A Simic Hybrid and A Vedalken Walk into Ravnica…

Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted took a look at the Simic hybrid and vedalken races from Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica. In their discussion they talk what character class to play for both of these fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons races. Like the rest of the videos in this series they consider which 5E D&D character class makes a good fit for the race’s ability scores and features, along with some ideas for unexpected character classes. The world of Ravnica presents a very different place than a traditional D&D setting, and not just because a vast, sprawling city covers the whole of the known world. Powerful guilds rule the Ravnica planar city, and both the Simic hybrid and vedalken share common ground with one in particular. The Simic Combine happens to be my favorite of the ten guilds. And since Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica contains so many juicy random tables let’s take a look at them from a Dungeon Master’s point of view and see what sorts of adventures might await Simic hybrid and vedalken adventurers in a 5E D&D campaign.

Ravnica randomness for Simic hybrid and vedalken

Starting off in chapter 1 of Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica, Building a Party suggests two concepts for party makeup with connections to the Simic Combine. Whatever other characters are in the party, the Simic hybrid and vedalken characters will fit right into either a Mad Science Party or Nature Party concept. Another roll of the die between those two lands on Mad Science Party: Simic druid, Izzet fighter, Izzet wizard, Simic monk. This matches up nicely with the video discussion. We’ll assign monk to the Simic hybrid and druid to the vedalken to represent the Simic Combine. Suggested subclasses for Simic druids is Circle of the Land (coast or forest) and for the monk Way of the Four Elements (with focus on water- and air-related disciplines) and Way of the Open Hand.

As regards the Izzet characters, that’s a topic for a different post.

Next our party needs a Common Cause, and the dice determine it will be: Lost Together. The characters are hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar part of the city. Since the Simic Combine is a scientific research institution, it’s not hard to imagine sending adventurers off on a research mission, during which they get lost. So that’s where our adventure begins.

Protip: you can begin adventures anywhere, and reasonably assume the characters made whatever decisions led them to the starting point. After your adventure introduction, consider asking the players a few pointed questions about their characters’ decisions to include them in the storytelling and give them more agency in your campaign.

In Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica all ten guilds get terrific treatment. Chapter 2 is so robust! There’s all sorts of details to inspire players and DMs alike, and since we’re building a skeleton for a Simic Combine adventure it’s worth looking closely at the section about this guild. Something that stands out to me is the Goals of the Simic section, describing two philosophical principles guiding their approach to science and nature. The Holdfast and the Upwelling advises members of the guild never to stray far from nature, and advocates replacing the old with the new respectively. Keeping these two perspectives in mind while creating Simic Combine adventures helps to establish strong themes you as the DM can rely on.

The next random table we discover is Research Options included with the Simic Scientist background but we’re going to use it to determine who sent the party on their quest and for what purpose. Simic researchers are each part of a clade — a diverse group of individuals combining disparate talents in pursuit of a common goal. And after another roll of the die our as-yet undefined quest giver is part of the Hull Clade, focused on protection and durability. After a few more rolls we wind up with these traits to further define them, so when (if?) the party ever finds their way back we’ll have an NPC ready to go.

• I can’t resist prying into anything forbidden, since it must be terribly interesting.
• I assume that everyone needs even the most basic concepts explained to them.
• Change. All life is meant to progress toward perfection, and our work is to hurry it along — no matter what must be upended along the way.
• In my laboratory, I discovered something that I think could eliminate half the life on Ravnica.
• I have a rather embarrassing mutation that I do everything I can to keep hidden.

There’s two other tables included with the background too, for contacts both inside the Simic Combine and without. But for our growing adventure, these will become two more NPCs. Maybe they’ll be helpful to our lost adventurers or they might hinder their return. The first is a former Simic Combine colleague who has ventured into fields of research that are possibly immoral and almost certainly illegal. The second is someone who borrowed a lot of money from an Orzhov syndic to help finance their research.

Are the wheels of your DM brain turning yet? Off the top of my head I’m thinking the former colleague stole the dangerous discovery from our quest giver and fled. The party is sent to retrieve the stolen item and return but they got hopelessly lost along the way. Since the thief was on the run and isolated, they borrowed money from the Orzhov Syndicate and now they’re in too deep. You could begin your adventure with the party already in possession of the stolen item, lost and now the Orzhov are after them as well, or they’re lost while trying to find the thief and the item when the Orzhov complicate things even further. Drama!

Chapter 3 details the Tenth District, and now we can find a suitable location for our Lost Together adventure. With the Orzhov involved I like the idea of placing the party somewhere they hold power but unfamiliar to our aqua-themed Simic hybrid monk and vedalken druid. For a more urban feel, Precinct One is the hub of the wealthy and powerful, and the Orzhov Syndicate runs many of the clubs and restaurants so our thief could be holed up in a safehouse. The lost party can discover some aid through a gardener they encounter while pruning vegetation.

“A most dreadful moaning was coming from the plaza today. My friend said she saw a wailing spirit floating over the park. I wish they’d stay in the bank.” — from the Rumors — Precinct One table in Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica

Things are getting interesting now. Perhaps the stolen item has something to do with undead. This certainly sounds like the kind of thing that could potentially eliminate half the life on Ravnica. A couple of rolls on these tables really raised the stakes all of a sudden. We’ve come up with an intriguing adventure for our Simic hybrid and vedalken party so far, and we haven’t even gotten to chapter 4 in the book, titled Creating Adventures.

With the random tables in chapter 4 we’ll build on what we already came up with so far. Since our adventure takes inspiration from the Simic Combine, we’ll make our rolls with this guild in mind. Elements of the Orzhov Syndicate grew from the development but at the core it’s a Simic adventure. First up the Guild Location Goals table tells us the party must escape the location (and help others escape) when a disaster occurs inside. The Linked Location Connections table adds another wrinkle: the party must uncover the source of interference encountered at the first location, which lies in the second. Remember what the gardener said? I’m thinking the party can check out this park and maybe follow the undead activity back to the source.

A good villain makes for dramatic adventure too, and the random tables have us covered here as well. Our roll on the table tells us a villain has claimed power in their guild and needs to be supplanted. Despite the thief who stole our quest giver’s item, I think a savvy Orzhov villain offers succor to the thief for their own gain, and this is the real villain. Rolling on the Guild Character Objectives table results in a goal of recruiting someone to join the guild. I like the idea of tying this objective to the Orzhov villain, and the party needs to recruit someone to supplant them in their own guild. Maybe the original thief? Our Orzhov villain’s activities conflict with their guild goals (thanks to another random table) so there’s an interesting dynamic developing here.

Let’s add a couple more complications, shall we? A known rival or enemy meddles in the adventure, hoping the adventurers will fail, and a villain is trying to disrupt an alliance between two or more guilds. The action culminates inside a Simic Growth Chamber. There’s a handy map for an iconic location representing each guild in the book, so we’re all set there. The thief is using the stolen item for nefarious purposes and the party has to stop a sinister experiment in progress.

And just who is this thief anyway? A biomancer seeking revenge by creating a specialized krasis targeting a specific guild. What kind of krasis? Oh, I dunno. Let’s roll on the Major and Minor Adaptation tables and see what else this CR 16 creature can do:

• Hypnotic Display (Recharge 5–6). As an action, the krasis creates mesmerizing colors and shapes around itself. Each creature within 15 feet of it that can see it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC 12 for category 1, DC 14 for category 2, and DC 18 for category 3) or be stunned for 1 minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds on a saving throw against this effect becomes immune to the Hypnotic Display of all krasis for 24 hours.
• Aquatic. The krasis gains a swimming speed equal to its walking speed.

And there you have it. We used random tables and party creation tips in Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica to outline a pretty exciting adventure. A powerful mutagenic item is stolen by a renegade biomancer and the party is sent to bring it back before the mad science gets out of hand. Along the way they become lost in the vast expanse of Ravnica, in Orzhov territory where they learn the thief has a benefactor in the guild. They learn how the Orzhov benefactor is using the thief to gain renown for themselves and a secondary goal develops. By the time our Simic hybrid monk and vedalken druid make it back with the stolen item, they’ve become embroiled in guild politics and intrigue, made a few enemies and allies and gotten a taste for the kind of crazy magical science the Simic Combine is famous for. All thanks to a few rolls on some random tables.