City of Gods by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is a supplement in the Lands in Shadow range and covers one of the cities of the Confederacy of Nine Cities.
This is a 19-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $2.99 with a special discount. Around three quarters of a page are the cover illustration and Credits and one page is ads.
A Beacon of Faith explains that Set, the City of Gods, is one of the Confederacy of Nine Cities, and one of the most southerly, with only Kem being located further south. After the fall of the Empire of the Witch-King, the then-autarch, in response to the Order of Light driving out many of the other religions, despite officially permitting them, offered Set as a safe place to worship – for every religion. Now, Set is the largest of the Nine Cities.
Wise Father Justin gives details on the current autarch, a former member of the Cult of the New God who somehow arrived with enough money to purchase the autarch’s seat. Julian’s stats are given and reference Exquisite Agony and Occult Philosophy.
Council of Faith covers the leaders of other religions in the city that make up the advisory council, albeit stats are not given for these.
Secular Law explains that the differences between the different religious laws make it too difficult to make laws that everyone would find acceptable. Instead, laws that worked in other city-states were copied. These are enforced by a nonreligious group.
A Shining Refuge states that the City of Gods enjoys good relations within the Confederacy, but not so great outside. The Kingdom of God is essentially hostile and other nations, especially Old Edene, object to their citizens being stolen.
A Holy City has a labelled map of the city and explains that few in the city actually work for a living. There is a group of guides who can escort visitors around the city without them having to offer up the holy signs, prayers and so on that are otherwise expected. The city is divided into different regions, including the Sprawl, a shantytown outside the walls, and there are various points of interest described.
The city’s description is followed by Adventures in Set, which has some adventure hooks.
Finally, Set Characters has a new d20 background table, explains that the city’s tolerance means that essentially any ancestry can be found here and references Uncertain Faith, Called to Serve, Kingdom of God and Scions of the Betrayer for various paths.
City of Gods in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although not long, is long enough that it would have benefited from such. Navigation could be better. The text follows a two-column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. As well as the colour half page illustration on the front, there are a number of other colour illustrations of various entities, all of which appear to be custom, and a colour map of the city. Presentation is very good.
The supplement follows a fairly standard method of such in the series. There is an overview of the city, various points of interest and some characters. Also, as is common, there aren’t much ion the way of game stats given. This is one of the longer city – and region – supplements, so it is described in more detail, but it is still quite lightly covered. The city itself is somewhat odd; it totally revolves around religion and many of the inhabitants do not work. This results in squalid conditions in many parts and an often-chaotic situation. There are a host of potential plots and adventure ideas within the city, both those given and by GMs creating new and ever more bizarre religions to flesh it out. City of Gods is an interesting supplement describing a rather peculiar city and it can be found by clicking here.
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