Review of City of Telndar

This is the first supplement for the Esaene fantasy rpg, and it lives up to its predecessors standards for value and content, while surpassing the rule books in production value and visual appeal. A card stock, color cover adds greatly to this books appearance over the rules books, but the organization and formatting of the contents also gives the feel of a more polished effort. For a small press operation, this is world class production values. The, roughly, digest sized book comes with a separate, legal sized, color map of the city and QuickRules version of Esaene inside a fold of the front cover. The QuickRules are a working summary of Esaene but as with the campaign provided with the Esaene rules, the City of Telndar stands on its own as a fantasy city supplement for any role-playing game system. For Esaene players, a new character type, the artisan, is provided for NPCs or creative PCs.

Telndar is a growing urban center, surrounded by frontier, on the far end of an island province. Having successfully profited from some precious woods native to the surrounding forest, Telndar has emerged from isolationism, imposed when the mainland kingdom was under siege, a strong community with influence beyond its walls. Its location on the frontier makes it an excellent base for adventurers. Its urbanization assures the needs of any campaign can be met by its inhabitants and its politics.

With all this going for it, you'd think Telndar was a utopian community. Unfortunately, not everyone profited from the city's emergence from isolation. A group of craftsmen who once held monopolies over their products are now finding it difficult to deal with inexpensive quality imports, not everyone is in the wood business. They have formed a secret group known as the Fang and through covert, mostly non-violent, means are trying to return Telndar to a more isolationist policy for their own advantage. As you may have guessed a second group works to thwart the Fang's efforts and there are other secret societies (like mages), guilds (including thieves), government agencies (royal and baronial) and "clubs" to interact with on the streets of Telndar. Other forces include a religious order that runs a university and maintains a famous library, available to adventurers for research and consultation. The text is augmented by Plot Threads, First Impressions, character profiles and other colorful detailing paragraphs. Each quarter of the city is mapped, as are specific locations, often connected with one of the supplementing text boxes.

Like the rule books and their webpage, www.badgepubs.com, City of Telndar reads with all of the personal depth and detail of a real place. Brant Guillory has either worked a great deal on this campaign world or has actually been there. I find myself anticipating their next product and actually offered Mr. Guillory space on my Alarums & Excursions zine to feature his work for others to enjoy.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)