Sir Robilar's City of Brass

[Messageboard Golem]

The Legendary City of Brass

To scholars and experienced adventurers across the TeraVerse, the very name conjures up images of a great city floating in a sea of molten lava, a place of great wealth and even greater danger. The capital city of the Efreeti is favorably situated near the convergence of the Elemental and Prime Material Planes. It is these crossroads which have afforded the city the opportunity to grow as wealthy as it has, even as they have provided the city with many of the threats it has faced over the millennia.

Nothing can prepare the traveler for the sight of the luminous reddish-gold mountain of smoke, flames, and brass in the distance. The foreboding City of Brass sprawls over a great volcano that retches forth a tongue of lava. The flames it expels reflect off the brass walls and surrounding domes that loom upward dominating the skyline. In this wondrous fusion of nature and architecture is another marvel to behold. Soaring above the city, perched on the edge of three precipices, lies the Sultan's Palace. Rising above the dark, toxic clouds that ring the volcano, it is flanked by lesser towers which rise above the city's many enormous domes. It glows maliciously, as if it were a translucent vision of the mind.

The City of Brass awaits bold adventurers. Be forewarned that you enter an ancient society of byzantine political machinations. Those travelers whose minds lack the sharpness of their blades will find themselves ill-armed. Not all is as it seems.

This campaign supplement provides the experienced GameMaster with a treasure trove of information to extend his campaign world to an entirely new plane of existence. In addition to the particulars of the City itself, details on the surrounding region of the Elemental Plane of Fire are included as well as expanded features including:

- 26 ferocious new monsters
- Items magical & mundane unique to the Efreeti and the Elemental Plane of Fire
- The new Realm Channeler class

 

[lwmarti]

Even since Rob Kuntz's 1987 DragonCon RPGA Adventure "To the City of Brass," there has been talk of releasing some of the additional City of Brass material that Kuntz has been diligently working on over the past several years. With the release of Sir Robilar's City of Brass we finally get our first glimpse of this material, and it turns out to definitely be worth the wait. During the time when Rob Kuntz was working on the City of Brass project he was plagued by a series of problems that kept him from completing the work on time so Kenzer & Company brought in a freelancer, Jeff Knight, to finish the project and prepare it for publication. The combination of the talents of Kuntz and Knight is quite impressive, and I can only hope that we see more collaborations of this type in the future.

Sir Robilar's City of Brass describes the fabled capital of the efreeti on the Elemental Plane of Fire and the surrounding lands. The map inside the front cover shows an area over 1200 miles by 1600 miles around the City of Brass, so there's plenty of opportunity for an enterprising GameMaster to fill in the gaps with his own creations. The map inside the back cover shows the City of Brass itself, an area over two miles by three miles in size, so the City of Brass itself is also big enough that it's impossible to detail it all in one 128-page book. This leaves plenty of opportunity for the GameMaster to customize the city also.

If you're an old-school gamer who is used to the level of detail in the old Judges Guild material or the classic AD&D modules that Gary Gygax wrote, you will probably find the level of detail given in Sir Robilar's City of Brass to be quite acceptable, maybe even just right. On the other hand, if you're one of they type who prefers to see everything defined in careful detail, you may find Sir Robilar's City of Brass frustratingly vague. The material definitely requires additional work by the GameMaster before it's detailed enough to adventure in; remember that this is a setting, not a module.

What's inside the book? Sir Robilar's City of Brass comprises six chapters plus seven appendices.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the City of Brass. Even though HackMaster is, in many ways, the successor to AD&D, the Elemental Plane of Fire as presented in this book is not the same as the one presented in the AD&D Planescape materials. Near the City of Brass it's just very hot, much like visiting the desert in the summer, but it's not the deadly fire that you might expect. The political history of the place is also described in this section. In addition to different efreeti factions that would like to control the City of Brass there are other elemental powers who covet its riches. Are you looking for a place to base a high-level game with lots of intrigue? If so, look no further.

Chapter 2: City of Brass and its Environs. The area around the City of Brass is subjected to a wide range of nasty elemental effects, both from fire and other elements. Nexus points to other elemental planes make the area even trickier. This chapter describes what player characters may encounter if they venture away from the city itself.

Chapter 3: Social, Religious & Political Structure. The City of Brass is full of all sorts of cults, guilds and groups, each with its own particular set of goals. Intrigue, intrigue, and more intrigue. And don't forget that the efreeti are basically evil.

Chapter 4: A GameMaster's Guide to the City of Brass. One of the larger sections of the book, this section contains more detail of the city map that's inside the back cover of the book. Many key locations are described in some, but not too much detail. Expect between one and two paragraphs for most descriptions here.

Chapter 5: The Undercaverns of Brass. Another one of the larger sections, this one describes the underground complex that you just knew had to be there. It's where the fabled volcanithril comes from, and where the Underground Bazaar is.

Chapter 6: Adventure Hooks and Side Missions. The bulk of this chapter is an adventure in which the players have to board and control a large metal object that's been scaring the residents of the city for the past several weeks as it erratically flies around at incredible speeds. I've run the adventure twice and had great fun both times. The first time I even managed to score a total party kill. Hoody hoo!

The appendices are an abridged list of volcanoes, random encounter tables, new monsters, new magic items, a new class (the realm channeler), flora and fauna of the City of Brass, and a Hacklopedia of Beasts (HoB) listing. The HoB listing is particularly useful. One common complaint about HackMaster is that you need all eight volumes of the HoB (the HackMaster equivalent of the Monster Manual) to play the game, but by including all of the relevant material from the HoBs in this book it eliminates any need to have the complete eight-volume set to use the City of Brass.

Now remember that the City of Brass is so big that it's impossible to cover it in detail in a book this size. Because of this, this book is actually very useful for people using other game systems than HackMaster since the amount of actual HackMaster-specific information is fairly small. So if you're playing one of the OGL or d20 games out there and are looking for an interesting place that you can integrate into your game with minimal effort, Sir Robilar's City of Brass could be what you're looking for.