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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009255" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.For a change, this is actually a playtest review. Which is nice.Thievery 101: Joining The Watchers is an adventure designed for one GM and one player, who should play a 1st-level Rogue. It was a fairly early release before the glut of d20 products were released. Sadly, Wyverns Claw Design only released one of the four predicted follow-ons to this adventure.At $5 for 16 pages, this is a pretty expensive .pdf compared to those that came after it. The file weighs in at a hefty 2.64 MB for its size. The title page and the OGL take up a couple of the 16 pages. Layout is pleasing on the eye with no chunks of white space and with sidebars overlaying margins. The mono art is poor to average, with the margin design more attractive than the art. The map was clear and keyed well, but contained no scale or compass direction. Writing style is engaging but with poor grammar making it a little gauche at times. Editing is average.The adventure is designed to allow one 1st-level rogue PC to join the local Thieves Guild, here called The Watchers. The module begins with some advice on running the adventure, which is fairly standard stuff. The adventure background is actually a background for the series of five adventures originally planned by Wyvern's Claw, rather than background for the adventure itself, and is rather surplus to requirements if running the adventure as a stand-alone as I did.There does follow some more pertinent information on The Watchers, outlining some of the rules of the Thieves Guild, which are well thought out and already begin to establish the atmosphere that pervades the rest of the adventure. Unfortunately, the DMs Overview returns to background pertaining to the series rather than the adventure itself.The text then moves on to presenting three adventure hooks - one basic 'the character wants to join the Thieves Guild to improve his skills' hook whilst the other two provide more interesting possibilities. The third relates to the series as a whole and would be useful if the entire series was being used. I plumped for the second hook, which involves the PC being hired to investigate the murder of a nobleman's son in the nearby city. The PCs investigations lead to the discovery that the son had actually joined the Watchers. The PC gets the chance to infiltrate the Watchers to discover what happened. Again, this relates to the series as a whole but I switched the nobleman's son to be the PC's cousin to add a little motivation to the hook.There follow some rumours which can be garnered through roleplaying or the Gather Information skill - most of these again relate to the series rather than the specific adventure, but one does give a clue as to how to contact the Thieves Guild. A nice little scenario for roleplaying ensues as the PC meets a Thieves Guild contact in a rough inn, followed by a little mystery as the PC attempts to gain access to the Guild headquarters. There is choice and possibilities for the PC and a variety of skills and roleplaying are required. This theme continues as the PC finds himself within the headquarters by hook or by crook. After a meeting with a senior figure within the guild, the PC finds he must perform a burglary in order to be accepted into the Watchers. This is a little railroaded and I found my player a little antagonistic towards the railroading.Various methods of the PC discovering more information about the proposed victim's building are given, with advice on NPC reactions to the PCs enquiries which was quite helpful. Eventually, the PC will attempt the burglary. Which was where the problems started. Not something I really picked up when reading through the adventure was the number of locked cupboards, cabinets and drawers that one finds in the initial rooms the PC is likely to enter. As the Open Locks skill allows a Retry, the player spent time after time rolling and re-rolling Open Locks checks ad infinitum, only to find that there was nothing useful in them. This was encouraged by an early useful find. The player got bored, I got bored and in the end I said, "Look, you open the rest of them and there's nothing else useful" - after about 10 of the 20 locked things had finally been opened after five to six re-rolls each.The various traps are imaginative and challenging without being deadly, and would have stood out better if there had been less interference from repetitive Open Locks checks. There is good advice on alerting any guards through noise being made by the PC.Once the PC eventually gets through the Open Locks obstacle course, they have a choice of four doors where to look for the stuff they have been asked to steal. The most attractive door, since it is different from all the rest, is an iron-bound door. Most players would head for this door - which is unfortunate, since this is the guard room and their goal lies elsewhere.  A failed Listen check allows the PC to enter the guard room, whereupon instant chaos occurs. The guard here is a nasty piece of work, a 1st-level Fighter withAC 17, 11 hp, 18 Str, 16 Dex, 14 Con, and the Power Attack feat - more than a match for a 1st-level rogue. Now, for plot reasons, the guard has orders not to kill the PC, merely to disarm and disable him. However, this failure (and its a very likely one if the PC has previously cut off his escape path by setting off one of the traps) leads to the arrival of the senior Guild member to tell the PC he has failed and that he can never join the Guild. This may be very realistic but is not much fun, especially if you're trying to introduce a first-time player to the joys of roleplaying.The entire adventure has a clever plot twist (though it may irritate or confuse the player), and the rest of the rooms are nicely designed - but the PC is unlikely ever to get there, either through player boredom or easy capture.The remaining part of the adventure is dedicated to the initiation rite involved in becoming a Guild member, which is very atmospheric but is very railroaded. It is essentially a long GM monologue with little or no player input, including pre-defined PC actions within the text box. The penultimate page is dedicated to three pre-generated PCs with some brief background information.Conclusion: This adventure has lots of potential and with some work from an interested GM, could provide an evening of entertainment for two. However, some major amendments to the setup are advised with some re-jigging of the layout, NPC stats, and repercussions for failure. The adventure has a mix of mainly roleplaying and skill checks, with one probable combat. It serves as a good example of an introduction to a Thieves Guild and could fairly easily be amended for inclusion in most standard fantasy campaigns. The atmosphere is evoked well and the first part of the adventure is paced well.However, its faults outweigh its positive points as it stands and it would require some forethought on the GMs part to make it playable.</blockquote>

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