The best way to get a feel of the setting is, of course, to grab the first novel in the series, The Black Company. This book is almost a contradiction in itself; you will be done with it before you know it, but more has happened in just the first novel than in many books that become series. The first and third chapters ("Legate"and "Raker") in particular read like a novelized role playing session.
Grim and gritty best describes the world. Alignment will be interesting (in an rpg setting for this work) as it is definitely a 'shades of grey' world, although there is an absolute evil, and some good here and there, there are many who I would say dance along the darker shades of grey. Bleak and desolate people often find themselves trapped in plots within schemes that sometimes involve magi who can wither you with a gaze and it takes miracles to keep them at bay. And this world is certainly short of miracle workers.
