Now, This is Gamer Porn!

"It is called the City of Splendors: Waterdeep, most populous and powerful of the cities of the north. It is a city of wealth, adventure and danger. More men have died in its taprooms and bars than in all the sieges ofDragonspear castle. Success and death lurk in its shadowed entranceways and dimly-lit streets.

"Come explore the greatest city of the Realms in this incredible new boxed set dealing with urban fantasy adventures. Waterdeep is detailed in no less than 10 expanded maps, embellished with typical building interiors suitable for use in any campaign setting. In addition, a full-size poster of Waterdeep is provided, along with a grand-scale three-dimensional map of Castle Waterdeep, hub of the city's government. In addition to all of these maps, a 32 page City System booklet provides encounters and street scenes, special features and details of Waterdeep, and methods of creating types of buildings in monuments in the pockets of those unfortunate enough to get in a player character's way. Designed for use with Waterdeep, these new features are suitable for use anywhere in the Forgotten Realms! It's all here-all you add is your imagination."

My latest ebay acquisition arrived today and I gleefully tore open the shipping box, to unearth my brand new used copy of the Forgotten Realms City System! The box has some creases, but the contents are in great shape! I think I got a good deal. With shipping I paid $10.50 and the folks at the Acaeum inform me that it's a first printing. No idea if Collector's care about the City System printings, but I'm still enough of a Collector myself, to be a little pleased by that fact. I also see that the Grey Box I picked up last week is a first printing, coming with the advert for the Secrets of the Sages newsletter. According to the Acaeum, again, only one issue of this newsletter was ever released:

"Secret of the Sages. The First printing of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set came with a form that could be filled out to receive the Forgotten Realms newsletter, Secrets of the Sages. Only a single issue of this newsletter was released, in the summer of 1988; it is 8 pages, and contains short descriptions of places in the Realms that were left out of the boxed set (Aglarond, Evermeet and Halruaa). The last page (inside back) has a map of "The North" region. (Thanks to Shane Voelker, Brett Easterbrook, and Travis Masoner for this info)."

I found the image on the Forgotten Realms wiki. A very impressive site with tons of information. It would be nice if WotC would make stuff like this available online.

Back to the City System. Now, why did they called this product City System? Couldn't they find some marketable way to say "Gigormous Collection of Waterdeep Maps and Encounter Table Booklet!"? Judging from the copy on the back of the box, reproduced above, they were trying to push the idea that it was usable with any city in the Realms. Kind of silly, considering that the meat of the box is 12 full color maps of Waterdeep! I suppose they were worried about whether or not such a specialized box set for the Forgotten Realms, would sell. Hah! The City System was released in 1988, still under the auspices of First Edition and early in what would become a flood of releases for the campaign setting. 

And speaking of FR releases, I'm now on the hunt for a copy of this little number on the left. I know it's available from WotC as a free download, but I'd rather have a physical copy.