Pyramid Review
Seven Cities (for d20)
Published by Atlas Games
Written by Matt Forbeck
Illustrated by Steven Sanders (cover), Michael Clarke, John Davis, Brian Figur and Jennifer Meyer
Cartography by John Davis, Rob Lee and Scott Reeves
144-page perfect bound softback; $21.95
Getting straight down to the facts, Seven Cities maintains the high standards that we have come to expect from Penumbra, the d20 imprint published by Atlas Games. It is well-written by Matt Forbeck, the co-founder of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and creator of such notable games as Brave New World and editor on several lines for Deadlands: The Weird West Roleplaying Game. It has some nice pieces of artwork, some of which have an almost Dickensian feel to them. It is laid out in the Penumbra house style, and -- like other Penumbra titles -- comes with an extraordinarily easy to use set of indices that list Community Stats, NPC Stats, Magic Items, Traps, and Miscellaneous items.
The maps in the supplement are particularly good; individual buildings are nice and clear, but with a pleasingly rough feel to them. The maps of the towns are also good, but as the towns grow in size their individual layouts do feel a little too regular and perhaps possess too much of a grid pattern to their street plan. Yet this is really no more than a quibble.
Seven Cities discusses the creation of inhabited settlements and presents seven of their ilk. In fact the title is a bit of a misnomer, since only two actual cities are described in . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 12, 2002
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