"It is called the City of Splendors: Waterdeep, most populous and powerful of the cities of the north. It is a city of wealth, adventure and danger. More men have died in its taprooms and bars than in all the sieges ofDragonspear castle. Success and death lurk in its shadowed entranceways and dimly-lit streets.
"Come explore the greatest city of the Realms in this incredible new boxed set dealing with urban fantasy adventures. Waterdeep is detailed in no less than 10 expanded maps, embellished with typical building interiors suitable for use in any campaign setting. In addition, a full-size poster of Waterdeep is provided, along with a grand-scale three-dimensional map of Castle Waterdeep, hub of the city's government. In addition to all of these maps, a 32 page City System booklet provides encounters and street scenes, special features and details of Waterdeep, and methods of creating types of buildings in monuments in the pockets of those unfortunate enough to get in a player character's way. Designed for use with Waterdeep, these new features are suitable for use anywhere in the Forgotten Realms! It's all here-all you add is your imagination."
My latest ebay acquisition arrived today and I gleefully tore open the shipping box, to unearth my brand new used copy of the Forgotten Realms City System! The box has some creases, but the contents are in great shape! I think I got a good deal. With shipping I paid $10.50 and the folks at the Acaeum inform me that it's a first printing. No idea if Collector's care about the City System printings, but I'm still enough of a Collector myself, to be a little pleased by that fact. I also see that the Grey Box I picked up last week is a first printing, coming with the advert for the Secrets of the Sages newsletter. According to the Acaeum, again, only one issue of this newsletter was ever released:
"Secret of the Sages. The First printing of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set came with a form that could be filled out to receive the Forgotten Realms newsletter, Secrets of the Sages. Only a single issue of this newsletter was released, in the summer of 1988; it is 8 pages, and contains short descriptions of places in the Realms that were left out of the boxed set (Aglarond, Evermeet and Halruaa). The last page (inside back) has a map of "The North" region. (Thanks to Shane Voelker, Brett Easterbrook, and Travis Masoner for this info)."
I found the image on the Forgotten Realms wiki. A very impressive site with tons of information. It would be nice if WotC would make stuff like this available online.
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Back to the City System. Now, why did they called this product City System? Couldn't they find some marketable way to say "Gigormous Collection of Waterdeep Maps and Encounter Table Booklet!"? Judging from the copy on the back of the box, reproduced above, they were trying to push the idea that it was usable with any city in the Realms. Kind of silly, considering that the meat of the box is 12 full color maps of Waterdeep! I suppose they were worried about whether or not such a specialized box set for the Forgotten Realms, would sell. Hah! The City System was released in 1988, still under the auspices of First Edition and early in what would become a flood of releases for the campaign setting. And speaking of FR releases, I'm now on the hunt for a copy of this little number on the left. I know it's available from WotC as a free download, but I'd rather have a physical copy.
I love that you are into the Realms. I know some old school guys get all butt hurt at the mention of Ed Greenwood, but it's a neat setting. I used to own the City System and got a lot of mileage out of the maps. We played a thieves' guild style campaign set in Waterdeep and it was tons of fun.
ReplyDeleteCities of Mystery is another in this series, and something of the reverse case. It is branded Forgotten Realms, but is in actual fact a more generic fantasy city building resource. One of my favourite and most worn TSR products, as it goes.
ReplyDeleteHi Christian - It's funny. Several folks have blogged about the butt hurting, but I haven't seen any Realms bashing in the blogosphere. Is all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, going on in the forums? What's really cool, is that my Elminster and the Cheap DM post not only still gets hits, but is one of the most viewed and consistently viewed pages on my site. Glad to see there's still some interest in the Realms.
ReplyDeleteHi Matthew - I never checked out Cities of Mystery, but now you've piqued my interest!
I've got a Cities of Mystery box stahed away somewhere. I keep meaning to get it out and write a review of it along with my old JG City State books and maps.
ReplyDeleteI think the Realms Bashing starts with 3.5e but I'm not really sure myself.
ReplyDeleteSavage Frontiers is a great book. I have it... somewhere...
Hi Editor - That would be cool!
ReplyDeleteHi Tenkar - dunno.
The Secrets of the Sages newsletter was published on WotC's site. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteAllan.
I used to love the Realms articles in The Dragon, and thought the first boxed set and early supplements were about the most awesome things ever when I first saw them. Then the bloat set in, and the novels, and the fanboys, and it became emblematic (for me) of the worst excesses of bloviatory 2e wanking.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I've seen a Realms product since the 3rd edition hardback, so no idea if that's still the case. I wholeheartedly agree that you could run a pretty awesome campaign using just the Gray Box, assuming you could find players willing and able to jettison decades of accumulated canon cruft. :)
City System - oh how we used to pore over those maps when we were playing in Waterdeep, checking out all the little alleys and finding cool-looking areas and buildings. Not very practical as a game aid, but it is fun if you like city maps.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Cities of Mystery set is a good generic resource. At the time I bought it because it had a lot of cardboard buildings you could assemble, but now I like it for the little booklet it had that was full of charts and tables for making a city.
On the Greenwood thing... it seems to me the old school guys generally realize Ed contributed some good things, and that the decline of the FR world as published was not really his doing, but TSR's. The only places I have seen serious Ed-bashing was among new school gamers, who constantly criticize the way he acknowledged sexuality in his characters in novels, etc., and can't get over it, seeing Greenwood as a big pervert living out his fantasies through Elminster (which at least in my mind is a very immature reaction to what he actually wrote.)
ReplyDeleteGlad you're enjoying your new acquisition. I remember being really disappointed with that one, though, back in the day. I was still reeling from the meatiness that was Waterdeep & The North, and was expecting this to be that x10 (I mean..it needed a whole BOX to contain it!). Unfortunately, it was a bunch of (admittedly cool) maps and some brief encounter lists. I ended up giving it to Goodwill in a Gaming Purge...maybe you got my copy!
ReplyDelete@ Grodog - Cool! Thanks bunches!
ReplyDelete@everybody else - Late for work and gotta run, but thanks for stopping by and sharing!