Wolrds Largest **itty

[T. Foster]

Based on the thread title I assumed this was going to be about level 1 of Rappan Athuk...

 

[BlackMoria]

Brutal....

It got taken behind the wood shed.

 

[DM_Jeff]

A few weeks ago I polled the crowd for a review on the WLC - world's Largest City. Never got any real replies of substance.

What a shame! Here is a good thread that provides lots of information, in general. Note the first two pages are just discussing the upcoming release, the meat & drink begins on page 3.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=171808&page=1&pp=40

It's always easier to take a vantage of "mean critic" and be funny, after all some comedians make a whole living off the 'insult comedy' theme. Ever hear of a successful comic who advocated things instead of putting them down? Of course, that review above is darn funny, even if almost completely without substance.

The book's loaded with detail, OK he doesn't like detail.
The book has lots of what I think is good art. He doesn't.
He thinks the book has no story or plot. Well, there are loads of smaller plots and threads without a single, big overarching story, true. I guess that's what he was looking for. A shame.

Anyway, to reiterate I didn't write for the book. I happen to think it's pretty useful. It has it's flaws, but plenty of potential use. Sorry I didn't provide this link earlier when you requested more info!

-DM Jeff

 

[Remathilis]

Well, my mind was in gutter. I thought the title of this thread was something else. Then I saw the extra *

You mean Worlds Largest Kitty?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's always easier to take a vantage of "mean critic" and be funny, after all some comedians make a whole living off the 'insult comedy' theme. Ever hear of a successful comic who advocated things instead of putting them down? Of course, that review above is darn funny, even if almost completely without substance.

It's full of substance.

The book's loaded with detail, OK he doesn't like detail.

He specifically calls out the notation of how many coins and magic items everyone has. I suspect he thinks a city isn't a big open-air dungeon. He also calls out the detail of having wildly powerful characters living together in a city.

He doesn't seem opposed to detail per se, so much as goofy detail. I think that's a pretty common prejudice.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Sounds like a pretty accurate, if acerbic, review to me. Which doesn't imply that the individual contributors weren't talented and well-intentioned, just that the final product was lacking.

 

[DM_Jeff]

It's full of substance.

It's..wha? Well, it's lacking a good overview and contains innacurate information like "no world info". Well, the history of the city and the basic immediate surrpondings are described, but the whole point of the book's setup, described in the intro, was to make it very easy to fit into any campaign world without work. Of course, had the book contained loads of world info you can bet your booty he'd have complained how it's a straightjacket for his creativity!

Sounds like a pretty accurate, if acerbic, review to me. Which doesn't imply that the individual contributors weren't talented and well-intentioned, just that the final product was lacking.

It sounds like one but from reading more than 3 or 4 pages of the book I can can tell you his generalizations are just that, and indeed, it was a little unnecessarily cruel. His opinion, however!

-DM Jeff

 

[jekessler]

Of course, that review above is darn funny, even if almost completely without substance.

Oh, I dunno. Seems to have plenty of substance, some of it exaggerated to make his (humorous) points of course, as well as being pretty funny (and this from a guy who did write for the book).

I mean, he correctly points out no overarching plots - though misses that there are a number of multi-part plots and larger 'quests' in each section. this is not an 'open the book and play' setup like WLD was, to a certain extent. If you were expecting more of the same, you WOULD be disappointed. but that isn't what WLC was trying to be. Though I wish they did leave out the mandatory list of valuables in each described location, which is what the reviewer seems to count as a precise list of all coins in the city.

He correctly calls it to task for the editing errors - the worst I think are the main maps, which isn't initially apparent unless you look inside the cover at the collected versions side by side - some of them don't even line up! I can only guess that there were oversights in the transition between developers, since this book had the initial writing for it done before the downsizing of '05 which saw the original lead developer leave. These are the same maps we were working from initially, which I had thought were going to be revised during the consolidation of the material from all the districts, but apparently that got missed in the confusion.

I can only picture the look on their faces when they put the maps together for the final layout and realized that!

Which is not to say the maps aren't usable or look OK individually. They are and they do. But when they don't line up, the results looks sloppy, and don't engender confidence in the rest, I'm sure.

Still, there is a lot of interesting work in there, and a lot that is eminently stealable, which I think may have been the point of not setting the city in any particular world. I admit I've not looked through the entire book yet myself, but I think in the end you'll find in this case the though whole is not greater than the sum of the parts, there is still plenty of superior pieces to choose from and weave together a grand story of your own.

Jack

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's..wha? Well, it's lacking a good overview and contains innacurate information like "no world info". Well, the history of the city and the basic immediate surrpondings are described, but the whole point of the book's setup, described in the intro, was to make it very easy to fit into any campaign world without work.

OK, so you agree with him, then. It IS without that sort of substance. Now, it may not have been the point of the book, but it's not inaccurate for him to note it's not there and it's certainly his right to have thought the book would include something it did not. (Ptolus, Bard's Gate and Freeport, in contrast, all contain quite a bit of world info, either in its own section or between the lines.)

I agree that complaining about something the book didn't set out to do not being there is less valuable than other criticism, but it doesn't make him factually wrong.

Of course, had the book contained loads of world info you can bet your booty he'd have complained how it's a straightjacket for his creativity!

Why take this shot at the guy?

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

It sounds like one but from reading more than 3 or 4 pages of the book I can can tell you his generalizations are just that, and indeed, it was a little unnecessarily cruel. His opinion, however!

-DM Jeff

You contributed to this book right? Or WLD?