Starting Guildmaster Guide to Ravnica game, Non-Ravnica Races

[Cravix]

Im starting to put a campaign together based on Ravnica. Knowing players I already know people will want to play non-Ravnica races. I was wondering would it be appropriate with he 2nd guildpact especially with Jace a planeswalker that perhaps they would see increased planar trouble. I could also see maybe some discrimination against outsiders especially form races that are not common. Most guilds not accepting outsiders or making it extremely difficult to join, perhaps a psuedo guild of some sort run by Jace himself as sort of a neutral organization that doesnt get involved with Ravnica politics.

Id also love any other help or hints about getting this together

[Man_Over_Game]

Im starting to put a campaign together based on Ravnica. Knowing players I already know people will want to play non-Ravnica races. I was wondering would it be appropriate with he 2nd guildpact especially with Jace a planeswalker that perhaps they would see increased planar trouble. I could also see maybe some discrimination against outsiders especially form races that are not common. Most guilds not accepting outsiders or making it extremely difficult to join, perhaps a psuedo guild of some sort run by Jace himself as sort of a neutral organization that doesnt get involved with Ravnica politics.

Id also love any other help or hints about getting this together

If using the guild spell lists, there need to be some tweeks to balance them against the decision to NOT have the guild lists.

Now, if joining a particular guild is part of a quest, you can ignore everything I'm saying, as the bonuses are less about character growth and more about developing the plot. However, if the choice to join a guild is a character development choice (like with backgrounds), here's my recommendation:


Players who train in the guild have limited experience in other backgrounds, having learned to solve their problems with magic. When you pick your background, you pick a single skill, tool, or language it provides you, and gain no other proficiencies from that background.
Players who do not practice in the guild have specialized training to help them survive in a world of magic. These characters start with an extra feat.


With this, the option to become a guildsman is about equal to being guildless as choice in power and character growth.

[HappyDaze]

So you're planning on playing Ravnica with the world not (generally) having dwarves, gnomes, halflings, etc. but only the PCs will be the weirdos to break that pattern? I'm not one to do this myself, but if I did, I would NOT allow such characters to be guild members, and the Far Traveler Background would be mandatory for such characters.

Another option is to simply reskin Ravnica to have "always contained" those races that you want to use. In some ways, this is easier, but it might weaken the setting in the eyes of Ravnica purists.

[HappyDaze]

If using the guild spell lists, there need to be some tweeks to balance them against the decision to NOT have the guild lists.

Now, if joining a particular guild is part of a quest, you can ignore everything I'm saying, as the bonuses are less about character growth and more about developing the plot. However, if the choice to join a guild is a character development choice (like with backgrounds), here's my recommendation:


Players who train in the guild have limited experience in other backgrounds, having learned to solve their problems with magic. When you pick your background, you pick a single skill, tool, or language it provides you, and gain no other proficiencies from that background.
Players who do not practice in the guild have specialized training to help them survive in a world of magic. These characters start with an extra feat.


With this, the option to become a guildsman is about equal to being guildless as choice in power and character growth.

How about "The setting is about being part of a guild. If you choose not to be then you get freedom to chart your own course (because guild membership should certainly come with obligations), but no mechanical compensation."

[gjf2a]

Im starting to put a campaign together based on Ravnica. Knowing players I already know people will want to play non-Ravnica races. I was wondering would it be appropriate with he 2nd guildpact especially with Jace a planeswalker that perhaps they would see increased planar trouble. I could also see maybe some discrimination against outsiders especially form races that are not common.

It's your game, so feel free to adapt the setting to meet the interests of your players.

I think several non-Ravnica races would work well in the setting. For example, Rock Gnomes could be hilarious in Izzet, and Forest Gnomes are natural for Selesnya. Aasimar could be an excellent fit for Boros. Dragonborn could be incorporated in a couple of different ways: perhaps "chosen ones" of Niv-Mizzet, or yet another crazy Simic creation. Their PHB characterization could also work well with Boros.

So feel free to use your imagination to craft your own Ravnica to meet the interests of you and your players.

[Cravix]

So you're planning on playing Ravnica with the world not (generally) having dwarves, gnomes, halflings, etc. but only the PCs will be the weirdos to break that pattern? I'm not one to do this myself, but if I did, I would NOT allow such characters to be guild members, and the Far Traveler Background would be mandatory for such characters.

Another option is to simply reskin Ravnica to have "always contained" those races that you want to use. In some ways, this is easier, but it might weaken the setting in the eyes of Ravnica purists.

Thinking more about having small pockets of other species. The occasional dwarf or warforged walking on the street is not something unseen but rarer.

Edit: Maybe have a part of Ravnica that is like a planar Slum where outsiders have congregated.

[Man_Over_Game]

How about "The setting is about being part of a guild. If you choose not to be then you get freedom to chart your own course (because guild membership should certainly come with obligations), but no mechanical compensation."

That's a good ideal, but DMs don't usually create a plot that rewards players for not having a mechanical benefit.

If someone offered me 5000 or a favor, I'd take the money, because at least I know how much that's worth. "Personal freedom" doesn't really mean much when the DM caters the campaign to match its players anyway. Unless the Guild says something along the lines of "knowledge or items of great worth you find must be reported and brought to the guild", I don't really foresee anyone willing to not be a part of a guild.

If a guild demands work, that's just a quest plotline. If a guild demands knowledge, then the players have lost nothing. But mechanical benefits have real value, and for it to be a true, 50/50 decision, the option to not be a part of a guild has to be as equally appealing. Which takes a lot of work on the DM's part.

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Another way you could interpret my balance recommendation is to give those guildmen the spells, but whatever the guildless get has to be better than a feat + some skills in comparison, and if "personal freedom" was a feat, how many people do you think would take it vs. Great Weapon Master?

If "Personal Freedom" is the reward for remaining guildless, then its our job, as DMs, to ensure that it's more valuable than any feat. But usually, we don't do that; we generally just make campaigns that suit all of the players equally.

[HappyDaze]

That's a good ideal, but DMs don't usually create a plot that rewards players for not having a mechanical benefit.

If someone offered me 5000 or a favor, I'd take the money, because at least I know how much that's worth. "Personal freedom" doesn't really mean much when the DM caters the campaign to match its players anyway. Unless the Guild says something along the lines of "knowledge or items of great worth you find must be reported and brought to the guild", I don't really foresee anyone willing to not be a part of a guild.

If a guild demands work, that's just a quest plotline. If a guild demands knowledge, then the players have lost nothing. But mechanical benefits have real value, and for it to be a true, 50/50 decision, the option to not be a part of a guild has to be as equally appealing. Which takes a lot of work on the DM's part.

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Another way you could interpret my balance recommendation is to give those guildmen the spells, but whatever the guildless get has to be better than a feat + some skills in comparison, and if "personal freedom" was a feat, how many people do you think would take it vs. Great Weapon Master?

If "Personal Freedom" is the reward for remaining guildless, then its our job, as DMs, to ensure that it's more valuable than any feat. But usually, we don't do that; we generally just make campaigns that suit all of the players equally.

Not everything needs to be fair. Consider that non-spellcasters really don't gain much in the Ravnica setting. This is intentional as it's a setting designed to feature guild magicians. If you don't play one, you're choosing to be a sidekick.

[Unoriginal]

Couldn't you just tell your players "we are playing the Ravnica setting, please use the Ravnica races and not the ones who aren't present"? It's important to fix limits and "actually playing the setting" is a rather important one. Even if they want otherwise, they can probably make a concession.

Also, just to precise something: the MtG "Planeswalkers" like Jace don't actually walk the D&D planes. Ravnica is just a world in the Material Plane, as are the other MtG settings, and the Planeswalkers just teleport between them via their inherent power.

[Damon_Tor]

Thinking more about having small pockets of other species. The occasional dwarf or warforged walking on the street is not something unseen but rarer.

Warforged would probably turn fewer heads than dwarves because constructs are extremely common and varied. They can even be sapient. They can even be Planeswalkers.

It's also worth noting: when listing the possible races to play in Ravnica everyone seems to forget about Lizardfolk.

[Sception]

Ravnica is an extremely diverse, urban, and cosmopolitan setting. Adding some or even several extra player races to the mix does absolutely no harm to the setting's flavor, what with the civilizations being guild-based, not race-based. You might have to tweak some racial histories to fit, particularly those that are heavily deity-oriented in typical settings, but otherwise it shouldnt be a problem. Both celestials and fiends are common in ravnica and have regular daily interactions with mortals, so aasimar and tieflings are a natural fit. As are warforged, with the izzet guild standing in for house cannith in their origin. Dwarves are easy to add, and would work well themayically in several guilds. Same w/ gnomes.

I'd avoid some of the more setting-specific subraces, like the tiefling variants, or eberron's dragonmarked subraces, but apart from that it really doesn't hurt anything to add more playable races into the setting.

[Madfellow]

It seems to me that there are two ways you could go about this:

1) You invent a region of Ravnica where the traditional D&D races exist. Note that planeswalkers are one-in-a-million individuals, so it would make more sense for these people to be native to the world of Ravnica, rather than immigrants.

2) You keep the world of Ravnica as it is, but your players are planeswalkers. This has a lot of interesting potential in it, but with it comes the Star Trek transporter problem. Being able to cast planeshift on yourself once per day is incredibly powerful and freeing, and you'd need to adapt to that.

Another fun note is that the Izzet League has a planeswalker in its ranks named Ral Zarek, who invented a device he calls Project Lightning Bug. This machine is able to track the comings and goings of planeswalkers, and Ral uses it to keep tabs on planar interlopers. He also works very hard to ensure that his guildmaster, Niv Mizzet, never learns of the existence of planeswalkers.

[Spriteless]

The extra spells always seemed against the setting, anyways. Do you know how few cards have more than 2 abilities on them? Boros Guildmage (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=430418)can't even cast damage spells!

But, onto your actual question...

I would just ask your players how they see their chosen race as fitting into Ravnica. "Hmm, Lee, seems you want to play a Changeling. There is no information for them in the setting book I have, so how do you think they should fit into the world? Are they native race, a creation of a particular guild, or something else? Do most people know they exist, but have misconceptions, as in Eberron? Do your kind tend to form communities of your own, or blend into other communities? What about you in particular?"

The player gets invested, and you just have to take notes! Just takes a bit more time.

[Cravix]

All this info has been really helpful. 2nd idea of maybe having the city of guilds have more than just 10 guilds. What I mean is the 10 guilds still control Ravnica but of the bottom rung there are alot of smaller guilds that typically after they have grown become associated with or have allegiance to one of the big 10 guilds. These can range from a secret assassins guild to do the buggers guilds dirty work in secret to just low end guild. Id feel like perhaps this would be more prevalent outside the main areas like district 10.

[HappyDaze]

All this info has been really helpful. 2nd idea of maybe having the city of guilds have more than just 10 guilds. What I mean is the 10 guilds still control Ravnica but of the bottom rung there are alot of smaller guilds that typically after they have grown become associated with or have allegiance to one of the big 10 guilds. These can range from a secret assassins guild to do the buggers guilds dirty work in secret to just low end guild. Id feel like perhaps this would be more prevalent outside the main areas like district 10.

The 10 Guilds are the ones that are part of the Guildpact, a magical phenomenon that rules the plane. That's not to say that smaller artisan/merchant/criminal guilds couldn't exist, particularly at the local level. Most of these will be subordinate to one of the 10 Guilds, most often Orzhov (where they might be shells or fronts).

[Vogie]

I'd actually look over the cards/stories of the Return to Ravnica block, and look for references of the Gateless - a collection of rebelliousness citizens who aren't a part of any of the guilds.