Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
New Magic?
That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.
There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.
Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods.
Product History
DA3: and quot;City of the Gods and quot; (1987), by Dave Arneson and amp; David J. Ritchie, is the third of the four Blackmoor adventure. It was published in March 1987.
About the Cover. This may be the most science-fictiony cover ever for a D and amp;D module. It depicts the eponymous City of the Gods.
Origins (I): The Rock and his Ship. The history of the City of the Gods begins with Stephen Rocheford and his character, Stephen the Rock, a soldier who crashlanded on Blackmoor in a spaceship. DA2: and quot;Temple of the Frog and quot; (1986) told the tale of how St. Stephen became the leader of a cult of swamp monks and hellip; but what about the spaceship? For that, fans had to turn to DA3: and quot;City of The Gods and quot; and mdash; though the connection between the two adventures wasn't necessarily the one that Arneson had envisioned in his original campaign and hellip;
Origins (II): The Ritchie Connection. It was again David Ritchie who expanded and quot;City of the Gods and quot; from Arneson's original ideas. And there wasn't necessarily a lot of Arneson in the final book, who says: and quot;he didn't consult me a lot and quot;.
Some sources suggest that it was Ritchie who introduced the tight connection between rebel Stephen the Rock and Captain Riesling of the City of the Gods, a connection that focused on whether they should follow the Prime Directive or not and hellip; continuing Star Trek's influence on Blackmoor.
Players who want to see something closer to Arneson's original vision of the City of the Gods in Blackmoor might consult City of the Gods (2008), by Harold Stroh, which was based not just on Arneson's campaign notes and hellip; but also the campaign notes of Rob Kuntz!
Origins (III): The Kuntz ( and amp; Gygax) Connection. Two of TSR's principals, Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax, actually got their own chance to explore the City of the Gods in 1976, when Dave Arneson ran a session for them at TSR's Dungeon Hobby Shop. Gygax's Mordenkainen and Kuntz's Robilar rather famously wreaked havoc on the City, got in way over the heads, and barely escaped with their lives.
That adventure may have been an inspiration for S3: and quot;Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and quot; (1980), which first appeared as a tournament for Origins 2 (1976). It's also probably why Gygax included Blackmoor in the World of Greyhawk Fantasy World Setting (1980) and hellip; complete with a City of the Gods. Greyhawk's City of the Gods would be more fully detailed by Wolfgang Baur in Dungeon #126 (September 2005), which turned it into and quot;The Clockwork Fortress and quot;.
Genre Tropes: Science Fantasy. and quot;City of the Gods and quot; is probably the second most important science fantasy adventure in the early D and amp;D oeuvre, following only and quot;Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and quot;. Besides detailing the actual spaceship, and quot;City of the Gods and quot; also contains a few pages of alien devices and a few science-fantasy monsters. Because of and quot;Temple of the Frog and quot; and and quot;City of the Gods and quot;, fans have long thought that Blackmoor had a heavy technological basis. Arneson says otherwise; the initial adventures he choose to prepare for TSR just happened to be the ones with lots of tech in them.
and quot;City of the Gods and quot; also marked the end of an era. It was the final of several Basic D and amp;D science-fantasy adventures, including CM4: and quot;Earthshaker and quot; (1985), CM6: and quot;Where Chaos Reigns and quot; (1985), and of course DA2: and quot;Temple of the Frog and quot; (1986). Afterward, D and amp;D would increasingly move away from its science-fantasy origins.
Adventure Tropes. The game opens with a series of encounters, but quickly becomes a space ship crawl, much like and quot;Barrier Peaks and quot;. However, it's much more abstract. Cars move characters from one pod to another. Even those areas are pretty generic, requiring GMs to fill in the details.
Exploring Blackmoor. and quot;City of the Gods and quot; presents the best details to date on the setting of Blackmoor. That's not just through its description of the City of Gods. It also includes a new map of lands south of Blackmoor and more notably an actual description of the South's four regions: the Eastern Hak, the Valley of the Ancients, the High Hak, and the Thonian Rand.
Monsters of Note. and quot;City of the Gods and quot; introduces cyborgs and robots to the Basic D and amp;D game. It also marks the return of the primitive garls, who debuted in and quot;Where Chaos Reigns and quot;.
NPCs of Note. Like the previous Blackmoor adventures, this one has an extensive section detailing NPCs. Among them are Bosero the Drunkard and Brother Richard the Flying Monk, the characters of two of Arneson's players, brothers John and Richard Snider. Both Sniders went on to become game designers. Richard Snider is better known: he coauthored The First Fantasy Campaign (1977) and Adventures in Fantasy (1978) with Arneson, then wrote his own Powers and amp; Perils (1984) for Avalon Hill. John meanwhile was the author of two early TSR board games: Star Probe (1975) and Star Empires (1977)
About the Creators. and quot;City of the Gods and quot; was the third of three adventures that Arneson co-authored for TSR from 1986-1987. Arneson's collaborator, David Ritchie, had recently returned to TSR after a few years working for Coleco.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.