New D&D Monsters and More in Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

Do you want dozens of new D&D monsters from Wizards of the Coast? Does exploring a planet spanning city via membership in one of ten competing guilds sound challenging? If you play or DM Dungeons & Dragons, then Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica will have something for you. Gleaned from WotC interviews and news, this is what we know so far about Ravnica.

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Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica, releasing in November, is thoroughly a D&D book for D&D players. Magic the Gathering uses colors in the metagame but flavor text on cards do not mention colors. The colors would be meaningless in a D&D world. Guilds are defined based on philosophy not color. The setting focuses on adventurers, not MtG play. An example is new full page art depicting an adventuring party in the rain with four different guild members on a bridge behind them. An image that is grounded in D&D game play.

Ravnica’s ten guilds serve as both government and voluntary organizations. They clash with opposing philosophies and goals. The traditional magical power keeping the peace is the guildpact. The guildpact currently flows from one man and he is often on other planes, leaving Ravnica open to guild intrigue and tension filled conflict.

The guild is the lens through which the PCs see the world. A player may select a guild in place of a background. Guilds are more about exploration and interaction than combat. Guilds provide skills, special abilities, and NPC contacts. The DM looks at all of the PCs’ guilds and builds a campaign around opposing guilds. Advice covers good guilds to serve as adversaries, plots to oppose the PCs, typical NPCs and monsters to use, and what locations would fit the campaign. The players‘ guild choice combined with the advice for DMs provides a solid direction for a campaign.

James Wyatt gives brief guild descriptions. The Boros Legion are paladins, armored mages wielding fire, and military forces. The Golgari Swarm are sewer dwelling elves living in darkness, using insects, and wielding necromancy. The Selesnya Conclave is a cult speaking in one voice and trying to convert others. House Dimir consists of spies and assassins. The Orzhov Syndicate are a combination of organized crime, bank, and church. The Izzet League is home to inventors and conduct grand experiments. The Gruul Clans combine fiery emotion with a connection to the natural world expressed through barbarian clans. The Azorius Senate governs Ravnica and enforces the law. The Cult of Rakdos is a demonic cult circus. The Simic Combine masters life science and is heavily into body modification and hybrid creatures.

D&D players will benefit from a plethora of new content and rules. The number of new monsters nearly equals those in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Rules playtested in Unearthed Arcana debuting officially include new races (centaurs, minotaurs, loxodons, Simic hybrids, vedalken, and viashino), the order domain for clerics, and the circle of spores druid subclass. City design in Guildmasters’ provides local description and street level information rather than block by block descriptions. Maps are isometric and have a painted look.

Monsters from Ravnica could easily cross over to other D&D worlds. The circus in Waterdeep from Dragon Heist could be filled with monsters from Ravnica. And the Cult of Rakdos could actually be that circus. The chase rules in Dragon Heist could be used in Ravnica.

Sources for information from WotC on the upcoming book include the official website, a Wizards of the Coast podcast called Dragon Talk with James Wyatt and Greg Tito, and D&D Beyond on YouTube with James Wyatt, Mike Mearls, and Ari Levitch. James Wyatt started merging Magic the Gathering with D&D in his Plane Shift articles. Guilds of Ravnica for MtG releases on October 5 while the D&D Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica releases on November 20.

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!

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This is not something original, it is a setting from another game masquerading as a "new D&D setting". It is just a commercial operation to attract players from another game. It should be fine after release of other D&D settings. It is not fine as the first 5E setting (if we do not consider FR): Ravenloft come out as an adventure and not with the setting, Eberron is still in a play-test stage, so I do not count it.

Your argument would work better if I could go back to any prior edition and play in Ravnica. Which I can't, so I'm going to suggest that this does fit the "new" category. For me it's 100% new since I haven't played MTG in at least 15 years and have no idea what Ravnica is about. More amazingly it is not FR or any of the same old same old setting D&D has done to death over the decades. The fact that they are extrapolating from a card game setting is irrelevant.

 

[Muso]

Your argument would work better if I could go back to any prior edition and play in Ravnica. Which I can't, so I'm going to suggest that this does fit the "new" category. For me it's 100% new since I haven't played MTG in at least 15 years and have no idea what Ravnica is about. More amazingly it is not FR or any of the same old same old setting D&D has done to death over the decades. The fact that they are extrapolating from a card game setting is irrelevant.

It is relevant because in a survey dated two years ago (if I remember well the date) a lot of people asked for the old D&D settings updated for the present edition. A lot of time passed because thay have to come out first with the first major rule expansion (Xanathar's book). OK, now it is time for the settings and I would like to have what we asked for: the old D&D settings (or almost some of them) before this new setting (from another game). After Planescape, Dark Sun, Eberron and maybe something else Ravnica should be fine. Not before.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

It is relevant because in a survey dated two years ago (if I remember well the date) a lot of people asked for the old D&D settings updated for the present edition. A lot of time passed because thay have to come out first with the first major rule expansion (Xanathar's book). OK, now it is time for the settings and I would like to have what we asked for: the old D&D settings (or almost some of them) before this new setting (from another game). After Planescape, Dark Sun, Eberron and maybe something else Ravnica should be fine. Not before.

But that's changing the basis of your argument. If you're arguing "we should get revisions of old content before a new setting," then you and I aren't going to disagree...I would have liked all the old settings to get updates. But your original argument I was respondng to was that Ravnica didn't count as a new setting. Which I was disagreeing with.

 

[Muso]

But that's changing the basis of your argument. If you're arguing "we should get revisions of old content before a new setting," then you and I aren't going to disagree...I would have liked all the old settings to get updates. But your original argument I was respondng to was that Ravnica didn't count as a new setting. Which I was disagreeing with.

Sorry for that, it is difficult to be clear in another language and I apologize for my terrible english. My point is: I find disturbing that after a lot of people asked for the old settings updated for the new edition, the designers come out with Ravinca that is a setting from another game. It is clearly a commercial operation to drag in people from Magic. It is something that you can do, but after that the fan base of your game (D&D) is happy with the old settings, not before. I would have preferred a completely new setting, not something asked by no one (that smells like T$R). I fear that the next time the designers will came out with a new book featuring the Transformers or G.I.Joe... they are new settings for D&D with a lot of new creatures and backgrounds and so on. But it's still something that has nothing to do with D&D.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Sorry for that, it is difficult to be clear in another language and I apologize for my terrible english. My point is: I find disturbing that after a lot of people asked for the old settings updated for the new edition, the designers come out with Ravinca that is a setting from another game. It is clearly a commercial operation to drag in people from Magic. It is something that you can do, but after that the fan base of your game (D&D) is happy with the old settings, not before. I would have preferred a completely new setting, not something asked by no one (that smells like T$R). I fear that the next time the designers will came out with a new book featuring the Transformers or G.I.Joe... they are new settings for D&D with a lot of new creatures and backgrounds and so on. But it's still something that has nothing to do with D&D.

THat's why a lot of people (myself included) aren't happy that Eberron only got a PDF release on dmsguild.com. Totally agree. I mean....I want new stuff, but I also want the old stuff updated and treated with respect, too.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I would like to have them open all the settings on DMs Guild, especially the ones they are clearly not intersted in supporting, like my beloved Mystara for example.

I'd second that. Mystara was the Dungeons & Dragons setting when I started playing way back in the day.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

THat's why a lot of people (myself included) aren't happy that Eberron only got a PDF release on dmsguild.com. Totally agree. I mean....I want new stuff, but I also want the old stuff updated and treated with respect, too.

I'm ambivalent one way or another about Eberron as a setting -- I didn't play 3/3.5/4E and the idea of the world, at least at a high level, isn't that interesting to me for the most part -- but I do agree that if they're going to introduce a whole new campaign setting they shouldn't half-ass it as a DM's Guild only release.

I personally would have preferred an update of Mystara or Krynn... or even a re-introduction of Spelljammer or Planescape.

 

[Toriel]

I’m FAR more interested in this than Dungeon of the Mad Mage (but would like to be pleasantly surprised with that one). It sounds like an interesting setting with a ton of adventure possibility, and for the first time since... well, 2004 with Eberron, it’s a new (to me) D&D setting that I’m really excited about! It’s been a long time.

Same here. I know that megadungeons are all the rage these days but I'm at the other end of the spectrum where I prefer my campaigns with fewer and smaller dungeons.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I'm ambivalent one way or another about Eberron as a setting -- I didn't play 3/3.5/4E and the idea of the world, at least at a high level, isn't that interesting to me for the most part -- but I do agree that if they're going to introduce a whole new campaign setting they shouldn't half-ass it as a DM's Guild only release.

I personally would have preferred an update of Mystara or Krynn... or even a re-introduction of Spelljammer or Planescape.

Eberron is an odd one, and I wasn't in to it for the most part even while playing 3/3.5/4, but the setting itself really grew on me when I finally checked it out.

My main problem these days is that I really need and want modern updates of these settings; they all look so simple/juvenile to me now (I have faulty rose colored glasses when it comes to nostalgia for some reason). I used to love Mystara for the Gazetteers, for example, but the incongruent and highly inorganic anachronistic nature of its hodepodge cultural designs are too much for me now; back in the day it was great that it existed at all, but today it's like.....we can do so much better. Thus why my feelings about revivals of classic material are mixed, and tempered with a desire to see such revisions genuinely revised.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Thematically I prefer a less crowded world than this appears to be. More exploring the wildernes than battling street gangs. I do like new monsters though.

I’m supportive of steps that are taken to enhance viability of D&D like growing the supporter base by trying to lure in Magic the gathering players.

As someone who DMs and not at my house I really do wish they would publish products that were more traditionally streamlined. Having to carry Volos and Mordenkainens books to a game just to be able to use the 1/3 that are monsters sucks - adding another 1/3 monster book will likewise suck. I would love a compiled monster book or PDFs....sorry got off track.

If Ravnica is like the card game there will be a wilderness component in parks and gardens and druids and even antelopes. But not a sprawling wilderness.


I'm glad they are trying to get new D&D players as well. But a lot of existing D&D players are looking forward to it too. Like me.

As far as rulebooks go, story is a big part of 5E and so is trying to do new types of books. So no Monster Manual 2s are likely. I can understand that hauling around lots of books can be a pain though.