TSR was a bit late to the Urban adventuring genre. By the early Eighties, Midkemia Press and Judges Guild had fully developed city sourcebooks (Carse/Tulan/Jonril and City State of the Invincible Overlord/World Emperor, respectively) for Dungeons & Dragons. TSR caught up in 1985 with a Lankhmar sourcebook. Then Waterdeep, the preeminent port in the Forgotten Realms, featured in the first FR-series module in 1987 (followed by two oddly-branded, tangential box sets in 1988/9). The Free City of Greyhawk got its own box set in 1989. Waterdeep would finally see its own dedicated source box in 1994.
Today, I’m profiling the two City box sets: City of Greyhawk and City of Splendors, side-by-side. They have more in common than cover art of powerful NPCs flying on magical steeds.
The City of Greyhawk [BOX SET]
1989 … Douglas Niles & Carl Sargent … TSR 1043 … ISBN 0880387319 … Contents list at my Reference site
Check Wayne’s Books Inventory | Noble Knight | DriveThruRPG (PDF / Reprint)
City of Splendors
1994 … Steven Schend & Ed Greenwood … TSR 1109 … ISBN 1560768681 … Contents list at my Reference site
Check Wayne’s Books Inventory | Noble Knight | DriveThruRPG (PDF)
Background
The Free City of Greyhawk had mentions in the World of Greyhawk folio and box set, plus a few adventures in the Greyhawk Adventures hardcover.
The City of Greyhawk box set (1989) was the first time the city was detailed in-depth.
~
Waterdeep was previously explored in module FR1, City System, and Cities of Mystery.
I usually knock on TSR for recycling art, but for City of Splendors, it made perfect sense to reuse that striking cover art by Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley.
FR1 Waterdeep and the North (1987) is great, especially for the DM who just wants bite-sized info to launch their creativity.
City System is a magnificent set of maps, assembling into one giant map of Waterdeep. The set was a bit conflicted as to what it was supposed to be. City System was meant to serve both Forgotten Realms fans and DMs wanting generic city maps for their own homebrew campaigns. But in trying to be everything to everyone, it suffered from vague marketing: Waterdeep went unmentioned on the front of City System.
Both FR1 and City System each had a map that would have been better-served being in City of Splendors, in my opinion. More on that later.
Cities of Mystery was a set of thick paperstock punch-sheets to assemble into buildings. It’s connection to Waterdeep was more tenuous.
This was not the only time TSR had questionable marketing w/r/t Waterdeep…
Cover Art
We just saw the covers of the books in City of Splendors… reused, but striking scenes from the city.
City of Greyhawk is the converse. I don’t recall seeing these pieces before. I’m not super impressed with them. They look like generic B-tier Dragon Magazine covers to me. Where’s the “City” of Greyhawk?
Gem of the Flanaess is credited to Erik Olsen. Folk, Feuds, and Factions cover is also credited to him, but it clearly isn’t Olsen’s work.
I don’t know who “DH” is. Maybe a kindly reader can let me know.
The box lid art of City of Greyhawk is the same as Book 1: A man on a hippogriff. City of Splendors has an all new piece by Fred Fields. Looks to be Khelben ‘Blackstaff’ Arunsun on a Ki-rin, flying over the cityscape.
Why City of Splendors? Why not “City of Waterdeep”? Just imagine how odd it’d have been if the Greyhawk box was titled “Gem of the Flanaess”. A nitpick, to be sure, but once again the bizarre, avoidant Waterdeep marketing strikes again.
Book Contents
Each City books set has its own ratio of 1) Gazetteer, 2) NPCs and factions, 3) Adventure Hooks & Scenarios, and 4) New Rules, Magic, and Monsters.
City of Greyhawk strikes me as being better-organized in this respect.
Gem of the Flanaess describes the city, District by District, plus a short discussion of the surrounding region. Folk, Feuds, and Factions delves into the people, politics, law, guilds, and adventures (with many more scenarios in the card sheets in the set!)
~
City of Splendors has 4 booklets. The topics here are a bit scattershot.
The Campaign Guide starts off with a look at the region, followed by a focus on the Wards (Districts) of Waterdeep, and points of interest. Then the Lords of Waterdeep, law, and magic.
Who’s Who goes into society, nobility, NPCs, guilds, religion, and factions.
The Adventurer’s Guide is intended to be given to players. It treads much of the similar ground as the Campaign Guide, except (hopefully) sanitized of spoilers. I’m not a fan. It’s a 64-page infodump. Most DMs are correctly reluctant to loan out parts of their box sets to players. This should have been a separate product, if anything.
Secrets of the City describes the DM-only knowledge of NPCs noted in the Adventurer’s Guide.
~
I have to give the win to City of Greyhawk in terms of adventuring content. The cards in particular can launch play with a minimum of preparation. City of Splendors depends on the DM & players gaming scenarios based on the hooks presented with the NPCs and factions. It relies on the DM doing their “homework”… and there is a lot of scattered reading material in Splendors. And it pretty much requires players to be accustomed to a DIY sandbox style of play.
Interior Art
It was in digging into these sets that I came to a new appreciation of the art of Valerie Valusek, who penned the line drawings in both City of Greyhawk and City of Splendors. All of them! Her illustrations gives each set a unified look. The individual pieces range from good to excellent, in my opinion.
Here are two shots of the city walls and gates of City of Greyhawk.
Again from City of Greyhawk we have Selintan River traffic and the docks.
From City of Splendors (left) and City of Greyhawk (right) we have the docks lowlifes, up to no good in every city.
Magic in City of Splendors (left) and City of Greyhawk (right)
Tavern scenes from Greyhawk (left) and Waterdeep (right). Waterdeep by reputation is a bit more tolerant of atypical inhabitants; we see a lizardman and myconids (even a beholder!). Greyhawk is 79% human; Waterdeep 64%.
Maps
City of Greyhawk has four folded maps: One regional, two of the city (above & below ground), and an overhead pictorial map (more on that one later).
~
City of Splendors has six (!) poster maps: Two form a large map of the city, two are photos of assembled miniature buildings of the Adventurers’ Quarter, and the last two are location maps of Castle Waterdeep and Thirsty Throat Tavern.
Next is a shot comparing the Waterdeep maps from FR1 and CoS. I don’t think the CoS dual-map is enough of a scale difference to worth the clumsy format – the pair likely won’t fit well on a game table. You be the judge.
OK, back to the 4th map from City of Greyhawk. The overhead view. It is also by Valerie Valusek!
It is so beautiful, the Free City of Greyhawk in all its glory!
(Epicsavingthrow blog has an annotated version available)
Too bad City of Splendors doesn’t have a similar poster…
However… Waterdeep’s picture map is in City System. And it’s also by Valerie Valusek.
The Waterdeep map predates the Greyhawk map by one year, and it’s fascinating to see Valusek’s improvement in such a short span of time. The angle is too oblique – half of Waterdeep isn’t visible. It also should have been “portrait” orientation instead of “landscape” – Waterdeep is a long city, with twice the population of Greyhawk (in the old school RPG era anyway).
Still, it’s very attractive.
BONUS: Valerie Valusek’s Gateway to Raven’s Bluff (LC1) Poster
Edit 23 September 2024
I just found another Valerie Valusek city poster, this time from Forgotten Realms accessory module Gateway to Raven’s Bluff (LC1). The poster itself is dated 1988.
See Also: