Gary Gygax’s The Canting Crew
Written by Gary Gygax
Published by Troll Lord Games
184 b & w pages plus map
$34.95
The Canting Crew attempts to bring some life to the roguish underbelly of role-playing games. This hardcover is broken up into four chapters or books, each one with a specific focus. The book starts off with a blank page, then a cover page, then a credits page, then the table of contents, and then another blank page. Book I, “The Canting Crew Society”, starts off with The Canters, which appears to be a listing of names for lowelifes, followed by an introduction. This section provides the GM with ideas on how city life works. This includes notes on what the city looks like under architecture, as well as how the city is broken up into different social circles and how those circles showcase their wealth. Unfortunately, for most examples that involve money, it uses dollars and provides the GM with a value equivalency in gold pieces. Very cumbersome for D20 players who are mostly playing fantasy games using gold and silver based economies.
The largest section of this chapter is The Brotherhoods. Here, the four different types of Canting Crew, Assassins, Thieves, Vagabonds, and Beggars, are broken up into different types with subtables providing the GM further information. Each section starts off with the percentage that the brotherhood makes up of the underclass, Assassins for example, are .5%, the Emblem, the Sign, the Word, background, and professions found within that Brotherhood. For example, under Assassins are made up of bladesmen, bowmen, arsonists, crushers, and ‘common murderers’, among others. The real details come under Thieves who have numerous subtables under each profession. Fences are broken down into: Encloser of the Dump, Flash Patrons, Olli Compollis, Family Men, Locks, Mine Aunts, Bousing Kenners, Lenas, Bob Covers, Mine Uncles, and Uncles. Each profession with a brief definition and in this case, what percentage they get paid. Looking for information on Prostitutes? Hijackers? Kidnappers? How about Whore Masters/Mistresses? There are 43 different subsections for Thieves and while there is some overlap and more details are needed to really make this information more than a collection of titles and ideas, it provides enough information to get the GM thinking.
This book closes out with the Afterward: On the Incidence of Magic, which discusses how magic and “mental powers” are used within the game. This is a page of information that provides the GM with a numerical breakdown of how many spellcaster types might be found within such groups.
Book II, The Jargon of the Canting Crew, is the strongest section of the book. This is a dictionary, broken up by subjects, with a word, and a definition. Under Names for Food & Drink, you get the normal name, and then the Cant name. Meat Pie is Crusty surprise while Venison is Panter. There are numerous areas including money, gems, weapons, armor, profession, both Canting Crew and normal, as well as a separate Canting Dictrionary, which is listed in alphabetical order which provides a word and the Canting word. Avoid is Dodge, Axe is Hewer, Beat (with a staff), Jordain. This section is followed by the opposite, Cant to English.
After the dictionaries, a section on Conversational Canting helps the readers actually use this material in small chunks. If you want to tell your fellow Canters that you’re an assassin, you might say something like “I stam flash.” while if you wanted to say that there is a large and prosperous inn, you’d say, “Here’s a two-handed and rum bluffing ken.”
Also useful is the Canting Crew Waylaying Signals. There are diagrams, similar to sign language that use hand and arm signals. The symbols that follow, mostly beggar signs, are also useful. A wavy dagger indicates that there are assassins here, while a broken sword shows that former soldiers are about.
These two sections compromise the bulk of the book and are useable with any game system. It is when the game goes D20, in Book III, that some serious flaws start to show. It starts off with some prestige classes and it seems that many people spend their lives trying to get into a Henchman role because that’s the first prestige class presented. It also shows some amazingly sloppy work as many sections seem to be cut and pasted from another book “the rogue can attempt to roll with the damage”, or “The monk must declare she is using a stun attack.” When providing details about the Henchman’s abilities.
Other Prestige Classes include the Changeling, a roguish spellcaster whose minor arcane spells are meant to augment his thieving abilities. The Counterfeit is another arcane spellcaster, who focuses on crafting clever imitations for sale. The Pacer, a City Ranger, has a preferred opponent bonus, as well as Urban Lore and a mix of spells to augment his abilities. The Trademaster, more fighter than merchant, has the ability to dominate animals and lead people. A strange combination, but hey, sometimes the wolves don’t want to be skinned and must be talked into it. The Vanguard is another arcane spellcaster whose abilities focus on moving ahead unseen and finding things that are difficult to find.
The new spells are meant to augment thieving abilities for the most part, and are mostly from the prestige classes introduced. None of them range above 4th level. The spells are presented by level, and then in alphabetical order. Included are Age Object, a spell that lowers the hardness rating of an item, Runes of Holding, a spell that superglues a creature in place if he walks onto the effected surface, and Web Trap, a spell that traps a creature while an illusionary spider then bits it.
Most of the prestige classes could’ve be done as multi-classed options and don’t present any advanced thinking or showcase the differences in say taking a few levels of mage and rogue for most of the arcane spellcasters, or taking a level of ranger rogue for the pacer.
Book IV, Orders for Lejendary Adventure, introduces the following orders: Orders are introduced in alphabetical order by name, rank in society, required abilities, and then abilities from 121th rank to 1st rank. These are the orders: Alchemist, Assassin, Beggar,
Bravo, Friar, Guard, Holly Warrior, Inquisitor, Mariner, Merchant, Scholar, Scout, and
Warrior Monk.
Appendix A includes a list of Guilds & Orders that are inside a city. Appendix B, an Index of Inns & Taverns, provides names that GMs can quickly use in to flesh out a setting. Names include The Cherry Blossom House, the Falcon and Dirty Al’ among others.
Appendix C is a Supply List and while it’s nice to see what things cost and how much their weight is, without a definition of what these items do, the listing is fairly worthless for some entries, and since other entries are already in say the Player’s Handbook, doubly worthless as they may create confusion as a player seeks to get the lower price. “But in the Canting Crew Acid is only 2 gold pieces.”
Appendix D, Crimes & Punishments, uses dollars instead of gold pieces for fines. Crimes are broken up into lower crimes to higher crimes like Prostitution without License and Vagrancy to high crimes of Coin Shaving, Sorcery, and Witchcraft. What’s the different between Sorcery and Witchcraft and are such things high crimes in a magical society? The Canting Crew provides no help there.
The Open Game License takes up a page, and a full-page ad for The Heart of Glass and another full page ad for the other books in the Gygaxian Fantasy Worlds ends the book. Well, not technically since a blank page ends the book.
A four-page spread of Ludnum is included. One side is an overhead view of the city, while the other side is similar to a CAD drawing. Don’t get too excited though because there are no real details about the city. NO locations marked out or detailed for example.
The paper is high quality and looks like old parchment. The art hovers around average with a few pieces falling below and above. The layout of the book is pretty ugly in some places. For example, under the Thieves section with all its subtables, you have a head for the main topic, and a subheader for each topic underneath it with lots of white space between sections. Text spacing is pretty bad with heavy use of justification and lots of orphans and widows mourning their lost kin. Book II, Cant Dictionary is the best looking section because it’s a simple layout with the word bolded and the definition normal.
The book is not overpriced for being a hardcover on fine paper with a double-sided map. It is overpriced for any D20 player looking for serious crunchy material, especially with other thief based material out on the market already. The book provides a vague and general reference on city life among the lower ranking denizens and the dictionary, if not heavily used, add a lot of depth to role-playing encounters.
Hopefully in the future, there will be fewer tables, more specifics, less fonts, widows, orphans and spelling errors, and more effort at providing a good-looking layout. More hopeful but less likely is that Troll Lord Games will follow Guardians of Order’s lead and make the Lejendary Adventure books separate from the D20 books.
In closing, if you’re a D20 player looking for new options for your rogue, pass this book up. If you’re a D20 GM looking to add detailed depth to your campaign, pass this book up. If you’re a GM looking for a dictionary of slang for your low life villains to use, or want to add some symbols to the environment that your players stalk, or want some ideas on how much a Whore Master makes, then this is a perfect book for you.
