The City of Brass

[Arnwyn]

It's sad that we won't get the whole of Rob's City of Brass, but failing that, the published Kenzer book is the closest to definitive we're going to see.

"Definitive"?

I'd say it's still probably the 2e Secrets of the Lamp product - as opposed to some 3rd party product written for an entirely different system, with multiple authors.

Unless we're talking about just some generic City of Brass, in which my vote would go to the Necromancer product.

 

[Faraer]

From my point of view, a writeup of the D&D City of Brass by Gary Gygax or Rob Kuntz is definitive, where one by Wolfgang Baur or Scott Greene, Casey Christofferson and Clark Peterson is not.

 

[Shemeska]

"Definitive"?

I'd say it's still probably the 2e Secrets of the Lamp product - as opposed to some 3rd party product written for an entirely different system, with multiple authors.

Agreed, Baur's Secrets of the Lamp is hands down the most detailed version of DnD's City of Brass. Others might be well written and useful, I haven't seen them to say, but they're not the same City of Brass, they're another city in a plane of fire by the same name, but written up with a different vision and different material than the City of Brass that has developed in DnD over the years.

Admittedly, the chatter on this thread does tempt me to at least look at the third party books. Necromancer's 1e-revivalist style generally isn't my thing, nor the tone in the Hackmaster products, but if I see them at my FLGS I might thumb through them. Good planar based ideas are still worthy of snagging, even if they're not from a mainline, orthodox vision of a setting.

 

[bowbe]

Necro's COB

Yes, WW's partner and own production schedule probably does have alot to do with Necro's COB not being out yet. It is finished and has been finished for some time.

I just counted up a bunch of the stuff a little bit ago.

What I have so far is: 80+ monster

Several from the various books in the Tome series, because no matter if our fans howl like mad at getting reprints of monsters, alot of folks who are not our standard fans who occassionally pick up bigger products like RA:Reloaded, Bard's Gate, or Wilderlands may NOT have all 3 tome of Horrors Books in their collection. Several are also quite new. Scott Greene of TOH fame is the man plain and simple. Nice thing with COB is that he got to do a lot of writing outside of his fame in monsterism and create some cool locations/encounters and so on.


So what's going to be in this product?

27 Chapters

If I counted correctly and didn't miss anything it's Roughly 268,512 words Of which I guarantee over 210,000 words of non stat block content.

1/3rd of the City of Brass is setting material for the Plane of Molten Skies and the 5 Major portions of the City itself.

9 Chapters.

What's all that about? Planar details for the Plane of Molten Skies. This being adventure locations akin to Wilderlands of High Fantasy Box set with adversaries, their loot and their motivation folded into the tableau of the Plane of Molten Skies. More than enough high level challenges here without even making a visit to the city itself.

COB. An alien, other worldly city of splendors and sin. That a good enough description?

1/3rd is a campaign style adventure chronicle taking characters from 12+ to 20+

11 chapters
These involve a series of loosely joined and increasingly difficult adventure locations within the City itself that have a variety of outcomes based on group/composition, and style of play. No shoe horning the outcome of the adventures because I hate that. You want to Role Play? Awesome because I like to Role play. You want to go commando and kill everything? Well you can probably play that style of game too with no sweat. Also good because I like that kind of game as well.

What's the adventure about? Life and death, relics, heroes, good and evil, vanity, power, betrayal, love, greed and the desire to discover the unknown. Just like every other adventure I would guess . Well the good ones anyhow.

1/3rd of the product is Monsters, Magic Items, NPCs, Stat Blocks and all that other good stuff you need.

7 chapters of Appendices.

What will the final layout/format be? I dont know. Thats up to Bill, Clark, and the Marketing heads at WW to figure out. They have their formulae for things like final page count, words per page, and all that goodness. If I had permission to post the Table of Contents, I would, however that may be premature due to the hashing out of final format not being something I could really speak to.

Who does the cover? Dunno, probably Rick Sardinha. I hear that Brian LeBlanc is supposed to do the interior artwork.

How many mini's will you need if you play with mini's? Well, I've been harrassing Reaper about this project for over 3 years. You'll probably need a few. Or use your imagination. Both styles work quite well.

Is it the "difinitive" City of Brass? Of course not, COB is steeped so deeply in myth and legend from Arabian Nights to short stories written by Orientalist authors and pop culture as well as Fantasy Adventure Gaming that nobody could write a difinitive book. The best answer is that everyone's "concept" of what the COB is is the correct one. It's a place of wonder, thrills and danger. As it should be.



Case

 

[Arnwyn]

It's sad that we won't get the whole of Rob's City of Brass, but failing that, the published Kenzer book is the closest to definitive we're going to see.
/.../
From my point of view, a writeup of the D&D City of Brass by Gary Gygax or Rob Kuntz is definitive,

Interesting. Well, I guess that the Hackmaster City of Brass is likely the closest to definitive that you're going to see.

Probably not for the rest of us, though (who got the D&D city in the D&D Secrets of the Lamp).

 

[Faraer]

Valuing legal ownership of trademarks above authorship is popular in D&D circles but not universal.

 

[catsclaw227]

Several from the various books in the Tome series, because no matter if our fans howl like mad at getting reprints of monsters, alot of folks who are not our standard fans who occassionally pick up bigger products like RA:Reloaded, Bard's Gate, or Wilderlands may NOT have all 3 tome of Horrors Books in their collection. Several are also quite new. Scott Greene of TOH fame is the man plain and simple. Nice thing with COB is that he got to do a lot of writing outside of his fame in monsterism and create some cool locations/encounters and so on.

I have no problem with monster reprint. It's acutally quite nice to have stat blocks available without the need to dig out another book.

Is it the "difinitive" City of Brass? Of course not, COB is steeped so deeply in myth and legend from Arabian Nights to short stories written by Orientalist authors and pop culture as well as Fantasy Adventure Gaming that nobody could write a difinitive book. The best answer is that everyone's "concept" of what the COB is is the correct one. It's a place of wonder, thrills and danger. As it should be.

Your description certainly sells me on the product. (That and NG's excellent reputation for quality product.) That's perfect timing for me too, since my party will be about 12th level by the time GenCon 2007 rolls around.

 

[grodog]

I'm definitely interested in the NG version of CoB as well, although Rob's 90,000 word mss. will likely remain the baseline version IMCs.

 

[Treebore]

From my point of view, a writeup of the D&D City of Brass by Gary Gygax or Rob Kuntz is definitive, where one by Wolfgang Baur or Scott Greene, Casey Christofferson and Clark Peterson is not.

I take it you don't play 3e? LA:Essemtials or Castles and Crusades are the "definitive games" for Mr. Gygax and Mr. Kuntz.

Besides, Gary has a thread on this website. Ask him what he thinks of your idea of "definitive". Read the archives of his thread. Gary hates definitive. It limits your creativity and your ability to individualize a given concept or setting.

So if they set your "definitive" for gaming, go ask them. It will apparently broaden your horizons.

 

[Melan]

What's all that about? Planar details for the Plane of Molten Skies. This being adventure locations akin to Wilderlands of High Fantasy Box set with adversaries, their loot and their motivation folded into the tableau of the Plane of Molten Skies. More than enough high level challenges here without even making a visit to the city itself.
Case

With a campaign hexagon system style map? Yes? Yes?