Ravnica: Is This The New D&D Setting? [UPDATED & CONFIRMED!]

If so... meh?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Personally, what I know about Jace, I like. He suits the ‘mage jock’ archetype. Youthful, beardless, goodlooking, fit, wizard. Pretty awesome. He seems something like a more grown up version of Harry Potter?

Those of us who dislike him do so for reasons beyond his physical appearance. Get to know him better, you may find you dislike him too.

It annoys me when as if all of the male wizards seem to be long-hair long-beards. While only the martial archetypes look shiny.

Yeah, because in real life, tenured professors and professional athletes are hard to tell apart.

(But Jace is more like a psion or sorcerer - Magic doesn't make the distinction the same way D&D does.)

 

[Randy Ward]

Lame

 

[Coroc]

Is Ravnica on a kind of planet? If so is there oceans?

How are 500 Billion humanoids supported (Asuming it is roughly earthsized and half of its area is populated urban area)?

The best thing one can do probably is use this material and convert it to Sigil, there everything is quite logic, it is an all city setting with factions (=guilds) and nourishment is brought in from the planes, which is totally possible since it is not that huge.

 

[Remathilis]

The best thing one can do probably is use this material and convert it to Sigil, there everything is quite logic, [...]

I'm going to stop you right there. I love Planescape, but it's a City built in the inside of a tire floating atop an impossibly tall stick stuck in the center of a plane in a place so antimagical the Gods lose their power when they visit. While in Sigil, you can look upwards and see the other half of the city. There are many ways to describe Sigil, but "logical" ain't one of them.

 

[MidwayHaven]

Is Ravnica on a kind of planet? If so is there oceans?

How are 500 Billion humanoids supported (Asuming it is roughly earthsized and half of its area is populated urban area)?

The best thing one can do probably is use this material and convert it to Sigil, there everything is quite logic, it is an all city setting with factions (=guilds) and nourishment is brought in from the planes, which is totally possible since it is not that huge.

I gave an answer in the comments of the newer Ravnica article:

I think we're forgetting the fact that Magic's planes are rather small compared to what D&D's conventional description of what a planet is. Though we have no idea how large exactly Ravnica is, it can be assumed that it's much smaller than a standard Earth-sized planet. If I'm not mistaken, the second Ravnica novel discusses the Utvara reclamation zone (which I think was on the opposite side of the plane from the Old City), and it only took maybe less than a week of travel there using rail magitech.

Brady Dommermuth, former head of Creative Design at Magic, has been quoted as saying that Ravnica's entire population is in the millions; that could still give us anything between 2 million and 999 million. For an ecumenopolis, that I think could be relatively small.

Yes, Ravnica has oceans. These, too have been city-ed over. The second cycle of stories set in Ravnica state that for some reason sinkholes began appearing all across the plane, revealing merfolk and other aquatic creatures and civilizations long-thought extinct.

As for the resources, it's already been frequently stated that the Golgari guild has long been in charge of making sure that the plane's population is more or less sustained. Vast chambers in Ravnica's undercity are used by Golgari druids and necromancers as rot farms to recycle organic material to be used for food:

View attachment 99807

 

[gyor]

I gave an answer in the comments of the newer Ravnica article:




Yes, Ravnica has oceans. These, too have been city-ed over. The second cycle of stories set in Ravnica state that for some reason sinkholes began appearing all across the plane, revealing merfolk and other aquatic creatures and civilizations long-thought extinct.

As for the resources, it's already been frequently stated that the Golgari guild has long been in charge of making sure that the plane's population is more or less sustained. Vast chambers in Ravnica's undercity are used by Golgari druids and necromancers as rot farms to recycle organic material to be used for food:

View attachment 99807

I believe the Golgari all really feed the poor. I think there are other sources of food. Likely factory farms for the middle class and rich.

 

[M_Mandrake2012]

I'd never heard of it, so never played a game it... quick google, Magic the Gathering setting. That'll be why.

/startsarcasm

Oh joy.

/endsarcasm

And yet it's a much more entertaining setting to play in that any dragonlance or faerun.

While I love those settings in the book , and have enjoyed having played in them, in the end they never stay too far from common fantasy, and lack flavor unless you get involved with big stories/plots ( I do make a generalisation here, I have played grandiose stories in them, but also a lot of dull ones )

Ravnica on the other hand I have played and made players play and everytime it's a hit, even sometimes only because it's so fresh...

Try it before just saying another MtG Setting ( I haven't even tried the two other ported setting from MtG because Innistrad is pretty much ravenloft and Zendikar while I loved the art and I like the concept it's not as well fleshed out as ravnica ( that got something like 6 books and a ton of side lore )

I believe the Golgari all really feed the poor. I think there are other sources of food. Likely factory farms for the middle class and rich.

Don't quote me on it, but I've a memory of reading that Selesnya has garden districts to feed people too

And I guess districts where gruul are do get at some moment more or less like jungles ( and Rakdos eat people...sometimes )

 

[Tony Vargas]

Yes, Ravnica has oceans. These, too have been city-ed over.

So it's a Fantasy version of Asimov's Trantor.

 

[Philip F Goding]

The way I understand things Sigil is a Ringworld sort of place somewhat separated from the planes with doors or portals that you need a key for that leads to all the different planes. The Prime Material Plane itself is composed of all the different settings/realities/alternate universe/etc each enclosed in crystal spheres, so they are essentially bubble universes and they are separated by phlogiston. In the DC Universe this is called The Bleed. I suppose there are different doorways/portals on Sigil that might lead to different settings in the Prime Material Plane and that could be one way to reach other settings. Spelljammer was of course another way as you actually sailed the ocean of phlogiston to get to and enter other crystal spheres such as Greyhawkspace, Krynnspace etc from Realmspace or wherever. It appears that Eberronspace however had it's sphere blocked off from entrance and over time cracks are appearing and shards falling and it may be only now possible to travel to Eberron.

Another way we can travel between realities seems to have opened up as we have access to The Yawning Portal in Waterdeep and apparently there are entrances to other worlds in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage of Halaster. This is very much like what I have long read concerning Castle Greyhawk where you famously could access Oz, Wonderland, Barsoom, Metamorphosis Alpha, Kong/Skull Island, Asgard, The Dying Earth, Melnibone, City of the Gods (Blackmoor), Nazi Germany and then there is the relationship between Rob Kuntz' El Raja Key or Maure Castle of Kalibruhn as well. I saw these places in each reality as a sort of nexus. I spent many years waiting for this Castle Greyhawk only getting bits and pieces periodically. Likewise getting bits and pieces of Rob's side of things. I imagines Dave Arneson had his own as well although I don't know if Castle Blackmoor fits this. Someone created a Castle of the Mad Archmage too. Now I see in Waterdeep we've taken Undermountain and melded in a lot of pieces and that is a nice thing for me. I did create for a campaign eventually my own Dark Tower nexus stealing some from Stephen King and meshing ithese elements in my own way, so who am I to complain that WotC is doing it too especially as they are bringing force realities of old as well as new ones (to D&D anyway). For me I always base things in Greyhawk. My Dark Tower I would replace with The Tower of Zenopus, Castle Greyhawk or Castle Zagyg or whatever. Any reality I don't care for becomes a nice place to visit, but I don't want to live there.

Ravnica and Eberron now are interesting places to visit. It makes sense to me that Ravnica has oceans as all that water has to come from someplace and if there were not ocean level quantities of water you face pollution problems with waste. I start thinking Waterworld or houseboats linked together or buildings on stilts with foundations deep down like oil rigs and platforms. I remember the original Night Stalker movue and it's sequel The Night Strangler where the old city had been built over and still remained down there in the underdark, so Ravnica clearly has built over all of this. One imagines Ravnica with it's own Underdark and dark oceans to cross. I would create cosmic horrors of the Lovecraftian sort here.

Thinking of settings I note that the percentages of women playing is up to nearly 40% now up from maybe 1% or and half percent when I started playing in 1979. We wanted girls to play with us, but didn't succeed that often. Now families play around the dining room table after dinner similar to how we played cards or board games. I wonder about the percentages of people of color as I see some, but not so many. I remember the old Deities and DemiGods and had wondered where the African pantheon was that you could set adventures in and now I see the popularity of the Black Panther film set in Wakanda and find that the sort of inspiration that could be used to create such a setting.

As we go I'm sure we are going to be seeing Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Mystara and other setting both new and old coming before too long. There also seems to be a drive to reconnect with the past. Reaching out to Rob Kuntz and collaborating with him shouldn't be so hard especially as there seems to be this whole drive towards welcoming everybody. They clearly get along well with Keith Baker and Al Greenwood. Working out things with whomever holds Blackmoor rights and I know that Gary's wife has much of his materials, so working out something with her not just Luke and the other sons and daughters could be possible. Likewise there are so many folks that are resources for this material as well, not just the original players. I just dream of this world of D&D which has changed and evolved and improved in some ways continuing to get even better.

Welcome to the return of the multiverse, welcome the return of Eberron, the former new kid on the block and welcome to the D&D version of Ravnica and now the current new kid on the block. I hope things go as well as they have for Eberron, Dark Sun, Ravenloft, Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms who were each the new kid at one time.

 

[JonnyP71]

And yet it's a much more entertaining setting to play in that any dragonlance or faerun.

While I love those settings in the book , and have enjoyed having played in them, in the end they never stay too far from common fantasy, and lack flavor unless you get involved with big stories/plots ( I do make a generalisation here, I have played grandiose stories in them, but also a lot of dull ones )

Ravnica on the other hand I have played and made players play and everytime it's a hit, even sometimes only because it's so fresh...

Try it before just saying another MtG Setting ( I haven't even tried the two other ported setting from MtG because Innistrad is pretty much ravenloft and Zendikar while I loved the art and I like the concept it's not as well fleshed out as ravnica ( that got something like 6 books and a ton of side lore )

No, I won't be trying it. I'm not a fan of Forgotten Realms either. Or Eberron.

Too much high fantasy in there, plus blurring of genres with technological elements. I like my settings to have a medieval feel, be grittier, darker, filled with superstition, and intolerance.

I'm a Greyhawk grognard, and part of me would like to see that get official support... but the thought of how WotC would handle it worries me, will they try to shoehorn Dragonborn, nice Drow, Gnome Paladins, and racial harmony into it, when the original had none of those?

Cubicle 7 will be getting my money for the foreseeable future, The Adventures in Middle Earth books are uniformly wonderful.