Looking for a city setting

[Archade]

Here's a thought...

This is gonna be a blast from the past, but the product's still available, and that's Cities of Harn, from Columbia Games (www.columbiagames.com)

Each city is fully detailed, with a players map, a DM's map, and each and every shop is detailed. Local maps for the interiors of buildings are available, local taxation rates, etc.

The downside is it is magic-weak, and non-D&D specific. You know the local Weaponsmith is a three-starr weaponsmith (which I'd take to be Exp 5-6), but no d20 statblocks.

The maps are well done, and the products are well thought out - check it out.

Archade

 

[Thorntangle]

Mor's End is one created by EN World board members.

Is Mor's End compiled somewhere? I took a quick look and searched for it from the home page but couldn't find it.

 

[Goobermunch]

If you're interested in making a significant change to your cosmology (or if you don't have one established yet) you could check out Manifest. It's the city at the heart of the Ghostwalk campaign setting. It's pretty well thought out, has opportunities for political adventuring as well as dungeon crawling.

--G

 

[Thorntangle]

Was the world of Newhon adapted to 3.0?

Newhon is maybe a little too grim and gritty. I do have the 2nd ed of Newhon, but I don't think it has been adapted to 3e.

 

[Nightfall]

Well since Evil didn't mention it...there's always Shelzar: City of City. (Since it has yours truly as a NPC. )

But realistically, I'd vote either Freeport or Bluffside. Both are great cities and ones I'd enjoy as a player OR a DM.

 

[birving]

Another vote here for Freeport. I just finished running my players through Death in Freeport, and when polled at the end, they've voted to stay on. In fact, they're asking about buying a house, so I think they're really serious!

As for the pirate angle, you can play as little or as much as you like. Since it's a city with several very different areas, you could explore for months without ever even getting near the water! Or if you like, you can set sail -- I imagine the new Black Sails over Freeport (over 200 page adventure) would satisfy anybody's appetite for buckling swashes.

And there's room for dungeon crawling, Cthuluesque horror, political wrangling, magic, and if you get Freeport City of Adventure, optional rules for firearms.

Come aboard, matey!

Bob Irving
Ontario

 

[Hand of Evil]

Is Mor's End compiled somewhere? I took a quick look and searched for it from the home page but couldn't find it.

It is mostly in the Plots and Places forum. you may have to increase the number of days viewable but here is a link.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43187&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

 

[NewJeffCT]

Geanavue is pretty good, and seems logically put together. I like that the city is not a metropolis like Waterdeep, but is a decent enough size where you won't be running into the same NPCs day after day...

I got involved in an intriguing campaign there last year, and we never left the city, or ran into stone giants or gnomes. (though, I think we did run into a dwarven cleric...)

A lot of intrigue is possible, especially with the "noble" class, and a nice, dark undercurrent in what seems to be a fair and peaceful city. There are a lot of small plot hooks that can be the start of something big.

 

[Larry Fitz]

For the specific flavor you are looking for i think Streets of Silver may be best. I do think that Freeport and Bluffside are good, but if you're looking for Medieval and Magic, Parma is probably your best bet.

Something that may be helpful is to look at the listing of best D20 products and see the average review scores (Freeport's is 4.0 but there are only 4 reviews so it isn't on the list) from that list you can easily navigate to comparative reviews and decide how you would weight the things that the reviewers felt were the strong and weak points of each book. Clearly I'm biased, but I think SoS is a really good fit for what you're looking for.

P.S. If someone posts a review of Freeport it would make the listings and make comparisons that much easier.

 

[Thorntangle]

Something that may be helpful is to look at the listing of best D20 products and see the average review scores

Yes, I've read all the reviews on ENWorld and other sites and compared the scores.

Streets of Silver's Parma looks great and seems to be a great value. But for me, it might be the perfect choice if it weren't so obviously and thoroughly Italian. It would take so much work to un-Italian the city that it practically takes it off the list.

Geanavue seems to be the lead contender so far. I'll take a read through soon at the FLGS. Thanks for the recommendations everyone.