IronWolf
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Sharn, City of Towers, is the latest sourcebook for the Eberron campaign setting. Written by Keith Baker and James Wyatt, Sharn is 192 full color pages for $29.95. The outer cover follows that weird cut scene methodology similar to other Eberron books but really butchers Wayne’s art which is reproduced on the interior and showcases a much stronger scene of action.
The interior art is handled by a wide variety of artists and for the most part, they get the thumbs up. Some of the art has a very comic book look to it, like Hellboy or the Goon but most of it fits in with standard D&D illustrations. The book uses two columns for the most part with important information boxed off from the rest of the text. The outer edge of the page notes what section you’re in. For example, if I flip to 150, I see that it says Guilds and Organizations. The book has no ads, but also has no pull-out map. I don’t know the price that this book would have to be to include such a thing, but for a city, a map is a big part of things.
The book is split in eight chapters. Unlike some previous WoTC books, the focus here isn’t heavy on the crunch but rather, on providing Sharn as a city with lots of potential for the players. For those who don’t know, Sharn is the City of Towers. What that means is that it has towers that are huge both in base size, ranging from 800 to 2,500 feet at the bottom, and closing to 200 to 600 feet at the top. It’s a city where bridges link towers and streets circle through the center of the towers.
Eberron, while having it’s share of powerful characters, isn’t the Forgotten Realms and doesn’t boast an excessive amount of characters whose power ranking is up there with the gods. Sometimes this works well, and sometimes it’s doesn’t. When you look under the law, it notes that because of the limited power, the guard would rather avoid taking on powerful monsters. Even some creatures that mid-level characters can overcome, like trolls, are things that the guard wants to leave alone.
However, at the same time, it fails a bit. If a group of tenth level characters is messing around in the lower wards, most guards should probably stay away from the characters. If they’re afraid of trolls, a tenth level character would be like a super-ogre.
The authors provide a ton of tools for the GM. Chapter Two, Life in Sharn, provides the City Districts. These fall under a general heading and then move into the specifics. It starts with the Central Plateua and provides a quick run down of what the Plateau is, in this case, the heart of the government and the financial districts that support it as well as the dragonmarked houses and the embassies of other nations. For those who need it, watch details are included.
After the Central Plateau listing, we get the individual districts. This includes a further breakdown, in this case, starting with the Upper Central Plateau and another breakdown, including population, social class, character, districts, businesses, key personalities and background, and then the districts found there. Under the Upper Central, we have the Highest Towers, Korranath, Korran-Thiven, Mitrhal Tower, Platinum Heights, and Skysedge Park. Each of these entries includes district type, buildings, first impression, social class, and background. If important details are further needed, they’re briefly touched on.
For example, Skysedge Park is an open park district and includes Skysedge Park proper, as well as the Gatehouse. In the park, the 100-foot tall iron statue known as the Iron Guardian stands vigilant over the city although it’s never been seen to move while in the Gatehouse, the druids belonging to the Gatekeeper Order monitor the land to protect it from planar invasion.
NPC’s are included in each section but aren’t presented in any unified manner. For example, Lord Mayor Cathan Ir’Demell has an abbreviated line with alignment, sex, race, class, and level, followed by a physical description and what his attitude means at different levels from hostile to helpful. Kessler, a gnome bard/expert, has the abbreviated information and physical description with his starting attitude and background, as well as an adventure idea. Dala Arand on the other hand, is an expert/rogue with full game stats and physical description with all attitudes listed. I could probably find a few more examples but I’d personally find it easier to just have one standard format and if a page reference is needed for more details like background, to have it there instead of flipping here and there to determine how best to use these details.
Numerous little elements pop out throughout the book to increase its utility. Want to know where you’ll wind up playing if you use the Perform skill? Check out page 18 with it’s breakdown of DC checks ranging from DC 10 to DC 30, leading you from a bridge on the lower levels to a widely promoted performance. Want to know about renting a unit or purchasing one? Flip to page 23. It’s something I’ve wondered about a few times myself so I crib down those numbers.
If you have the Favored in House feat, you’ll find specific DC checks for general and house-specific favors. Need the use of a greater mark? That’s a DC of 25. Need House Lyrandar to give you half-far passage on an airship in Khorvaire? That’s a DC 15.
Noting that the majority of people in Sharn are commoners not experts, helps the GM note that those who are even in the expert class can rise above the masses. Little details like that help the characters stand out from among the crowd. Following up on that thought, are notes on how the Blood of Vol, a religion that venerates the Undead, is handled, noting, “the majority of the people who worship the Blood of Vol are commoners…” and that “who simply wish to be left alone to practice the faith of their fathers.” It allows the GM to have the Blood of Vol in the campaign without having each member be insane.
There are a lot of maps. We get a side view of the city, not to scale, that shows the skyway, upper, middle, lower, depths, cogs, and lava pools, ranging from highest to lowest. We get a full-page map of the city for the Upper Wards with the different districts noted, and we get the same illustration for the other wards with names and map details changed to match the new ward information. Other maps are scattered through the product like the map of the Tower Tavern, a Tower Warehouse or Morgrave University, among others. These maps are handy to have as reference points and most of them can serve multiple duty allowing the GM to focus on the game.
One thing I don’t get about Sharn is how it looks or how it works, especially the streets. Now this is odd considering that they have a full page of sample streets but even so, I can’t tell if everything is on the inside or if the streets are just acting as bridges.
In Chicago, we have a six story mall called the Century. The center is hollow with escalators cutting through it at parts. Hugging the walls are shops with stairs leading up and down. Do the towers work like that? Is it more like Venice where instead of waterways we have bridges and open air? The lack of a fold out map, problematic in and of itself due to the 3-D nature of the setting more than a standard setting, makes fully picturing the movement between levels and between towers difficult.
I mentioned that the book isn’t heavily focused on game mechanics. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. One of the nice touches is that some of the material is aimed at using the current game system, like when I mentioned using your perform skill. Other parts talk about general bonuses for specific things.
For example, let’s say you’re a spy. Should this get it’s own PrC with a full list of abilities and benefits? The authors here give you a list of favors that you might call on, and abilities that might be gained while performing these duties. These are minor for the most part, ranging from access to forged documents to a bonus on Gather Information checks. They use a similar approach for the Urban Adept, giving the class a new set of spells that changes the feel of the class.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t the good old standard feats and PrCs. Chapter Six, Heroes and Magic, gives us new game mechanics like Manifest Flight, where your flight speed and maneuverability are improved or Swarm’s Embrace where you don’t suffer as much when fighting a swarm. New goods range from drugs and alchemical substances to services and spellcasting.
When flipping to prestige classes, we have the Cannith Wand Adept, a three level PrC, followed by the Citadel Elite, the best of the best, as a five level PrC, followed by the Sharn Skymage, another five level PrC that specializes in the manifest zone that allows the caster to fly. Once nice touch is a quick listing of other PrCs that are appropriate from the city. This gives the GM and players an idea of what’s around in the city and at least for the Complete Adventurer, shows what’s coming down the line, without using a lot of space. Strangely enough, while the Miniature’s Handbook is mentioned, Races of the Wild isn’t.
A few spells and wondrous items help round out Chapter Six, providing PC’s with the spell Force Hammer to cause nonlethal damage with a ranged touch attack or look for the Watch Lamp that sheds light equal to a torch.
Now that you have this city, what are you going to do with it? Chapter Seven is the GM’s toolbook just as the previous chapter was for players. We get a wide range of nonplayers characters including a twenty level breakdown of the artificer, as well as a run down of what various groups are doing. The Lords of Dust have two agents in Sharn even as the Order of the Emerald Claw has it’s own warden here.
The authors include a section, Urban Monsters, with a breakdown of different types of monsters that fill a specific role. For example, under impersonators, we have rakshasas and slkies, for those hailing from the sewer, we have carrion crawlers and wraiths joining dark ones and mongrelfolk.
To round out the monsters, several new creatures are introduced. It starts with the Feral Spirit, a swarm of undead that swarm over their foes , and ends with the spiretop dragon, a tiny dragon that is a scavenger, following the air ships for their droppings.
Now that you have all of these different toys, is it time to start a game in the city? Well, Chapter Eight, A Sharn Campaign, provides some quick ideas on how to capture the feel of the campaign. This ranges from a few movies that fit the theme, The Big Sleep and the Maltese Falcon, to enforcing downtime to keep the players from shooting up in levels with no time passage. A table for random events and another for random corpses, helps the GM keep the setting alive by having things happen even when the PC’s aren’t around.
Sharn isn’t your standard fantasy city. It’s much more 3-D and relies on high magic that impacts the residents of the city everyday. It’s a vibrant city with uncountable factions moving about trying to capture their slice of the pie even as it provides the PCs with years worth of adventuring opportunities.
The interior art is handled by a wide variety of artists and for the most part, they get the thumbs up. Some of the art has a very comic book look to it, like Hellboy or the Goon but most of it fits in with standard D&D illustrations. The book uses two columns for the most part with important information boxed off from the rest of the text. The outer edge of the page notes what section you’re in. For example, if I flip to 150, I see that it says Guilds and Organizations. The book has no ads, but also has no pull-out map. I don’t know the price that this book would have to be to include such a thing, but for a city, a map is a big part of things.
The book is split in eight chapters. Unlike some previous WoTC books, the focus here isn’t heavy on the crunch but rather, on providing Sharn as a city with lots of potential for the players. For those who don’t know, Sharn is the City of Towers. What that means is that it has towers that are huge both in base size, ranging from 800 to 2,500 feet at the bottom, and closing to 200 to 600 feet at the top. It’s a city where bridges link towers and streets circle through the center of the towers.
Eberron, while having it’s share of powerful characters, isn’t the Forgotten Realms and doesn’t boast an excessive amount of characters whose power ranking is up there with the gods. Sometimes this works well, and sometimes it’s doesn’t. When you look under the law, it notes that because of the limited power, the guard would rather avoid taking on powerful monsters. Even some creatures that mid-level characters can overcome, like trolls, are things that the guard wants to leave alone.
However, at the same time, it fails a bit. If a group of tenth level characters is messing around in the lower wards, most guards should probably stay away from the characters. If they’re afraid of trolls, a tenth level character would be like a super-ogre.
The authors provide a ton of tools for the GM. Chapter Two, Life in Sharn, provides the City Districts. These fall under a general heading and then move into the specifics. It starts with the Central Plateua and provides a quick run down of what the Plateau is, in this case, the heart of the government and the financial districts that support it as well as the dragonmarked houses and the embassies of other nations. For those who need it, watch details are included.
After the Central Plateau listing, we get the individual districts. This includes a further breakdown, in this case, starting with the Upper Central Plateau and another breakdown, including population, social class, character, districts, businesses, key personalities and background, and then the districts found there. Under the Upper Central, we have the Highest Towers, Korranath, Korran-Thiven, Mitrhal Tower, Platinum Heights, and Skysedge Park. Each of these entries includes district type, buildings, first impression, social class, and background. If important details are further needed, they’re briefly touched on.
For example, Skysedge Park is an open park district and includes Skysedge Park proper, as well as the Gatehouse. In the park, the 100-foot tall iron statue known as the Iron Guardian stands vigilant over the city although it’s never been seen to move while in the Gatehouse, the druids belonging to the Gatekeeper Order monitor the land to protect it from planar invasion.
NPC’s are included in each section but aren’t presented in any unified manner. For example, Lord Mayor Cathan Ir’Demell has an abbreviated line with alignment, sex, race, class, and level, followed by a physical description and what his attitude means at different levels from hostile to helpful. Kessler, a gnome bard/expert, has the abbreviated information and physical description with his starting attitude and background, as well as an adventure idea. Dala Arand on the other hand, is an expert/rogue with full game stats and physical description with all attitudes listed. I could probably find a few more examples but I’d personally find it easier to just have one standard format and if a page reference is needed for more details like background, to have it there instead of flipping here and there to determine how best to use these details.
Numerous little elements pop out throughout the book to increase its utility. Want to know where you’ll wind up playing if you use the Perform skill? Check out page 18 with it’s breakdown of DC checks ranging from DC 10 to DC 30, leading you from a bridge on the lower levels to a widely promoted performance. Want to know about renting a unit or purchasing one? Flip to page 23. It’s something I’ve wondered about a few times myself so I crib down those numbers.
If you have the Favored in House feat, you’ll find specific DC checks for general and house-specific favors. Need the use of a greater mark? That’s a DC of 25. Need House Lyrandar to give you half-far passage on an airship in Khorvaire? That’s a DC 15.
Noting that the majority of people in Sharn are commoners not experts, helps the GM note that those who are even in the expert class can rise above the masses. Little details like that help the characters stand out from among the crowd. Following up on that thought, are notes on how the Blood of Vol, a religion that venerates the Undead, is handled, noting, “the majority of the people who worship the Blood of Vol are commoners…” and that “who simply wish to be left alone to practice the faith of their fathers.” It allows the GM to have the Blood of Vol in the campaign without having each member be insane.
There are a lot of maps. We get a side view of the city, not to scale, that shows the skyway, upper, middle, lower, depths, cogs, and lava pools, ranging from highest to lowest. We get a full-page map of the city for the Upper Wards with the different districts noted, and we get the same illustration for the other wards with names and map details changed to match the new ward information. Other maps are scattered through the product like the map of the Tower Tavern, a Tower Warehouse or Morgrave University, among others. These maps are handy to have as reference points and most of them can serve multiple duty allowing the GM to focus on the game.
One thing I don’t get about Sharn is how it looks or how it works, especially the streets. Now this is odd considering that they have a full page of sample streets but even so, I can’t tell if everything is on the inside or if the streets are just acting as bridges.
In Chicago, we have a six story mall called the Century. The center is hollow with escalators cutting through it at parts. Hugging the walls are shops with stairs leading up and down. Do the towers work like that? Is it more like Venice where instead of waterways we have bridges and open air? The lack of a fold out map, problematic in and of itself due to the 3-D nature of the setting more than a standard setting, makes fully picturing the movement between levels and between towers difficult.
I mentioned that the book isn’t heavily focused on game mechanics. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any. One of the nice touches is that some of the material is aimed at using the current game system, like when I mentioned using your perform skill. Other parts talk about general bonuses for specific things.
For example, let’s say you’re a spy. Should this get it’s own PrC with a full list of abilities and benefits? The authors here give you a list of favors that you might call on, and abilities that might be gained while performing these duties. These are minor for the most part, ranging from access to forged documents to a bonus on Gather Information checks. They use a similar approach for the Urban Adept, giving the class a new set of spells that changes the feel of the class.
This isn’t to say that there aren’t the good old standard feats and PrCs. Chapter Six, Heroes and Magic, gives us new game mechanics like Manifest Flight, where your flight speed and maneuverability are improved or Swarm’s Embrace where you don’t suffer as much when fighting a swarm. New goods range from drugs and alchemical substances to services and spellcasting.
When flipping to prestige classes, we have the Cannith Wand Adept, a three level PrC, followed by the Citadel Elite, the best of the best, as a five level PrC, followed by the Sharn Skymage, another five level PrC that specializes in the manifest zone that allows the caster to fly. Once nice touch is a quick listing of other PrCs that are appropriate from the city. This gives the GM and players an idea of what’s around in the city and at least for the Complete Adventurer, shows what’s coming down the line, without using a lot of space. Strangely enough, while the Miniature’s Handbook is mentioned, Races of the Wild isn’t.
A few spells and wondrous items help round out Chapter Six, providing PC’s with the spell Force Hammer to cause nonlethal damage with a ranged touch attack or look for the Watch Lamp that sheds light equal to a torch.
Now that you have this city, what are you going to do with it? Chapter Seven is the GM’s toolbook just as the previous chapter was for players. We get a wide range of nonplayers characters including a twenty level breakdown of the artificer, as well as a run down of what various groups are doing. The Lords of Dust have two agents in Sharn even as the Order of the Emerald Claw has it’s own warden here.
The authors include a section, Urban Monsters, with a breakdown of different types of monsters that fill a specific role. For example, under impersonators, we have rakshasas and slkies, for those hailing from the sewer, we have carrion crawlers and wraiths joining dark ones and mongrelfolk.
To round out the monsters, several new creatures are introduced. It starts with the Feral Spirit, a swarm of undead that swarm over their foes , and ends with the spiretop dragon, a tiny dragon that is a scavenger, following the air ships for their droppings.
Now that you have all of these different toys, is it time to start a game in the city? Well, Chapter Eight, A Sharn Campaign, provides some quick ideas on how to capture the feel of the campaign. This ranges from a few movies that fit the theme, The Big Sleep and the Maltese Falcon, to enforcing downtime to keep the players from shooting up in levels with no time passage. A table for random events and another for random corpses, helps the GM keep the setting alive by having things happen even when the PC’s aren’t around.
Sharn isn’t your standard fantasy city. It’s much more 3-D and relies on high magic that impacts the residents of the city everyday. It’s a vibrant city with uncountable factions moving about trying to capture their slice of the pie even as it provides the PCs with years worth of adventuring opportunities.
