Best City books?

[Nightfall]

Wow, a couple votes for my home town! Coolness. Go Shelzar!

 

[Greybar]

Good thread!

What about for a city under evil control? I've got two such cities IMC that eventually I'll need to flesh out. I have (parts of) CSIO that may be a reasonable match.

john

 

[Mystery Man]

City of Splendors followed by Skullport, then Freeport.

and don't forget Volo's Guide to Waterdeep.

 

[Ron]

I see a lot of folks seem to love Freeport. I picked up the original 3 modules (or, adventures to you newbies) based on the ton of rave reviews that I saw online, and I was underwhelmed.

Is the city book itself better than the original 3 adventures?

Otherwise, I'd vote for the original Waterdeep that came out in the late 80s. Lankhmar is good, too. Nothing in 3E has blown me away yet, but I have not bought a lot of non WotC or Kenzer material (Geanavue is pretty good)

Very curious opinion. Although I agree with your opinion about Lankhmar, I found the original Waterdeep the worst city supplement I ever read. Not only, it is inconsistent, as it was based in rather ridiculous assumptions to justify the maintainance of the city, but also uninspiring and poorly written. May I ask what you found in it?

 

[barsoomcore]

Okay, what's up with this? Nobody even MENTIONS Citybook? The greatest aid to an urban campaign ever created?

Does nobody know about Citybook? Really?

I don't know how my campaigns would have survived without it.

 

[Greybar]

I have one of the Citybooks (Butcher, Baker, ...) , and while it is a good supplement for a half-dozen locations, it is not the "complete city in a bottle" that I think some people might be looking for in this thread.

john

 

[Shadowdancer]

Okay, what's up with this? Nobody even MENTIONS Citybook? The greatest aid to an urban campaign ever created?

Does nobody know about Citybook? Really?

I don't know how my campaigns would have survived without it.

When I ran my epic urban, all-thieves campaign in 1E, I used Lankmar as the basic city, and filled it with almost all of the entries from almost all of the Citybooks. There's no way I could have run that campaign without the Citybooks. The one player I still game with who was in that campaign still talks about some of those establishments, and that's more than 15 years ago.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Wow, a couple votes for my home town! Coolness. Go Shelzar!

I can't wait to run an urban campaign set in Shelzar, and using the material from BoEF. Those two products are just made for each other.

 

[pogre]

Okay, what's up with this? Nobody even MENTIONS Citybook? The greatest aid to an urban campaign ever created?

Does nobody know about Citybook? Really?

I don't know how my campaigns would have survived without it.

I need to drag those out - I have them all and I really liked the first few. It appears the Citybooks are still available through the publisher Flying Buffalo.

 

[Psion]

I have some citybooks (4, I think.) It has some killer ideas in it. Some are a little too exotic or high-tech for me, but some are great. I especially like the ghostly inn. There is a lot of plot potential there.