It’s hard to imagine why it took so long for a setting stuffed with mad science-wizards, demonic jesters and a ghostly mafia to find its way into D&D, but while Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica is undoubtably a blast from end to end it struggles to dive into the details that DMs need to run a living campaign.
The sprawling metropolis of Ravnica first saw light as a setting for the Magic. The Gathering card game, establishing a strong tone stitched together from steampunk and fantasy tropes. On its own this would be enough to set the world apart from the Forgotten Realms, the high-fa ntasy default setting of the current edition, but perhaps the most unique aspect of Ravnica is the titular guilds.
Rather than any governments or countries, these ten enormous organisations take the lead role in running the city, handling everything from finance to the military. If you’re adventuring in Ravnica you’re almost certainly going to be working for or against some the guilds.
Fortunately this is something that the book handles well, laying out neat summaries that include solid guild-based backgrounds for players to choose from. These backgrounds come with plenty of benefits, including extra spells, which encourages players to pick an allegiance early on.