The Shackled City
Written by Jesse Decker, James Jacobs, Tito Leati, David Noonan, Christopher Perkins, and Chris Thomasson
Published by Piazo
www.paizo.com
ISBN: 0-9770071-0-3
416 full color pages
8-panel map
24-page full color map booklet
$59.99
The Shackled City originally ran as an “adventure path” in the pages of Dungeon magazine. It started off prior to the switch of the D&D engine from 3.0 to 3.5, ending in 3.5. It included eleven separate adventurers originally. Fast forward a few months and Piazo had the great idea to combine and update the adventure path to 3.5, throw in another adventure, bring all the bits together, provide more information, and overall, make it easier to run as a campaign. It assumes ownership of the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide.
In terms of pricing, it’s hard to say where this falls. Normally, one can look at the competition and get an idea of what’s overpriced and what’s average. Due to the page size, full color slick glossed pages and pull out maps, that’s not quite possible here. The Iron Kingdoms World Guide is 400 pages and $39.99, but it’s also in black and white and only has one map pull out. Arcana Evolved is 432 pages, most of it full color, and runs for $49.99, but no pull out maps at all. The big boy, the World’s Largest Dungeon, has lots of map handouts, is in black and white, almost twice the page count, but runs for $99.95.
I see it this way. Most 32-page adventurers run $10.99 and are usually black and white. This is over ten times that’s size but not ten times that price. Good deal.
For those who’ve never looked over the adventure path while it was running in Dungeon magazine, it follows the high standards of Wizards of the Coast. The pages are like faded parchment with a touch of sand coloration. Chains are used as outer borders, the upper part holding a steel plate with the chapter number and the bottom with a ring in chains with the page number and name of section. For example, you might be in the appendix as noted at top and in the new monster section as noted at the bottom.
Individuals like Ramon Perez, Jeff Carlisle, Stephen Daniele, Chuck Lukacs, Jim Zubkavich and others handle interior art. Chris West handles the cartography. Interior art includes full-page illustration between each chapter, as well as illustrations of the important NPCs, both allies and enemies. The cover illustration is an example of the art found within for those wondering, as it’s one of the pieces originally used in the magazine.
I never ran the original Shackled City as written. I used a few high level NPCs, used the city of Cauldron as a stop off point, yanked a few interesting maps, and liberally borrowed from it. Having said that, I’m not qualified to know how many changes have been made to the adventurers or how much has been added or changed. I do know that they’ve added another adventure, and organized the book in a way that the original adventurers, by their very monthly nature, could never have been done.
The updated material is organized and allows the GM to have the whole thing in his hands at once. The book starts off with an introduction, and unlike some, this introduction is a chapter in and of itself. It includes details on the plot, a cast of characters with abbreviated information, DC checks for finding information out about the villains, overview of Cauldron city, which includes over forty keyed locations for the characters to explore. This doesn’t count details on the potential ally and enemy groups that the party may encounter, such as the Striders of Fharlanghn, or the Chisel.
There is a faded map similar to the old ones found in products like White Plume Mountain showing the areas around Cauldron. It’s a nice touch to the old adventurers. A full color map also covers the region about Cauldron. This includes a dragon’s lair, the terrors of the Demonskar, the town or Redgorge, and the ruined city of Shatterhorn, among others. In many ways, it’s a mini-campaign. In addition, numerous sidebars have been added, Behind the Scenes, to help the GM know what’s coming up in the next adventure, and what key NPCs are doing during their ‘downtime’.
About the only thing off on this organization, is that character creation suggestions are put in the end of the book. Note that GMs should read this section because it mentions how deadly these adventurers are and that characters should be made of slightly sterner stuff than typical characters and includes ideas on how to beef up characters, as well. This includes new traits, similar to those found in Unearthed Arcana, but the drawbacks aren’t as harsh. You can have players with Wyrm Blood, giving them a bonus to save against acid effects, swim checks, Listen and Spot checks, with a penalty on their reflex saves. You can be born into nobility, gaining addition funds and a bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks but suffering a penalty to Disguise rolls. It’s a great section but should be in the front of the book when talking about how the character classes fit.
The book isn’t perfect. There are a few typos here and there, for example, chapter four, Zenith Trajectory is missing the recommended level for the characters (it’s 6th). The organization while good could be better. For example, when a standard monster from the Monster Manual is called out in the text of the adventure, the page number is also included. When terrain situations are included, they note where in the Dungeon Master’s Guide you should look it up. In addition, while there are handouts, there’s no easy way to get to them. The pages aren’t perforated so you’ll either have to hand copy them or put the book on the old copier. Having those as another removable hand out, like the maps, would’ve been ideal. While the five pages of ads are bothersome, more bothersome is the lack of an index. In a book this size, especially an adventure, an index should be mandatory.
When unique creatures with templates or level advancement are introduced, as well as creatures not found in the Monster Manual, they refer you to appendix four, which runs from 346 to 397. Having all the monster stats in one place isn’t a bad thing. Rather, it saves space by not reprinting the game stats over and over again. However, having the reference to appendix four and the page number would’ve been better. To compensate, I’m reading ahead and noting on a separate piece of paper what pages I’ll need for that game.
The adventures range in quality. Some of them are traditional dungeon crawls, others dealing with evacuation of Cauldron. Some simply seem like high-powered slugfests. I have no problem with dungeon crawls. They are part of the D&D culture. The dungeon here range from gnome ruins to kopru ruins. To ruined cities to hidden lairs. None of them seem like they’re dungeon crawls just for the sake of dungeon crawls.
But what about the whole package? It looks to work surprisingly well. The characters become involved with Cauldron city in chapter one, Life’s Bazaar, to discover and stop a ring of kidnappings through the city. This chapter sets up the party to learn of several factions right away. They discover the thieves guild, the Last Laugh, meet with a priest of the church of Saint Cuthbert, encounter the Striders of Fharlanghn, and get to explore an abandoned gnome city. This is one of the stronger chapters in the book as it gives the characters a chance to get their feet wet without putting them in over their heads. It also gives the hints of the larger web being weaved around the city of Cauldron, as even if successful, the players will discover latter, that not everything is as it seems.
From there, the players will go on to fight goblinoids, hunt down wands that have been stolen, discover that they’re rivals of the Stromblades, the children of the aristocracy, fight against mad umber hulks, and eventually, fight against Adimarchus,a demon prince. There is a touch of railroading here and there, as is the case with the fight against Adimarchus. See, if the player’s don’t finish off the demon lord, he’ll just keep sending villains against the party.
The GM has a lot of options open to him. In the introduction for example, while looking at the nearby environs of Cauldron, you’ll find that a group of necromancer and mercenaries has made a haunted village their home. These Necrocants aren’t detailed and are left for the GM to add or leave out as he sees fit. Many of the NPCs have potential to become more than just walk on characters depending on the actions of the players.
For example, Jil, a skilled rogue who the party meets at the start of the campaign, may find one of the players interesting as she “likes to live dangerously.” Others like Shensen, a half-drow with a bit of monk, bard, and druid in her, can become potent allies both in combat, and in politics when dealing with the Striders.
Some sections are also fairly free form where the GM is given the agenda of the NPCs, the NPCs outlook, potential outcomes, and advice on how to handle the players. This allows the GM to heavily customize events to fit her own style and insure that each GM running the Shackled City, will have unique encounters. For example, if the party wipes out the Stormblades as opposed to just being rivals, their parents, nobles themselves, will not be too willing to help the players, and even when things are going badly, will not look fondly upon them.
The potential follow up offers some ideas for players who’ve finished the adventure path. For example, they could hunt down the Ebon Traid, an organization that played a role in this series, and is featured in Dungeon’s new Age of Worms adventure path. They could have been chosen to lead Cauldron in the future. They may have made enemies of another demon lord, Graz’zt. A lot of options are included.
The adventure takes place in and around Cauldron. It does not include any world notes or integration notes but does use the default gods of Greyhawk making including it in Oerth easy. Because the environments around Cauldron are not that far, and some of the adventurers actually take place in different planes, most GMs shouldn’t have any issues including Cauldron in their own campaign. Some, like Eberron, should be more adjusted in terms of NPC make up and technology assumptions, if the Eberron feel is to be maintained, unless the GM simply decides that the rails and flying ships haven’t made it to where Cauldron is located.
In running the adventure, a lot of room is given to how to handle the higher-level opponents. See, high-level combat requires some quick thinking. It requires proper management of resources. It requires a lot of paper work in keeping track of what bonuses affect which abilities. A lot of that leg work is done for the players, noting what NPCs will do if given the chance to buff themselves up, how they’ll use the environment to their advantage, how multiple enemies will work together, and how they recognize and prioritize their enemies. It’s good not only for the adventure, but also for examples that the GM should borrow liberally from for his own campaigns.
Another strong point of the book is that it’s “official”. I know this doesn’t mean much to some, but it allows Piazo to use things like Beholders or yuan ti. It also lets them have access to feats, prestige classes, and core classes that can only be found in Wizards of the Coast books, as well as monsters from resources like the Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio. The important thing is that all game mechanics are included in the appendix so that the reader doesn’t need those books.
What about those not interested in a massive adventure? There are some new game mechanics here. For example, appendix one has new monsters like the crystal snake, a construct in old yuan-ti ruins, or the lichfiend, a template for outsiders. There are also some new spells and feats, but most of the feats are culled from other sources. For example, the Draconomicon and Libris Mortis both have feats yanked from them like Quicken Breath or Improved Paralysis.
Two prestige classes also join the ranks with the high handcrafter and pathwarden, both five level PrCs, detailed here. This includes general background, abilities, and lore for the PrC, including different DC checks for those with the proper knowledge skill. These are all nice additions, but the bulk of the adventure is concerned with being a full campaign length adventure and these are merely extras.
If you're looking for a one book solution for a 1st to 20th level campaign, Shackled City provides is perfect for you.
Message Board Discussion for those who might've missed it with some q&a.
