So here we are, standing outside the gates of the City of Splendors. I read a lot of material about this place, but today is the day I visit the city proper. Reminds me when I first moved to Chicago to be honest. Big city, lots of new and exciting places. Let's go.
For this review, I will mostly consider my boxed set I scored at an auction a few years back when I was building up my Forgotten Realms collection. I will also bring in the DriveThruRPG pdfs as needed.
Before I get to that though I do want to read, briefly, the "Welcome to Waterdeep" article from Dragon Magazine #128 from December 1987.
The copy I had was falling apart so I took the "Welcome to Waterdeep" article and put it into this boxed set. It fits...rather perfectly. The boxed set was published in 1994, so this article is the perfect introduction. While there was FR1 Waterdeep and the North and FR8 Cities of Mystery, this article is the "real" introduction in my mind. The traveler's brochure. It is not long, it doesn't need to be, it just describes some areas outside of the city proper. Wonderful lead in.
1994. Steven Schend with Ed Greenwood. Three books, one booklet, lots of maps. There is so much going on here it is best just to get into it. I count over 300 pages. I am shocked the PDF at DriveThruRPG was under $7.
At 128 pages it is the largest book. We learn right away that Waterdeep is Ed's favorite city in all of the Realms. No surprise I think.
We dive right into the division of the city into the various "wards" Sea Ward, North Ward and so on, and of course the tantalizing City of the Dead, the walled cemetery.
At the time of this writing the population of the city is just over 122,000, so about the size of Topeka, KS. We get some basic geography and some history, but told with the Ed Greenwood charm that makes the reading not seem like a history text. I mean it is, but it is still very engaging. This includes much of the same surroundings as covered in the Dragon article.
The history is split up into the various ages of Waterdeep and then getting into a more detailed timeline. As dry as timelines can be, I do love reading them. I mean I see things like "the Trollwar" and want to go off on a tagent to discover more. For the record, and mostly for my own record keeping, the current year of this set is DR 1368.
Next up is a chapter on the city wards. This followed by a chapter on Places of Interest & Danger. Honestly there is so much here I could run adventures in Waterdeep for years. The sewer map alone is just begging to be used.
An aside. This came out in 1994, by this time I was working on my first Ph.D. and not buying a lot of AD&D books save for Ravenloft. BUT I was still reading Thieves' World book where I could. Seeing this labyrinth of sewers puts the "Maze" of Sanctuary to shame. Well...it certainly gives it a run for the money.
There is some minor details on Undermountain. I am not going to get sidetracked by that right now, save that Undermountain only adds to the playability of Waterdeep. I must make an effort to learn more.
Chapter five covers the Lords of Waterdeep. Some of these even I know by name, and others are familiar enough.
No city book would be complete without a section on Law & Order. (Damn. Now I want to do a "Law & Order: Waterdeep" campaign!)
Sorry. I had to do that. 🎵 Dun Dun.🎵
One of my favorites is next. The Magic of Waterdeep. So all new spells and magic items.
Appendix One covers trade and travel. One that is very important for our "It's Always Sunny in Waterdeep" game, travel from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate via the High Road is 32 days.
Appendix Two covers Skullport a city beneath the waves.
Appendix Tree covers the Blue Alley.
Appendix Four is a conversion of old and new map keys from previous books, and Appendix Five is a very robust index.
Let's be honest. Ed LOVES his NPCs. There are so many characters here that I should never, ever run out. So what do I get? A 96 page book of MORE characters!
Ok, it is not all characters, there are also roles (that people fill) and the expectations of society.
Chapter 1 covers Waterdeep Society. I actually take to this one rather easily. There is my social psych background and I have written similar characters for Victorian era games about London. This one is rather brief though.
Chapter 2 has our nobles of the city. So we are leaving "Law & Order" and headed into "Bridgerton" territory. I guess Xenk can be "the Sexy Duke" here too! I wonder who our Lady Whistledown is? My guess is Laeral Silverhand in her Irusyl Eraneth guise.
That is only a third of the book and I am already overwhelmed with ideas.
Chapter 3 covers the money and guilds. Back in 94 this would have been the chapter for me. But right now can't get past the Waterdeep/Bridgerton crossover I am now currently planning. Though I don't want to undersell this chapter. The Forgotten Realms was built on the idea of Adventuring Guilds. It is a world that supports the AD&D rules and vice versa. We get more details on Adventuring Guilds in Chapter 5.
Likewise, in the 1980s, I would dive headfirst into Chapter 4, Religion. I do wish this one was a bit longer. I was looking forward to details on the Temple of Selûne and the abandoned Temple of Shar.
Chapter 5 covers the independent operators in Waterdeep. This includes some details on select Adventuring Guilds. This is a chapter of loose groups and some personalities, but really, this feels more like "Realms" to me. If nothing else, it is a great source of names. The same applies to all the NPCs listed after the groups. Waterdeep also has its own Aleena. Who knew? Well, not me until a few minutes ago.
Chapter 6 covers the enemies of the City. This gives us a glimpse of Xanathar from the cover of Book I.
Appendix One here is a tale about adventure. Appendix Two is about The Thirsty Throat.
Slight editorial aside. I love this cover. It might be one of my favorite Elmore covers ever.
Chapter 1 covers a local's guide to Waterdeep. What I love about this book is it is done from the point of view of locals from Waterdeep. This includes what the common folk know about the various rulers and locales. It covers much of the same territory as the first book, but from a different point of view, so the material does not feel like it is repeated.
Chapter 2 gives us details on Waterdeep's festival life. This includes a brief coverage (too brief) of Watedeep's nightlife and the various festivals through out the year.
Chapter 3 covers what it is like to be a Waterdhavian adventurer and what benefits there are to that. We get into some game mechanics here with new Proficiencies.
Chapter 4 discusses the Waterdeep campaign. This is some good information for new DMs and New-to-Waterdeep DMs. Chapter 5 continues this idea with NPCs of the Adventuring Quarter. Great as NPCs to help/hinder characters. Certainly PCs are far more likely to rub elbows with Branta Myntion than they are Elminster.
Chapter 6 has some adventure seeds. Though they are going to have to battle for room in my mind since "Law & Order: Waterdeep" and my "Brigerton/Waterdeep" crossover are both being very loud right now. Though seeing how our "It's Always Sunny In Waterdeep" went, I think my Brigerton/Waterdeep crossover will end more like "Laeral Silverhand's Fight Club."
Book IV City of Splendors Secrets of the City
This 16 page booklet really could have been folded into Book III to be honest. It covers similar territory. It is just a more fleshed out set of adventure seeds. But I suppose it works like an adventure pack.
The boxed set also came with more AD&D 2nd Ed Monstrous Compendium sheets. I copied them here at home to stick in my binder and kept the originals in the box.
There a lot of maps too.
My favorite is the last one, the map of Waterdeep and all the streets. I'd hand this one up, but I know the lights in my office will bleach it out like it did to my map of Chicago and is doing to my map of Victorian London.
I have always loved city and urban adventures. There is just so much to do. Hell I am not even sure when the last time characters leveled up in "It's Always Sunny..." but everyone is having a great time.
I knew this boxed set was going to be great and it lives up to the hype in my head about it. I know I have more books about Waterdeep to work through, especially with 3rd edition coming up later (likely next years really) and 4th and 5th as well.
I can see why this is Ed Greenwood's favorite city in the Realms.
I don't recall what I paid for this, but I do know it wasn't a lot. In fact, my memory of it now, I got it pretty cheap. Whatever I paid it was worth every penny.
Sinéad, Nida, and Company
And what of my erstwhile adventurers in the Forgotten Realms? Well Sinéad and Nida are sticking around Waterdeep for a bit, though my plan was to have them begin going East. I do know that my characters, Rhiannon and Jaromir, were anxious to return to Rashemen*. Like I mentioned above, there is no great change to their stats just yet. Since I am using Sinéad as my way to experience the Realms, I would have to say that, like me, she is fascinated with the city. Her "pagan" background has totally unprepared her for any large city, let alone the largest one on the Sword Coast.
This is the same with Rhiannon and Jaromir. *Because I have not figured out which witch class to use for her nor how I want to replace the barbarian class for him, they have been largely absent. I said they have gone home, but looking over my notes I see they are still staying in the cheap inn with everyone else. I am going to have to do some work on these two. Maybe a side quest. I could follow the Minsc example and make Jaromir a Ranger. I have to admit that while he began as somewhat generic barbarian, I have been playing him more like a member of the Fianna. I think I'll take a side trek to figure out their AD&D 2nd Edition classes prior to their return home to Rashemen. Rhiannon then should very obviously be a Rashemi witch.
The question is now, will Sinéad and Nida go with them? That was always my idea. But who knows now. I'll have to see how the games go. I do know that Nida is going to pick up some spellcasting levels. I thought witch, but maybe it will be magic-user/wizard.
The PDF from DriveThruRPG is a single file of 377 pages. The images are a touch fuzzy but the text is sharp and clear. All the maps are here, but they are in letter-sized chunks. The Monstrous Compendium pages are here too, and can be printed for obsessive/compulsive completists like myself.
Like I said above, at under $7 this is an absolute steal.
Final Thoughts
Between the PDF and the used but in fantastic shape boxed set I have, I feel like I robbed someone. There is no way I have paid more than $20 for all of this (boxed set and PDF), and the value is an order of magnitude beyond all of that.
I loved the AD&D 1st Edition Campaign setting Boxed set, and this is akin to that. Rock solid, enough for decades of play, and I am not likely to run out of ideas for it anytime soon.
Honestly, just so much great stuff here, I am overwhelmed.
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