Eberron: Rising From the Last War's Level 1 Adventure is a Step Up from Krenko's Way

Caveat: I've only read these two adventures, though I've seen a bit of the new Eberron one played by Saving Throw in "Dark Lanterns" on the official D&D Youtube channel - only the first episode, though.

I love the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Admittedly, I was always going to be a little biased toward it given my love of Ravnica as a setting for Magic: the Gathering, but I also think they came up with a lot of interesting ways to make the Guilds really central to a D&D campaign. I've been champing at the bit to run a game set there (with plans to start one sometime next year.)

As a sort of introduction to Ravnica, the book contains a relatively short level 1 adventure called Krenko's Way (presumably a play on Carlito's Way, the crime movie.) In it, players are sent after Krenko, an escaped goblin gang leader.

While this does bring in the urban-adventure theme to Ravnica, it always felt a little flat to me. The Guilds play, at best, a supporting role in the adventure, which really feels a bit more like just tracking down a gang of troublesome goblins. Sure, goblin gangs in Ravnica are a thing, but it seems that if you're going to be introducing Ravnica to new players, you want the Guilds to play a central role in that introduction.

I'll admit that that's a difficult proposition, given that it would be hard to do all ten guilds in an adventure designed just for level 1 characters. So it might be that they were painted into a bit of a corner.

However, Forgotten Relics, the one they provide in Eberron: RFTLW, seems to nail the setting's tone in a similarly brief adventure - something you could probably fit into one or two sessions (maybe more depending on how into RP your players are.)

And to be fair, I think that this is in part because Eberron is defined more by tone than Ravnica is. Ravnica can certainly have its Noir or Conspiracy thriller genre stuff, but only if you're focusing on, for example, House Dimir. A story about the Selesyna is probably going to be very different in tone than one about the Rakdos. It is that clashing of tones and personalities that gives Ravnica its own unique feel.

Meanwhile, Eberron starts with tone - pulpy adventure, whether that be detective stories, westerns, or Indiana-Jones-style capers.

Forgotten Relics hits a number of important aspects of the setting. Starting off as a noir story, you're sent by a member of the Sharn city guard (Sharn being the biggest city in Eberron) to go find a Warforged friend of hers. You eventually find out that Warforged veterans are being exploited by a gang in the city that also kidnapped the son of an important member of one of the Dragonmarked Houses. After finding the kid, you are sent to track down major player in the gang responsible for all of this, which ends with a fight on top of a moving train.

So yeah, that's some real pulp adventure.

There's a ton of potential for weary cynicism but also opportunities for characters who retain a sense of empathy to do some good in the world.

Plus, you get your players fighting on top of a train at level 1.

Did I mention you fight on top of a train?

Anyway, I'm pretty eager to run this at some point. I'm also pretty excited that it (as with nearly anything from Eberron) could easily fit in my homebrew setting with a few proper-noun changes.