City of Wonder by Steve Kenson is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is part of the Lands in Shadow range which describes various areas of Urth; in this case, Lij, one of the Confederacy of Nine Cities.
This is an 8-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $1.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.49 during a sale. Half a page is a cover illustration and front matter and one page is ads for other supplements.
The supplement starts with some introductory paragraphs on Lij before moving on to Arcane History. This explains that there are always dissenters and this was why Lij was established. It grew slowly compared to Nessus and Dis, but attracted scholars of the occult. It was in Lij that clockworks were first made, and the city supported the Empire‘s ban on their construction – but still kept making them. The city is happy to work behind the scenes.
The Way of Things has how things work in Lij. There are three main powers, the guilds, the autarch and the Academy, and these are intended to remain in balance. A goodly percentage of the population consists of manufactured beings, and the number of these has grown whilst that of those born not built has at most remained the same. The city is effectively run by the chief servants of the most powerful, and much work is done by other types of servants. Religion is generally tolerated in Lij, but the Cult of the New God is not regarded with much favour.
Towering Wonders gives an overview of the city, by section rather than by place – three major locations were mentioned in the previous section – and there is a d20 table of strange happenings, the majority of which are simply spells.
Adventure Ideas has some adventure hooks and Characters from Lij has a d20 background table.
City of Wonder in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and it’s short enough that they aren’t essential, but they would have been appreciated. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are some colour illustrations, which appear to be custom, but sadly there isn’t a map of the city.
The Lands in Shadow range doesn’t attempt to fully detail areas, instead giving an overview and letting the GM flesh it out more, but the overview in this seems to be much more superficial than in other supplements. No maps, few places of interest, a single character and some generalities on the city. This is one of the poorer entries in the range; it seems a little too superficial and lacking in content for an important city. Given that Lij is the City of Wonder, it’s disappointing that the supplement lacks any wonders. City of Wonder is useful for fleshing out the Confederacy, but it isn’t great, and it can be found by clicking here.
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