Why are ther no d20 Urban Sourcebooks or Adventures?!!!!

[Troll Lord]

Cities eh?

In the next 30+ days Troll Lord Games will put out the Canting Crew by Gary Gygax and the Heart of Glass (by Stephen Chenault).

The Canting Crew gives you loads of information on how to build your own city, with stats, tables, huge amounts of descriptive text. Alongside which comes the thief heirarchy, guilds societies etc etc. The whole thief cant with signs, pictograms and some new classes etc.

(editors note: this book is hard back at 35 smackers but will more than likely by cut to softcover and dropped to 25 and the dictionary will be put in a pocket sized, hand held dictionary for ease of use)

Heart of Glass is an Adventure Setting set in the Sea Towns of Ihlsa. The whole city is covered and described, details given on neighborhoods and so forth. The adventure itself is for 8th level characters. But, in line with TLG's Adventure Setting concept enough information is given on the city for you to develop your own scenarios to run any level through it, lower level parties would adventure beneath the backdrop of the high level adventure (giving the DM something to work toward). This should come out in April.

Thanks,
Steve
TLG

 

[HyrumOWC]

All I can say is wait until GAMA next week. OWC is going to have a big announcement to make, and part of it concerns this very topic... .

Hyrum.

 

[Utrecht]

Wow, this is all very good news - and that the d20 license is doing what is is supposed to.

It always surprised me that there was not more Urban information. My rational was more people = more chance for adventure.

No to bad most of it wont help me for tomorrow......

 

[der_kluge]

There's also Bluffside: City on the Edge, though this seems rather world-specific. Not sure if it's out yet (Amazon says yes, but no game store carries it around here).

Nay, quite the contrary - Bluffside was designed to be extremely generic and portable. Plop it into any world you want. Well, ok, Dark Sun probably won't work too well. A couple of D20 Publishers already are using it in their world.

 

[d20Dwarf]

[edit: Forget I ever posted ]

 

[Monte At Home]

Re: Re: Since you asked...

Monte, will you describe the city in detail? I mean, after playing the adventure, will we be able to play/create more adventures in the city with the info you give, or will the DM need to add more info?

About 10 pages or so are devoted to the city. It's an adventure, not a sourcebook, so it's meant to be just enough to run the adventure. However, there's plenty there to build on.

 

[Horacio]

Re: Re: Re: Since you asked...

About 10 pages or so are devoted to the city. It's an adventure, not a sourcebook, so it's meant to be just enough to run the adventure. However, there's plenty there to build on.

Thanks for the answer, Monte!

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Geanavue review

I read Geanavue: Stones of Peace (Kenzer & Co. Kalamar accessory) at the game store today, but didn't buy it. I'm waiting to see Freeport: City of Adventure first and will then pick one or the other (or neither)...

THE PRO's
Ed has indeed created a very detailed, in-depth setting

Beautiful, detailed color map (doublesided with B&W sewer system network map on reverse).

Lots of Guilds, Noble and Merchant Families, and other NPCs (statted out in the back)

RumorQuest (TM) tear-out cards with great ways to make the city come alive as well as serve as adventure hooks (basically snippets of conversation between NPCs on various subjects).

Complete run-down on the justice system, including what happens when you get arrested and jailed...

Bonus section covering a cool sleazy "lawless" ghetto area (not mapped, which upset me a bit) that has sprung up outside the city proper.

Sewer system discussed in detail

Can be dropped into just about any campaign with only minor tweaking

With moderate to major tweaking, Geanavue could serve as an excellent 3e version of Lankhmar
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THE CON's
Ed Greenwood writing style (since he wrote it), so lots of FR sounding names, characters and situations---the book reads just like any FR thing he's ever done, which is comforting on the one hand (1e/2e nostalgia) and annoying on the other... at least to me. YMMV.

Too politically correct and not "medieval" enough in its laws and attitudes, IMO (much like FR). YMMV, and you can always tweak it... It could be made into a much darker, grittier place...

Some of Kalamar's names can be hard to pronounce (minor quibble, easily tweaked)

Costs $25 at a time when Freeport: City of Adventure is coming out, so most gamers who want a new city setting will be forced to choose between the two...
______________

I say Geanavue delivers a good solid value for your gaming dollar, and many people probably won't share my distaste for certain aspects of it, so go ahead and buy it.

People looking for a grittier urban setting should probably wait for Freeport: City of Adventure (coming in a few weeks). But if you don't mind moderate to major tweaking, Geanavue can be a great skeleton to build your homebrew "gritty city" on.