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Forbidden Lands’ Gods & Religions – The Omen of the Manticore

I love how realistic the religions and beliefs about gods seem in the Forbidden Lands setting.
I love how realistic the religions and beliefs about gods seem in the Forbidden Lands setting. | Image by Matthias Grießhammer from Pixabay

So it wasn’t long ago (speaking about game-time, it was two years on the blog x.x) when the Trio escaped the grave (sic!) consequences of their greed in the tomb of Count Nepola. After a few weeks of recovery, they finally decided to face what emerged as the campaign’s main goal. Retrieval of a powerful artifact from the sorcerous monastery they agreed to undertake for Grulf. The story about Forbidden Lands’ gods and religions added a lot to this ultimate chapter – thanks to the presentation, I haven’t come by in any other RPG.

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More Than an Urban Adventure – Campaign in Ravnica, pt. 1

I wanted to run RPG campaign in Ravnica almost from the moment I unpacked my first MTG booster. But these things held me back, until now…
I wanted to run RPG campaign in Ravnica almost from the moment I unpacked my first MTG booster. But these things held me back, until now… | Photo by Keszthelyi Timi on Unsplash

I really did love the original Ravnica set for Magic: the Gathering. I wasn’t really connected to any fandom beyond my friends back then but it seems like the setting was a huge fans’ favorite all over the world. When I think about it, the urban fantasy theme is rarely explored in fantasy. Which might add to the setting’s success. At the same time, Ravnica’s notion of rivaling factions emphasizes the urban (i.e., civilized) aspect of the world. It helps to picture the plane as an actual, inhabited place. Yet, I had a problem with this evocative setting. I wanted to run an RPG campaign in Ravnica almost from the moment I unpacked my first MTG booster. But how to include all that brilliant flavor in the game while retaining the urban nature of the game? This post (and its continuation, as it grew while I wrote it) will cover mostly the various issues that I found keeping me from running the Ravnica campaign. I’ll leave them without an answer… for now. But they eventually sparked my imagination so maybe they will spark yours too?

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