Ten years ago this week, we published Parsantium: City at the Crossroads, a detailed city sourcebook designed for use with all editions of D&D and Pathfinder – including the soon-to-be released 5e rules.
Parsantium is a melting pot, a cosmopolitan place where trade routes meet and where great cultures collide. Inspired by Byzantium with its rich Greco-Roman heritage, it also incorporates characters, monsters and magic from the Tales of the Arabian Nights, ancient India and the Far East, alongside more traditional European fantasy elements. There are evil cults, scheming politicians and nobles, rakshasas and serpent folk, ancient dungeons beneath the city streets, and powerful criminal gangs, not to mention gladiators and chariot racing. The idea was to provide enough adventure hooks, patrons and adversaries in an edition neutral book to keep the PCs busy throughout your campaign, without them ever having to leave the city walls.
Parsantium started life in 2007 as the backdrop to my own 4th Edition D&D campaign, combining my two favourite types of setting – huge fantasy cities, such as Greyhawk, Waterdeep, and Ptolus, and non-European campaign settings like Al-Qadim, Kara-Tur, and Rokugan. I ended up running two Parsantium campaigns from 2008 to 2015, and still revisit the city from time to time in one shot adventures.
When I wrote the material that went into my campaign (and later ended up in the book), I had only vague thoughts that one day I might turn it into something I could publish. But after doing a fair bit of freelance writing for Kobold Press and Raging Swan Press, I decided to give self-publishing Parsantium a go. I had hopes of selling a couple of hundred books and breaking even.
With the invaluable help of my amazing wife Kate, an experienced editor, Parsantium: City at the Crossroads was published in February 2014 after a year of research, writing, editing, layout, art direction and proofreading. It gone on to sell 2,000 copies, well beyond my initial expectations.
Since then, we’ve also released Icons of Parsantium, a collection of influential NPCs compatible with 13th Age, and Whispers of the Dark Daeva, a 1st level Parsantium adventure for 5e and Pathfinder. I’ve also written a number of free Parsantium articles for 5e which I’ve posted on this website.
Last year, Parsantium’s Hidden Quarter was the backdrop for my #Dungeon23 project and it was great to revisit the setting and explore new areas of the city. I should have some more exciting news to share about Parsantium soon.
I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has bought Parsantium in the last ten years, and to all those gamers who have chatted to me about the setting online or in person! I get a big kick out of hearing how you are using Parsantium in your games, so please do get in touch via Twitter, Mastodon, or BlueSky, or in the comments below.
You can download a free preview of Parsantium: City at the Crossroads to find out more about the city or, better still, buy Parsantium from Drivethrurpg.
If you’ve enjoyed reading these posts, please do join my mailing list. There’s a sign up form on the home page and subscribers receive a free Parsantium supplement.
Main image by Jonathan Roberts
Richard Green | Game Designer 