In the October-November 1977 edition of
White Dwarf (Issue #3),
Don Turnbull gave a thumbs up to the 1977 Judges Guild edition, saying, "The result is something of a triumph, a labour of love (and considerable headache) for the designer and coordinator. It should be welcome in any fantasy gamer's collection." Patrick Amory reviewed
City State of the Invincible Overlord for
Different Worlds magazine and stated that "the City-State generally deserves the praise it gets and is well-worth the money". In the August 1988 edition of
Dragon (Issue #136),
Jim Bambra was impressed with the production values of the 1987 Mayfair edition, calling it "an impressive looking package." Bambra was disappointed by the contents compared to the original Judges Guild editions, saying, "Gone are the winding alleys and jumbled buildings, now replaced by a pretty but unconvincing suburban playground. Buildings stand in their own spacious grounds, making the city look like nothing more than a sprawling village enclosed by stout stone walls. No longer are there alleys to get mugged in after dark. Gone are the overcrowded streets. This city is a town-planner’s dream. As such, it is hardly the stuff of a bustling fantasy city." He did enjoy the Background & Encounter Book, which he found to be "vibrant and exciting", but found that "As it stands, the city exists on its own, with its background seemingly tacked on as an afterthought." He concluded with a firm thumbs down, saying, "The revised
City-State of the Invincible Overlord set is a good example of how not to go about designing a city. It lacks a cohesive feel, and any atmosphere the City-State may have had is lost in a mass of individual location descriptions. Ten years ago, this would have been acceptable; today, it's lackluster and boring. Instead of rectifying the faults of the original, Mayfair has amplified them." In the October 1988 issue of
Games International, game designer
Ian Marsh called the original publication "typical of the products of the time ... Role-players, however, have become more advanced since then, and the charming simplicity of the original
City-State of the Invincible Overlord is no longer stimulating enough for rewarding games play." However, Marsh was not pleased with the new Mayfair edition, saying that it "offers very little that is new, but without having the same character as the original ... It suffers from the same problem that afflicted its predecessor, one which is vital to solve if the encounters are to be different from simple fights: it lacks detail." Marsh also felt that the many tables that provided random monsters "that for some reason pop up in a back alley" was not enough to build an adventure with. "Characters in a city need adventures that embroil them in the running of that city, at whatever level they are suited to be at. This is where
City States detailing could be improved." Marsh concluded, "The information that the referee is provided with isn't helpful and will require some tinkering to make the characters fit in with his own world, if he has one, or will just seem odd in terms of the
City State campaign." In his 1990 book
The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, game designer
Rick Swan noted, "The problems with
City State are common to all generic supplements; namely, it takes a fair amount of work from the referee to adapt the material to a specific game system, and there are some obvious continuity problems when abruptly dropping a setting this detailed into an existing campaign world." Nonetheless, Swan concluded with a positive recommendation, saying, "for referees in the market for this type of generic material,
City State of the Invincible Overlord is a great buy". In his 2023 book
Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "the emphasis of the material is on making the city-state fun and interesting. Plausibility is never a consideration, and that's the source of much of the charm ... The intricate presentation of the city is unprecedented for the time." ==References==