Best City books?

[jessemock]

Got to be Shelzar, for the sex and wordplay: the authours managed to make the sex both over-the-top and matter-of-fact, while at the same time they threw in a number of jokes in Arabic. Amazing.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Definitely Freeport as far as I'm concerned. Their web support is pretty good as well.

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)

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

You know, I've still never seen anything as good as Free City of Haven, a (very) old product from the 1st edition days (though not technically D&D due to TSR's not allowing 3rd party products at that time). Of course, it was never easy to find even then, but it had great NPC's, immensely detailed neighborhoods, and wonderful plot hooks throughout.

 

[der_kluge]

A lot of people use both the Freeport book, and the Bluffside book together in tandem. Freeport also makes a good substitute for Sordadon - the port city at the base of Bluffside.

 

[Psion]

A lot of people use both the Freeport book, and the Bluffside book together in tandem. Freeport also makes a good substitute for Sordadon - the port city at the base of Bluffside.

Er?

I'm not seeing that...

 

[der_kluge]

No? There are a lot of similarities between Freeport and Sordadon. Port town, rough scallywags all running around. Lots of backstabbing (literal and figurative). What's not to see there?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

My picks:

Bluffside - in my opinion, one of the best all-around fantasy RPG cities. Fun and imaginative.

Hollowfaust - this is one of the more interesting fantasy RPG cities I've seen. A city run by necromancers - and it's not evil. In fact, the citizens actually have it pretty good. A very interesting setting. This could make for both a good place to set city adventures, and a very unusual choice for PCs to use as a home base.

City of Splendors - This is a boxed set for Al Qadim. It's a very richly detailed city for an Arabian Nights-style campaign. One of my favorites.

Free City of Haven - one of the earliest RPG cities. Tough to find. It's a gem, though. Very detailed, and "feels" like a living city. The downside, besides its scarcity, is that it was never finished. The material that was finished, though, is more than enough for an entire city on its own.

City State of the Invincible Overlord - the granddaddy of RPG cities. Very, very quirky. Very fun, very dangerous.

 

[Arnwyn]

City of Splendors - This is a boxed set for Al Qadim. It's a very richly detailed city for an Arabian Nights-style campaign. One of my favorites.

[nitpick] Actually, the name is City of Delights. City of Splendors is the FR box detailing Waterdeep. [/nitpick]

City of Delights was a great set.

 

[Psion]

No? There are a lot of similarities between Freeport and Sordadon. Port town, rough scallywags all running around. Lots of backstabbing (literal and figurative). What's not to see there?

Perhaps that I see the serpents teeth isle as an important backdrop of the freeport setting, and for Freeports backstory to make sense, it has to be some distance from established major cities like Bluffside.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

[nitpick] Actually, the name is City of Delights. City of Splendors is the FR box detailing Waterdeep. [/nitpick]

City of Delights was a great set.

Ooops. My bad. I don't even have City of Splendors. I definitely have City of Delights, which is what I was talking about.