''Cities of Bone'' is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the ''
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''
fantasy role-playing game
A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...
, published in 1994.
Contents
''Cities of Bone'' is an
Al-Qadim
Al-Qadim is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game which was developed by Jeff Grubb with Andria Hayday for TSR, Inc., and was first released in 1992. Al-Qadim uses ''One Thousand and One Nights'' as a theme and is ...
boxed set that includes six dungeon crawls, mostly portable anywhere in
Zakhara
Abeir-Toril is the fictional planet that makes up the ''Forgotten Realms'' ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign setting, as well as the Al-Qadim and Maztica campaign settings and the 1st edition version of the Oriental Adventures campaign setting.
T ...
, half for beginning characters and the rest for mid-to high levels. The text offers advice for creating a spooky atmosphere, and the historical reasons behind the construction of each dungeon.
Half the text makes up the adventure, "Court of the Necromancers", where in the undead city of Ysawis, the
player character
A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...
s get involved in the intrigues of a couple of repugnant wizards and a senile
lich.
Publication history
''Cities of Bone'' was written by
Steve Kurtz
Steve Kurtz is an American artist and co-founder of the art collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). His work with CAE is considered pioneering in the areas of politically engaged art, interventionist practices, and cultural research and action in ...
.
Reception
Allen Varney reviewed ''Cities of Bone'' for ''
Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
'' magazine #219 (July 1995).
He comments: "The indefatigable Kurtz returns with another mixed lot of adventures in ruined cities. The Al-Qadim line had been held over a year beyond its original plan by the time of this 1994 sourcebox, and this may explain the set's flagging inspiration."
He calls the dungeon crawls "mostly routine" and says that the historical reasons for each dungeon "make interesting reading, but these are basically numbered rooms with traps and monsters. These are endlessly popular in other ''AD&D'' worlds, but in Zakhara they fit awkwardly, for (as the text remarks) 'robbing the tombs of enlightened creatures is considered a base and dishonorable profession.'"
Varney considers "Court of the Necromancers" to be the set's best adventure, commenting: "There's an interesting plot and one well-staged, creepy dinner scene with the two necromancers, but the storyline works only with players who behave with cautious restraint — yet the same adventure's dungeon crawl, like all the others here, belongs to the kill-everything-that-moves school of adventure design. It's an unfortunate mix."
References
Al-Qadim supplements
Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1994
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