Ravnica Reinvented

20240-7-13

A vector is a position and a direction with magnitude. It’s a start and a destination, but it isn’t there yet, but you can tell how soon it’s going to get there. I’ve been building RPG settings for my roleplaying group for years, and more importantly, I’ve been looking for better ways to do it. And there are lots of good ways to do it. Some basically skip any worldbuilding, simply plopping random things in random nearby places for the party to stumble into. Others meticulously build a cosmology, pantheon, world origin, and a history of kingdoms, wars, languages, religions, etc. I prefer the simplicity and ease of random tables, and I prefer the depth and fullness of intentionality. However, I’ve found them difficult to mix, and generally poorly done, without a satisfactory balance. I’ve developed a few tools for building depth into a roleplaying setting, at minimal cost.

The most complex tool utilizes the “Magic the Gathering(MtG)” “Color Wheel”. It’s an entire system for distilling emotion, terrain, magic, and more into 5 colors. And it works really well. MtG is a creative powerhouse with evocative art and dozens of unique settings. This framework of 5 colors works very well for them, and I believe it can work very well for you. First we can use it to break down other settings, determining what we like and don’t like about them, and options for how to emotionally change a setting. There are articles about all of the particular uses of the color wheel in MtG for setting, character, and game mechanics, or you can follow along with me through a few exercises of breaking down and examining various settings with these tools to learn about the colors from this perspective.

Our second set of tools are closer to standard literary questions. We will ask about authorial intent, theme, and the dynamic context. Using these tools can help us determine what the creators valued when creating their settings, and will be invaluable when creating your own setting. We will see how opinions and choices lead directly to setting details, and I encourage you to also have opinions and make choices about your setting.

Our third tool will be history. Once we have our choices made, we need to shape our world into its final state, through historical events. We’ll examine fictional world histories to see the kinds of events that shape those worlds, to give you the tools to shape your own.

For this first article, we need to establish for ourselves a baseline. As of right now, Dungeons and Dragons 5e is the most common roleplaying game system, and its default world Faerun is the de facto most common setting. Many players, and even game masters for that matter, are not even aware that there are other options. However, Faerun is such a large and varied world, with such a complex history as it has changed with various editions of the rules, that it isn’t a good place to baseline. Instead, I’m going to take you on a trip through Dominaria, what could be considered the default setting for MtG, and a very close analog to a “standard” D&D world.

We’ll start with green. It’s the color of instinct and interdependence. It's also the color of forests, elves, nature, growth, and naivety. https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=56765 Looking at the color wheel, we can see that it is close to white and red, and far from black and blue. These relationships are used both emotionally and mechanically by the game, and are called allied and opposed colors respectively. https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=51741 From these example pictures you can tell that green means more than just big plants. It represents vibrancy, growth, flourishing, and color. If you haven’t looked through the art of MtG, I strongly recommend that you do, going in order of color. You will get a feel for these worlds, as well as find some really cool art to inspire you. You could easily grab 20 pictures and let that inspire you to a new setting, but we are going to try to be a touch more academic and rigorous here.

On to white. https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=54164 It represents morality and order, as well as plains, uncreative, peace, and law. https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=51734 You might have noticed, but white isn’t “good”. It can easily drift into authoritarianism and the ends justifying the means. The feeling however is unmistakable. And you could picture these kinds of characters in a D&D session or setting as important.

For blue we can grab https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=52262 and https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=51746 to illustrate the concept. It represents logic and technology, as well as islands, intellect, omniscience, and inaction. Hopefully you have noticed a pattern where each color describes locations, things, personality, and actions. And not all of them are flattering. Blue is just as much plucky investors as mad scientists.

Black is the easiest to get confused, so don’t let it fool you. It isn’t evil, https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=52790 anymore than the swamps that represent it. Black represents parasitism and amorality, as well as swamps, selfishness, omnipotence, and paranoia. These are not nice things, but a cucubird isn’t evil, it just is. https://www.mtgpics.com/card?ref=dmu084 I don’t think anyone would say a person solely represented by black was a good person, but a person needs to exhibit these traits at times to survive.

https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=51447 https://www.mtgpics.com/illustration?i=54910 Red is the color of impulse and chaos, as well as mountains, freedom, action, and short-sightedness. This color values living, and is willing to die for that freedom. It’s full of paradoxes and beauty.

Again, I highly suggest that you browse through the various art available for many different sets and blocks. There are stories to tell, and you can get a feel for how each color comes across a little differently between settings. That intuition will help guide our use of this tool and we delve deeper into understanding the art of designing settings.