Customer Reviews

City of Splendors: Waterdeep (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Supplement)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After more than fifteen years, gamers in the Forgotten Realms campaign are finally getting a new and updated version of the campaign's most famous and notorious city, Waterdeep. The Forgotten Realms has always been my favorite campaign to adventure in and run. It is supported by dozens of supplements as well as dozens of novels set within the realms. No campaign the kind of source material that the Forgotten Realms can. In this new, 160 page hardcover by Eric Boyd, the City of Splendors gets a makeover to update it to the current system and provide greater depth and detail than the original supplement.

Boyd provides a thorough history of the city and provides background information on major characters, rulers, laws, trade and much more. There are literally hundreds of organizations and guilds operating within the city, and many of them are outline in the book which includes the guild type, alignments of members, dues, salary, class requirements, and leadership. The same elements are also provided for all of the various churches and temples found within Waterdeep. Then there are a wide array of ruffian and rogue gangs such as the Black Boar Tribe, a group of fighters and barbarians who run protection rackets in the Dock Ward and the Shadow Thieves who were banded long ago but are now re-emerging as a threat. In addition, Boyd provides information on noble houses that includes their histories, key members, and plots and intrigues which can be starting points for adventures for player characters.

Four new prestige classes are included and unique to Waterdeep: The Knights of the Blue Moon, Moonstar Agents, Sun Soul Monks, and the Gray Hand Enforcers. The latter is the most intriguing, being they are basically the shock troops of the Lords of Waterdeep. Enormously powerful, non-evil aligned fighters who gain attack bonuses and resistance to damage and spells. People tend to get out of the way of these guys as they have a reputation for causing a great deal of collateral damage when dealing with a threat.

Boyd covers each of the 6 main districts of Waterdeep which are referred to as "wards". Each ward has a corresponding map and legend which details some of the more important buildings to be found but much is left for the DM to fill in as he or she best sees fit. Each of the buildings has a class rating which designates it's size and scope. Besides the main 6 wards information is provided on the notorious haven for smugglers known as Skullport.

While Waterdeep works as a great city it also works as a great dungeon as there are many different dungeons that can be explored from inside of the city including the Dungeons of the Crpyt built by the vampire Artor Morlin, The Cliff Watch Ruins, Citadel of the Bloody Hand, and many more. The Sewers of Waterdeep are vast and connect many of these dungeons and crypts and a full map of the sewers is included. Along with the noting the tunnels which connect to these other areas, a random encounter table is available to the DM. The most famous dungeon in Waterdeep and in all the Forgotten Realms can be found here, too. The Ruins of Undermountain were covered exhaustively more than ten years ago with two outstanding boxed sets. Hopefully WOC will do an update on that as well but if not, try and find those on the secondary market. Boyd does give some details on the Underhalls but refers to these products as the primary source or for the DM to create his own dungeon if these cannot be located.

The Waterdeep sourcebook features 9 new monsters, a half dozen new feats, over three dozen new magic items including new artifacts, and a couple of dozen new spells. The full color illustrations throughout the book are all uniformly good and it's the kind of quality book you expect from Wizards of the Coast. My only complaint is that I wish they had included a fold out map of Waterdeep. The Maps of the various wards are all on separate pages and kind of small. A pull-out map would have been a great extra perk. As it is Waterdeep is a great update on a classic Forgotten Realms city.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

I have played forgetton realms but over a decade and I have always loved Waterdeep as a campaign setting. Given that, I was very excited to hear about a 3.5e revision of the city of splendors. However, when I got the book I was very disappointed to find that it did not come with a pull out map. That was one of the greatest appeals of 2e TSR products, they always had such large beautiful maps. This edition only included a split up map mixed among the pages of the book.
Like the reviewers have mentioned it doesn't have much info on Undermountain if that is your interest. Although the Wotc website does have an undermountain article that works perfectly with this book. What this book DOES offer is a great new taste of recent events as well as a fairly revolutionary guild system including magical colleges. The book does not contain very detailed descriptions of the locales in waterdeep. For that, I'd recommend the 2e Volo's Guide to Waterdeep.
This book is most useful for combining with and/or updating existing 2e products. For much more detailed and useful content on the subject of waterdeep, you should really get your money's worth with some .pdf downloads of the old 2e waterdeep products like Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, City of Splendors box set, and Ruins of Undermountain. Overall the book is a decent addition but not wonderful enough on its own for five stars.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

This book gives everything you need to incorporate Waterdeep into your 3.5 D&D game. While this is not the first book in RPG history to present you with the life of this city, this is the first one that was written for the new D&D game.

The book contains everything, including the history of the city, the description of the government, the noble houses, the merchants, detailed descriptions of the city wards, and of the city sewers, and also contains detailed information on the different places most intriguing for adventurers, like dungeons.

For those who were waiting for a detailed info on Undermountain, this is not the book they were waiting for, as it contains only a short description of each level.

The book also contains new monsters, special prestige classes connected to the city and new spells.

All together, the book has mouch to offer for those who would like to run or play in adventures in or near the city of Waterdeep, and also, it may give DMs great ideas to create a central city for their own homebrew world.

Those who have already bought an earlier book detailing Waterdeep, may also find it worth buying, as the new D&D system gives the NPCs a quite new feel with the prestige classes, feats, etc.

i was generally pleased with the waterdeep exercise but i would have liked to see revision stats for the important people.
the book had tons of 411 in it so you could not be displeased with it. i just felt that i needed a bit more if it was to stay in my usage crate and not on my storage shelf...