GRs Thieves World products - are you excited?

[HellHound]

Excited.

Quite excited.

And also have a BURNING jealousy that my friend (BarrierPeaks on these boards) is working on this project and not I...

But back to the excitement, eh?

I've re-read the first three books (I felt the series went SERIOUSLY downhill after the original batch of short stories), dug out all my graphic novels, and even re-read the old Thieve's World boxed set from Chaosium.

Mmmmmm.... Thieve's World.

Sanctuary, here I come.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Very excited. Green Ronin have put out a lot of strong products, and I imagine this will be no exception. They've already put out the Black Company Campaign Setting and Warhammer Fantasy 2e, so they've surely got a good grasp of dark and gritty fantasy.

The Thieves' World series were some of the first fantasy anthologies I read, so I'm excited to see it converted into a gaming format.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

The stuff that you mentioned sounds okay (especially getting rid of the standard magic classes), ...

and

I'm also willing to give Green Ronin the benefit of the doubt regarding changes to classes, skills, feats, spells, etc. because of its strong track record with products like "Testament."

The changes in the Magic System are simple and elegant.
There are no Spell Slots any more. A Spellcaster theoretically could cast Spells all day. But of course there is a limiting Drawback.
Also casting generally takes longer than one standard action.
And there is no such thing as a guaranteed successfull casting of each spell. There is allways potential for desaster.
A fledgling Spellcaster can theoretically cast a high level Spell (eg. a 1st lvl. Mage could cast Fireball) but the resulting backlash is so severe, that this is only fit as some last stand action.
And lst but not least GR took care of the different strengths of Mana in the Books. From high Mana during the Witch-Wars to relatively low Mana in the Irrune time.

though I loathe prestige classes in general.

I loathe generic prestige classes that come with every D20 book. For me a prestige Class is something campaign or setting specific and takes care of special features that the Core Classes can not simulate good enough.
But you do not need the PRCs to play TW, they just enrich the setting!

 

[francisca]

I'm very interested. I generally don't get too excited about RPG products these days.

 

[Crothian]

So far the previews have been really positive. I have been waiting for someone to do TW for a long time now and was very pleased when I was told about it at Gen Con. I even signed up for the Thursday 8am TW game at Origins so it would be the first part of my Origins experince this year.

As a very long TW fan I am not as concenred so much with the rules. Of the past 2 decades using the old TW box set I was able to play the game using many different rules sets. It was the lack of good gaming info that we missed, gaming is more about specifics then the books really wanted to give. They had a great explanation on that in the interview on GR site. The graphic novels for us proven a bit more useful then the books since they visually allowed us to see parts of the city. The art on them was not as astounding as many other comics but they served our purpose well. I loved the look of Downwind.

To say I am excited about the book is an understatement, but at the same time I am very worried it will not be good enough for me. So I try to stay catiously aptomistic. That being said I will throwing everything else aside to review the book when it comes out. It has been a long time coming and I want Sanctuary. Of course the greatest irony is more core gaming group refuses to play it.

 

[Henry]

Of course the greatest irony is my core gaming group refuses to play it.

Not even a one-shot??!!

Darn! I can never understand that! My group will let me subject them to anything... once.

 

[Crothian]

Not even a one-shot??!!

Darn! I can never understand that! My group will let me subject them to anything... once.

It is too grim and gritty for them. They want high adventure, high fantasy games. When I run TW it can be very low fantasy. In second edition my players were 8th level before they got a hold of a good, workible crossbow. While that seems odd to most everyone, the pacing of the game and the bits or rewards they gained previous to that actually worked.

 

[Pramas]

Given that GR already used standard 'd20' to produce their 'Black Company' book, I'm disapponted they didn't go with their home system for Thieves' World. Oh well. The stuff that you mentioned sounds okay (especially getting rid of the standard magic classes), though I loathe prestige classes in general.

True20 did not exist when we got the Thieves' World license. The TW line and the Blue Rose line were being worked on by different design teams concurrently. Even if it had been an option, I'd likely have chosen d20 anyway. I know a huge number of D&D fans who'd like to drop Sanctuary into their home brew or run a game set wholly in Thieves' World. Far fewer of them would be interested in getting a whole new RPG, even one that was OGL-derived. Also, d20 and TW were a good match, whereas d20 was all wrong for what we were trying to do with Blue Rose. But don't fear for True20, we aren't done with it yet.

 

[francisca]

But don't fear for True20, we aren't done with it yet.

You sir, are a tease.

 

[HellHound]

I know a huge number of D&D fans who'd like to drop Sanctuary into their home brew or run a game set wholly in Thieves' World. Far fewer of them would be interested in getting a whole new RPG, even one that was OGL-derived.

Very true. For most buyers of this product, I expect it's going to be a toolkit for dropping Sanctuary into their existing campaign world.