Oct RPG Book Club: Thieves World Box Set

[Serendipity]

The old Chaosium TW boxed set? It's got my award for favorite hands down RPG supplement ever. LOVED that thing, got so much bloody mileage out of it.
Really rather that I still had it. *sniff*

 

[Crothian]

It's rare, but you can still find it occasionally on E-bay and other used stores.

 

[Tewligan]

I'm using that boxed set in my current 1e campaign, in fact. Seriously, it really IS the best rpg supplement I've ever seen in 25+ years of gaming. The players spent a few sessions poking around in Sanctuary before they even left town in search of their first adventure when the campaign started, and I had plenty of material to make it a snap to DM. I have made more than a few changes to the city to fit it into my campaign, but it absolutely can't be beat as a city resource. If anyone gets a chance to pick this one up, I can't recommend it enough.

Which reminds me - I really should be prepping tomorrow's game rather than reading message boards right now! Oh, those guys shouldn't have angered the Purple Mage last session...

 

[Crothian]

Everyone angers the Purple Mage...

 

[Tewligan]

Everyone angers the Purple Mage...

Oh, they're on his list! He's been tweaked a good bit for my campaign - he's kinda villainous and working to secretly destabilize the city so he can save the day and be seen as a hero, and thus gain more political power. The party has a particular magic item he wants (they retrieved it when thwarting a cult that he was ultimately behind), so they've hightailed it out of town to the next adventure site while they figure out what they're going to do. Some of the party members are actually inclined to cooperate with him - they're somewhat swayed by his argument that Sanctuary is already pretty damn corrupt, and he would bring some much-needed order to the town. Oh, boy - I can't wait for tonight's game!

 

[grodog]

Great, another book to track down. Thanks for the information.

Carse was originally published by Midkemia Press, along with the original Cities encounters, which were adapted to Sanctuary by MP folks. See the Chaosium and Mikdemia entries at You need a browser that supports frame to view this page. and at www.tomeoftreasures.com for more info/details.

 

[grodog]

It's rare, but you can still find it occasionally on E-bay and other used stores.

Actually, the TW boxed set isn't very rare at all: you should be able to get a set for $20-30 shipped in EX condition off eBay. Tadashi Ehara (of Different Worlds and Chaosium) told me that their initial print run on TW was 10,000 boxed sets, and they did at least four or five 5000 copy reprints within the first few years. So, the copies are definitely out there!

In terms of other TW products, there's a good site @ Thieves' World: Roleplaying Game which also includes details on the FASA modules. Chaosium also published the TW Companion in ~1985, which updated the boxed through the 5th or 6th TW book.

TW was a great product, and highly influenced my own sense of how to design a city. Many elements from it (and from TSR's 1e Lankhmar book) found their way into my own City of Greyhawk

 

[grodog]

Oh, they're on his list! He's been tweaked a good bit for my campaign - he's kinda villainous and working to secretly destabilize the city so he can save the day and be seen as a hero, and thus gain more political power. The party has a particular magic item he wants (they retrieved it when thwarting a cult that he was ultimately behind), so they've hightailed it out of town to the next adventure site while they figure out what they're going to do. Some of the party members are actually inclined to cooperate with him - they're somewhat swayed by his argument that Sanctuary is already pretty damn corrupt, and he would bring some much-needed order to the town. Oh, boy - I can't wait for tonight's game!

You're not doing a SH are you, Tewligan?

 

[Crothian]

Actually, the TW boxed set isn't very rare at all: you should be able to get a set for $20-30 shipped in EX condition off eBay.

I'm just going by my own perception. I hunt for TW books a lot and they are not easy to find for sale. Even Ebay doesn't always have the box set listed.

 

[Tewligan]

You're not doing a SH are you, Tewligan?

No, but I HAVE thought about it! Hmmm, I may have to pull together my notes from past sessions sometime soon...