Thieves' World d20

[Crothian]

how does it compare with Black Company? Are the rules similar?

Hard to say as I've play TW but haven't read the book, and read BC and not played it. There are some similarities but also differences. And I know that doesn't help much.

I do like what I've seen of TW much better then BC though.

 

[thalmin]

how does it compare with Black Company? Are the rules similar?

I'm afraid I haven't played either yet, and I haven't read Balck Company, so I can't compare them. Sorry. If you have some specific examples, maybe I could answer.

 

[thalmin]

Some examples of healing: The Cure X Wounds have been changed to Convert X Wounds, converting damage from lethal to non-lethal damage. There is a prestige class that has, as the 3rd level ability to Create Healing Salve: Cure 1 pt damage, give +2 to healing check, double healing rate for next 24 hours.
There are rules for permanent damage, like scars and ability losses.

 

[thalmin]

On the other hand, there are rules for casting spells you don't know, including spells of a higher level.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Looks very good.

Like a few Conan books I've picked up along the way, even if I don't get a review copy of this, I will be picking up a copy! I've even been re-reading my old books, and have bought the new fiction line, but havne't had a chance to delve into that yet.

I'm looking forward to seeing how I can mix the Black Company and this book together as they use some different magic systems but still are fairly d20 in most other aspects.

 

[Crothian]

This is a drop everything I have and sit down and read and review it. As an old school Thieves World fan this is something I've been waiting for for so long, it eclipses everything else on the gaming frontier.

 

[Felon]

That is exactly what I wanted to hear

Well, it's only half of what I wanted to hear. Great, they unplug a lot of elements that are intrinsic to D&D. That's the easy part, anybody can unplug healing spells and magic items. What were they replaced with?

Ok I read the info on Green Ronin's site and it didn't answer my one question: What the heck is Thieves World? I read about Sanctuary but that doesn't really tell me anything? Can someone give me more info about the setting? Thanks!

For a while, it was a collaborative effort by many writers to come up with a shared world. The idea was "wouldn't it be neat if the Grey Mouser and Conan and Kane the Immortal all ran around in the same city having adventures, and occasionally crossing each other's path".

Then a character named Tempus walked into town. He was originall introduced as an antagonist who received his come-uppance by the mere mortal underdogs at the end of one of the novels (the third, IIRC). But whoops! It turns out that Thieves' World had a large contingent of l33t d3wds amongst its readership, and they thought an invulnerable ex-blue star adept demigod of war totally pwnz, so the writers promptly handed Sanctuary over to him. I thought this would be a temporary gimmick, but a few books later he was still top dog and other characters were miraculously discovering that they too were half-god.

That's where I left off. To be honest, the dominos may very well have tumbled back in the other direction at some point, but they lost me. If you can have a half-dozen people write for a series, somebody has to have the integrity to stand up and say "hey, you know, populism is great and all, but this series was supposed to be about a cast of characters, not just one fan-favorite badass kicking the crap out of everybody".

EDIT--Here's a link to a site with a lot of info, including a database of characters:

http://www.geocities.com/jillari1/menu.htm

 

[Crothian]

Well, it's only half of what I wanted to hear. Great, they unplug a lot of elements that are intrinsic to D&D. That's the easy part, anybody can unplug healing spells and magic items. What were they replaced with?

WEll, first off there are no big bad dragons or demons or other creatures that for the most part force people to use magical weapons to defeat them. TW is not like that, it is not like D&D in many aspects. I am very thankful Green Ronin understand that. The healing has convert spells, it converts lethal damage into non lethal damage.

 

[Felon]

WEll, first off there are no big bad dragons or demons or other creatures that for the most part force people to use magical weapons to defeat them. TW is not like that, it is not like D&D in many aspects. I am very thankful Green Ronin understand that. The healing has convert spells, it converts lethal damage into non lethal damage.

Granted, no monsters, and I'm glad they can understand themes, but do they appreciate game machanics? In D&D, humans with character classes can outdamage most monsters anyway. Magic is the main defense characters rely on.

Let me ask some specifics here. If curative spells don't remove damage, and characters can't count on magical bonuses to AC, is the damage output of a power-attacking barbarian with a greatsword significantly lessened? Does a rogue still receive 1d6 sneak every other level? Do we have action points, fate points, anything like that?

 

[Crothian]

Granted, no monsters, and I'm glad they can understand themses, but do they appreciate game machanics? In D&D, humans with character classes can outdamage most monsters anyway. Magic is the main defense characters rely on.

Let me ask some specifics here. If curative spells don't remove damage, and characters can't count on magical bonuses to AC, is the damage output of a power-attacking barbarian with a greatsword significantly lessened? Does a rogue still receive 1d6 sneak every other level? Do we have action points, fate points, anything like that?

I can't help with specifics, though I asked and beged Green Ronin was not willing to give me a book early. There are no action points of any kind in the game I demoed though.

TW is a more dealdy game then D&D though. It is supposed to be that way, so recovering from injuries can take a few days or longer more like real life and less like a video game. It is grim and gritty. One of the aspects of TW is the save for massive damage is reduced quitea bit. It came up once in the game I demoed, but there were wounds my fighter took that would have casued the other party memebers to make a massive damage save.