#deadly nightside

[oldschoolfrp]

The sewers -- hidden routes beneath the city for thieves, assassins, and anyone else determined to pass unnoticed (Liz Danforth, Citybook III: Deadly Nightside, system-neutral RPG setting edited by Michael Stackpole, Flying Buffalo, 1987)

[vintagerpg]

I love a good seedy underbelly and Citybook III: Deadly Nightside (1987) delivers.

This one is full of fences, crooked night courts, gang hangs, drug dens, some folks you don’t want to meet in a darkened alley and a couple of do-gooders looking to soften some hardened hearts. As such, this book feels much more explicitly organized around adventure hooks than the previous two volumes. Not that they weren’t there! But stuff is just itching to start happening on the Nightside.

I should note that Flying Buffalo has a general penchant for silly humor and these books are no exception. They play it mostly straight, but every book has its moments that the gag can not be resisted. Case in point, the aforementioned night court is a studied send-up of the sit-com. It still works as an interesting location on its own, but a gag is a gag.

Michael Stackpole edited this one and Liz Danforth supplied all the art. Boy can she draw a great fireplace! I love that fireplace! There is a lot of great art in this one, which does a lot to sell the material. It proves generic isn’t boring.