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City of Splendors: Waterdeep (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement) By Eric L. Boyd ( Wizards of the Coast )
Release Date: 2005-06-27
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $29.95
Price: $19.77
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Product Description
The first in-depth look at Waterdeep, the shining jewel of the Forgotten Realms setting, in many years.
City of Splendors: Waterdeep offers an in-depth examination of the great city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten
Realms setting. An overview of the city includes history, a who's who, information on laws, and rules for
running and playing in a Waterdhavian campaign. Information on the people of Waterdeep covers non-player characters, arcane schools, armed forces, guilds, nobility, prestige classes specific to the city, and more. Also included in the book are discussions of specific Waterdeep locales, adventure locales, and new monsters. An extensive appendix gives information on new equipment, magic items, psionic powers, poisons, spells, and more.
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 Q/A Problems? ( dshultz )
The copy I got was clearly a screw-up at the printing press, the first 30 pages or so were connected at the top (cut short at the botton), I had to "tear" then apart myself.
The content of the book is/was fine. A fair amount on different people but I was hoping for a bit more interesting points of interest myself. Its a good resource for building adventures in the city that contain and/or interact with some of the more notable characters but it just kind of left me feeling like it should have contained more about underground characters/groups etc.
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Worth the purchase for experienced DM's ( shard_1 )
I found this book to be full of useful information and maps. I loved seeing the new Prestige classes and finding out about the situation in Waterdeep. I would say this book is for the more experienced Dm'er since they give you seeds for so many story's and possible campaigns. I noted that a few reviewers felt there wasn't enough but I felt there was enough here to last a long time if you wanted to center your party around Waterdeep.
The maps are very detailed giving you what each house is in each neighborhood. There are plenty of NPC's given as well for any group you would like to explore. Waterdeep is a rich city full of history and intrique and this book certainly gave me that impression.
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 City Of Splendors Sourcebook
Great sourcebook for d20 Forgotten Realms! Lots of info on Organizations, secret societies, ruling factions, areas of interest, NPC's and their motivations, advernture hooks, etc. As are most of the FR sourcebooks, this one is another great buy!
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Delightful Book ( defendi )
Wizards of the Coast has released a book concentrating on Waterdeep, the ultimate adventuring city in the Forgotten Realms. And why not? The city is one of the most beloved locations in the gaming world, finding its only real competition in the City of Greyhawk. Plus, if RPGNOW stats are any indication, there's good money in a well-done city book.
So does Waterdeep hold up?
I wish I could say no, at least this review would be funnier, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's a wealth of material in this book and you get the feeling that it just scratches the surface. In fact, I think the only complaint most readers will have is the low page count (at 160). There just isn't enough room in this book for everything that one might find in Waterdeep.
Still, the material is interesting and the author (Eric L. Boyd) has a delicate hand for how much is just right. I didn't feel like he rambled on too long and for the most part I felt like he gave me enough to build a game in the City of Splendors. Heck, I could probably build a whole campaign there, using just this book.
Chapter One begins with an interesting history of the city. This chapter actually captured my attention (whereas usually histories are just text you have to get through). It's hard to point out exactly why this appealed to me, but I think that it has to do with the many iterations of settlement the city passed through before becoming the place we all know and love. It took me back to certain real world histories I've read, and where an author's usual instinct is to say, "The city was founded in ," Waterdeep has lived under different names, guises and rulers over the years. It just felt . . . rich.
The book then moves on to a brief who's who and then a treatise on laws and culture. It then tackles all the ways to get to and from the city . . . including teleportation. It was refreshing to have a high fantasy world deal with an issue that almost everyone ignores . . . how the casual use of magic could kill people in the streets. Finally, the book tackles the defenses of the city, both magical and mundane.
Chapter Two deals with People of Waterdeep (I'm not sure why the Who's Who wasn't here.) This chapter is long an complex, taking about a third of the book. In it they cover everything from guilds to monsters to the underworld to secret societies to the nobility and much much more. This is where the book really sold me, the level of detail just enough to fill me with the maximum number of colorful characters while giving me just enough information to run them properly in the game. As a game designer, I can only say this chapter must have taken five times as long to write as the rest of the book put together (characters can take forever, even when many of them aren't statted). I can only tip my hat at Mr. Boyd for not losing sight of the prize and becoming sloppy. Still, I think there are too many dragons detailed for a city with a ward against dragons.
Chapter Three handles presitge classes. You know what? I'm gonna give the book a pass on this one (and it's not the same pass I gave DMG II). This book needed prestige classes, and while I thought that four was probably a bit excessive, this is the perfect use of the game mechanic: defining a particular organization and their unique and often mystical abilities. The Gray Hand Enforcer, for instance, can tap into the dragonward of the city, accessing its power. I don't mind using a prestige class to simulate this.
Chapter Four is the obligatory sites-of-the-city chapter. I don't have much to say about this. It got the job done.
Chapter Five is a section on adventure opportunities in Waterdeep. This section contains everything from single encounters (a disturbing amount of haunted locales) to mini-adventures, to a small section on Undermountain. I think that a DM could build a good campaign, starting with this chapter.
The final chapter covers more rules-oriented materials. Starting with feats, it then covers magic items, poisons and a section on spells. The section on spells is mercifully short, and I can't begrudge it. People in Waterdeep will make spells. This, like the Prestige Classes, is a much better place for new material like this than 90% of the books WotC produces.
I do have to give one qualification on this review. I haven't done more than skim most of the past material on Waterdeep, so I don't know how much of this book is recycled materials. Still, I found what was here to be interesting, useful and well presented. This is one of the better books WotC has produced since 3.5 released. If you adventure in the Realms, it's probably a must-have.
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Excellent Guide ( martin33666 )
This book adds substantial information on one of the key role-playing locations in all the Realms, and also reveals a lot of plots that are going on there. It is written with very easy cross-referencing with other FR material, while also giving some background on the referenced characters. And of course, you get adventure hooks, history background and some very interesting NPCs. This product is a must have for the FR campaign setting!
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Addiction
