The Gangs of Vadashar – Folio 1 by Cliff Dunn is a role playing game supplement published by ZealZaddy for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 17 page Pay What You Want supplement from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Contents and one the Open Game License.
The first two pages of content are taken up by some links to Free City of Vadashar material, a sidebar, Welcome to the Free City of Vadashar, that is duplicated from other supplements and gives background and history of the city, its present and future and some details on using the gangs in Vadashar or in another setting, along with details on sources of inspiration for the supplement.
Vadashar: Gangs, Criminal Guilds, Sports Factions & Proctorial Colleges starts by looking at where the criminal organisations are primarily based in the Free City. At some point in the past, an agreement was come to, the “Unrevealed Peace”, in which the leaders of most of the criminal elements and the legitimate powers agreed the thieves would keep their activities within certain boundaries in exchange for relative safety from the law and a say in the governance.
The Criminal Guilds explains that thieves who commit crimes who are not a due-paying member of a Criminal Guild are killed by the guilds. Members are considered to be law-abiding citizens, unless caught with a stolen item in their possession. Early organisations swallowed the smaller ones and modelled themselves on the Proctorial Colleges, confining their activities within certain regions and mediating conflict between members, as well as providing a degree of actual protection to those within their territory.
The Sports Factions and Political Clubs evolved from supporters of chariot racing and sports teams of other types, with elements of street gangs, sports hooligans and political parties. This clearly takes inspiration from the fairly notorious sports factions of Byzantium.
The Proctorial Colleges are neighbourhood associations that sustain their members, primarily through criminal activities, with the, theoretical, exception of those in the noble and aristocratic district.
Mardoxes’ Bastards and the Child Gangs of Vadashar are the descendants of forced unions when Mardoxes invaded the city.
The Gangs’ All Here has some examples of criminal organisations. These are the Bashar Brothers, a crime family based in and around the Grand Caravanserai who have damaged the Unrevealed Peace, the Daybreakers, a gang of teenagers whose days may be numbered, and the Medina Wolves, a Proctorial College. Each organisation is described, along with some recent activities and stat blocks.
The Gangs of Vadashar – Folio 1 in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of colour stock art pieces, up to full page in size. Presentation is good.
The supplement gives an overview of various types of criminal enterprise in the setting, then covers three specific ones in more detail. These aren’t thoroughly detailed, but with some standard stat blocks added to them, it should be possible to create a decent enterprise. The gangs are aimed at Vadashar, but by changing some of the names, it should be relatively easy to incorporate them into another setting. The Gangs of Vadashar – Folio 1 is a decent supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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