energy and wielding her inventions. A 3D model of Ravnica was built and photographed, the image tilted and painted, and the resulting image turned into the map.
While it is couple of months before the Dungeons & Dragons Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica becomes available, there are plenty of resources to use now to enhance your D&D game. Card and promotional art along with the videos are great sources of inspiration, world lore, and guild guidance. Any mix of creatures, lands, enchantments, and artifacts could conjure up other adventure ideas. Even if you play in a different world than Ravnica, you may benefit from some of ideas of that world.
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!
