City of Gold by Christina Stiles is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is an entry in the Lands in Shadow series which describes part of the official Urth setting.
This is a nine page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $1,89 but which was purchased at the reduced price of $1.30 during a sale. Half of the first page is an illustration and a quarter the Credits; the rest is content.
The article starts with the standard few paragraphs giving an overview of the location, which is Kem, the southernmost member of the Confederacy of Nine Cities.
A History of Riches starts with the founding of the city as a fishing village, and the discovery of gold in the hills. When the Edenes arrived they went berserk over the gold and slaughtered all of the inhabitants and the turmoil continued until the God-Queen Umessa stepped in, enforced peace and established the Vault to control the gold in circulation and the mines. When the Witch-King in turn conquered the region, he allowed the Vault to continue operating.
The arrival of the Empire resulted in Kem – which means the Vault, as the organisation controls the city – deciding to join it. Then later to leave it, but maintain ties with Caecras; ties meaning lend money. With the orc uprising, and the death of an Emperor for whom the Vault had little respect, the city is now trying to build ties with King Drudge.
Politics considers the Vault and its control of the city; the puppet autarch and the manipulated guilds. The Coins are the city’s law enforcement and there are stats for a typical Coin and their captain, with a description of her.
The Golden Protectors are Kem’s standing army, and are one of the largest and best in the Confederacy; only the 300 Chains, the slave-soldiers of Dis, are said to be better. There are also details of a couple of non-official organisations operating within the city.
Relations is on Kem’s relationship to all other nations; Kem’s economy affects the continental one and other nations tend to owe Kem money as well.
Wealth and Despair shows that there is a very big wealth gap in the city. There is a decadent elite, a small number of tradesmen and other professionals and a large proportion of the population in poverty.
Faith in Kem explains that, despite the city’s interest in wealth, they are also quite religious.
Exploring the City of Gold has a d20 table of interesting sights to see, a map of Kem and a brief description of the different parts of the city and some points of interest.
Adventure Ideas has a number of adventure hooks and finally Characters from Kem has a new background table.
City of Gold in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is short, these would have been appreciated. Navigation is fairly poor. The text maintains a two column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a couple of colour illustrations, as well as the map, which appear to be custom, as well as some filler pieces. Presentation is very good.
As with others in the series, this is stated as being intended to be used as a starter for covering the city, not a complete description, and it isn’t the latter. It does provide a good overview and a GM can use the supplement as a start, but will need to do more fleshing out, as would appear to be intended. No part of the city is really given more than an overview. City of Gold is a decent start for the city state and it can be found by clicking here.
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