A beautiful upgrade of one of the best SW modules. Terry has outdone himself, providing lots of new content!

Incredible resource book, well worth the money. I've never found anyone who does such a good job of providing relevant, insightful and deep detail as Mr. Amthor, and he doesn't disappoint here. Truthfully, it's almost a jaw-dropping amount of detail on the city(s) inhabitants, factions, culture, institutions, etc. For example, the government section gives us multiple (10?) pages of details about the the Sel-Kai government, taxes, important city functions, justice (i.e.. who delivers it and how, severity of crimes, penalties), important city families, etc.... Add in a multitude of pages that describe various city structures, weather, herbology, languages, secret organizations, etc.... and it's easy to be overcome.

I hesitated to buy it as it didn't have RMU's changes in it, but frankly I'm tired of waiting for RMU, and don't regret that decision one bit. Yea the conversions will be a pain, but my overall satisfaction and general utilty of this resource will more than make up for it.

This module has been floating around since the 1980's. This new edition is the definitive version of EIDOLON. It has more maps, more NPC'S, more adventure scenarios, more information on the noble houses...more of everything. In fact, the author added 100 pages of new content.

While this book is intended for Rolemaster Classic/RMSS, it can be plopped into any campaign world. (With some effort) The attention to detail is staggering. This is one purchase you won't regret.

The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=46734.

Eidolon, City in the Sky is another sourcebook for the Shadow World setting for Rolemaster. Continuing on with books like Emer Atlas III, it’s a detailed write-up of this epic fantasy setting, covering an array of source material digging down into aspects you often overlook when creating and running a setting. Eidolon and Sel-Kai (the city on the ground), are part of the Emer continent and effectively continue the extensive write-up contained in other Emer books. However, this content is solely focused on that much smaller portion of the continent as opposed to a much larger regional write-up.

I’m going to be honest; I’m not really a fan of epic fantasy. However, the Shadow World books are amazing to me in that they contained such an abundance of detail that you quickly forget they’re designed for use in an epic fantasy setting. There is so much meat throughout the book (regardless of the stat blocks) that you can use it virtually anywhere. You can take the entire setting and port it into a dark fantasy or fantasy horror setting. You can even take probably 90% of the content and place it into a different game system. Eidolon, City in the Sky is an excellent resource for breathing life into your Shadow World games, and it does it without getting bogged down in crunch. There’s a lot of fluff here and the descriptions of what you find throughout the cities are vivid and believable.

When I read these Shadow World books, I always get the sense that the writer knows an awful lot about earth sciences and civilizations. The people are believable, the cities are believable, the surroundings are believable, and the environment is believable. Regardless of the fantasy aspects, you can really picture yourself (or rather your PC) standing in the midst of this city with the hustle and bustle going on around you. It’s this picture that makes these books come alive. Adding to that is a great collection of maps to allow easy navigation throughout and aid the GM in connecting the fluff to the city’s design.

As for the book itself, being a second edition, it appears to offer a lot of value to those who have the first edition. You can clearly see the differences between first edition artwork being reused and new artwork added in (I found the first edition artwork to be rather meh), but otherwise the content flows quite nicely from beginning to end.

I would presume that most people are familiar with the first edition. In case you are not: When Eidolon first appeared back in the day, it set a new standard for roleplaying supplements. To me, it is a classic – among the best products ever published by old ICE. This is a no brainer. It belongs in every gamemaster's bookshelf.

A few words about this edition: On first glimpse, it has lots of new color illustrations and a much bigger adventures section. The new art is gorgeous, many parts of the book seem to have been expanded and updated. So, even for previous owners the purchase is worthwhile.