City State of the Invincible Overlord

[PatrickLawinger]

And don't forget to take a stroll through the Park of Obscene Statues!

I really enjoyed the original and, even though I have only flipped through the new version on my lunch hour, I can heartily recommend it anyone who wants to DM city adventures. Why does Karugy One-Eye hate elves and halflings? I don't know, are YOU gonna ask him?

-Dave

In a game I once played in, an elven PC walked in and asked. Ol' One-Eye crit him in the first blow, the DM's description, "Coldwind runs screaming from the shop, blood gushing through a huge tear in his robes, chased by a cursing madman with a large axe." The game got more entertaining that night. It is still one of my favorite shops, probably due to that night.

The DM that ran that game used CSIO as his city of choice in virtually any setting. Desert? Sure, he just described sandy streets and adobe buildings. Basically, he changed things liberally but used the maps, and shops, as a starting point.

I am just happy that people like the book, it was a great deal of work.

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[RFisher]

This is one of those products that sounds really appealling, but that I'm convinced I couldn't do it justice if I tried to use it.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

You'll never know unless you try. Give it a whirl; your players will never know what you've changed and what you've made up on the fly (due to an empty area or a mistake).

 

[Treebore]

This is one of those products that sounds really appealling, but that I'm convinced I couldn't do it justice if I tried to use it.

Do you have any idea how many adventures I ran where I KNOW I didn't do it justice? But you know what, the important things is my players had fun/a blast and came back for more.

Buy it, if nothing else running this will help you learn to do adventures justice in the future.

 

[grodog]

Sounds good, Patrick---I've seen this in stores, haven't had a chance to check it out at all. Perhaps next weekend at DunDraCon.

Thanks for starting this thread, John, and for everyone else chiming in too---I've never been a big JG fan, but will definitely give CSIO a gander.

 

[Patman21967]

I was introduced into gaming in 1981 by some guys who worked for JG in Texas. First game we played was Empire of the Petal Throne, the original, and i remember they were contibutors to Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor and other modules. My favorites were the "portals" series and Treasure Vaults of Lindoran.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Its definitely worth pickng up if you have any need for a major city but don't like the idea of using a strict predefined city. One of the things I really like about it is that it comes with a map, a general idea of what everything is like, but allows the GM to fill in the details. It really is the best of both worlds in the sense that the creators have done all the really hard nuts and bolts work of a city but it allows the GM to do lots of the fun creative work on their own schedule filling in their own extras and plotlines.

 

[Treebore]

Its definitely worth pickng up if you have any need for a major city but don't like the idea of using a strict predefined city. One of the things I really like about it is that it comes with a map, a general idea of what everything is like, but allows the GM to fill in the details. It really is the best of both worlds in the sense that the creators have done all the really hard nuts and bolts work of a city but it allows the GM to do lots of the fun creative work on their own schedule filling in their own extras and plotlines.

Exactly, which is why I said it is so easily protable in my review. you ignore the history as written and make up your own. The NPC's and adventure hooks are useable in anyones setting.

 

[MonsterMash]

Its definitely worth pickng up if you have any need for a major city but don't like the idea of using a strict predefined city. One of the things I really like about it is that it comes with a map, a general idea of what everything is like, but allows the GM to fill in the details. It really is the best of both worlds in the sense that the creators have done all the really hard nuts and bolts work of a city but it allows the GM to do lots of the fun creative work on their own schedule filling in their own extras and plotlines.

Like all the Judges Guild stuff over the years there is the usual statement that the Judge (DM) should feel free to change, add or remove things to make it work for their game.

 

[S'mon]

MonsterMash showed me his copy last night - I thought it looked awesome! Lovely clean layout, nice art, a city map that for once actually looked a bit like an ancient-medieval city rather than a suburb of Detroit (or Milton Keynes); and I especially loved the 1e-style stat blocks; I expected it would just say Exp-3 or whatever for most NPCs, in fact it appeared to give most of the info a GM would likely need in play. The NPC level distribution looked nice, mostly low-level NPC & PC class but few Com-1s. There weren't the hordes of troll & lizardman NPCs I was expecting from things I'd heard about the original. One thing I commented on was that CSIO presents a 'lawful-evil' society as normal & functional, the home base for adventures rather than a target to destroy. Admittedly this is not Nazi-level LE, more Lankhmar (the TSR version of Lankhmar was rather cleaned up from Leiber's original), Imperial Rome or Renaissance Italy LE.