Ravnica Guild Alignments - Headcanon

Now that they're part of D&D, the Guilds of Ravnica are fit into D&D's famous 9-option alignment chart. In the book, we get descriptors like "Typically good, often lawful" to describe the Boros Legion.

While the book itself is clearly acknowledging wiggle-room - you could have a Chaotic Good Rakdos Cultist or a Lawful Neutral Selesnya Initiate - it's pretty clear that the guilds themselves largely fall into particular categories:

Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral
Boros Legion: Lawful Good
House Dimir: Neutral Evil
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Neutral
Golgari Swarm: Neutral Evil
Izzet League: Chaotic Neutral
Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil
Selesnya Conclave: Neutral Good
Simic Combine: True Neutral

So with ten guilds and nine spaces in D&D's classic alignment chart, there's bound to be one overlap. But what we see here is that there's some space missing. There is no Chaotic Good guild. In fact, only two of the guilds are even listed as good. Law is decently balanced with Chaos, so it might not be in such need of rebalancing.

Ultimately, I think the setting works best if you feel free to play against type. But even within these types, I think there's good alternatives to make things a bit more interesting.

Azorius Senate: Lawful Good: This one's easy. While bureaucracy can sometimes feel cold and callous, the intention tends to be to prevent abuse. While you might get a lot of cowboy cops (who are far more likely to abuse power,) in the Boros, the Azorius commitment to consistent ethics can turn out to be a way to be good - maybe you're someone who wants to write the ideals of justice into Azorius law rather than simply apply them arbitrarily like the Boros wish to.

Boros Legion: Chaotic Good: This is already represented in a number of Boros NPCs and creatures. It's explicit that the Boros care more about doing good than following rules, and so it makes perfect sense to go with this alignment.

House Dimir: True Neutral: Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but I really like the idea that this is the actual alignment of the Dimir. Their methods might skew toward evil, but I think the notion that the Dimir simply want to maintain the balance of power and keep Ravnica stable without growing stagnant makes for a great True Neutral guild.

Gruul Clans: Chaotic Evil: They're already kind of skewing toward this anyway, as their vision of nature is a very brutal one. Sure, they don't have any of the dark, black-aligned magic of the other "evil" guilds, but I given that the Gruul Clans are basically Mad Max villains I think you're already most of the way there.

Golgari Swarm: Lawful Evil: The Golgari dedication to the cycle puts them in this weird Lawful/Chaotic place that translates decently to Neutral. But I think that it's easy enough with all the necromancers they've got for some upstart Golgari leader to want their eternal army of the dead to serve them.

Izzet League: Chaotic Good: While they are basically all insane (but not malicious as the Rakdos,) the Izzet are theoretically trying to improve the city with all their innovations and experiments. I definitely think that most of them skew a little more toward good than evil (minus Ral Zarrek, of course.)

Orzhov Syndicate: Neutral Evil: While the Orzhov emphasis on control and stability makes their Lawful Evil alignment maybe the most appropriate of all the guilds' (maybe tied with the Rakdos,) I think that the structures of the Orzhov seem perfect for a Littlefinger-like figure to manipulate the system to climb the ranks and seek only their own personal enrichment and power. I also wonder what Teysa Karlov's alignment is - I never read the books.

Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Neutral: Again, the Rakdos, when they are in full "murder the audience for fun" mode are pretty perfect examples of Chaotic Evil (the Joker would 100% be a member of the Rakdos) I think I'd want to emphasize the more reasonable members of the guild who are more in it for the satire and the chance for artistic expression. I feel like you could have a lot of really fun weirdos who have found a home in this macabre vaudeville environment who don't actually mean anyone harm.

Selesnya Conclave: Lawful Neutral: Yes, this one skips over Lawful Good and goes right to LN. The Selesnya are basically a giant hippie commune, and that's fine when it's really all about love and peace and grooviness. But if you wanted to emphasize its cult-like tendencies, you could go for more of a Lawful take on it - this is the aspect of the guild where it really is about taking control of peoples' lives and making them submit themselves to the collective's needs.

Simic Combine: Just About Anything: The Simic sit at True Neutral because I think they could go nearly anywhere. It would be super-easy to imagine a chaotic evil Simic Biomancer who just wants to create giant monsters to destroy the city. But you could also have good-aligned Simic who are fighting to make life on Ravnica better. I'll confess that I've often felt the Simic are the guild with the least clear identity, and to be fair I think they've been working on improving that. Creating a race of super-soldiers that could take over the world? Sounds kind of Lawful Evil. Creating giant monsters to destroy swaths of the city? Sounds kind of Chaotic Evil. Eliminating diseases and cleaning the air of pollution? Sounds Neutral or Lawful Good. Creating new organisms capable of processing waste and thus cutting the treacherous Golgari out of the loop? Sounds Chaotic Good.

Again, these are just suggestions. Playing against type could be a ton of fun in any of these guilds. I also think using Magic colors as an alternative to alignment could be an interesting experiment (especially if you use colors outside your guild's.)

Alignment is also something of a rough suggestion - it's never enough to simply declare an alignment and feel as if you have a fully fleshed-out character. There's nuance to all of these, which is part of what makes the game so enjoyable.