Geanavue: The Stones of Peace

[Messageboard Golem]

The Geanavue book is a detailed city setting to be used as seed and background material for further adventures. Here are some of the features the book provides: The history of the Basalt Throne and the Emerald Eagle, the common name for the government and ruling house of the city respectively. A detailed accounting of life in Geanvaue including local laws, customs, festivals, commerce and more. Information on the local guilds and families of power, the holy houses and not-so-holy houses. All this exquisite detail is tied together with adventure outlines, rumors and legends as only Ed Greenwood can do!

 

[Sayburr]

Warning: this review is full of spoilers.

Geanavue is a 8 1/2 x 11 inch paperback, perfect bound book. It is written by WOTC alum and FR author Ed Greenwood with the help of John O'Neil. It contains 176 pages of information on Geanavue and with some information on Loona, Geanavue's port that is not part of the city proper, a city map, and 32 additional pages that make up the RumorQuest (TM) encounter system. The suggested price is $24.95 US. The front cover sports an wonderful painting by Matt Mitchell of two giants battling in front of the city with an adventuring party looking to join in the fray. The back cover shows the location of Geanavue within the Kalamar stetting and describes the book. The inside front cover and inside back cover are advertisements for other Kalamar products.

The Book:
The text on Geanavue is written in a small font, two 3 1/16 inch columns with 60 lines per column. It has a border around each page that matches the Kalamar Setting Book. Comparing this to the PHB and to RR, an official standard and a d20 standard I think Geanavue stands up well. PHB has two 3 3/16 inch columns and 67 lines per page while RR has two 2 7/8 inch columns and 64 lines per page. Flipping though the book shows several wonderful B&W illustrations to enhance the text.

The contents of the book are as follows:

Pages 1-4 are the title page, table of contents and an overview of the city.

Pages 5-12 are Chapter 1 giving an overview of life in Geanavue. It describes a typical day for a typical citizen, talks about the attitudes of the folk, Rituals observed in the city, products produced, an overview on city intrigue, overview on wizards in the city and how the city folk feel about them, and an overview on adventurers and how the city folk feel about them.

Pages 13-20 are Chapter 2 and talk about selected Attractions. It describes Castle Geana, complete with legends, admission guidelines for visitors, and history. It describes other attractions like the Tower of Time (large public clock), Door of Dreams (the most popular inn), Muratuur's Welcome (a less routy inn), Feleatur's Falconfly (Inn of Ill repute), overview of shops and vendors, and the sick horse fountain.

Pages 21-26 are Chapter 3 and talk about the Basalt Throne. It details the rule and succession of the throne, talks about the castle staff, describes the currency used in Geanavue, taxation in the city policing the city, and enemies of the city. I especially liked that the tax collectors wear fox masks in order to hide their appearance to protect them from reprisals.

Pages 27-36 make up Chapter 4, the Emerald Eagle. This describes the 'house of Geana' and the city's ruling family. It starts out with a history of the rulers of Geanavue and describes each in detail, ending with the currently ruler, Haar. With Haar being old and growing febal there is another section about rumors and "pretenders to the throne" with descriptions of several pretenders who have a loyal following. It also talks briefly about foes of the Eagle (most of the city's guilds and the Talasaaran family).

Pages 37-38 make up Chapter 5, the Castle Codex. It talks about the laws in Geanavue and is full of political laws that were made. Such as a law that effectively bars all Talasaara from ever openly ruling the city or having any vote or veto over Geanavses policy.

Pages 39-54 make up Chapter 6, the guilds. The chapter gives general guidelines for guilds and then gives in-depth information on 10 of them. The fellowship of Builders, Fellowship of Butchers and Tarrow Candlers (with one particularly gruesome sentence that describes how some of the poor of the city will pay to have their deceased "smoke cured" until they can raise enough money to burry them), Fellowship of Weavers and Woolfolk, Forgers and Smelters Guild, Guild of Carters, Craters and Coopers, Guild of Clock workers and Artificers, Guild of Importers and Exotics, Guild of Jewelers and Polishers, Guild of Stonemasons and Miners, and Guild of Waggoners and Wheelwrights. These guilds are well written with an overview, Guildmaster information, Headquarters location, description of the badge, and other notes that are full of plot hooks. These guilds look ready to be dropped into any campaign.

Pages 55-80 are chapter 7 and describes the Talasaara, known by the common folk as the Blackflames. The chapter describes their powers and special privileges, Etiquette for addressing one of these powerful people, notes on playing a Talasaaran, and then an indepth roster of NPC Blackflames. Each of the 19 family groups are given a Badge, motto, seat, interests, current head of the family, current heir, prominent family members, and supporting families. Reading this section reminded me of "The Godfather" movies. A lot of intrigue.

Pages 81-88 make up chapter 8, the dangerously wealthy. Not only is the city ruled by the Geana families and the guilds and the Blackflames but there are several others who are politically active in the city. This section describes these people and also describes the "supporting families" (those with power but not to the degree of the Talasaara).

Pages 89-102 make up chapter 9, the holy houses. Great detail is given to the description of several churches and temples, including leaders, altars and rituals. While these are Kalamar specific, I believe it would be easy to change these to fit within any world.

Pages 102-116 are the chapter called The Promenade. This section is sort of a guidebook of the different sections of Geanavue. It describes naming conventions and what a person would see if they were walking though the streets. Here is a small sample of this "tour" so you can get a feel for what it is, "Most visitors to Geanavue head west from the Loona Dolaar toward the Castle, so lets do the same. The Launee Marr, the Dealoot Marr and Uriin's Maar offer a natural (and therefore always busy) route." FYI: "Marr" is the Reanaarian word for "Street". This is a very interesting read and I liked this section very much.

Pages 117-124, Undercity Features, are chapter 11. This talks about actual underground things like the sewer system and locations. A lot of detail is given to these locations and I can see adventures spending a great deal of time down there.

Pages 125-132 is called "Geanavue in the Shadows" and talks about rogues, the watch, arrests, lockups, prisoner treatment and magistrates. It talks about current crime and how the common folk of the city feel about crime.

Pages 133-136 is a brief description of Loona, the dockside town to the east of the walled city of Geanavue. Where Geanavue is for the most part a "lawful" town, Loona is quite chaotic and I wish more detail were given of the town. Loona would be the Yang to Geanavue's Yin and as such I felt there should have been more detail. Not that what is given is bad, but four pages is not near enough.

Pages 137-140 talks about Adventures Arising and give some example plot hooks for the city.

Pages 141-146 is Appendix A and is a short story set in Geanavue.

Pages 147-148 describes two new spells. Sarmar's Coin Beacon (wiz 4) is a rare spell that allows a mage to mark anything metal and can then trace the movements of someone carrying the item. Taatiir's Tearing Talons (Wiz 9) is another rare spell, which bring into being large claws that can be controlled by the caster.

Pages 149-166 gives stat blocks for each NPC mentioned in the book.

Pages 167-176 is a very in-depth glossary of names and locations, including where on the map they can be found and where in the book they are mentioned. Very nicely done and valuable.


The Map:
This is one of the most beautiful city maps I have ever seen in a product. It is bound into the book and is perforated for removal. I had no problems removing the map even though I was afraid it would not tear out properly. The map unfolds into a 19.5 x 30" city map laid out in a portrait format. The front is a four-color city map with all the streets labeled. Buildings are color coded for houses of worship, noble houses, high houses, guild headquarters, inns, and shops. The names of important families are marked right on the map. Shops are coded with letters (ie. BA-Bathers, LW-Lawyers) and this is where I found a problem with this map. The first code I looked for, "CB", is not in the map key, nor is "WV" and this is in one small section of the map. The bottom seven inches consists of the map key, shops and service letter codes, (ie. BA-Bathers, LW-Lawyers) and a 7 x 7" square showing the city's location in Tellene. The scale on the map is 1-inch equals 100 feet. The back of the map contains a watermark of the entire city with the sewers marked. The bottom seven inches contains illustrations of an entrance to the sewers, a typical sewer dock, and a typical passage.

RumorQuest(TM):
This is a good way to bring a city to life and I am surprised it has not been done before now, or maybe it has and I just missed it. The book contains an additional 32 pages of rumors broken into "Packs". Pack 1 is a set to help new arrivals gain an understanding of the politics of the city. Pack 2 introduces the PCs to the sewers. Pack 3 contains adventure hooks leading to the Kenzer Co. adventrure "Root of All Evil". Pack 4 focuses on merchants and tradesmen of the city. Pack 5 deals with the city watch. Pack 6 contains generic market talk and difficult to obtain rumors. It is recommended that several of these packs are put together and players are allowed to draw them "out of a hat". I hope Kenzer but I think writing one down for you will help allow you to understand what these are: Here is rumor #38 and it is from pack 3: "'-they're leaving Geanavue, I tell you. Some of the best wizards. Even Veoden left two years ago, forsaking Geanavue for some backwater near Skarrna and a life of tinkering and enchanting. The very life of the city is draining away before us' 'G'wan, stop complaining and pay your taxes like the rest of us.'" So, it is a snipit of conversation overheard that the players might need someday, or might not. Some of them also lead to small encounters or roleplaying situations. I am afraid there are some numbering errors within these packs. For example, rumor number 37 says to tell the DM you have drawn number 31. The short encounter rumor #11 is described in the DM section as rumor #10. These are small errors that can easily be fixed, but they are there.

I know there are some minor problems that I have described above, but this is a great sourcebook and one that I believe can easily be ported over to other worlds. I only have Waterdeep, Lankmar, and S&S's Necromancer cities to compare it to, but this is by far the best of the four, IMHO.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Geanavue: The Stones of Peace is the first major sourcebook to be released for the Kingdoms of Kalamar Campaign Setting. Geanavue is a 176-page softcover book (with 32-page RumourQUEST insert) that has a full color cover and black and white interior. Layout is two-column with no obscuring backgrounds or unusual fonts. It has a cover price of $24.95 US.

Included with the book is a large foldout poster that has a color map of the city on one side and a map of the city's sewer system on the other. While the map has a few errors on it, I thought it was extremely attractive and I would love to hang it on my wall if I didn't plan on actually using it during play. Maybe Kenzer can offer a version for just such a purpose?

Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms, wrote Geanavue. There are neither planar portals nor guilds of wizards within this city's borders, however. Geanavue sticks firmly to Kalamar's low-magic setting. The book is certainly reflective of Mr. Greenwood's style and whether you like it or not is a matter of taste. I found it to be easy reading and a welcome change from some of the awfully dry stuff that I have read in other books.

Geanavue is divided into fourteen chapters with four appendices. Chapters are devoted to the city's lifestyle, attractions, rulers, history, laws, guilds, wealthy elite, religious institutions, sewers, law enforcement and crime. There is also a chapter devoted to Loona, a rough and tumble dockside town that is located nears the city.

One chapter I especially liked is entitled Promenade. The Promenade chapter is presented as a 'walking tour' of the city's various areas. I can't remember if I have ever seen a chapter like it in another city sourcebook, but after reading it, a GM should be able to visualize the city much better than simply by reading descriptive text. This should in turn help him to better bring the city to life for the players.

Geanavue is a prosperous and basically law-abiding city that was built on hard work. For that reason, players may find it a little boring at first if they are used to wilder locales. On the other hand, it should provide them with a relatively safe haven between adventures and the GM can easily spice the city up with more magic and mayhem if he wishes.

Geanavue does have its share of excitement, however. The city's enormous sewer system begs to be explored and a chapter describes each of the major areas of it that are shown on the reverse side of the city map. The detailed information on Geanavue's many guilds and wealthy families (known as Talasaara) should also provide the GM with plenty of ideas for intrigue and adventure. Finally, the nearby dockside town of Loona should be an excellent place to visit for PCs that are looking for trouble.

One unique touch that Mr. Greenwood has applied to Geanavue is that several of the terms for common things in the city are written in Merchant's Tongue. For instance, a city gate is called a 'dolaar' and a house is called a 'hau'. There is not so much of this as to become irritating, but there is enough of it to give the city additional flavor. On the other hand, I found some of the NPCs' vowel-ridden Reanaares names downright unpronounceable. How the heck are you supposed to pronounce names like Raarakiir or Saamuut anyway?

My biggest disappointment with Geanavue is that the dockside town of Loona is not mapped or detailed extensively. The short chapter on it makes the place seem exciting, but I wanted more! My only other wish would have been for some detailed maps of a typical inn, guild house, etc.

The RumourQUEST system is interesting. The way the system works is that a variety of rumors are grouped into one of six 'packs' based on a common theme. The actually rumors are on perforated cards that the GM can hand out or that the players can randomly draw. The only problem that I can see with the system is that the GM will really need to do his homework beforehand if he decides to just let the players randomly draw them. A clever GM could even seed the rumors into his own flavor text and the players might never know what parts are his own and what parts he is pulling from the cards.

I haven't touched on nearly all of this excellent sourcebook, but as you might have guessed, I really like Geanavue and I think it is well worth the cover price. It is generic enough to plug into your home campaign if you don't play in Kalamar and still has enough of it's own flavor to be unique. I applaud Mr. Greenwood and everyone at Kenzer involved in the book's production for a job well done.

If you are interested in learning more about Geanavue: The Stones of Peace, a web preview of it, complete with a 14-page PDF excerpt and a JPEG of the city map, has been posted on the Kenzer and Company website.

 

[Sayburr]

From the Kenzer errata board:

GAAAH! The map haunts my dreams!!!!

MD = Doctors
CB = Cobblers
S = Stables
W = Warehouses (not Weavers)
WV = Weavers (I believe)

I apologize for the mistakes. We'll definitely want to fix them if we do a reprint in the future.

Thanks!
Mark Plemmons

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I wonder if either review here can be considered legit, as both reviewers are hard core Kalamar/Kenzer fans. I don't think it is unreasonable that either of them has a skewed view in favor of anything Kenzer & Co put out.

I like Kalamar/Kenzer well enough, it sure beats the hell out of the other offical 3E D&D settings, and Kalamar does a damn fine job most of the time.

But I hated this product.

I hated the lay out.
I hated the map.
I hated the idiotic made up language.
I hated the rumor quest system.
I hated the "Broad stroke" approach to descriptions (especially since the back of the book promises details).
I hated the way the whole thing read.
I hated the short stories.
I hated the moronic giants vs. the city
But most of all I hated the fact that I spent money on it.

It's the last time I use a review from a Kalamar fan to help decide if I should by a Kenzer product!

 

[Messageboard Golem]

bil, indeed I do like Kalamar and I have even received KoK products for review on occasion. However, I steadfastly stand by my assessment of Geanavue. It's simply a great book that has outstanding production values and is splendidly written. I liked it because it is a quality product and not because I am a 'fan' or for any other reason.

Anthony Roberson

 

[Crypt King]

It's like asking Nightfall about Scarred Lands. Not worth the time.

 

[Psion]

Geanavue: The Stones of Peace

Geanavue is one of the first major non-adventure products for the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting after the campaign setting book. It describes the city of Geanavue, one of the many city-states that dots the easterly Renaaria Bay region. The book is written primarily by veteran D&D/FR author Ed Greenwood.

A First Look

Geanavue is a perfect-bound softcover book. The interior is divided into two sections. The major section is 176 pages long and contains most of the setting material. There is also a 32 page "RumourQuest" section; most of this section is comprised of perforated pull-out pages that are only printed on one size, effectively reducing the page count from the advertised 208 to 194. Even considering the virtual page count, the book is a fairly good value at 24.99, especially considering the price includes an attractive and functional full-color pull-out map.

The cover has a color picture depicting a stone giant clashing with a barrel-chested fire giant with the city in the background, while a trio of human warriors look on.

The interior is black and white, and has a generous helping of well done artwork. Much of the art is merely line art, but there is some nicely detailed and shaded art by artists Allan Ditzig and Thomas Denmark. Other illustrators include Matt Mitchell, CD Regan, Ed Northcott, Eric Pommer, Vatche Mavilan, Tony Parker, Tommy Castillo, David Esbri Molinas, and Jeremy Mohler.

The interior text density is very high. The typeface is small and there is no gratuitous paragraph spacing or excessively large headers to cut into the word count.

A Deeper Look

The book is divided into and introduction, 14 chapters, 4 appendices, plus the RumourQuest supplement.

The introduction of the book isn't just a superfluous brag sheet that plagues many RPG products, it actually serves to introduce the reader to the basic facts about the city. The city is characterized by its large population of peaceful craftsman, and is well protected by a stern wall, and is built around a castle known as Castle Geana. Both castle and city are named for the founding and ruling family. The population includes humans, dwarves, gnomes and half-elves (though the introduction fails to mention the presence of stone giants, which you think would be significant regardless of their small numbers.)

The first chapter is entitled "Life in Geanavue." Aspects of the daily life of the typical citizen is covered in a fair degree of detail, including the grooming habits of the populace, the values that typical citizens hold; most citizens are wary of those who grow rich quickly or without reason, those of differing religions, those who fail to join the appropriate guilds (or join but ignore the guids), and wizards and adventurers. The nature of intrigues in Geanavue is discussed, as well as adventurers the relatively rare wizards. The section discussing wizards covers a few notable wizards in the city, such as the larcenous gnome illusionist Gaini.

The second chapter "Selected Attractions" describes a few prominent locations within Geanavue. The most prominent location is obviously Castle Geana. Castle Geana sits on a hill at the center of the city and is finely crafted (in part by stone giants) from huge marble blocks. Legends, layout, and history of the castle are all covered.

Other sites of interest covered in the chapter include the Tower of Time (a huge clocktower attended by the city's most well-known wizard), two prominent inns, a "darkhouse" (an establishment in Geanavue that combines a gambling den with a brothel), a general description of the shops and vendors in the city, and sick-horse fountain (a popular landmark in the city).

The third chapter, "the Basalt Throne", discussed the nature of the rulership of the city, the castle staff, regular and special forces that protect the city and castle and enforce the will of the lord of the city. Most notable among these are the Three Sisters (three female wizards who help watch over the city) and the Stone Fists (a small band of stone giants that watch over the city's claimed territories in the mountains).

The fourth chapter "The Emerald Eagle" discusses the family Geana, the ruling family of Geanavue. The majority of the chapter is a history of the various lords of the city over the year. Also discussed are some possible pretenders to the throne and enemies of the throne.

The fifth (brief) chapter covers the Castle Codex, the code of law in Geanavue. As befits the character of the city, a good deal of the laws deal with maintaining peace and trade. Special rights are accorded to nobility, and rules are established regarding succession of the rulership of the city.

The sixth chapter covers the guilds in Geanavue. As craftsmen are the lifeblood of Geanavue, the guilds are very pivotal in the city. The guilds are effectively political units designed to counter the influence of the local nobility. Each guild is described in detail, including a guildmaster, icon, headquarters, and other details.

The seventh chapter is entitled the Talasaara. The Talasaara are the nobility of Geanavue. The chapter depicts them as idle rich landowners with a penchant for starting confrontation for the joy of it. The chapter spells out privileges afforded to the Talasaara, most of which are priveledges regarding the justice system of the city.

The chapter also has a complete roster of the Talasaaran houses, including the current head of the house as well as the heir, other prominent members, aims of the house, and allied houses.

The eighth chapter, "The Dangerously Wealthy" describes the merchants of Geanavue who have attained considerable wealth, but for whatever reason are unable or unwilling to take the steps to join a noble family. Such individuals and families are often considered dangerous because they tend to use their influence and wealth to influence politics in the city. A few important such individuals are covered in some detail, and many additional families that fit this category are listed in brief.

The ninth chapter, "The Holy Houses" discusses the most influential churches and religions in Geanavue. Unsurprisingly, the most influential church is that of Geonoa the Peacemaker, and its high priest is one of the most powerful characters in the city. Other churches are described as well, including some less that welcome faiths that have been attracted by the prosperity of the city. Each church is described in detail, including prominent clergy and the church's role within the city.

The tenth chapter, "The Promenade", is a rather descriptive in nature. It describes the sights in Geanavue that a pedestrian might view while strolling through the city.

The eleventh chapter is entitled "Undercity Features." The Undercity is the maze of sewers beneath the city of Geanavue. The sewers are purportedly frequented by dangerous creatures. The chapter describes a number of locales in the Undercity sans game text. The DM can use these description as a basis for running adventures in the Undercity.

The twelfth chapter is entitled "Geanavue in the Shadows". It describes the nature of crime and law enforcement in Geanavue, including the organization and powers of the watch. As a sleepy peaceful trade oriented city, Geanavue may seem like easy pickings. However, the watch is competent and only a few subtle and competent thieves enjoy an extended career. General details are provides for the few notorious career thieves at large.

Geanavue produces many trade wares, but is not a seafront city. For trade traffic, Geanavue relies on the port town of Loona, described in the thirteenth chapter. Loona is a poorer, more chaotic town than the city of Geanavue. The chapter describes the nature of the city, and prominent sites and figures.

The final chapter, "Adventures Arising", provides a number of rumors and adventure seeds as starting points and inspiration for DMs running a game in Geanavue.

Appendix A is a short story set in Geanavue entitled "A Slip of the Knife."

Appendix B is details 2 new spells relating to Geanavue, Sarmar's Coin Beacon (which makes a metal object into a magical tracer) and Taatiir's Tearing Talons (an attack spell made infamous by a mage that tried to take over Geanavue.)

Appendix C contains statistic blocks for many (not all) of the NPCs mentioned in the book. Some of the NPCs use feats and skills out of the Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide. The NPCs appear to be mechanically sound, and make good use of NPC classes and multiclassing to realize the various character concepts.

Appendix D is a Glossary of some of the important people or places in Geanavue.

The RumourQuest section contains many pull out pages which are meant to be cut into cards. Each of the cards contains an event or a conversation that the PCs notice. The cards are sorted into various packs that the DM may mix and match. The various packs are focussed on different topics. For example, there is one to familiarize characters with politics in the city, one to introduce them to the undercity, and even one that involves the characters in the Coin of Power series of adventures by Kenzer & Co. Overall, this seems like a simple method to help the DM introduce the players to the city.

Conclusion

When I first was introduced to the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, it reminded me of the Harn setting in that it seemed like the sort of setting where the focus is more personal and less grandiose. Geanavue fits that same feel very well. The great amount of detail devoted to the city makes it an ideal setting if you wish to run a game that is a bit more on a personal level.

The nature of Geanavue is a bit less nuts-and-bolts that other city settings for the d20 system. This may be less than optimum if you already have an idea what you want to do with the game and just need a city to do it in. However, if you don't, Geanavue provides a very intrigue rich environment to run adventures in, and the rich nature of the background is likely to build an affection in players who play in the setting.

Although Geanavue is made for the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting, there should be very little problem using it other conventional D&D campaign settings. Geanavue is an independent city with few attachments so strong that they could not easily be ignored or replaced.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Krug]

Bil,
Well if you did hate it, post a review. That's the best way to get Kenzer to up the quality. I do use d20reviews for advice on whether to pick up a product as do many others. So make yourselves heard and don't let the Kenzer fans have the last say!

 

[JoeGKushner]

Geanavue The Stones of Peace
Written by Ed Greenwood with John O’Neill
Published by Kenzer & Co
176 b & w pages, full color fold out map, 19 pages rumor quest
$24.95

How best to describe The Stones of Peace? I think I’ll steal a paragraph from the book that does an almost perfect job. “…Geanavue as a herd of nose-to-their-tools crafters ruled over by a decadent lord while debauched nobles battle guildmasters for true political power… (p.81)”

In short, this is an independent city that is ruled over by a single house that struggles not only with a group of nobles who often boasts hundreds of years of history behind their lineage, but also merchant houses who form themselves into guilds. Of course not all the rulers in the House of Geana, the ruling house, have been bad and of course not all the nobles are insufferable and not all the guilds are criminals.

If there is one thing that the book succeeds at, it’s providing a very detailed look at the city not only in terms of noble families, merchant houses, powerful individuals, and a ruling family, but also Geanavue’s trade port, the town of Loona. The ties to Kalamar are visible in some instances but can be easily removed without too much difficulty.

The book is broken up into different sections that allow the GM to quickly find information. Want to know about the nobles of the city? Look under the The Talasaara. Want to know about the royal family? Look under The Emerald Eagle. Want to know about the various merchant factions? Look under The Guilds. What about freewheeling individuals? Look under the Dangerously Wealthy. What about religion? The Holy Houses provide your meat. The city has a lot going on and certain themes, like hidden treasure, hard work, and a distrust of magic, arcane magic at least, crop up repeatedly.

One of the things about the city being in transition is that it requires a bit of work on the GMs part to decide where he wants the city to go. The nobles, the Talasaara, have young ‘blackflames’ who feel that they’re invincible due to their family lineage and often get away with crimes that would result in death. Now in a more realistic view, if the Talasaara do something bad to an adventurer, the adventurer wouldn’t be able to retaliate, but players tend to take a “push me, shove you” type of attitude so GMs have to decide if this young upstarts are going to be bothering the players at all. Choices like this have to be made for every factions. Will dark religions emerge from the shadows? Will slavery become more publicly accepted? Will the guild houses slip back into decadence and corruption?

In its coverage, practically no stone goes unturned. It covers not only the city, but also the sewers. As a matter of fact, the sewers are one of the richest places to mine for ideas. Seems that not only have rogues fought down here before, but mage duels have also taken place. In many cases, the treasure, one of the themes here, goes unclaimed and is just waiting for the right individual to find it.

One of the things I enjoyed about the book was the Promenade. This chapter is a walk through the city coming from different directions to help GMs get used to the layout of the city, which in turn allows him to take the players through a Promenade of their own as they get used to the various sites of the city. One thing I didn’t like though was how this section was separate from Selected Attractions. The Selected Attractions do go into much greater detail, but having the two closer would make it easier for GMs to more effectively see how things work in the city.

Another important aspect to the book is Loona. This port city is where a lot of shady deals go down. It’s not quite as lawful as Geanavue itself (read not at all!) and is more open and welcoming of adventurers and the might they represent. It’s also a good place to launch nautical adventures that range from pirate hunting to battling sea beasts.
One of the new things Kenzer introduced with this book is the RumorQUEST encounter system. This is a series of rumors that can be handed out to the players are they move through the city. Certain rumors are linked and can be built into larger adventurers with some work from the GM. The rules for using them include advice for slowly accumulating players to the detail found in the book. One thing I enjoyed was the rumor quest pack to get the players into the Coin of Power series. This works best if the players are actually residents of the city.

In terms of layout, the book looks crowded. The bottom text is very close to the edge of the paper and the main body text is tightly packed. It would be interesting to see how this is actually effected by the placement of the outer border though as a solid, what appears to be stone border, still has about a quarter of an inch between it and the text, meaning that there is about an inch border on the outer edge. Internal art is top notch and includes not only illustrations of people of the city, but numerous buildings as well. This helps know the structure of the city not just from some vague overview from the map.

Now the full color map is a strange thing. It’s not quite the standard size of the book but it’s still huge. It’s a four by two panel with most of it taken up by the map. The bottom fourth includes shops and services letter codes, map key, overland map of Reanaaria Bay and Geanauvue and Loona, as well as a miniature map of the continent with the area squared off. Map quality is high as the map is easily readable. Better than just a map though, Kenzer & Co must’ve been listening when I wondered why Freeport didn’t have a map of the sewers because this map has, yes, you guessed it, a map of the sewers on the back.

One of the nice things about the way NPCs are done here, is that it follows the standard abbreviations, name, class, level, very high stats, when first mentioning them, but goes a little further by providing an appendix where all the characters are listed. This works great for me because it keeps the stats in one location while still providing the GM a rough guideline of how powerful said individuals are.

Those looking for a quick location or family will get a lot of use out of the glossary. Here, noble houses, merchant guilds, and other information, like local inns, taverns, churches, and where the kitchen sink is at, are provided with a quick definition and a page(s) reference.

I had some problems with the book though. Ed’s writing is sometimes a little unclear. Take the information on Ilikeir, one of the early rulers of the city. He’s described as a dabbler but its rumored that his magics still lives on. In addition, while I would love a book of fiction set in Kalamar, I don’t want a short story in my role-playing book. A Slip of the Knife is a good example of how the people of Geanauvue are suspicious of magic while having pride in their work ethic, but it’s a short story. Those six pages could’ve been used for maps of guildhalls, common houses, manors, or the castle itself. In addition, there is an Appendix devoted to spells. Here I was thinking, “Great, we get to see how Ed handles magic and expands upon it in Kalamar.” Two spells. Samar’s Coin Beacon and Taatiir’s Tearing Talons. The former is a spell that allows the user to put a beacon on a coin that lasts 2 hours a level and gives the caster a feel for where the coin is while the former summons some monstrous claws to attack the casters foes. Nothing wrong with them, but two spells? There were several rulers of the city, as well as numerous spellcasters in various noble houses, and all we get is two spells?

Lastly, and this is purely my opinion, but I don’t like having the RumorQuest cards being in the book. Don’t misunderstand me. I love the whole RumorQuest idea. It works great. However, I dislike having to pull maps out of my books and I certainly don’t want to pull another ten pages from my book. Sure, they’re meant to go. I understand that with no problem but then we’ve got the question of storage. It’s the same problem I have with the Fiery Dragon Counters. Where do you put ‘em once they’re punched? This is a case where I think the web, perhaps with a password related to the book, would’ve worked out much better. This whole section could’ve been removed so that we could get some maps of Loona.

This are all small issues but they do up add. Despite those issues though, I found the book to be useful to almost any sort of campaign. The city is in a period of potential flux making it an excellent place for adventurers. Take for instance an ambitious rogue who wants to put together a thieves guild. There would be lots of opposition to the creation and maintenance of one, but not impossible. How about a political campaign? GMs could make party members hail from different families, perhaps even have them start off as a group of young ‘blackflames’ who have to find their own way in the world. Want monster bashing? Go fight the fire giants. Want a combination of elements? How about a war with Kalamaran soldiers as nobles and merchant houses try to rearrange the political structure of the city? Adventurers will find no end of work as guild members, important families, and even the crown, may have use of their skills. Of course they’ll all disdain the party for their rough ways, but the glint is good.