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

[Zardnaar]

Yeah, and now it's making me look at it with a Shadowrun eye.

so naturally, we need to add the greatest dragon in all of fiction.

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The great Canadian Dragon DunkelZahn

I remember those ads in Dragon iirc.

I've used the name in D&D.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Why bother doing that in Ravnica?

You can sure. Should you???

Why not? What difference does it make? I mean when people want to do "generic fantasy" they can choose between Oerth and Faerun, so why do they choose one over the other? Because of what the setting looks like, the characters in the setting, how the towns, cities, and rural areas are constructed, its history, so on and so forth. So why not choose Ravnica over any other setting for running a game like @Paul Farquhar suggested?

 

[Necropolitan]

And in the real world everything is controlled by corporations. It's still possible to do other things, and have the corporations as a background detail rather than the main story.

Ravnica's Guilds are the government, employ or regulate just about every single working person, and generally are omnipresent in a way that would make the most powerful Cyberpunk megacorporation overwhelmingly envious.

I'd recommend you read The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica at the very least.

Ten seems rather high, but even if you don't see it happening now, its a pretty standard set up of for a cyberpunk game*. Which is where I suggested starting when looking for inspiration for Ravnica.

*Also see: Alien: Earth.

Name any activity that could take place in a setting with Ravnica's level of technology and type of magic and I'll explain what Guild or Guilds are involved in it.

One thing to consider: some parts of Ravnica are completely ruined. So if you want a simple monster bashing game free of guild politics you could just send your PCs out into the ruins to kill monsters and recover loot.

Hay, you could do Escape From New York!

Those areas are overwhelmingly under the control of the Gruul and Golgari Guilds and/or being reclaimed by the other Guilds.

The city of Ravnica covers practically the entire Plane and those places it doesn't cover are that way because the Gruul Clans are actively working to prevent anyone from expanding the city there.

Why bother doing that in Ravnica?

You can sure. Should you???

Exactly. There's no reason to play a Ravnica game without involving the Guilds, the setting has nothing unique that doesn't involve them.

Why not? What difference does it make? I mean when people want to do "generic fantasy" they can choose between Oerth and Faerun, so why do they choose one over the other? Because of what the setting looks like, the characters in the setting, how the towns, cities, and rural areas are constructed, its history, so on and so forth. So why not choose Ravnica over any other setting for running a game like @Paul Farquhar suggested?

Every single thing about how Ravnica is set up has to do with the Guilds.

It's like playing in the Star Wars setting and removing all advanced technology, nonhuman sapients, the Force, non-Earth lifeforms, life on all planets except one of them, etc.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ravnica's Guilds are the government, employ or regulate just about every single working person, and generally are omnipresent in a way that would make the most powerful Cyberpunk megacorporation overwhelmingly envious.

I'd recommend you read The Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica at the very least.


Name any activity that could take place in a setting with Ravnica's level of technology and type of magic and I'll explain what Guild or Guilds are involved in it.


Those areas are overwhelmingly under the control of the Gruul and Golgari Guilds and/or being reclaimed by the other Guilds.

The city of Ravnica covers practically the entire Plane and those places it doesn't cover are that way because the Gruul Clans are actively working to prevent anyone from expanding the city there.


Exactly. There's no reason to play a Ravnica game without involving the Guilds, the setting has nothing unique that doesn't involve them.


Every single thing about how Ravnica is set up has to do with the Guilds.

It's like playing in the Star Wars setting and removing all advanced technology, nonhuman sapients, the Force, non-Earth lifeforms, life on all planets except one of them, etc.

Yeah if your doing a gimmick world may as well use the gimmick.

Funny you see posts occasionally "this setting sucks" and the DM didn't engage with whatever makes it unique.

 

[Tonguez]

That's like claiming that chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips are still chocolate chip cookies. Or that replacing the chocolate chips with ground beef means they're still chocolate chip cookies.

Specific settings have specific details you can't remove without removing that which makes them that setting.

There's a reason the term "In Name Only" exists.

Ironically Ive just seen a recipe for Mesopotamian blood cake with date syrup which was described as looking and tasting just like a chocolate cake.