Customer Reviews

Cityscape (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

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

 

 

Bottom Line: I could see giving this book a higher rating if it had been billed as a DM's guide to citybuilding. Instead, it writes itself off as being for both players and dungeon masters, and it just doesn't do a good job of that.

Why:

Firstly, the book is too spread out because there just wasn't a lot of material for players and most of that section is fluffed up. There are less than twenty feats, less than fifteen spells, and there are only three prestige classes. This is a pretty terrible showing, and it could be redeemed if the organizations in the book included rules based on PHB II's affiliation system, but they don't. Basically this book is a total waste of time for players, unless you're playing a rogue, in which case there is one prestige class you might like. Unless you're in a campaign that demands you own a book in order to use it, borrow this thing from a friend.

As for the DM material, I was very excited about how this book would turn out. The authors both worked on Heroes of Horror, and that book was a really great resource for all kinds of adventure building. I had high hopes. For the most part, this book satisfies them, though I have a complaint that cuts a little bit off the rating. The material is far too *specific*; instead of rules for generating sages, we have specific sages with specific characters that the PCs can apply to for knowledge. Instead of really good city building rules, the book is full of sample cities. Want to make an organization? Instead just use one of the included pre-made organizations.

Where I had been hoping for a book to expand on the scant city building rules of the DMG, this book just showed how some designers put them to use. I would've preferred a lot more insight into thought process, design, etc. Additionally the monster section is too short.

All in all, this book is not really for players and for DMs, it's missing something. I wish that they had spent longer making this one a winner, but apparently Wizards has other priorities.

As mentioned in other reviews, this is a DMs resource. This is not the book to come to if you want more base classes or advice on how to adventure in a city. As with all reviews, choose this based on what you know. If you are inexperienced and need advice on how to run urban campaigns, or if you have run urban campaigns before and merely need more ideas this is the perfect book to come to. It presents new and interesting feats, NPC prestige classes, and tips for running different types of urban settings.

In this book you can find advice for:
Flying cities
Race-based cities
Specific environment based cities
Different Locales within the city
...and much more along those lines

I am preparing for a campaign and this book is exactly what I needed. I have several years of experiance DMing and find that this and Dungeonscape both provide interesting ideas. Keep it up Wizards!

This product is a DM resource, despite the description. I didn't need help with rules. I wanted help conjuring up urban details to treat my players to. I wanted lists of buildings, fun encounters, maps, common city locations, business and NPC names--and tips to keep them all straight. The book offered that, but it also offered useless detailed rules, feats, classes and magic.

understand this is a dm resource.
you won't find classes or a bunch of new weapons ect. it is an excellent resource for the dm, when planning cities. full campaign or even just trying to add a little life or flavor to those that your pcs pass though.it helps give ideas on city design, history, governing bodies, businesses, hazards, defenses, ect. this is the type of resource i enjoy; i can make my own campaigns, but this helps remind me to add in the extras. (the gingerbread or garnish if you will) those little extras that make a setting more tangible to the players.

i will note on the side that like so many other books i've gotten form amazon,(it seems 1/3) this had a binding problem its dealable and all the pages are there at least.

This had so much promise; however, it fails to live up to Cityworks by Final Flight Games.

If you want 3.5 based additions then I would say get this.. If you want a better product then buy Cityworks.

I have both because cityscape does a few things that isnt in Cityworks.

This is a short,yet comprehensive guide to designing and running a city.Also a good refresher for more experianced GM's looking for ideas.The overview of non-human cities was a little basic and should have included at least one weird race for flavor,but i quess those will be left for future cityscapes or third party splatbooks.I don't sell these books but if I did I wouldn't give them a negative review.

I got a copy for free from volunteering, so I had time to read it at leisure. Essentially, it's a waste of a book. The only possible use would be for DMs running very city-heavy adventures, but can't figure out that "slums contain poor people", a quote from the book. The crunchy bits (prestige classes and feats) are very few in number, and not really very well thought out.

Well, in my personal opinion, DnD is not a urban game, so i don't like this book. The artwork is really good, but the game mechanics are poor, we have a few new feats, prestige classes and spells. The rules for city construction are kinda of complicated and burocratic. With the 4ed. this is a dead supplement, a collector's item only.

this book is great for guilds and city information allows you to wip up a city in no time.

Like Dungeonscape, this book is just about useless. Nothing in it is new save for a few things nobody will use. I haven't used it since I got it the day it came out. A waste of shelf space. Anyone want to buy mine?