At the heart of Eisen lies the city of Freiburg. A city of surprises, a city of freedom and a centre of trade its streets, secrets and characters are described in this boxed set. So what is there in the box?
First there is Welcome to Freiburg a small guidebook to the city for players. It includes advice on local customs, interviews with local characters and descriptions of the districts of the city. It includes a mix of useful information and occasional red herrings to keep heroes on their toes.
A large, beautifully produced, black and white map shows the clutter of buildings that make up the heart of Freiburg. A smaller version of the same map is marked with a square grid.
The Sights of Freiburg book devotes two pages to each of square on the city. Throughout the descriptions are seeds for both adventures and colourful encounters with the city’s inhabitants. Well put together indexes make it easy to quickly find a location or person within the book.
The City of Freiburg book opens with the city’s history from drachen graveyard to current rule under Eisenfürst Trague. The city is ruled by a simple set of laws. Murder, arson, inciting riot and engaging in slavery lead to arrest by guard. Other than that the guard don’t interfere unless they feel they should or are paid to. This gives both heroes and villains alike lots of rope to hang themselves by. Important individuals are detailed and a cross-section of generic characters are provided.
A Freiburg based campaign is included built of encounters split into a series of required and optional adventures. The campaign isn’t heavily scripted allowing the players the possibility to walk down many different roads. To cope with this the episodes are provided as outlines rather than fully realised adventures. Some of the episodes are closely tied to locations and for these more detail, along with plans, would have been useful. Overall a good set of adventures building to a dramatic conclusion with the heroes at the centre of the action.
Two encounter maps and a few pages of interesting encounters are included to. These provide another welcome source of local colour to distract players with. However no coverage of the slum areas around the city beyond these random encounter tables is included. One or two sections of slum detailed in a similar way to the city would have proved useful to a referee needing to deal with players who wander that way.
Freiburg maintains he high standards of writing and illustration found in previous 7th Sea supplements. Overall an excellent product let down only by a few omissions that can be filled in by a little preparation.