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City-State of the Invincible Overlord
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<blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 2323221" data-attributes="member: 25619"><p><strong>City State of the Invincible Overlord</strong></p><p></p><p>This is a guide book to an old-school, 1st Edition style fantasy city. It dates back to the original by Judges Guild in the 1970s. I think it's a whole lot of fun, and will work as a solid city setting for years of a campaign.</p><p></p><p>WHAT IT IS</p><p></p><p>A very well-described, complete fantasy city that's almost completely setting neutral -- it will fit any "normal" campaign.</p><p></p><p>You want a place PC's can teleport in and out of? Got it. You want a prison? Got it, with rules on crime and punishment, and lots of original, well-written NPC prisoners, ranging from the hapless innocents to two different serial killers. Heck, there's even two layers of the pit in the prison -- the layer for people they don't like at all, and the layer for people they like even less than that.</p><p></p><p>Power Level: What I think is reasonable for a tough city. 1st level PCs can live here, but they'd better watch themselves. 5th level PCs, who after all can cast fireball, are not as special in the City State as they'd be back in the village -- in the big pond, Fireball don't impress people much. 10th level PC's are majorly powerful here -- powerful enough to get in major trouble, perhaps.</p><p></p><p>Feel: Standard fantasy. Nothing weird about it. Torches, not Continual Light, level of magic usage.</p><p></p><p>It's basically a Lawful Evil/Lawful Neutral place, but the author didn't confuse evil with insane. It's Lawful Evil in a Roman Empire or mafia way, not a totalitarian or psycho "let's kill everyone and end the world" way. It's the kind of Lawful Evil that says slavery is fine, secret police kill anybody who messes where they shouldn't, and both good and evil temples are tolerated as long as they don't interfer with profits -- we're all hear to make money and visit the brothels, not to slaughter everyone for the devil. </p><p></p><p></p><p>HOW TO USE IT</p><p></p><p>This is supposed to be set in the Wilderlands. But the City-State will fit in ANY standard fantasy setting -- Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, other random stuff, or homebrew. That's what I like about it, but others will complain it doesn't have enough weird different stuff. Nope, the city is not inhabited by zombie clockworks from another dimension . . . I'm glad it's not.</p><p></p><p>It's even geography neutral. It's supposed to be a sea port, but you can use it as an inland river port without even needing a new map. The climate is generic too.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I'm going to use it as Rel Astra, Greyhawk's second biggest city. What do I need to do to port it to Greyhawk? Hmmm:</p><p>- Ignore the Invincible Overlord himself. Use the Greyhawk dude, Drax the Invulnerable, who is different in being undead (oooh funky!), but otherwise is pretty similar in his Lawful Evil but not a jerk about it stance. Definitely keep the Invincible Overlord's advisors and secret police. They rock.</p><p>- Change the names of some of the Gods. Two of the gods here are from real world mythology -- Thoth from the Egyptian pantheon and Odin from the Norse pantheon -- so you may already be using them. There's less than a half dozen gods here anyhow.</p><p>- Change a table about where random people hail from originally.</p><p>That's it. Literally, it's almost all portable, not setting specific. To me, that's great.</p><p></p><p>PLUS</p><p></p><p>Lots of good details. Very little setting specific clutter -- perfectly portable. Interesting enough that I stayed up until about 2 am reading it the day I got it.</p><p></p><p>MINUS</p><p></p><p>Two minor things that annoy me slightly: the city wall seems to be missing on the port side on the map and some of the brothel/inn stuff gets repetitive.</p><p></p><p>THINGS THAT DON'T BOTHER ME BUT MIGHT BOTHER YOU:</p><p></p><p>- The portability and lack of setting specific info might make it boringly generic to some gamers. It's a question of taste.</p><p>- Some gamers might be offended that there's slavery here, and that there's a lot of mild non-detailed sex references, for instance there's a Naughty Nanny service. That is to say, it's no worse than PG-13, but Parental Guidance for gamers under 13 (OK, maybe under 11) might not be a bad idea.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="haakon1, post: 2323221, member: 25619"] [b]City State of the Invincible Overlord[/b] This is a guide book to an old-school, 1st Edition style fantasy city. It dates back to the original by Judges Guild in the 1970s. I think it's a whole lot of fun, and will work as a solid city setting for years of a campaign. WHAT IT IS A very well-described, complete fantasy city that's almost completely setting neutral -- it will fit any "normal" campaign. You want a place PC's can teleport in and out of? Got it. You want a prison? Got it, with rules on crime and punishment, and lots of original, well-written NPC prisoners, ranging from the hapless innocents to two different serial killers. Heck, there's even two layers of the pit in the prison -- the layer for people they don't like at all, and the layer for people they like even less than that. Power Level: What I think is reasonable for a tough city. 1st level PCs can live here, but they'd better watch themselves. 5th level PCs, who after all can cast fireball, are not as special in the City State as they'd be back in the village -- in the big pond, Fireball don't impress people much. 10th level PC's are majorly powerful here -- powerful enough to get in major trouble, perhaps. Feel: Standard fantasy. Nothing weird about it. Torches, not Continual Light, level of magic usage. It's basically a Lawful Evil/Lawful Neutral place, but the author didn't confuse evil with insane. It's Lawful Evil in a Roman Empire or mafia way, not a totalitarian or psycho "let's kill everyone and end the world" way. It's the kind of Lawful Evil that says slavery is fine, secret police kill anybody who messes where they shouldn't, and both good and evil temples are tolerated as long as they don't interfer with profits -- we're all hear to make money and visit the brothels, not to slaughter everyone for the devil. HOW TO USE IT This is supposed to be set in the Wilderlands. But the City-State will fit in ANY standard fantasy setting -- Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, other random stuff, or homebrew. That's what I like about it, but others will complain it doesn't have enough weird different stuff. Nope, the city is not inhabited by zombie clockworks from another dimension . . . I'm glad it's not. It's even geography neutral. It's supposed to be a sea port, but you can use it as an inland river port without even needing a new map. The climate is generic too. Personally, I'm going to use it as Rel Astra, Greyhawk's second biggest city. What do I need to do to port it to Greyhawk? Hmmm: - Ignore the Invincible Overlord himself. Use the Greyhawk dude, Drax the Invulnerable, who is different in being undead (oooh funky!), but otherwise is pretty similar in his Lawful Evil but not a jerk about it stance. Definitely keep the Invincible Overlord's advisors and secret police. They rock. - Change the names of some of the Gods. Two of the gods here are from real world mythology -- Thoth from the Egyptian pantheon and Odin from the Norse pantheon -- so you may already be using them. There's less than a half dozen gods here anyhow. - Change a table about where random people hail from originally. That's it. Literally, it's almost all portable, not setting specific. To me, that's great. PLUS Lots of good details. Very little setting specific clutter -- perfectly portable. Interesting enough that I stayed up until about 2 am reading it the day I got it. MINUS Two minor things that annoy me slightly: the city wall seems to be missing on the port side on the map and some of the brothel/inn stuff gets repetitive. THINGS THAT DON'T BOTHER ME BUT MIGHT BOTHER YOU: - The portability and lack of setting specific info might make it boringly generic to some gamers. It's a question of taste. - Some gamers might be offended that there's slavery here, and that there's a lot of mild non-detailed sex references, for instance there's a Naughty Nanny service. That is to say, it's no worse than PG-13, but Parental Guidance for gamers under 13 (OK, maybe under 11) might not be a bad idea. [/QUOTE]
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