Finding Depth in the Gruul Clans

I'll confess, the Gruul are not my favorite Ravnica guild. Actually, to be frank, they're probably my least favorite (this is a D&D post, not a Magic one. I've been having some fun playing my Klothys-based Gruul deck - I'm here to talk about story.)

Ravnica's guilds are these very odd things within a fantasy universe. Admittedly, something like the Boros Legion is not that far outside the standard fantasy setting - a big, righteous army that worships/is led by angels is not all that different from the various righteous knights in other Magic, or even other D&D settings.

But there's a fun twist on them - which is that they're the cops (ok, so are the Azorius).

The Gruul Clans basically look at what is unique about Ravnica as a setting - its unrelentingly urban nature - and want to get rid of that.

The Gruul can often be dismissed as the dumb brutes of the setting, and not without reason - after all, as the Red/Green guild, they're fully opposed to Blue, which is the color of intellectualism and reason.

But despite my entire upbringing (and a healthy disdain for anti-intellectualism,) just because someone isn't well-educated and assimilated into modern society does not mean they aren't smart.

While the Cult of Rakdos and the Orzhov Syndicate are the most explicitly religious guilds (though the Selesnya and Boros are not far behind) the Gruul are deeply spiritual, and they're the only guild, as far as I know, that really trades in prophecies and omens. While the Azorius are obsessed with locking down any criminal behavior with precognition, they're looking at it from a very intellectual (blue) point of view - it's all about logic and logistics. The Dimir are also very curious to know the future, but much like the other blue guilds, they're more about making their own than letting fate have its way.

One of the ironies of Green and Red as allies is that Green is arguably the most passive color, while Red is by far the most proactive. As a result, you have to consider: why are the Gruul Clans not just Red?

And I think that that is because, for all of their chaotic actions, the Gruul are waiting. They're waiting for their moment, for this urban nightmare that is what Ravnica has been for 10,000 years to finally come to an end. And they have built up this moment - the End-Raze - with prophecy and signs, and even gods - which isn't really something the other guilds get into (though you could certainly argue Mat'Selesnya is something of a monotheistic deity for the Selesnya.)

When making a Gruul D&D character, the really obvious choice for a class would be Barbarian, and you wouldn't be wrong to do so. The two subclasses in the Player's Handbook both feel like perfect fits for the Gruul, with Berserker leaning toward its red side and Totem Warrior a bit more into green.

But the Gruul aren't just Barbarians. I think another really core, key component is their Druids (and you could make arguments for many classes - even Paladins, for example, could work in the Gruul if they go Oath of the Ancients, or arguably Conquest.)

So, none of the players in my rather extended party are in the Gruul. While our lone Simic member hasn't played since the first session and the one actually Azorius character (not counting the Dimir one who's sort of in the Golgari and the Azorius) hasn't played a single session, we don't have anyone who has even expressed interested in the Gruul.

Being the DM who wants his players to let him indulge in every completionist altoholic (see the name of the blog) impulse, I thus wanted to think about what makes the Gruul compelling.

And I think it's the spiritual side. Yes, aesthetically they got a really good upgrade in the Guilds of Ravnica block, basically making them the punks of Ravnica, with a little Mad Max thrown in. But I think that, of all the guilds, the Gruul are the ones who are going to have people going on vision quests and probably taking very questionable herbs and mushrooms in order to glimpse the future.

Druids, and possibly clerics (likely War, Nature, or Tempest domain) can fit as the spiritual leaders - revered within the Clans both for the straightforward power of their magic and also their insight.

So I'd suggest that if you're going to do Gruul content in a Ravnica campaign - whether having the players fight them, a PC be a member, or having a quest where they need to interact with them in some non-confrontational way - it would behoove you to lean into this mystical, spiritual side of things.

Much as they disdain the skylines of nothing built artificial buildings and the lack of open wilderness, the Gruul also disdain the way that people have allowed the world to become so mundane. Going into Gruul territories should feel like stepping not just into a land of danger, but one of mystical secrets.