Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
The original Thieves World series is unfortunately out of print, although they've reprinted the first two volumes in an omnibus. So you'll have to do a bit of legwork at used book stores.
Thieves World RPG
Master of the Game
First Post
If you like podcasts, Paul Tevis did an excellent review of the entire series on his fantastic show, Have Games, Will Travel.Banshee16 said:
Tharen the Damned
First Post
Banshee16 said:
It is mostly new Stuff. Black Company was very far from Core D&D. With TW you can use your Cor D&D Spells though the Spell System is different. A spell, on average, takes more time to be cast but there is no fire and forget.
There is a difference between fast cast "normal" spells and ritual Spells which take a long time to cast.
A lot of new base classes for the spellcasters, as Wizard or cleric dioes not fit the Spell casting concept.
As there is only the Human race to pick from (ok and Beysib and such), you can choose from a lot of Backrounds which give you some kind of bonus and sometimes a cool ability.
Ther is a Massive Damage Threshold. It is eqaul your Con. score + Armor Class. Take more Damage than that on a single hit and you have to roll a fort save or get a permanent scarring.
As I said, lovingly done.
GlassJaw
Hero
I'm by no means a TW expert but I think I have a solid grasp on the feel of the world.
That said, I'm not sure what TW other people have read because I found the RPG to have missed the mark. It just felt like "too much" - too many classes, too much magic, too much unnecessary crunch that wasn't needed.
I might be biased though because I was thinking about TW-style campaign using Grim Tales long before the RPG conversion came to be.
I liked the fact that GT was a generic system. To me, that did a better job of capturing the mystery and bleakness of TW. One of things I really loved about the TW stories is that a lot of times, you didn't really know what the main characters were or could really do. Some of that was lost when the RPG made everything very specific.
That said, I'm not sure what TW other people have read because I found the RPG to have missed the mark. It just felt like "too much" - too many classes, too much magic, too much unnecessary crunch that wasn't needed.
I might be biased though because I was thinking about TW-style campaign using Grim Tales long before the RPG conversion came to be.
I liked the fact that GT was a generic system. To me, that did a better job of capturing the mystery and bleakness of TW. One of things I really loved about the TW stories is that a lot of times, you didn't really know what the main characters were or could really do. Some of that was lost when the RPG made everything very specific.
Crothian said:
That would be awesome. I've found many of your reviews useful over the years.
Not sure if it's because of a limitation to the current forum software, but I find it really frustrating to try and find reviews in the last year or so. If I have a product that I'm looking for by Green Ronin, for example, I can't just go to them as a publisher, and look through their list of products, like I used to be able to do. Nowadays, I have to look at that alphabetical list of products, find one by Green Ronin, click on the publisher's name in the publisher column, and *then* get to the list of products they've made, and find the review I'm looking for. Not user friendly at all.
I did listen to the Have Games Will Travel podcast, and it was interesting. Not too much detail, but a decent overview.
Banshee
Banshee16 said:
TW is good. Very, very good, in fact. The setting material is very true to the books and doubles as a terrific guide/companion to the series. The game mechanics are very good and emulate aspects of the series quite well. The magic system is probably the star here. It provides game mechanics for providing a more swords-n-sorcery spellcasting system (good riddance spell slots!) but keeps the majority of D&D spells, domains, and spell levels intact so it's very easy to port the system to D&D or other D20 games.
Initially, I was disappointed that it wasn't an OGL game. I can appreciate the business reasons for making it D20 so that it could be intermixed with D&D campaigns. After having the books for a while and using the mechanics in play, I've come to agree with Green Ronin's decision. Not only can I port the mechanics into my Conan OGL game, but if I run a D&D play-by-post game, I can drop the D&D spell slots, insert the TW spellcasting classes and system and still appeal to players who don't want to play a full-blown OGL game. Game mechanics for domains, prestige classes, subsystems, etc. are solid as with most Green Ronin products.
My biggest criticism is leveled at Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary . In addition to the excellent gazetteer on the city of Sanctuary, the book details the majority of the significant characters from both TW series. Since the book is D20 and not OGL, these writeups include D&D magic items that the characters never had in the books. This was a design choice and to ensure DM's would have the maximum ability to integrate the NPCs into D&D campaigns. They're easily removed if playing a straight-up TW campaign so no real harm.
The assignment of ability scores, however, is sketchy at best, and at times ridiculous. Characters are assigned ability scores that do not match their portrayal in the series. A couple of examples:
Mrahdon Vis - a mercenary, thug, and sometimes spy, is a pretty average thug in the series. In SGtS, he's statted with a 20 Int!
Hanse Shadowspawn - thief extroardinaire. While definitely intelligent, I find his 18 Int to be too high. Hanse is clever and street smart, but should not have a higher Intelligence score than educated power brokers such as Molin Torcholder!
Zip - Ilsigi terrorist. A merciless killer, I'll grant you, but this guy led the Ilsigi resistance movement. He should have a Charisma score higher than the 10 he was given.
These are just a couple of examples. The character write-ups are spot-on and the assignment of character classes seemed very appropriate. If I were to use any of the characters in a campaign, however, I'd have to rework the ability scores.
Even with that criticism, however, I highly recommend all three rulebooks/sourcebooks of the Thieves' World RPG. The plug-n-play nature of the mechanics combined with the most comprehensive compiled setting info on the Thieves' World series I've ever seen make them must-haves.
Azgulor
Crothian
First Post
Banshee16 said:
On the main page review site there is a link to a list of publishers. It is near the top left. The top should say EN Wo9rld and have the advertisement. Below that is the usually list of EN World links that deal with Site Menu, Download shop, etc. And below that is the review links list the first on the left hand side being Reviews home and the second one being Publisher.
Master of the Game
First Post
You know, I saw this post right before I left for work, and since I had to stop by my LGS today I decided to hop into the half-price books next door.Whizbang Dustyboots said:
I picked up a huge number of the early books for $1 a piece, including the first one, which I intend to read tonight.
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