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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Garnfellow" data-source="post: 2223385" data-attributes="member: 1223">What really prompted my question was my recent purchase of City State of the Invincible Overlord.As a work of nostalgia, I think this is a fantastic book. In typical Necromancer fashion, they took the best parts of the original work, updated the whole into rock-solid 3e mechanics, and gave it a nice new paint job. I'd much rather have a copy of this book than a copy of the original in mint condition.There's another thread running right now asking about interest in 3e conversions of classic  1st/2nd edition modules. I would really only be interested in these if Necromancer did them -- the Necro team has absolutely nailed the art of converting old material into solid 3e mechanics without losing the integrity of the original material. Some conversions do too little actual conversion, and simply reintroduce bad or stupid game mechanics that got jettisoned from 3e for a reason. Others make such radical changes that you no longer recognize whatever it was that made the original material great. Necromancer consistently hits the sweet spot in between these extremes.So I think their version of the City State stays utterly true to the original, warts and all. And on one hand, if I were to review it, I'd want to give it a 5/5 on being able to skillfully walk the conversion tightrope. It's really a very charming revisiting of a classic RPG setting.But on the other hand, I'm also looking at using the City State in an upcoming game. And I'm finding the old-school structure rather hard to work with. It's really just a series of static encounter locations (though each location is rather vividly described by itself).What I need are some adventure hooks, some quick and dirty ways to string a few of these isolate encounter locations together into a coherent adventure or two that would work for my particular party. I'm sure there are plenty of potentially exciting and challenging capers in the City State for a 4th level party, but I'd don't have a lot of time to invest on this.So on the other hand, while I find the book a great read, as a practical gaming tool I find it a bit limited. One thing I like in my game books is an ability to use stuff right out of the box. But maybe that isn't a practical expectation for /any/ city setting. Am I being too hard on the City State?Which led me to my initial question -- I'm interested in hearing about other recent city supplements, what they do differently and maybe better than the old school.</blockquote>

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