Which 5e adventure books are easy to adapt to the Ravnica setting?

[HappyDaze]

Like the title say, which of the 5e adventure books are easy to adapt to the Ravnica setting? For each, what makes it a good fit and what makes it particularly challenging to convert?


Waterdeep: Dragon Heist & Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Tomb of Annihilation
Storm King's Thunder
Curse of Strahd
Out of the Abyss
Princes of the Apocalypse
Horde of the Dragon Queen & The Rise of Tiamat

I have access to all of them, but I've only really looked over the bottom two on the list.

[Unoriginal]

The Waterdeep ones is probably your best bet. Dragon Heist is an urban adventure with various faction interactions, and DotMM could be adapted in a district that's been taken over by said mad mage.

Princes of the Apocalypse is probably adaptable, but would needs lotsa work. Still fine once you're in the dungeon, though.

ToA, OotA, the Tiamat ones and SKT relies on territories, peoples and concept that aren't really in Ravnica, so you'd basically need to change the majority and just keep some elements.

[JackPhoenix]

WDH and DotMM are the obvious choices, as one is in urban setting, and the other is just huge dungeon. Everything else requires massive changes so massive you could as well create new adventure from ground up. There are no dragons on Ravnica outside Niv-Mizzet, so HotDQ/RoT is out, elementals work differently enough that PotA would require huge changes (but it can possibly be done), OotA's plot doesn't work even if you replace... well, pretty much every non-demon with Golgari, but you may maybe take some inspiration from the enviroment, Ravnica doesn't have the right atmosphere for CoS horror-like game (you could set a horror game there, certainly, but it wouldn't be CoS-style gothic horror. More urban horror works fine), STK again doesn't work because the giants aren't organized like that and the guild structure doesn't help the plot, and there's no jungle for ToA, which would mean dropping everything but the basic plot about lich stealing souls.

For WDH, treasure (perhaps originally belonging to Orzhov), warring gangs/guilds and being set entirely in one big city requires minimal changes. Background, scrap non-Ravnica monsters like Xanathar, replace the gangs with different guilds, mess with the enviroment a little, and you're ready to go. Basic premise of DotMM works, but the inhabitants and the dungeon's enviroment would require changes, but nothing big.

[Strategos]

There are no dragons on Ravnica outside Niv-Mizzet, so HotDQ/RoT is out

That's not entirely accurate (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=|[%22Ravnica:%20City%20of%20Guilds%22]|[%22Guildpact%22]|[%22Dissension%22]|[%22Return%20to%20Ravnica%22]|[%22Gatecrash%22]|[%22Dragon%27s%20Maze%22]|[%22Guilds%20of%20Ravnica%22]&subtype=+[%22Dragon%22]). The modules have several other issues that make them harder to run. But if you had your heart set on running HotDQ/RoT in Ravnica it would take a lot of work but there being only one dragon on the plane is not a problem you'd need to overcome.

[JackPhoenix]

That's not entirely accurate (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&set=|[%22Ravnica:%20City%20of%20Guilds%22]|[%22Guildpact%22]|[%22Dissension%22]|[%22Return%20to%20Ravnica%22]|[%22Gatecrash%22]|[%22Dragon%27s%20Maze%22]|[%22Guilds%20of%20Ravnica%22]&subtype=+[%22Dragon%22]). The modules have several other issues that make them harder to run. But if you had your heart set on running HotDQ/RoT in Ravnica it would take a lot of work but there being only one dragon on the plane is not a problem you'd need to overcome.

Only one sapient dragon, then. Niv-Mizzet killed every other intelligent dragon, what's left are just animals.

[Eriol]

Look at some of the dungeons in Tales From the Yawning Portal. Should be fairly easy to fluff most of them as some lost chamber far beneath the city. White Plume Mountain might be difficult (Volcanoes in Ravnica?), and Dead in Thay would need to be changed to infiltrating a faction hideout of some type, but most of the others could just be lost long-dead areas, or even semi-ruined areas (Sunless Citadel).

But even with some of the issues above, most seem possible, some with more work necessary than others, but a good start regardless.

[Strategos]

Only one sapient dragon, then. Niv-Mizzet killed every other intelligent dragon, what's left are just animals.

My apologies, I just remembered having a lot of fun with a pretty janky Rakdos deck featuring Rakdos Dragon so I was certain there were more dragons than one. Sorry for the misunderstanding. :smallredface:

HotDQ Spoilers:
With the lack of sapient dragons the encounter with Lennithon much more sense to my eyes. I can easily believe an animal getting scratched and flying off without risking itself too much than with how it's written in the module. There are only eggs in episode 3 so not much needs to change there the twins in the swamp are only mentioned and don't show up in the module at all. The biggest sticking point is Episode 8 in both the flying castle and Glazhael. But if you ignore the flying part and run it as a bit of a regular dungeon and make Glzhael the final boss of the module, sapience intact and have that be a bit of a mystery for custom adventures to solve beyond that. My first thoughts would be a Gruul clan led Druid with a custom version of Awaken either as a spell or an artifact, I'm leaning towards the latter. I'd place Castle Naerytar is in Golgari territory and the Gruul Clan have made an alliance with one of the various Golgari factions. But yeah, anything beyond that I wouldn't use a module for so it's probably a bad choice to convert.

[HappyDaze]

Only one sapient dragon, then. Niv-Mizzet killed every other intelligent dragon, what's left are just animals.

What if the adventure is spun that Tiamat is the ex-lover/mate of Niv-Mizzet that escaped (or was intentionally spared in an uncharacteristic display of mercy) and is now ready to come back with a bunch of their children in tow?

[HappyDaze]

Look at some of the dungeons in Tales From the Yawning Portal. Should be fairly easy to fluff most of them as some lost chamber far beneath the city. White Plume Mountain might be difficult (Volcanoes in Ravnica?), and Dead in Thay would need to be changed to infiltrating a faction hideout of some type, but most of the others could just be lost long-dead areas, or even semi-ruined areas (Sunless Citadel).

But even with some of the issues above, most seem possible, some with more work necessary than others, but a good start regardless.

My Ravnica has volcanoes. It's still a planet. Those volcanoes likely host Izzet labs/forges/heat-harnessing magical power stations or else might be surrounded by magma-covered ruins suitable for Gruul territory.

[HappyDaze]

Ravnica doesn't have the right atmosphere for CoS horror-like game (you could set a horror game there, certainly, but it wouldn't be CoS-style gothic horror. More urban horror works fine), STK again doesn't work because the giants aren't organized like that and the guild structure doesn't help the plot

I considered running "Barovia" as an out of the way district far from the capital that is being run by an apostate Orzhov oligarch (a vampire named Strahd) is revolt against the Obzedat.

For the giants, I am less familiar with the module, but would they work as Gruul factions?

[Vogie]

The Waterdeep ones is probably your best bet. Dragon Heist is an urban adventure with various faction interactions, and DotMM could be adapted in a district that's been taken over by said mad mage.

Princes of the Apocalypse is probably adaptable, but would needs lotsa work. Still fine once you're in the dungeon, though.

ToA, OotA, the Tiamat ones and SKT relies on territories, peoples and concept that aren't really in Ravnica, so you'd basically need to change the majority and just keep some elements.

Totally. The buildings in Ravnica are all-encompassing, so dungeons could just as well be basement levels, abandoned districts. OotA specifically could be a Tromp through the Rakdos & Dimir Underground.

Tomb Of Annihilation, on the other hand, actually screams Ixalan to me... perhaps tying the Death Curse to the Immortal Sun in some way.


My Ravnica has volcanoes. It's still a planet. Those volcanoes likely host Izzet labs/forges/heat-harnessing magical power stations or else might be surrounded by magma-covered ruins suitable for Gruul territory.

I could certainly see Gruul having Lavamancers... that's not something that's useful in civilized society.

[HappyDaze]

I could certainly see Gruul having Lavamancers... that's not something that's useful in civilized society.
Magma taps for elemental fire energy seem very useful for civilized society, especially for heating in the arctic regions of the world.

[Madfellow]

I think you could run Out of the Abyss in Ravnica's Undercity. Menzoberanzen is a Golgari enclave, Gracklestugh becomes a Boros Garrison, Gravenhollow becomes an Azorius vault, etc.

[HappyDaze]

I think you could run Out of the Abyss in Ravnica's Undercity. Menzoberanzen is a Golgari enclave, Gracklestugh becomes a Boros Garrison, Gravenhollow becomes an Azorius vault, etc.

I haven't read Out of the Abyss yet. I heard it starts with the players as prisoners. If so, this gives an easy way to put together a group from opposing guilds into a situation that they would need to work together. Any input from somebody that'r read the module on the feasibility of doing this?

Also, with the demon angle, would it be better to go with a Rakdos hideout or possibly some Rakdos/Golgari alliance (however short-lived an alliance between them would be)?