Calandia Guidebook

Calandia Guidebook is a fantasy role-playing game supplement published by Mayfair Games in 1989 for the City State of the Invincible Overlord campaign setting.

Cover art by Robert Gould

Contents

Calandia Guidebook is a supplement in which background information is provided for exploring Calandia, the world that contains the City State of the Invincible Overlord.^[1]

The boxed set contains three booklets:

• "The Calandia Guidebook" (40 pages) that covers Calandia's cosmology, history, culture, government, and economy.
• "Religion in Calandia" (24 pages) gives details of 22 gods and demigods and their worshipers.
• "Calandian Dictionary" (32 pages) explains the Calandian language.

Publication history

Following the publication of Dungeons & Dragons by TSR in 1974, Judges Guild published City State of the Invincible Overlord, a large and detailed look at the dwarven fortress and town of Thunderhold set in the land of Calandia. Designed for use with the rules of D&D, it was the first published fantasy role-playing game city setting.^[2]

The product proved popular, and Judges Guild became a major player in the early role-playing game market. However, as the role-playing games industry moved to professional typesetting, full color art, and slick and hardcovered material in the early 1980s, Judges Guild was slow to adapt, and their AD&D license with TSR lapsed in 1982. Judges Guild ceased publication in 1985, but licensed a City State of the Invincible Overlord line to Mayfair Games from 1987 to 1989.^[3]: 205

Mayfair completely revised the City State setting, and published several supplements during this period, including Calandia Guidebook, a boxed set designed by Terry Randall, with cover art by Robert Gould and interior art by Jerry O'Malley. It was published by Mayfair in 1989.^[4]

Changes that Mayfair made to the original City State setting were not well received, and the company dropped the City State line in 1989.

Reception

In Issue 5 of the British magazine Games International, Paul Mason found it failed to break new ground, stating, "The Calandia series provides a traditional D&D style background with pleasant presentation. Unfortunately there's absolutely nothing special about it." Mason concluded by giving the product a poor rating of 2 out of 5.^[1]