Cities of Mystery and City System... what are they really?

[Phaedrus]

I was browsing around on RPG Now and saw Cities of Mystery and City System. Both are focused on Waterdeep, but both also hint at generic guidelines for building cities.

Does anyone have these? Can you expand on what's in them? How useful are they for someone who wants to map and create cities but lacks any creative abilities whatsoever (not that I know anyone like that)?

(Edit: I forgot to mention... both are 2nd Edition PDF's.)

 

[ericlboyd]

I was browsing around on RPG Now and saw Cities of Mystery and City System. Both are focused on Waterdeep, but both also hint at generic guidelines for building cities.

Cities of Mystery has nothing to do with Waterdeep, let alone the Realms, despite its inclusion in the Forgotten Realms line.

Does anyone have these? Can you expand on what's in them? How useful are they for someone who wants to map and create cities but lacks any creative abilities whatsoever (not that I know anyone like that)?

City System is basically a map of the city of Waterdeep, made up of 10 maps that each map a 10th of the city. The maps are huge ... I think the city as a whole ends up something like 5 feet by 10 feet. There's also a poster map of Castle Waterdeep and an aerial depiction of the city in somewhat cartoony format. There's also a little booklet with a few tidbits of Waterdeep lore and some very extensive random city encounter tables (usable with just about any edition). I would only recommend it if you are gaming in the City of Splendors.

Cities of Mystery includes a bunch of cardboard city structures, IIRC, and a generic booklet about D&D cities. I don't really recommend it, and I think it would be useless as a PDF. Anyone else look at the PDF?

In summary, I don't think either is what you are looking for, but I could be wrong.

--Eric

 

[diaglo]

do you do origami?

iirc cities of mystery has a bunch of templates for making paper buildings for your minis. and a chase scene adventure so you can use them.

 

[IronWolf]

Folks are right, Cities of Mystery is the one with the cardboard cut outs. I never really found much use for it, though I still have it on a shelf in the basement somewhere.

City System is great if you are playing in Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms or looking to borrow some Waterdeep info for a major city in your campaign.

I don't think either will really help you map and create a city of your own to any great degree unless you want to see the City System as an example.

 

[devilbat]

I bought Cities of mystery back when I felt I had to but every Realms book or box, TSR published. I think it's the one box set I never, ever used.

City system, on the other hand, was fairly usefull. I may have to purchase the PDF for un upcoming Waterdeep campaign.

 

[Silveras]

As mentioned, Cities of Mystery had fold-up buildings. Also included were 8 (?) 11x17 gridded mapsheets in 25mm scale, with spaces to put the buildings on. Of the two, it was the more generic (and, as mentioned, had nothing to do with FR as I recall).

The World of Greyhawk modules relating to the Falcon had additional map sheets and buildings.

As PDFs, the value of the fold-up buildings goes way downhill.

The random encounters in City System make decent "street scene" dressing, though, in almost any big city.

For a more generic 3rd Edition book on making your own cities, I'd recommend CityWorks from Fantasy Flight Games.

You can also get a lot of mileage out of the Web Enhancement for the DMG, parts of the DMG II, and Races of Destiny, from Wizards of the Coast.

Lastly, A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe has good content on european medieval-feel cities.

 

[EdL]

If you can find a copy, 'Cities' by Midkemia Press is what you're looking for.

 

[diaglo]

Flying Buffalo had some city books. you might want to see if you can find them on ebay.