Freeport: City of Adventure
Green Ronin entered the d20 market with its Origins Award winning Death in Freeport, detailing adventure in the rough-and-tumble city of Freeport. This was soon followed by the adventures Terror in Freeport, Madness in Freeport, and Hell in Freeport. Fans of those adventures clamored for a full blown setting book for the city of Freeport. Those fans were not to be disappointed. The Freeport: City of Adventure hardbound unveils the city in all of its glory.
A First Look
Freeport: City of Adventure is a 160-page hardbound packaged with a color fold-out map by Todd Gamble, noted for his prolific work with Wizards of the Coast. The book is priced at $29.95, which is expensive for a book of this size. For $29.95, one could have a full-color 224-page book such as Manual of the Planes or Rokugan. Some of this is probably due to the cost of the color map.
The cover of the book has a handsome full color wrap-around picture by Kyle Anderson depicting a sabre wielding man confronting some sort of undead on a burning ship, with a building in the background.
The interior is black and white. There are a large variety of illustrations, ranging from mediocre to excellent, with such talents as Toren "MacBin" Atkinson, Sam Wood, and Marcio Fiorito. The pages have a watermark backdrop depicting a crowded port. In addition to various sidebars, the book has little out takes from the headlines of a fictional paper in Freeport, The Shipping News, on artistically rendered paper scraps.
The book has a decently compact typeface. It is a handsome book, but still comes with a little sting in the wallet.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: This section contains spoilers regarding some secret information about the city.)
Freeport is sorted into five chapters and three appendices.
Chapter 1: A History of Freeport
The first chapter has a brief rundown of the history of Freeport. In essence, Freeport is a natural harbor in free waters that soon became a haven for pirates and other ne'er-do-wells. To keep the peace, a code and a sort of government evolved, but the peace between some of the powerful pirate captains that ruled the place was always fragile.
As a pirate haven, it could only last so long before attracting the attentions of other nations, and soon fleets set out to erase this scourge. One of the pirate captains made secret bargains with these foreign invaders and betrayed his chief rival in a bid that would win security and a measure of legitimacy for Freeport, as well as winning him the seat of the first Sea Lord that presided over Freeport.
Some time has past since that fateful day, and there have been several other Sea Lords since then. However, the events of the Freeport trilogy have left Freeport without a Sea Lord and gripped in a succession crisis.
Further, there is more to Freeport than meets the eye. The isles upon which Freeport lies are remnants of an ancient continent once inhabited by a race of serpent people, who have remnants that still persist beneath Freeport.
Chapter 2: The Serpent's Teeth
The Serpent's Teeth is a name given to the group of four islands that houses Freeport. This chapter describes the conditions and features on and around the islands other than the city of Freeport itself. This information includes the islands themselves, the natural features around the islands such as sandbars, denizens of the sea such as the sahuagin and the merfolk, as well as other specifics such as a legendary haunted ship.
Chapter 3: The City of Freeport
The third chapter is a brief overview of the city, including its major districts, which include:
- The Docks: The rough and tumble region near the port proper of Freeport.
- Drac's End: Named for the first Sea Lord, Drac's End is so called because it marks where the efforts to expand into the jungles end. This is the most poverty stricken district of Freeport.
- The Eastern District: The home of the middle class of Freeport, as it exists.
- The Merchant District: The wealthiest district of Freeport, and best maintained.
- The Old City: The original city of Freeport, which houses the courts and the Sea Lord's palace.
- Scurvytown: Home to the seediest criminal elements of Freeport.
- The Temple District: Owing to the superstitious nature of many folks in Freeport, there is a healthy temple district.
- The Warehouse District: This well guarded district is the site of much exchange of currency and goods.
This chapter also describes the power blocs in Freeport, chief among which is the Captain's Council, the seat of government in Freeport. As previously mentioned, the Sea Lord has died without a successor. This has left the Council in a power struggle to decide who will step up. The chapter details all the members of the council, some heirs apparent, their statistics, and their stakes. This should be rather convenient should the GM decide to work the power struggle into the game.
Also detailed are such locales and powers as the Hulks (ships worked into a makeshift prison), the God Squad (vigilantes in service of the god of justice), private guards, gangs, and cults that hold sway in Freeport.
Chapter Four: A Freeport Gazetteer
This chapter is the largest in the book and details a variety of locales throughout Freeport. A total of 59 locations are detailed throughout the various districts, with most locations consuming half a page and a page. Each location has some exposition and most have two plot hooks associated with the location. Some locations also have detailed NPCs listed in sidebars.
In addition to the locales by districts, a few pages are devoted to the Underside of Freeport. For the most part, this section describes Freeport's serpent people, remnants of the ancient civilization that once thrived on the continent now beneath the waves near Freeport.
Chapter Five: Adventures in Freeport
Chapter Five is entitled Adventures in Freeport, but there are no adventures or adventure seeds detailed here. It is basically a guide to using Freeport in the game. Subjects are touched on such as how to integrate it with your game, how to handle the "generic" deities of Freeport, and types of activities that you can use to challenge your players in Freeport.
A short section talks about life on the sea. It provides some rules and adventure ideas, but stops short of providing its own seafaring rules. For that, you will have to pick out one of the three seafaring d20 books out there. None is recommended by name in the text, but there is an ad for the FFG Seafarer's Hhandbook in the back.
Chapter Six: Rules You Can Use
This chapter introduces a variety of "crunchy bits" for use in your game, obviously intended to fit the style and situations of Freeport. This includes two new prestige classes, a new NPC class, as well as skill variants, feats, spells, and magic items.
The new prestige classes are Freeport pirate and the crime boss. Both fit the mood of the city and both are well done. They have abilities beyond what you would expect from taking the right skills and feats with other classes, and the ability set seems well justified for the concepts.
The NPC class is the cultist. The cultist has a smattering of rogue abilities as well as divine spellcasting abilities. There is little here that could not have been done almost as well by multiclassing. However, as this is a strong theme in the setting, it may be worth the extra detail.
The new feats deal with criminal or seafaring life, or derive from being from one of the two prominent bloodlines of Freeport. Some of the feats work a bit like Weapon Finesse in that they let you alter what stat affects certain tasks. For example, Scoundrel's Luck lets you use your Charisma modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier for Reflex saves, and Intellect Fortress lets you use your Intelligence modifier for Will saves.
Many of the new spells either have a nautical or island theme, while others are new spells provided for the cultist NPC class but cross listed with other classes. In the former category are spells such as dive (allows a creature to breathe water, see in the murky depths, and survive pressure) and pirate's booty (erases the memory of buried treasure, but gives one person the key to unlock those memories). An example of the latter category is strangle (a weak version of circle of death).
Likewise, many magic items have a nautical theme or are somehow involved in the history of Freeport. For example, captain's grog is an enchanted rum that you feed to your crew to discourage mutiny.
Some of the specific items are very interesting, such as the rod of the buccaneer, which bears some similarities to the rod of lordly might, but has forms that are of special use to seafarers. For example, its weapon forms include belaying pins and cutlasses, and its alternate forms include a spyglass and a bilge pump.
Appendix I: Typical Dwellings
This appendix is a single page and shows layouts of some typical buildings in Freeport.
Appendix II: Firearms in Freeport
The second appendix contains statistics for a variety of firearms. As with many firearm rules, these firearms are in their infancy and can suffer mishaps if the user rolls poorly. Unlike many firearms rules for d20, most of these firearms have a damage rating that makes it worth considering using them in the stead of crossbows and the like.
Appendix III: Narcotics
Appendix III contains rule describing the effects of narcotics, again a topic appropriate to the nature of Freeport. The rules are a brief version of the rules presented in Green Ronin's Arcana: Societies of Magic.
Conclusion
Freeport is a very strong city setting. The city is loaded with adventure ideas and is flexible enough that you can insert it as a stopover or central point in any fairly typical fantasy campaign that has seafaring travel.
Despite this versatility, it is anything but plain. As I read the book, I caught an underlying theme to the city: layers of corruption. It seems to me that the city's overriding theme is corruption going on in various venues. For example, the city itself is a haven for pirates that puts on a face of legitimacy. The city government is in shambles, and its successor unclear, and it is likely that there will be double dealing (and adventure!) in the path to filling the Sea Lord's boots. Beneath the street are serpent men, some of them struggling with their own corruption. Further, the city is full of other cults, arcane orders, gangs, secret societies, and nobles with secrets.
All this is wrapped up in a well written and handsome book that you will be proud to have on your shelves.
-Alan D. Kohler
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