The City of Lorden Gazetteer by Nathaniel Webb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment through the Disciples of the Demon Lord Community Content Program and is intended for use with the Shadow of the Demon Lord system.
This is a 14 page PDF that is available from RPGNow as a Pay What You Want supplement. One page is the front cover and one the front matter and Contents.
Welcome to Lorden starts with a brief overview of the city and its current problems. This is followed by The Three Wards, which has a section for each ward of the city. The ward descriptions start with a d20 table of encounters. Some of these encounters are fairly standard whilst others are a few unique individuals who are described. The neighbourhoods of each ward are then given an overview.
Where Can I… lists various different places and shops where goods and services can be bought or obtained.
Lorden Politics covers the political layout of the city, with the office of mayor followed by various sample city offices. Each of these, including the mayor, has the current holder of the office briefly described.
Political Factions has various different political groupings. Some of these are religious in nature, others are military. One is effectively a union, another is a grouping of dwarves and little is known about a sewer-dwelling final faction.
Player Characters from Lorden has a d20 table of Lorden Backgrounds for characters hailing from the city and a 2d6 table of allies from Lorden.
Finally, Locating Lorden in Rûl has some suggestions for placing the city on the continent. Two suggestions are Balgrendia and the northern border of the Patchwork Lands, as the city is supposed to be on the very edge of the Empire.
The final page of the supplement has a map of Lorden, with various locations numbered and marked and a plan of where the different neighbourhoods are.
The City of Lorden Gazetteer in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, despite its length, they would have been useful. The Contents only covers the major sections. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two column format and appeared to be free of errors. As this is an art-free version, the lack of art should be expected; there is a map of Lorden and that’s it. The map is a decent quality one though; it is slightly coloured but washed out in brown.
There are references to a version of the supplement with art and to four adventures apparently set within Lorden, Cold Wind to Valhalla, A Jester’s Tear, The Temple of the King and O’er Hell and Hide. Of these five supplements, only Cold Wind to Valhalla appears to be available.
The supplement may be intended for Shadow of the Demon Lord, but it does not actually have any stats so it can be used with other systems if desired. Similarly, although it is intended to be used with the Urth setting, it could also be adapted to other settings, particularly those of a darker nature but others as well. Lorden is not described fully, but there is enough starting information for a GM to flesh out the city; the lists of places and characters can be developed. The City of Lorden Gazetteer is a useful short city supplement and it can be checked out by clicking here.
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