Cityscape ToC

Aus_Snow · Nov 4, 2006

. . . is available, so they say. However, I'm having difficulty downloading it - what's up with that? Anyone else having the same problem?

Looking forward to perusing this, when it *is* available.

NiTessine · Nov 4, 2006

It's weird to see them still posting the early previews when I bought my book last Monday.

Aus_Snow · Nov 4, 2006

NiTessine said:
It's weird to see them still posting the early previews when I bought my book last Monday.

Oh! Is it actually available?

Ack. My bad. I really haven't been keeping up with the release schedule, I guess.

NiTessine · Nov 4, 2006

Aus_Snow said:
Oh! Is it actually available?

Ack. My bad. I really haven't been keeping up with the release schedule, I guess.

Technically, I don't think it's officially released yet, but there exist gaming stores that view the official release dates more as suggestions.

I've also got Dragonmarked and Scourge of the Howling Horde.

Aus_Snow · Nov 4, 2006

NiTessine said:
Technically, I don't think it's officially released yet, but there exist gaming stores that view the official release dates more as suggestions.

I've also got Dragonmarked and Scourge of the Howling Horde.

Ah.

Well, that's OK then. Except. . .

Bad! Bad stores!

I feel better now.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Nov 4, 2006

NiTessine said:
Technically, I don't think it's officially released yet, but there exist gaming stores that view the official release dates more as suggestions.

I've also got Dragonmarked and Scourge of the Howling Horde.

Tease! Post at least a quickie evaluation of the book!

NiTessine · Nov 4, 2006

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Tease! Post at least a quickie evaluation of the book!

I like it.

A couple of things I especially found to my liking are the expanded rules for the Favoured in Guild feat from Dungeon Master's Guide II (now renamed just Favoured). More guilds, organizations and churches of different types for your characters to belong to and derive minor mechanical bonuses from.

There's a fair amount of statblocks for common city encounters; city guardsmen, thugs, minor criminal types, craftsmen, politicians, and a couple of more fleshed-out NPC villains for urban environments.

Random mysterious stranger tables.

A sidebar on taverns.

The book is actually pretty light on the usual suspects of crunch - only 14 feats, eight spells, three warlock invocations, I think three prestige classes (Ebonmar Infiltrator, Crimson Scourge, Urban Savant), and six monsters. The siege golem, cesspit ooze, pest swarm and zeitgeist (an urban fey that reflects the mood of the citizenry) look like I might use them some day.

Finally, there's a chapter on running city adventures that I haven't yet had time to read but looks promising.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Nov 4, 2006

Huh, if ever there was a book to give a full treatment to the urban ranger or druid, I would have expected Cityscape to be it. Still, this looks like good stuff.

The only downside is that it sounds like it doesn't cover a lot of the city stuff from Races of Destiny, which I REALLY didn't want to buy ...

Nightfall · Nov 4, 2006

Actually I consider it an upside since I disliked Races of Destiny and not having it here makes me feel fuzzy inside.

Greg K · Nov 4, 2006

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Huh, if ever there was a book to give a full treatment to the urban ranger or druid, I would have expected Cityscape to be it. Still, this looks like good stuff.

Agreed. I thought that they could also have done an urban barbarian and an urban spirit shaman as well. Not that these are hard to do, but some DMs refuse to allow non WOTC marerial.