A fun, semi-detailed city. A small City State of the Invincible Overlord without some of the goofy Judge's Guild 1970ness (and I was a player and loyal customer!). This is one that I printed and will use.

Reminds me of some of the old Judge's Guild stuff, only better. (Remember the old newsprint JG used?) Can't wait to see what SNG comes out with next.

WHAT WORKS: The bulk of the information is stat-free, so it is totally usable in just about any fantasy game, not just Labyrinth Lord, with virtually no problem. A great balance of detail and GM interpretation is presented as well. The fact that SNG not only allows, but encourages, other publishers to use the city is cool as well. And oh, dear God...I love random tables. Plus, it's Pay What You Want. Literally no reason not to check it out.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I am a big fan of the slightly Ravenloft-ish gothic horror vibe to the Small Niche Games adventures, and that vibe is almost completely absent from the Guidebook, which is a little disappointing.

CONCLUSION: As my eyes drift back more and more towards D&D and D&Desque games, The Chronicles of Amherth and the surrounding adventures all look very appealing to me, and The City of Dolmvay would be a pretty great jumping off point for that, as I have no issue going low magic. The random tables are great, and the history has a lot of callbacks to the earlier adventures in the series. It's pretty much recommended for any GM who is running a retroclone or any fantasy RPG on the lower end of the magic/power spectrum, especially since you can set the price (and for those who don't get how that works, you can "buy" it for nothing, then rebuy it for what you think is a fair price). Another great outing from Small Niche Games.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2014/05/tommys-take-on-guidebook-to-city-of.html

The nuts and bolts of the Guidebook have been adequately covered by other reviews so I'll just cover what I like and dislike and why you should get it.

The book itself is similar to other SNG products in that it sits in the middle ground between amateurishly produced content and the overly slick output of the big boys. It has a very personal feel yet also has good production and presentation. The final product is easy to read and use in any form.

Every section has something of interest whether you plan to use it whole as part of the Amherth setting, plan to drop it into another world or even just use some of the parts.

The guidebook is large and contains a ton of material. The sewers alone could occupy a party for years! One of the best aspect of the books is the sheer number of NPCs to be found in the city. There are dozens and dozens of them and If you need more quickly the NPC generator will come in handy. Sometimes it seems people forget that RPG is ROLE PLAYING game and one meets too many cardboard cutouts. Not so in Dolmvay. Another unique feature is The Church. In my world there are lots of religions most of which are pretty informal and usually don't bather each other. Dolmvay, on the other hand, has a dominant religion that is not very tolerant of other faiths. This makes for a definite feel that is a distinguishing feature of the city. Think Medieval Catholic Church.

My only complaint is that I would have liked more maps. O.K. I admit that I'm a map nut, but I would have liked to see a map of the immediate area around the city and maybe a regional map. Those may be coming in a future SNG product.

So why should you get it? Because it's a ridiculously good deal. Where else can you get a 200+ page sourcebook for pay what you want? Through a strange twist of events I have the PDF, Softcover and Hardcover and can recommend any of the three. Just pick your price point.

This supplement is fantastic. So much good information for DMs and Labyrinth Lords. A bargain.

Small Niche Games has really hit another one out of the park with Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay. Set in the SNG original world Chronicles of Amherth. But there are several things about this supplement that make it special.

First and foremost is the level of detail and love shown by the folks at SNG. This city is detailed enough to feel very real and very lived in. Rich would be the world I'd use. It feels rich. Yet, clear effort has been shown not to fill in all the corners - SNG leaves plenty of room for enterprising DMs to tailor the material to their own campaigns. The structure, government, geography, social classes, religious structure, are all given a beautiful description while leaving more than enough wiggle room for any old school gamer.

My favorite part of this book is Appendix II: The Adventurer's Guide. The framework here is perfect and facilitates introducing your players to any number of pre-made adventures they may be itching to run or draw them into the politics of the city if the local nobles or church turns to the guild for assistance. But the players don't get drawn in without reward and the perks for guild membership and paying your dues make it well worth it to join the guild.

To boot, SNG includes rules for starting characters at 0th level play that show a surprisingly level of depth. That was a real welcome surprise.

As detailed and wonderful as this book is, what makes it truly magnificent is the fact that while Dolmvay is defaulted to Amherth, it can easily be slotted into near any old school campaign. In addition to this, Peter C. Spahn has information in the back encouraging other OSR publishers to make use of the material presented within these pages as long as they acknowledge and respect the spirit of the material and those who wrote it.

As far as presentation, the book is your standard no frills, clean-reading SNG product with a great cover that evokes that old-school feel. The maps are magnificent and the black and white art is also evocative of classic image from the fantasy RPGs of the 1970s and 80s.

I will definitely be purchasing a copy of this book when it goes physical. My only regret regarding the Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay is the fact that I didn't throw a few bucks into the kickstarter because it's sure as heck worth it.

Wow.

I have been waiting for this book for a while and I have to say it was worth the wait.
Dolmvay is not only a highly detailed city complete with maps, npcs, new monsters and pretty much everything you need, it is also a shared city.

Let's talk about the product first. It's Pay What You Want, but it is certainly worth at least $19.95 or more (so pay at least 5 buck or more!). You get 223 pages worth of material. There are the maps I mentioned, but there is also a fairly detailed history. You could easily drop this into any game, and let's be honest, any system. If you are familiar with other products from SNG then takes place in the World of Amherth setting. But this book (and most of the Amherth books) are easily adapted to any setting.

There is a chapter on adventuring in the city. How the local churches react to magic and what can be expected of travelling adventurers. Makes it perfect for a way point between adventures, but you would be missing all the fun. The book also details an number houses, factions and NPCs and their own desires for the city. If you like games of political intrigue and courtly drama then this is a good place to start.

The bulk of the book details the layout of the city. In this respect it reads like a guide book. NPCs, hooks and other information is given. There is plenty here for new GM to use it as is and plenty more for an experienced GM to add their own information.
It strikes a nice balance between detail and flexibility. Among my favorite items are the random rumor table and the common greetings and gestures. Things like this give a setting life of it's own.

Common businesses are covered as well as a sampling of Taverns and Inns. City encounters and even some new monsters. Venture into the sewers or the Island of Heroes.

There is a section on random NPC generation as well.

Dolmvay the concept is the idea that this is a shared City. If developers want to create their own encounters, adventures or anything else really and set it in Dolmvay then there is an easy to use and free license to do so. It is such a great idea I am surprised that no one else has done it before.

This book is steal at any price.