RAVNICA: CITY OF GUILDS d20

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Along with the tons of writing projects I'm into so far, I'm also creating an unofficial campaign setting based on the hugely popular Magic world of Ravnica, the City of Guilds.

Although Magic fans are now well back in Dominaria with the new "Time Spiral" cycle, this new direction has not doused what I would call my fascination with this world-spanning City, where the Guildpact controls all magic and spirits of all shapes and sizes mingle with the living.

Here's an intro about the alignments of the nine "known" guilds and their respective DMG-based appropriate prestige classes:

Selesnya: neutral good (hierophant)
Boros: lawful good (thaumaturgist)
Golgari: neutral evil (shadowdancer)
Gruul: chaotic neutral (horizon walker)
Orzhov: lawful evil (mystic theurge)
Izzet: chaotic good (archmage)
Azorius: lawful neutral (arcane archer)
Simic: neutral (loremaster)
Rakdos: chaotic evil (blackguard)

And of course the tenth "secret guild:"

Dimir: neutral evil (assassin)


Entering into a guild requires a point system I loosely based on the "Affiliation" system introduced in the Player's Handbook II. The more points you gain, the more you gain benefits (and penalties). For example, if you garner 5 affiliation points in the Boros, you automatically gain the "Radiance" feat for free (the ten feats are based on the Guild abilities found in Magic; I'll explain the mechanics later).

If you want more ideas that I cooked up, feel free to reply.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Cool! I definately think Ravnica would make a great setting for an RPG. I have some quibbles about your guild alignment and prestige class assignments, though. Personally, I'd put Golgari as true neutral, Izzet as chaotic neutral.

For what it's worth, the M:tG creative director disagrees with both of us:
www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/askwizards/1106 (scroll down to November 16).

Shadowdancer seems more Dimir to me. Golgari might be more of true necromancer or something. Arcane archer seems like it got Azorius as a leftover. I'd put Loremaster as Azorius and give the Simic Artificer or something like that... maybe there's a PrC focused on buff spells and bio-crafting sort of stuff? personal evolution or shapeshifting of some sort, maybe some druid thing from Masters of the Wild?

I see the value in using existing PrC's, but it might be better to make some specific ones up, like you apparently did with the feats.

Anyway... fun to think about.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

My defense for Golgari and Izzet:

MtG gave only a base translation for their colors in reference to the alignments, and this doesn't quite match up (especially with Orzhov). Golgari for me is neutral evil because of the power plays done by both Savra and the Sisters of Stone Death in the Ravnica novel. They'll do anything, even devour each other in their own refuse, just to gain the upper hand in controlling the entire Golgari guild. That, I think, is very much evil.

As for the Izzet, they are the "nutty professors" of Ravnica, tasked to uplift the city's inhabitants by creating new inventions of fire and water to make sure things run smoothly. Granted that they accidentally released rogue dragons in the "Guildpact" novel and their leader Niv-Mizzet seems more lawful than chaotic, they are very much welcome among the rest of Ravnica.

In the Ravnica d20 version I'm making, guild members could stray one step away from their alignments, so it's possible for the Cult of Rakdos (chaotic evil) to have chaotic neutral and neutral evil members.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I haven't read the books, so I based my response on just what I've gleaned from the cards. Golgari seemed to be just focused on the natural cycle of life and death, not specifically evil in any way, and Izzet seemed to care more for their experiments than any notion of good or evil.

But I defer to your calls, since the books obviously go into more detail...