Zobeck Gazetteer

Disclaimer note: I was a senior patron and as such, I got to contribute to the Zobeck Gazetteer. Take that for what it’s worth.

Zobeck weighs in at 50 pages, subtitled “an introduction to the free city.” It has some very pretty cover art and then dives into the material—the first half covers an overview of the city’s history, its notable districts and important locations within those districts, its guilds, and finally gods. Nothing is done to an extreme depth, but there is enough meat here to really get you hungry for more of Zobeck, and easily provide a mental image of the city with all its exotic trappings. Short summaries provide a general outline of important characters and places, permitting a GM to customize the locales as needed and a lot of adventure hooks means it’s simple to tie into an existing game. On a particular note, the full-page map of the city is gorgeous, the cartographers outdid themselves with detail and style.

The second half details a new playable race, the Gearforged—more of a soul tied to a construct form, a-la Full Metal Alchemist than the living constructs of a certain lighting-rail setting, or the near-droid Cogs of OGL Steampunk—then continues on to give the crunch for clockwork oriented skills, devices, and creatures. I like the artwork for the various creatures, particularly Robert Scott’s almost surreal Watchman and Weaver. Clockwork magic receives a sizeable treatment, providing the Gear Domain and twenty-six new spells from levels 1 to 9, for both arcane and divine casters

Like all of the Open Design projects I’ve read, this one also has a variety of designer’s notes scattered through the sidebars. I always enjoy these notes for the insights they provide to the creation process and possible tweaks I could utilize later. Sometimes they reference material from Kobold Quarterly, others mention some integration with Malhavoc Press material, or provide adventure seeds beyond the Gazetteer. The layout and art suits the material well, with a heavy gear motif and a lot of classic artwork that helps keep the theme.

Overall, this is a product that has a lot to offer and promises in future offerings. You won’t go wrong adding this particular clockwork gem to your campaign world.