A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Cities of Splendor

Cities of Splendor by Chris Markham is a role playing game supplement published by Edge Studio via the Genesys Foundry Community Content Programme for use with Genesys and Terrinoth.

The supplement is available as a 15-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $2.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one is ads.

The Overview explains that this supplement is for use with Realms of Terrinoth but could be adapted to other worlds. It then explains that the Free Cities are metropolises compared to most towns and villages and they are politically independent of the baronies. It then looks at how the entries are laid out, and explains it is inspired by the New Angeles Tour Guide supplement for Android. More details are given on what the rarity modifiers are, some details on factions and what the social classes are.

The eight different cities are then described; most are one page but a few go over this. They start with the city’s name and symbol, then some general information on the city. Following this are points of interest, which are places in the city of interest to the characters, rarity modifiers, which are how much the cost of certain types of items differ in this city, the different factions that struggle for power in the city, often with each other, and finally the cost of living in that city at the different social classes, as explained in the Overview. If any of the material originated in another supplement, this is mentioned.

Cities of Splendor in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though comparatively short, has enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a number of colour stock illustrations. Presentation is okay.

There isn’t a huge amount of detail given on each city; these are brief overviews basically with no maps. They could perhaps be paired up with other city maps, unless appropriate ones can be found. Similarly, only overviews are given of the points of interest and factions; a GM will likely have to flesh more details out, but the overviews do provide a starting point. Cities of Splendor can be found by clicking here.