What products (if any) bring you the best city-related experience?

[GlassJaw]

1. City of Greyhawk Boxed Set

Well I'm glad someone liked it as much as I do.

I think I really like the 2ed Greyhawk stuff (CoG and From the Ashes) was because they were some of the first real campaign boxed sets I ever got. Looking through all the maps and locations just blew me away. Admittedly, I didn't have much to compare them to at the time but I still hold them in high esteem.

FR City of Splendors - This is probably my favorite city product of all time. The maps are unbelievably and the amount of info containted within is just insane.

Volo's Guide to Waterdeep - Another great resource. It's so easy to just pick it up and start reading any page and instantly get adventure ideas.

Green Ronin/Game Mechanics Thieves' Quarter - I'm really enjoying this right now and I'm a big fan of Christopher West's cartography. I love the look and feel of the book - lots of building layouts and a ton of adventure ideas. I haven't checked out Temple Quarter but it's on my list.

Green Ronin Freeport - everything in this series is great. Everything is just covered in grit and grime and I love it!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The city resource I want is a full reprinting of all the Lankhmar stories. All the reprint series seem to get about 2/3 of the way through before they run out of money.

 

[Pants]

Hm, well for a small section of a city, the adventure 'The Styies' in one of the latest Dungeons was fantastic, especially since it had a lot of hooks that could be used to further develop a campaign arc from. Plus, as an added bonus, it can either be dropped into an existing city or expanded as you need.

 

[Psion]

Green Ronin/Game Mechanics Thieves' Quarter - I'm really enjoying this right now and I'm a big fan of Christopher West's cartography. I love the look and feel of the book - lots of building layouts and a ton of adventure ideas.

That is all true. But the question is: what did it do for your game?

 

[Infernal Teddy]

I personally love the City of Greyhawk boxed set. It gave me my first glimps of what a fantasy city should be like - even with all it's mistakes. In the end, whenever I ran a game that started in Greyhawk, I had a bloody hard time getting my players OUT of the darn place...

Another good product was the Free City of Carse, if you can get your hands on it...

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

My personal fave is Free City of Haven, which is very rare. It was done for the Thieves' Guild folks (which is entirely seperate from Thieves' World). Lots of little plot hooks and adventures, very well done. Presentation is lacking, but quite nice from a writing perspective.

 

[S'mon]

What? Really? Do you know which ones?

(Yeah, I agree you on that Dale "Slade" Henson guy. He's the only one that I've ever heard was (relatively) publicly fired from TSR due to extreme incompetence... that may be an urban legend, but it sure would make sense...)

Logo - "Thieves of Lankhmar", and possibly the "Nehwon" adventure. The worst Lankhmar product I ever bought was a compilation of adventures by "Slade" which clearly demonstrated he had never read a Leiber story, can't recall its name.

I didn't know about "Slade"'s firing - he's the only author whose name I have ever recalled purely for the sheer gobsmacking awfulness of his work.

 

[GlassJaw]

That is all true. But the question is: what did it do for your game?

Well I am in the planning stages for a very dark/steampunkish city-based campaign so I will be borrowing heavily from Thieves Quarter and Freeport. The Waterdeep stuff is nice for quick locales, names, NPC's, etc.

I really like the fact that Thieves' Quarter has all sorts of floor plans in it. It has typical apartments layouts (and at various sizes), inns, taverns, stores, etc. Your players decide they want to pick a fight at the local watering hole? Bam, open up Thieves Quarter and you've got instant maps.

So that's how I plan to use it in my game.

I've also heard people recommend Streets of Silver, which I did buy, but I haven't looked at it in great detail yet. From a casual inspection, it seems to read kind of dry but it certainly is chock-full of info. It's gotten some good reviews though (including one from you Psion!).

 

[haakon1]

I agree with the positive comments about the City of Greyhawk boxed set (mainly in terms of the product's scope and presentation) and also with the negative (it contains, among other crimes against humanity, a composer named Amadeus Wolfzart).


--Erik Mona

Hey Erik -- Long time, no see from days of yore on AOL Greyhawk boards.

Anyhow, what's the edition of the City of Greyhawk that came out in late 2nd Edition/Roger Moore era? It's in soft-back format, and it's neither the mini-guide for players nor the big honking Living Greyhawk book that I think you did.

Is that "The Adventure Begins"? Can't remember and don't have it handy, but it was quite cool, with scribbly black & white maps that seem closer to what it should be than the old boxed set.

Other good cities: Laketown from MERP (about Dale in Tolkien), and City State of the Invinceable Overlord for 3.5.

 

[Psion]

I've also heard people recommend Streets of Silver, which I did buy, but I haven't looked at it in great detail yet. From a casual inspection, it seems to read kind of dry but it certainly is chock-full of info. It's gotten some good reviews though (including one from you Psion!).

Yup. I really liked it. Of course I don't play Twin Crowns, but it would make for a great fantasy Venice style city.

That said, I haven't got that much play out of it. Which is sort of what I am fishing for here.