City of Splendors: Waterdeep

[qstor]

How are they starting to run out of stuff to make books about? There are huge swathes of the Realms as yet uncovered by any 3E book, and thats just in Faerun. Add in Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Maztica and the Utter East and they have a decades worth of regional sourcebooks alone. Thats not counting possibly doing some books that tie in to the novel line, and I'm not talking adventures. I mean a sourcebook for example, that details the Year of Rogue Dragons trilogy, stats for the characters, the plot, locations, crunch, what effect it has had on the Realms, a complete timeline of the sequence of events, updated maps and stats for anywhere that has changed (like if Baldur's Gate was half burned to the ground, lets have a revised city map and new population figure, plus what major NPC's died etc).

What I'd like to see them do though is adventures again. Either a mega-adventure each year, or better yet an anthology of short adventures by various authors each year, like get 6 good realms authors (Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Sean K. Reynolds, James Wyatt would all be good imho) to each write a 24 page adventure (with a good spread of locations, antagonists and levels. Could even have them on a similar theme so they can be linked to form a campaign or used as standalones), bind those together into a 160 page hardback (which leaves 16 pages for the contents page, requisite crunch etc). I'd buy one of those a year in a heartbeat.

I think Eberron is the *new thing* at WotC and apart one or two books a year, I don't see the Realms getting much more RPG stuff.

Mike

 

[philreed]

EBAY!!

That's where I got mine. The original City of Splendors boxed set is AMAZING. You want maps? It has enough maps to choke a horse. It's not the easiest to get or cheapest of the old boxed sets but well worth it.

I remember a friend who had that set covered one of his basement walls one night while we were playing in Waterdeep. I think he finally took the maps down because we were too busy looking at them to play.

There were (are) a hell of a lot of maps in that box.

 

[Sammael]

I think Eberron is the *new thing* at WotC and apart one or two books a year, I don't see the Realms getting much more RPG stuff.

FR continues at 3 books a year, I think. Next year, we'll see Lost Empires, Waterdeep, and another not yet announced regional sourcebook in the Fall.

 

[3catcircus]

I remember a friend who had that set covered one of his basement walls one night while we were playing in Waterdeep. I think he finally took the maps down because we were too busy looking at them to play.

There were (are) a hell of a lot of maps in that box.

Which is better? The 1st edition City System boxed set or the 2nd edition City of Splendors boxed set?

 

[KaintheSeeker]

I REALLY would like a region book for the Dalelands/Myth Drannor since most of my games start there or in Cormyr.

 

[Psion]

NO MAPS!?!?
I'm hoping they just left this out of the description.

Judging from Sharn...

 

[jester47]

With all the crunch (the "extensive appendix" line scares me), there will hardly be any space for the city itself. I fear for this book.

Well most of the crunch is in the appendix, you can bet that the appendix will not be more than 40 pages, or it would be the dominant part of the book and not an appendix. That leaves the length of Serpent Kingdoms for the rest of the material. The laws, history, monsters, arcane schools, armed forces, guilds, nobility, prestige classes specific to the city and culture and such I do not see taking up more than 60 pages. So that leaves 60 pages for location descriptions at least. But the whole section of location descriptions in FRCS is about 40 pages, so I think they can easily get all the information from

Waterdeep and the North (barring the out of the city info)
City System
City of Splendors
Volo's Guide to waterdeep

into one 160 page book.

 

[jester47]

How are they starting to run out of stuff to make books about? There are huge swathes of the Realms as yet uncovered by any 3E book, and thats just in Faerun.

I was not talking about FR books. I was talking about the "complete" series and the "races of" series. This has filled their book a month line for quite some time, and after that, for generic D&D they will start having to get creative. It would be easier to put out more CS based stuff. However that might not be the best business decision.

Add in Zakhara, Kara-Tur, Maztica and the Utter East and they have a decades worth of regional sourcebooks alone.

We will probably not see any of the "tacked on" lands in this edition. WotC has said as much.

I would like them to cover the well known areas again. Sword Coast, The North (areas not covered by the Silver Marches), Western Hearlands, Heartlands (Cormyr, Dalelands,Cormanthyr, Sembia), Bloodstone Lands (Vassa, Dammara), the vast (ravens bluff area), and Moonsea. The Glacier and Anarouch would be nice too.

Edit: Oh I forgot about Mulhorand, Uther, Chessenta and those areas. They really need a book for those.

After that, I don't think I would be interested in anything else!

Seems that the trend is to get spots covered in books that cover other things. Like Serpent Kingdoms covered the serpent hills, and the old empires book has a section on it covering the rest of the High Forest. Eventually they will cover enough I will stop buying!

Aaron.

 

[Hand of Evil]

So I was looking at the listing for Waterdeep and noticed something, or rather the lack thereof.
NO MAPS!?!?
I'm hoping they just left this out of the description.

Maps are becoming a thing of the past, they can make money from the use them as freebee for buying Dungeon or Dragon mag or use them as web enhancement. Cuts down on cost or at least puts the cost of printing them to another party.

 

[Davelozzi]

I am really looking forward to this book. I can not wait for it to be out. I fully intend to get it signed by Ed at GenCon.

Keep in mind that Ed is writing this one, Eric Boyd is. Still, it'll be heavily based on his material, and he could still sign it regardless.

Which is better? The 1st edition City System boxed set or the 2nd edition City of Splendors boxed set?

City of Splendors is much better. It contains several books of info, and plenty of maps to use it. City System is mostly just a series of maps showing the city in exrutiating detail, with a short booklet (stapled with no cover) of info, if I remember correctly.