Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 deacon_liadon Jun 22, 2006 19:38:17	I recently went back to playing M:tG after a long hiatus and decided to build myself a new deck from the newest set of cards: Ravnica: City of Guilds. In order to build my deck I decided to go and look at all of the different guilds to see which I liked the look of most. Imagine my suprise when I realise when I realised that most of the guilds seem to be based off Planescape guilds. Let me give you a couple of examples. There is the Boros guild, dedicated to preserving justice in Ravnica. Lots of justice. With a bit of "Everyone should do as we say because it'll make the world a better place" thrown in on the side. Remind you of anyone? Or perhaps there's the Orzhov, dedicated to screwing avery last copper out of the populace. They run collections in theier churches after they charge you to enter. Then there's the Azorius, dedicated to law, almost to a fault. They run the courts and things in Ravnica. I have friends who refer to the Kamigawa set as "I can't believe it's not Rokugan". I've recently taken to referring to Ravnica as "I can't believe it's not Planescape". Anyone else who plays M:tG noticed these similarities?
#2 lixinjian Jun 22, 2006 20:08:56	Nah. Those descriptions are vague, open. A guild zealously dedicated to law? It could fit anywhere. Heck, even Judge Dredd. Or Equilibrium. Those are archetypes, I think. They appear everywhere in litterature and entertainment. Of course, they somehow look a bit similar, but that's not because one is based off the other, but rather because both are based on the same "blueprint". Ravnica is no more based on Planescape than, say, Rakdos is based on the church of Cyric.
#3 grungd Jul 18, 2006 22:41:18	Actually, I feel the same way. Ravnica's story and ideas seem to rely very heavily on several previous TSR/WoTC products; Ravnica itself is so similar to Sigil that I have a hard time believing that it's a coincidence. Also look at Ghostwalk, a single-book campaign setting published by WoTC several years ago. In that setting, ghosts walked the streets and were part of everyday life, much like Ravnica. Still, I don't think the details were taken from other products, just the broad ideas; Boros isn't a carbon copy of either the Red Death or the Harmonium.