Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Thieves World RPG
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Azgulor" data-source="post: 3631312" data-attributes="member: 14291"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>My biggest criticism is leveled at <em>Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary</em> . 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.</p><p></p><p>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:</p><p>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!</p><p>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!</p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Azgulor</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Azgulor, post: 3631312, member: 14291"] 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 [I]Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary[/I] . 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 [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Thieves World RPG
Top