I'll confess: despite the fact that blue and green are my favorite colors in non-Magic stuff, I've always struggled to get a real grasp on the Simic Combine. Unlike the other "science experiment" guild, the Izzet, who have an inherently silly vibe to them (Warcraft fans can more or less imagine Goblins and Gnomes as the most Izzet-like races in WoW,) the Simic feel a little more serious, perhaps a little more sinister at times, but overall less about fun than the Izzet.
All that being said, there are a ton of stories you can build around the Simic.
First off, the fact that the Simic are Ravica's healthcare guild, with most of its doctors, gives you an opportunity to be an altruistic and genuine hero. If a plague breaks out in Ravnica, it'll be the Simic who investigate and try to find a solution.
Like the Selesnya, the Simic are also committed to keeping Ravnica's urban landscape healthy and full of life. Unlike the Golgari and particularly the Gruul, they don't see the city as inherently in conflict with nature.
Just about any environmental crisis would be a good opportunity for the Simic to get involved and try to solve the problem. If the aqueducts are infected with slimes or the gardens are succumbing to some sort of blight, the Simic would likely take the lead in finding out the source of the problem and dealing with it.
The Simic are also a guild with ambitions - not for their own power, but to improve upon life as best they can. High-minded endeavors that might require the assistance of adventurers would make a good Simic adventure. Let's say that you wanted to find samples of some rare underwater life form, with an enzyme that might be used to cure cancer - the Simic might send adventurers into one of Ravnica's undercity oceans where all they have to do is gather a few of these starfish - and perhaps fight the kraken that hoards them.
Krakens aside, story hooks like these might feel a bit "side-questy." The good news is that the Simic, even with good intentions, can bring their own monsters to the table.
Jurassic Park is a very Simic-like story. Indeed, any story of animals that have been artificially created or altered that then go on a rampage are very much in keeping with the Simic. A party might be contacted by the Simic to deal with some escaped creatures, or perhaps they find themselves trapped in some Simic facility that has been overrun by monstrous creatures created within.
If you want a straight-up Simic villain, things open up quite a bit. The Simic obsession with evolution, and their eagerness to prod the process forward, might result in some eugenicist who believes that the current races as they are need to go extinct so that new ones can take their place. That's a campaign-level villain, who could easily seem benevolent in the party's early interactions with them. Alternatively, you could have a Simic biomancer who has gone full Island of Doctor Moreau.
Another possibility could be a twist. Maybe a Simic member approaches the party with a story about horrible monsters they've created that escaped and need to be put down, only for the party to discover that the "monsters" are actually intelligent, sapient beings who only broke out to save their own lives.
Environments:
As a Blue and Green guild, the Simic environments tend toward islands and forests. In Ravnica, an island is often represented as a set of channels and aqueducts, with boats that travel throughout the city. Forests tend to be more like gardens and parks.
While it is very urban, Ravnica does effectively have oceans. Some have been built over, leaving dark bodies of water under the city, but Simic areas might allow for a little more sunlight exposure. Likewise, the gardens of the Simic are likely to be highly-controlled nature preserves. Their aesthetic is very organic and non-angular, and I think the life-giving flow of water is a big motif that works quite well with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment