The Selesnya Brief: Introduction

On the recommendation of a friend, I started reading Three Parts Dead, the first book in the Craft Sequence series of fantasy novels by Max Gladstone. It goes a lot deeper than this, but the quick elevator pitch is gods and magic meet on the legal battlefield long after they nearly destroyed each other on an actual battlefield.

Part of what I like to do when planning out new campaigns – especially a game so often played like D&D – is to combine the traditional fantasy angle with another genre. In the past, I’ve run such pitches as “D&D + revenge fantasy” (where the heroes are all killed at the beginning of the campaign and brought back to hunt down those who wronged them) and “D&D + prison drama” (spending the first few sessions on a prison island before escaping to the mainland and trying to find their way.)

Three Parts Dead put the idea of a fantasy legal thriller in my head. And I knew the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica was coming out soon. Putting them together and The Selesnya Brief was born.

Make it Brief

I recruited my players and explicitly said that this would not be a long-term campaign: a miniseries, likely six or so sessions long, so it was not a big commitment. I knew several of them were Magic: the Gathering players and big fans of the setting. However, two of the players were not familiar with the setting at all and one was so-so.

That meant a few things while planning:

• No deep lore dives that required a lot of player buy-in necessary to play
• Emphasize the side that’s the D&D setting and not so much a Magic: the Gathering setting (i.e. No planeswalking and Jace Beleren would not play a major role, despite how many of my players would love the chance to stab him in the face)
• Play up the ten guilds of Ravnica as the primary motivating force of the setting in a way that doesn’t feel like doing homework.

One thing right away I prepared was a one-page cheat sheet for the Guilds, which included the major roles for them I wanted to shape the campaign around (even if they weren’t 100% matching to canon) and as a quick reference during play.

You can see that cheat sheet in PDF:

The players who already knew Ravnica started brainstorming characters after I sent out details. I insisted on doing the bulk of character creation in person so that I could give the high-level overview of the setting for those who didn’t know it, and also to make sure the party had a variety (not just in the typical D&D class mixture sense, but in the variety of personality types and roles sense.)

I also leaned on the “legal thriller” frame to get characters who could become involved in that kind of campaign, and try and avoid a party of all Gruul anarchist barbarians. Not all the characters were easy to introduce and hook in, but ultimately, the challenge of getting the characters motivated lead to coming up with more plot hooks for future sessions.

Additionally, with a miniseries approach and to let the characters feel competent right out of the gate, I started everyone at level 5 with enough renown in their guild to go to the second rank. I gave everyone the option to have a magic item OR more renown to get close to the next rank up, though everyone wanted the magic item.

The Cast

Healer Irij

Loxodon Cleric Selesnya Initiate, who serves as the party’s liaison to the Selesnya grounds where a grisly double murder occurred.

Chonkington “Chonk” H. Bowser, IV

Minotaur Bard Azorious Functionary, an ordinary clerk who was checking permits and gets caught up in the murder investigation.

Valia Corboz

Human Warlock Rakdos Cultist, commanded by Rakdos himself (probably?) in a vision to investigate the murders. Why a demon lord cares about a crime scene remains a mystery.

Bogdan

Vampire Rogue Orzhov Enforcer, sent by his superiors to check on how one of the murder victims was able to borrow so much money from the Orzhov and then escape servitude in the afterlife.

Rakiel

Aasimar Monk Boros Legionnaire, assigned to get to the bottom of the murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Admiral Jib

A Mutant Hybrid Druid and Simic Biologist doing a favor for the Boros Legion by serving as a specialist (essentially, a freelance forensic examiner) who also enjoys spending time as a horse.

CLONG CLONG

The first session happened after character creation and brought these six individuals together to solve the mystery, already finding evidence of stolen identities, mysterious creatures, and a crashed goblin test pilot that serves as the only witness to what actually happened. We go further into the mystery this week as The Selesnya Brief continues.