Bluffside: City on the Edge

[Messageboard Golem]

Nearly 200 years after its founding, Bluffside looks over the bay below, confident in its power; power brought about from adamantine. The otherworldly metal permeates the surrounding mountains, brought to the world nearly 200,000 years ago by an asteroid that tore a portal between the prime material plane and the plane of shadow and nearly annihilated the world's civilizations. The ruins here are alive with the ghosts of the ancients.

Bluffside uses Sordadon, a city floating in the bay below, to dominate sea trade in the area. The connection between Bluffside and Sordadon is through Undercity, a vast series of underground passageways that extend off into the unknown. From temples to mining to adventuring, Bluffside has something for every adventurer.

Bluffside is the first in our line of truly modular sourcebooks. Designed to be easily dropped into any middle fantasy setting, Bluffside promises to become the center of your campaign. Over 100 places of interest (POI), along with corresponding NPCs and adventure hooks, give life to the city and allow the GM to jump right in.

But that's not all! Bluffside also contains new races, prestige classes, magical items, spells, feats, domains, and much, much more. Jammed packed and ready to run, Bluffside will change the way all city sourcebooks will be made in the future.

 

[Psion]

Bluffside: City on the Edge

As with nautical supplements, portable city setting supplements seems to be a hotly contested niche in the d20 market. Green Ronin recently released their Freeport setting book, Affinity Games' flagship product is their Windhaven setting, and Mongoose has a series of small city supplements in their Cities of Fantasy Series. One strong contender in this category is the long awaited Bluffside city setting by Thunderhead Games.

A First Look

Bluffside: City on the Edge is a 144 page perfect bound softcover book priced at $22.95, packaged with a black-and-white fold-out map. This is fairly inexpensive for the content.

The cover of the book is color, with a deep blue background. The front has a picture giving an angled view showing the various components of the city of Bluffside nestled in the mountains, in a cliff over a bay.

The interior art features artists such as Storn Cook, Brandt Peters, Ben McSweeny, Brannon Hall, Shane Coppage, Steve Redinger, Steve Cook, Neal Webb, and V. Shane. The character depictions are rather good, though much of the art is rather small.

The cartography has two different approaches. The area maps are nicely done, but obviously Campaign Cartographer 2 maps. The city maps are black and white and rather small; in addition to the fold out map, there are maps of each section included in the book that point out keyed areas of interest. I think that it would have been very helpful if the maps were larger; as it is, it seems as if the GM would have problems quickly denoting and defining locales in his game on the small maps.

The interior layout uses a dense body text font and an even denser font for the NPC statistics in the back. The layout is a little uncomfortable, but is rather compact and efficient. The border uses a collage of gears, runes, and a pair of hands casting a spell. There is one place in the book where the gears are used as a backdrop to white text, which really doesn't work since there are white parts to the gears that make the white text difficult to read.

A Deeper Look

Bluffside is a ready to use city setting for fantasy campaigns. Bluffside: City on the Edge city book is divided into 12 chapters and 10 appendices. Some of the chapters are rather small, occupying a page or less.

Bluffside itself is a city situated atop some seaside cliffs nestled in the mountains. It is sort of a "boom town": the major point of commerce for Bluffside is the mining and trade of Adamantine mined in the surrounding mountains.

In addition to its major focus as a mining town, Bluffside is also an archeological site of sorts. There are ruins and strange artifacts, such as a huge obsidian tower that repels sorcerers, and an ancient palace that still has unexplored passages warded by ancient magic. In the middle of the town are the ruins of an ancient civilization.

In fact, Bluffside started as sort of an archeological site. Millennia ago, the location of Bluffside was a city called Sem La Vah, belonging to a race of being called Barrokks. The Barrokks fossils reveal that they where physically larger than humans, but no fossils of immature Barrokks have been found. The city was wiped out by an asteroid impact that started an ice age and caused massive migrations. Bluffside was rediscovered after recent returning to the region by these other races, and the asteroid strike left the surrounding mountains rich with adamantium. It is uncertain how the ruins of Sem La Vah survived at all.

Bluffside moves cargo to and from the bay below by means of water-wheel powered elevators built by a race of gnomes native to the region called steam gnomes. There is a second city in the harbor called Sordadon that acts as Bluffside's port.

Bluffside is divided into a number of sections or districts:
- Old City: The Old City grew up around the archeological sites in the palace and the ruins of Sem La Vah. The palace eventually became a center of government, and the old city became home to several other important governmental buildings such as embassies and the courts.
- The Mining District: The mining district is flush against the nearest mountains, and is the center of mining and smelting activity in Bluffside.
- Temple District: The temple district is the home to various religions in Bluffside. The temple district was one of the last districts to spring up; houses of worship sprung up in here after the rest of the space in the valley were occupied. No one else wanted this particular tract of land due to the many crevasses in it. Though most of the keyed locations are houses of worship, there are some other interesting sites such as the Dine Divine, where religious arguments are settled in a ring, and the Street of Sorrows that is full of street preachers and various other loons.
- The Wizard District: The obsidian tower that is located here became an object of fascination for many curious wizards. Soon they became a power in Bluffside and a district dominated by wizards sprung up around it. However, sorcerers are technically barred from the district; the tower's magical effects on sorcerers only encouraged wizards to formalize their disdain for sorcerers and made it into law.
- New City: The New City is built over the tunnels that eventually lead down to the docks in the bay below. As Bluffside became more commerce oriented, this district became more important. The New City is possibly the most mercantile of the districts of Bluffside.
- The Ruins: Right in the middle of the city is a section of haunted ruins that have never been totally excavated or explored. This should serve as ripe material for would-be adventurers.
- The Undercity: In addition to the various districts of the city, there is an extensive tunnel system that exists underneath the outer portions of the city (beneath all the above sections but the old city and the ruins. The undercity has its own sections, including the sewers, the warehouse district near the docks, a seedy marketplace, a secret arena, mines, and the dwarven halls.
- Sordadon: Sordadon is a floating city in the bay, and has districts all its own. It was originally built around shipwrecks of ships that had been smashed against the reefs, but eventually grew into a whole floating city.

The majority of the first half of the book is consumed describing these districts and certain points of interest therein. There are over 100 points of interest all told. Each point of interest is keyed on a GMs version of the map in the book, and has details on the establishment, its owner and regular visitors, as well as 1 or 2 plot seeds for each location.

The NPCs referenced in the front have full d20 system stat blocks in the appendices. Appendix 1 has statistics for named NPCs and appendix 3 contains statistics for guards.

The plot seeds are worded as adventure ideas that concern the establishment and not really hooks. For many of the adventure seeds, the GM will have to come up with the reason that the characters would get involved. Most of the seeds are pretty good, though some of them got re-used a bit. For example, there are lots of plot seeds involving the PCs getting in trouble with the guards in the mining district when for some reason or another they get caught with adamantine on them.

In addition to various locales that make up the city, the first half of the book discusses such things as the power groups and guilds in Bluffside. The government in Bluffside is by a council called The Five. The five are a group of nobles with conflicting motives. Their motives are described in enough depth that the GM can use it to start adventures portraying the power struggles of these individuals.

In addition to the Five, there are also other power groups. The Adamantine Security Council is a covert organization that works on detecting and averting threats to the adamantine trade. The Wizard Council is an insular group that typically doesn't care too much what happens so long as it doesn't concern them. The Vault is the authority over the adamantine trade. Religion and adventurer groups are also mentioned as being influential.

Brief sections in the first part of the book describe areas surrounding Bluffside as the deities of Bluffside. The deities are rather generic in nature, having no listed alignment and generic names like "the teacher." It should be fairly straightforward to substitute deities from your own campaign world if that is what you desire.

The last part of the book is almost entirely rules material. As already mentioned, the first and third appendix contains detailed stat blocks for characters that the PCs are likely to run up against.

The second appendix introduces some new creatures one might encounter in and around Bluffside. Examples include the adamantine golem and the giant cave spider.

Appendix 4 contains new character races. The new races include:
- Dragori: A humanoid reptilian race occupying the sands to the south of Bluffside.
- Nevae: A race that is essentially a crossbreed between surface and drow elves, with a few of the drow elf racial traits.
- Sel'varahn: A race of naturally inquisitive aquatic humanoids.
- Sixam Iuena: An aloof race of winged humanoids. A troupe of sixams permanently watches over Bluffside as repayment for a founder of the city who saved the life of a sixam.
- Steam Gnome: A gnome subrace that resides in the steam tunnels below Bluffside.

Appendix 5 contains new prestige classes:
- Bluffside mountain ranger (10 levels): The Bluffside mountain ranger is specialized in defense in the mountainous regions surrounding Bluffside. Bluffside was once raided by a horde of goblinoids; the Bluffside mountain rangers exist to ensure that does not happen again.
- Cat burglar (5 levels): A city going thief, specializing in getting around and breaking and entering.
- Explorer (10 levels): This prestige class is specialized in the discovery of new lands and new peoples. Class abilities include interfacing with new peoples and withstanding the elements.
- Tunnel Fighters (10 levels): Tunnel fighters are specialized in confronting threats in the tunnels and caverns beneath Bluffside.

Appendix 6 contains new spells. Many of the new spells pertain to new domains introduced in the book, like detect precious ore (part of the mining domain) and improved discern location (part of the history domain.)

Appendix 7 contains new conventional items that can be had in Bluffside. This includes items such as Nevae glasses (protect wearer from bright light) and stethoscopes.

Appendix 8 contains new magic items. Included items include the gauntlet of ice (protects wearer from cold and casts cone of cold) and the daemonforge (a supernatural furnace linked to the elemental plane of fire.)

Appendix 9 contains new feats. New feats include intuitive knowledge (each time you take it, you get 4 skill points) and spellmarking (another variant of a magic tattoo inscribing feat.)

Appendix 10 contains new domains used by deities herein. The new domains are: Affliction, combat, emotion, entropy, flight, history, ice, invention, mining, nature, peace, shadow, skullduggery, undeath, and weather. While many of these are decent, I question the existence of some that closely parallel existing domains in the PH such as combat and nature. Also, the domain ability for the entropy domain is outright missing.

Conclusion

Overall, Bluffside looks like a very interesting city to play a game in. In a way, it reminds me of the games of my youth. We had a city on a cliff (called Weyrcliff, which we liberally robbed from Fantasy Hero) next to a sea with a chain of islands created by an ancient asteroid strike. Nostalgia aside, the book has plenty of useful and interesting locations, many opportunities for adventures, accompanied by a rich cache of NPCs that would be a boon to any city campaign. This is all accompanied by a useful selection of rules material that helps support the unique aspects of the city.

My main detractions of the book are the editorial mistakes and the maps. There were a few telling glitches like some NPCs that don't have all of their class levels accounted for and the missing domain description for entropy could be a hindrance to someone who wants to use the provided deities. I also felt the maps needed to be larger so the GM could make out more details.

Overall, if you are shopping for a new city to add to your campaign, Bluffside should be a strong contender.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Entropy info...

Once per day, you can issue a Touch of Entropy. This touch attack delivers
2/level + your charisma modifier points of damage. You must specify the
amount
of damage intended before you attack. The target gets no save. This damage

can be spread across multiple targets.

 

[Psion]

Thanks, Hal! BTW, when you guys start putting errata up on your page, with the new pages here we can link to your errata here as well.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

No problem Psion, and we are working an an errata page as we speak and of course we will let you link it here. Also for more maps and other cool stuff check out the vault for all the extra goodies including bigger .jpg's of the maps of Bluffside and more stuff coming....new POI's more NPC's, places left out but not forgotten, it can be quite the valuable treasure trove....go to http://thunderheadgames.com and click on the vault section then put in the info from the cover page and BLAMO extra stuff!

Enjoy.
Hal

 

[Warchild]

Bluffside: City on the Edge

This is not a playtest or gift review.
Given that the specific material has already been outlined in previous reviews, i'll keep my comments focused on what i think are its major selling points and its detractions.

Cost:
At 22.95 and 144 pages, this product costs about 16 cents a page. Thats pretty good. Honestly, given the quality of the material, i would have payed more for this book. Don't tell THG, though.

Art:
This is probably the most dissappointing part of the book for me. The art was see-saw, some good, some bad. Mostly small and out of the way. No real problem for me there. The real problem comes with the map(s). The main pullout map is not in color, nor does it show the distinguishing landmarks that exist outside the city and are detailed in the book. Thus it has no legends chart. All in all, i was not real happy with it. The problem is alleviated somewhat by each chapter having its own close up map of the sector in the book. However, the Undercity map has locations depicted in the book that are left out. Though its not hard to guess or just place them where you wish, it was still somewhat irratating.

Material:
-Setting Material:
The breadth of this city setting is nothing short of amazing. This city has so many details and possibilites that can stem from not just the city itself but the surounding areas that are also discussed. You could run several campaigns and not use all of the ideas presented in this book. In fact, despite the books modular attributes, you could run use this city as your setting and not NEED to drop it into a published or homebrew setting!
Being that as it may, i found the TONE of the city to be quite modular. My personal campaign style is more Thieves World/Cyberpunkish and i had no problem with fitting that attitude in with the material in this book. THG has put a lot of hard work into creating a supplement that can truly be used for YOUR style of play, whatever that is, and that hard work is very easy to see.

-Religion:
NOTE: I have edited this portion of my review because, in retrospect, i don't believe i gave the idea due consideration.

Mechanics:
-Races: The races presented in this book are very interesting and will act as catalysts to interesting characters and story lines. However a couple of them suffer from some questionable ECL ratings.
The Dargori-Nen race with its overall bonus to stats, free feat, extra attack, and natural armor almost certaintly should be a +1 ECL.
The Sixam (winged creatures) also should probably be a +1 or be scaled down a bit.
The Dragori-Sah seem possibly underpowered!
-Prestige Classes:
The Bluffside Ranger is too powerful, as no Ranger would ever NOT want to be one. The requirements are decent, but the overall abilities they receive are a bit too much.
The Cat Burglar is also suspect in that it allows characters to get Skill Mastery by 6th level. However the abilities as a whole are not overpowering.
Th Explorer gives 2 excellent saves, full combat, 4 skill points, and many many extra abilities and most DM's will probably need to adjust it if he expects game balance.
The Tunnel Fighter is good example of a prestige class that is powerful, but focused in abilites that the class represents.
As a whole, these prestige classes are not blantantly power-ups, but are powerful enough for the DM to take a hard look at them before he okays their use.
-Feats:
The feats are a highlight. Quite interesting and balanced. Spellmarking is a nice version of tatoo magic.
-Spells:
There is a nice list of spells, with Snip (a spell that cuts bow strings) probably being my favorite.
-Magic Items:
The magic items are interesting and give flavor to the city setting.
-Domains:
Most of these are okay, if made somewhat redundant (Combat and Peace for example)by existing Domains or are more powerful than the others and even outshine(such as Skullduggery being nearly the same but better than their Shadow domain) other new domains they have created.

Cost: +.5 (a real decent price)
Art: -.5 (so-so art and some map problems)
Material: +.5 (Extremly cool setting with so many possibilities)
Mechanics -1 (has iffy race ECL's, a bit too much power in the prestige classes, and some mismatched Domains)
Rating: 4.5 rating. Those of you who do not mind the mechanic problems/extra work, will want to rate this review higher than a 4.5 for its source material! This rating began at a 5.

Overall
What a great book. Though it has only small flaws, they are a few of them, and that prevented me from giving this book a perfect score. Even though i found myself wanting to give it the 5. That being said, this plug-in city supplement is the best of the bunch i have seen from any D20 company and the countless campaign ideas, intrigues, npc's, and flavor that this book provides is superb.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Bluffside: City On The Edge, is a city sourcebook introducing the metropolis of Bluffside, a coastal city lying at the top of some very high cliffs and surrounded by high mountains on its landward side.

At $22.95 for 144 pages, this is slightly less than standard pricing for a book of its size and type, and makes good use of space with small margins, and a compact font size in a three-column page layout. In line with the number of artists used, the art is varied, ranging from poor to superb, though mainly average. The front cover shows a useful visual of Bluffside from the air. Maps are average with some having scale and no compass direction whilst others have compass direction and no scale. I was less than impressed by the look of the pull-out city map in the back which is a two-tone brown with no more information on it than the visual on the front cover. It does make it a map that can be given to players without fear of giving away any information about the city. The writing quality is pretty average whilst editing is mediocre, with regular minor mistakes.

After a brief introduction, there is a short 4-page history of Bluffside. Essentially, Bluffside was once the centre of an ancient civilisation. Some sort of cataclysm destroyed the civilisation. It is thought that protective magics managed to allow many of the buildings to partially survive the cataclysm. The ruined city was discovered thousands of years later by archaeologists. Adamantine was also discovered and a boom town developed alongside the archaeological work. An underground complex beneath the city, two new races (the winged Sixams and the tinkering Steam Gnomes), and organised goblinoids in the surrounding high mountains all had an impact on the development of the new settlement as it expanded. As trade grew more important, the inhabitants developed a floating port at the bottom of the high cliffs with access to Bluffside (at the top of the cliffs) through a series of caves and tunnels winding up through the cliffs. These caves and tunnels eventually became places to live in and of themselves - thus was born Bluffside's Undercity. The settlement continued to expand as adamantine mining became more important until Bluffside became a city and then a metropolis. Now, the adamantine has nearly run out, horrific creatures have begun to emerge from underground, and the secrets of the ancient ruins that form the basis of Bluffside are close to being unlocked.

After a brief timeline and some information on the population of Bluffside, there are a couple of pages devoted to the power structure of Bluffside. Five 'houses' rule Bluffside (known as "The Five"), each vying with the other for control of the dwindling adamantine, which holds the key to power in the city. The importance of the Wizards Council, the temples of Bluffside, the Vault (an organisation which wields law on the floating port), and the Adventurers Guild are also discussed in elation to the balance of power.

The next 62 pages are devoted to a gazetteer of Bluffside, actually split into eight districts:
* Old City - site of the original Bluffside settlement, archaeological hub, and somewhat decadent centre where the homes of The Five are located.
* New City - standing at the entrance to the underground complex, New City is the hub of trade and adventuring.
* Mining District - centre for adamantine mining-related industrial organisations.
* Temple District - all the temples of Bluffside's deities plus areas where philosophical disagreements between priests can be fought out - literally.
* Military District - farming, shops and barracks.
* Wizard District - centred around a mysterious tower from the ancient civilisation that came before Bluffside, the tower repulses sorcerers but wizards are fascinated by it and dedicate their time to unlocking its secrets.
* Undercity - tunnels, catacombs, warehouses and sewers leading down to the base of the cliffs where trade goods are brought up to Bluffside via Sordadon. Also includes shops, an illegal fighting arena, dwarven halls and some inns - including the high-class establishment called "Mr.Rat" with their speciality - Rat On A Stick (a bargain at only 5 copper).
* Sordadon - the floating port at the base of the cliffs of Bluffside proper. Built on the top of half-sunken wrecks stuck on the coral reefs beneath, the port is dissected by canals allowing boats access throughout the area. The area is the main location for criminal organisations.
Each location is defined by type (e.g. shop/private estate/inn/recreation, etc.), there is a description of the establishment, brief stats and description on the owner or prominent resident, and there are a couple of adventure hooks for the location.

The sourcebook goes on to outline the guilds and secret societies of Bluffside, including the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, the Archaeological Guild, the two main criminal organisations (the Hammers & the Golden Sabres) that vie with each other for control of Bluffsides underworld, as well as a standard Thieves Guild.

Five pages are dedicated to areas outside Bluffside. These include the outlying farmlands, the mountain ranges that surround Bluffside on three sides, important rivers, and the nearby Coldwind Forest. There is also a brief section of areas further afield, such as the Sea of Ishmark, the Dragon Sands (a desert area far to the south of Bluffside) and the Steam Gnome civilisations far beneath Bluffside.

A 3-page section on religion in Bluffside covers the domains, weapons, symbols and portfolio of the main deities of Bluffside, along with a description of the gods' interests and influences.

Appendix 1: NPCs, gives full stats on all the NPCs mentioned in the previous gazetteer section and covers 30 pages. Appendix 2: Creatures, offers seven new monsters. Appendix 3: Guards, gives stats for guards relevant to various locations in Bluffside. Appendix 4: Races, introduces five new races:
* Dragori - reptilian race of the Dragon Sands with three sub-types
* Nevae - half-drow, half-surface elf
* Sel'varahn - aquatic humanoids who employ a special ritual that allows them to breathe air for extended periods
* Sixam Ieuna - winged humanoids with severe claustrophobia
* Steam Gnomes - industrialised serious gnomes
Appendix 5: Prestige Classes, covers the Bluffside Mountain Ranger, Cat Burglar, Explorer, and Tunnel Fighter prestige classes. Appendix 6: Spells, gives over 20 new spells including such Bluffside-orientated spells as date item, detect precious ore, and perpetual motion, as well as more generalised spells such as plague and summon shadows. Appendix 7: Equipment, offers a few pieces of equipment original to the setting such as Dragori tail spikes, Nevae glasses (to protect their eyes from glare), and miner's helmet. Appendix 8: Magical Items, gives seven new magical items (including a more powerful version of nevae glasses and a Sixam Sky-Charm, which helps Sixam to temporarily resist the effects of their clautrophobia). Appendix 9: Feats, gives 6 new feats including aerial combat and swim-by attack. Appendix 10: Domains, lists 15 new domains - affliction, combat, emotion, entropy, flight, history, ice, invention, mining, nature, peace, shadow, skullduggery, undeath, and weather. There is also an index.

Thunderhead Games extras on the website currently include all district maps, ten undercity location maps, religious symbols of Bluffside deities, and more. These can be accessed in the Vault section of the website by entering the password and Login ID from your copy of the book. The Bluffside (fan-based) netbook has a few new Places Of Interest in development with the promise of more to come.

Conclusion:
This is an unusual city setting, with some interesting premises behind the layout that should provide the basis for some great adventure development. The back of the book outlines the major web support planned for the book, with areas where fans can develop their own characters, trade routes and adventures for Bluffside, as well as downloadable maps and extras from Thunderhead Games. One of the things I liked about Bluffside was that there was not so much information in here that it became overwhelming - there is certainly room for development along the lines that Thunderhead are proposing, yet there is enough in the sourcebook to use when running adventures based in the city. The adventure hooks for each location provided more than enough possible ideas to begin to develop an adventure or two located in Bluffside. The Appendices rounded out the information provided in the gazetteer.

I was a bit disappointed with the quality of writing and the somewhat anachronistic feel to some of the locations. Though NPCs had a full physical description and stats in the appendix, there was a lack of roleplaying information for many, probably due to space restrictions. I was also a little disappointed that there were not more adventure ideas linked to the sections on guilds and secret societies - indeed, that there was not more in these sections (though I'm sure that we'll see these areas developed in the netbook being proposed by Thunderhead).

As has been noted by Psion, the maps, editing and missing information in the book leave a lot to be desired but overall the adventure ideas, the feel of the city, and the copious NPC information raise this product above the average. The downloads and (proposed) errata on Thunderheads website help to balance out the negatives mentioned above.

 

[enrious]

DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Thunderhead Games although I am part of the volunteer team that is working on the Bluffside Netbook. I have not received any form of compensation from Thunderhead Games or it's employees.


Overview:

Bluffside: City on the Edge is a 144 page softcover book from Thunderhead Games that seeks to give you a modular city-state for inclusion in virtually every campaign world. This is THG's second product, following an adventure, Interludes: Brief Expeditions.
The book's cover is a color depiction of the city, as if someone were flying over the water and approaching the city. The interior is black and white, with the illustrations varied and covering every level of quality. Small, quarter page maps of the various districts are included at the beginning of each city district. These are well done and complement the enclosed poster map of the city.

The poster map is a fold out map that shows an overhead view of the city of Bluffside, except for the floating district of Sordadon and the Undercity. There are no markings on the map, not even labels of the various city districts. I found that the lack of labeling can make it difficult to place the various districts in relation to one another when reading the district descriptions. The only method I have found to identify the various districts on the map is to look for the maps in the book and compare the shape to the one on the map. The only reason I can think for not including any labels is to limit spoilers for the players, but this increases the workload for the DM and would have been easily corrected with a small legend map included in the book or available online.

The book itself devotes one page to the Title page, one to the Table of Contents, two and a half pages to an Index, one page to the OGL, and one page for an advertisement for their next release.

Every page of game content is set in three columns, with the font used being somewhat condensed but not too small to make reading difficult.. There is a border running along the edges of page, but coupled with the layout and font used, doesn't give me the impression of wasted space.


In Detail:

Bluffside: City on the Edge is divided into 12 Chapters and 10 Appendices. Many of the chapters are half a page or less in length, making chapter count somewhat misleading. The chapters deal with issues such as the history, politics, religion, and influential organizations of Bluffside. Naturally they also detail the city's eight districts and Places of Interest (POI) within each district.. The Appendices cover most of the rules related information, such as the NPCs of the city, new monsters, prestige classes, races, spells and so on.

A typical POI details the name of the location, it's corresponding number on the district map, what type of location it is (for example Inn/Tavern), a general description of the POI (this would likely be information PCs could gather), the name of the owner or prominent resident along with a small box that details this person's vital stats, and a description of the owner or prominent resident that is information that the players will likely not know right away. Every POI contains one or two story hooks that utilize information presented in the description to give the DM a few adventure ideas based on the location or owner of the location. Overall these hooks are very well done and can be the sources of entire adventures themselves, with a given POI being able to provide a mini-series campaign on it's own.. Another nice feature of the POIs is that most of them contain a list of regulars, NPCs detailed elsewhere in the book that can often be found in the POI. An example of this is detailing a tavern and listing a few of the prominent NPCs that can be found in the tavern conducting various activities. This was a nice touch and helped make the city feel interconnected while also providing the DM with even more ideas to create adventures..

The chapters on politics and organizations in Bluffside introduce the movers and shakers within Bluffside, from the ruling council to rival thieves guilds. The politics introduced seemed very plausible to me and I think could be the focus of adventure arcs or even campaigns just by themselves.

There is a small (five page) chapter on the area surrounding Bluffside which covers enough of the surrounding area and details the external challenges facing Bluffside. This could be used as is or removed for your campaign without any real effect on Bluffside.

There is a chapter on the various religions in Bluffside that detail a fairly generic pantheon of deities in Bluffside; again these can be used as is or removed without having any major impact on Bluffside in your campaign.

The appendices contain information and stats for the major NPCs, prestige classes, spells, monsters, races, city guards, equipment, magical items, feats, and priest domains. While I think most of the appendices are useful, I don't think you'd have any problems throwing them out if you felt they were unbalanced or didn't fit in with your campaign. The only exception would be the NPC list, but this should be useable in almost any campaign without modification.


What I liked about Bluffside:

I really like the modular nature of Bluffside. You can use individual POIs for your own city, develop any of the eight districts into their own independent cities, or just use Bluffside in it's entirety. All of this can be done with little effort.

The POIs are almost all very well done and give an enormous amount of ideas for your campaign. The level of detail is high and gives you prices for shops or restaurants, things that are going on behind the scenes, and how that affects others in the city.

The very nature of Bluffside makes it easy to run all sorts of campaigns, or use elements of different styles in the same campaign. It would be very easy to run themed campaigns based on nautical adventures, dungeon delving, merchant trading, political intrigue, wilderness exploring, or a combination of all of the above. If you want to do it, then Bluffside probably has it already waiting for you.

There is a lot of information available in the book. With the text density being very high, I don't have the same sort of feeling when looking at some other publishers that have a lot of white space, large fonts, and spaced out sections. Not only is there a lot of content, almost all of it is good quality and easy to use.

The index was very detailed and should make other publishers take note. With a book that covers such a vast amount of information, this was very much appreciated.


What I didn't like about Bluffside:

The layout was extremely confusing and disorganized. Chapters tended to have wildly variant sizes - from a couple of paragraphs to several pages which made paragraph divisions somewhat weaker than normal. The secret societies and guilds, the movers and shakers if you will, were divided and placed at opposite ends of the book instead of in the Power Structure chapter, where I feel they belong. I also feel that putting many of the organizations after the city description makes many of the POI's confusing without needless page flipping.

The map was unlabeled, with not even names by the districts. Aside from the lack of names, it was also a odd shade of brown. Everything. Not a stitch of black ink to be found. Very odd, to say the least.
Every owner or prominent resident of a POI has a small box detailing a few abilities. I don't see the logic in this, as they are utterly useless in combat and don't help to aid role-playing the NPC. I'd much prefer that the text be replaced with a few personality traits or characteristics that could be used to quickly role-play the NPC.
The Dragori race seem important enough to warrant an embassy in Bluffside and an entry in the appendix at the back, but are apparently not important enough to justify even a passing mention in the history of Bluffside or anywhere else for that matter. It would be like writing the history of Washington D.C. and giving info on the English Embassy, but without ever explaining the impact that England had on the U.S. It could logically (though erroneously) concluded that England had a small impact on the U.S.' history.


Summary:

I had mixed feelings reading Bluffside. It was a difficult read for me the first time, because the organization of information was very confusing. It was hard for me to get a feel where city districts were located, what the impact each had on each other, and so on. After the second read, things made more sense and started to flow together much better, enabling the good things about Bluffside to come through.
I think that if you can overcome the organization and layout of Bluffside (and the map, have to take a final shot at the map) then you will likely find a very useable city that can fit in almost anywhere.

Overall, I would say that Bluffside is worth the money spent on it if you are looking for a generic city that is adaptable to any locale. In fact, I would have paid a little more for it to have been produced as a hardback product.


Open Content Used:

None, aside from the SRD and from THG's earlier adventure, Interludes.


Reviewer's Notes:

You've no doubt noticed almost nothing regarding game mechanics. This is because I feel Bluffside's strength lies not with the mechanics but rather with the role-playing elements. Thus I chose to focus on the parts of Bluffside that I feel matter most to the consumer.

I mentioned in the Disclaimer the Bluffside Netbook. This is in line with Thunderhead Games' interest in making available enhancements to their products via their website. I think this is a great initiative and wish more companies were willing to do this.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This review is for Bluffside: City on the Edge from Thunderhead Games. Bluffside is a 144-page city sourcebook for the d20 system that retails for $22.95. I'm going to be up front and say that this book should be part of everyone's collection. The level of detail that went into this product is outstanding.
Bluffside opens with a brief introduction followed by a complete background history that begins with the discovery of the ruins that would later form the heart of Bluffside. One of the qualities that make this city so interesting is the mystique of mystery behind the ruins, especially the Obsidian Tower. The maps of the city are well illustrated and are an asset when reading the book. Every location is keyed to a map for easy reference. Another positive feature is that each location has an NPC associated with it and usually at least one adventure hook.

Bluffside isn't just a book about buildings, it also details the guilds, secret societies, races, religions and nearby communities that influence the people who reside here. Appendix one is filled with the stats and descriptions of all of the NPCs mentioned throughout the book. This is a very comprehensive collection that has many uses outside of this particular book. Appendix two is a collection of new creatures that can be encountered in or around Bluffside. New races make up appendix four starting with the Dragori, a desert dwelling reptilian race. All of the races look balanced and useable without modifications. The remaining appendices showcase new prestige classes, feats, spells, equipment and magical items. All have use beyond Bluffside.

In conclusion, Bluffside: City on the Edge is a fantastic book. The information in this book alone can keep a GM busy for a very long time. It is worth every penny to buy this book. I cannot recommend this book enough. Run out and buy a copy right now! You won't be disappointed.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.

 

[trancejeremy]

Bluffside is a city book from Thunderhead games (now part of Mystic Eye Games). It's 144 pages, with a soft glossy cover and pullout map, and priced at $22.95 (I got mine on ebay for $13, though I've been outbid several times previously for it, usually it goes for around $15.)

It's supposed to be a generic city, usuable in just about any fantasy/d20 setting, but it's really not very generic. The basic premise was that civilization was destroyed by a meteor a while ago, and Bluffside is built on the crater of where the meteor hit. It's also got Dragon-people, Winged Folk, and other non-standard fantasy races, like steam gnomes and merfolk that have a funny name. So generic it's not.

That said, it's a very interesting city. The first ten or so pages gives it's background. In what is probably a first in fantasy, Bluffside was founded by a group of archaeologists, originally as a base camp to explore some ancient ruins. Part of these ruins became part of Bluffside, but the rest was built up like a normal town.

As the name implies, it's on a bluffside, at the top of a 500 foot cliff. There's also a city at the bottom of the cliff, floating on the water there. There's a passage up thanks to the work of the Steam Gnomes.

The bulk of the book (well, 60 pages or so) describes city locations. These have a standard 'stat block', which tell you the name, a description, info about the owner, a list of regulards, and generally 2 adventure hooks. Places that are restaurants also generally have a menu (a very atmospheric touch)

Most of these are fairly interesting places. Not too goofy, no hippies or ananchoristic jokes (like found in a certain other city book), though some of the business names are puns ("The Rested Pipe", "Inn Between", "Take a Bow"). It's not overly seedy, but then again, it's not really meant to be. Though there is a thieves' guild and a couple other criminal syndicates, including one very nasty bunch (slavers).

There's about 4 pages devoted to the area outside of Bluffside. This is quite specific and almost certainly won't be suitable for most campaigns.

As mentioned, there are several new races introduced. Stats and full write ups are given. The most interesting (I think) are the Nevae, which are essentialy elf cross breeds. Half drow elf, half some other sort of elf.

There's a few prestige classes, all of which are good, actually. The Cat Burglar, Bluffside Ranger, Explorer, and Tunnel Fighter. There's also some spells, equipment, and magic items. Nothing really exciting, but nothing bad, either.

30 pages of the book is devoted to stats for prominent NPCs. This is quite nice. One of the downsides of d20 is that characters tend to be stat heavy. So it's nice they've done the work for you. (You can also reuse these stats should you ever need a quick NPC). Although I haven't gone over it with a fine tooth comb, I did notice a few problems in the stats. But nothing too hideous.

All in all, this is a pretty neat book. My only real complaints is that contrary to the text on the back of the cover, it really can't "be easily dropped into any d20 fantasy campaigns", since it introduces several new races, some gods, and the whole concept of Bluffside is reliant on a fairly specific history.

The back cover also promises huge amounts of web support on their web site, but this seems to have been extremely optimistic. Going there, there is only a few incomplete items.

There's not a lot of art and most is of average to poor quality, but the maps are extremely well done (albeit small). They look handdrawn (which I like) and are very well drawn. Much better than the computer-ish looking ones from some companies where all the buildings are exactly carbon copies of each other (The map of the area surrounding Bluffside does look computer generated, though not super fake looking). The pullout map is at a very large scale, so it's probably not all that useful without squinting or a magnifying glass. You might want to make enlargements with a photocopier.

B+. Would be higher if it didn't claim to be completely generic (or plug into any campaign).

Quite honestly, while I liked having full stats for so many of the NPCs, I would also have liked more details about their personality.

I also have to wonder why there is so much blank space between the various sub-cities or districts of Bluffside. While not quite as silly as having an entire island empty (as in another city sourcebook from another company), there is a lot of space that would almost certainly be used by people in a real city.

But, these are fairly minor problems. And it's pokemon free!