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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010545" data-attributes="member: 1129">If size alone were an indication of greatness, Streets of Silver would win the gold. Clocking in at a massive 312 black and white pages with a six page fold out full color map, you get your money's worth with Streets of Silver.Streets of Silver is a city sourcebook for the Twin Crown settings detailing the city of Parma. Broken up into ten chapters, the book is easy to navigate around even as it sometimes makes finding things difficult. For example, the geography and history of the book starts off simple enough in the first two chapters and the government and culture are easy to navigate in three and four, but then we get organizations in chapter five, a mislabeled chapter six (four) with new rules, and then neighborhoods in chapter seven, adventurers in chapter eight, locations in chapter nine, and NPCs in chapter ten.It works out well. Take the NPC's in chapter ten. These are individuals who might not be in one location or who have multiple uses. The bad news is that they're just stats and physical details like height and weight. This makes the GMs job of placing them by recognition a little more difficult as they're just stat blocks. Inspector Vitalis Fondaco Rog2/Div2/Ftg5/Inspector 10? What's he do? Where's he go. Nothing there so flip to the right chapter and place to read up on him. The good news is that they have the section they come from like High Priest Artus, location PS1, chapter five.One thing that Streets of Silver does well is insure that some of the material is as all purpose as possible. Take the gods in the setting. There is a listing of the gods and their domains which allows the GM to look and see that Jaad has peace, knowledge and wisdom for his domains or spheres of influence. This makes it a snap to replace the Twin Crowns deities with your own campaigns.The new rules in chapter six start off with new prestige classes like the courtesan, inspector, mendicant (gang leader), and shifter (actor). The PrCs add some unique aspects to the city but on the other hand, Freeport and other books like Traps & Treachery, have already covered the courtesan and gang leader bits. The inspector on the other hand, ties well into the setting as does the Shifter who is a part of the Parma Player's Guild.If you're using the rituals from Twin Crown's Spellbound or the main rule book, there are new rituals to add to your campaign like Dome of Clearsight, a ritual that brings a wall of force in a dome shape into existence. The two new mosnters, the milano cat and pulley golem, add a little to the setting but won't be a make or break decision. The two new magic items include the potion of invulnerability, granting the user a damage reduction of 15/+5 and the minor artifact, the Bloodstone (no, not the ring from the Kane novel).Now the rules are almost at a minimum here compared to the rest of the book. So what's the rest of the book about? The first section on geography provides the reader with an overview of the area and the numerous islands that are inhabited nearby. While most of the closer small villages only get a paragraph or two of information, this helps make the setting richer as it's not just a single city on the coastline but one with neighbors like Fulda, Porta Rossana and Succoro among others.The bulk of the book takes place in Chapter Seven, Neighborhoods of Parma, over one hundred and fifty pages of different districts with different people, places and things to do in each one.Take the Giardini Verdi, an area of old money with gardens, manors and old families who've got the money to keep trouble and the unexpected out of their area to the Arena Distrcit, a massive stadium where gladiatorial combat is held and fighting is the only form of money here.A book this massive might intimidate GMs into not using it but Chapter Eight, Below the Surface, provides different plot seeds to add to the campaign. Each one provides background and plot overview as well as character hooks. With over ten plots, the GM should have no excuse not to introduce the party to the city immediately.Streets of Silver has a few minor issues. First up is the layout. It's a huge book with a simple two column layout but its so light on art sometimes that I wonder if more white space wouldn't improve the readability a little. While the art is a step up from their campaign setting and first book, Twin Crowns, it's still not always up to the standards set by Green Ronin, Malhavok and others in the competitive d20 field. Many of the stats look good at first glance but like many d20 products, there are some exceptions as some individuals seem to have bonuses that aren't warranted. While the maps are great as a separate unit, the art and sytle of said maps leaves a little to be desired. This is especially true if you're one of those gamers who finds “Maps Are RPG Porno”.  A meta issue is with the prestige classes. Do we really need another courtesan PrC when there are already so many out there? Reuse of OGC isn't a crime. Another meta-issue is the setting itself. While the Twin Crowns setting isn't so integrated that it can't be ignored or replaced, it's got a closer feel to the setting than Bluffside or Freeport in my opinion. This can be troubling at times as several of the characters make mention of the number of lives they have left, as Twin Crowns characters start off with five instead of the standard one. The worst crime to me though is the lack of an index in a book of this size. Over three hundred pages and no index?Overall these are minor issues though and shouldn't stop someone from looking over Streets of Silver as it provides a setting with a higher technology and role playing atmosphere than either Bluffside or Freeport. The sheer size of the book also helps guarantee that there should be at least a few NPCs or locations that you can use for whatever campaign you run.If you're a fan of city based supplements, Streets of Silver brings a lot to the table.</blockquote>

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