Thieves' Quarter

[Psion]

Thieves' Quarter

Thieves' Quarter is a city sourcebook detailing locales and characters in a fantasy city called Liberty, but portable to other d20 settings or cities. The book is written by JD Wiker and Christopher West, and was originally distributed as a PDF book by The Game Mechanics. The edition covered by this review is the print version published by Green Ronin.

A First Look

Thieves' Quarter is an 80-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $17.95.

The cover of the book is illustrated by Jonathan Kirtz, and depicts a pair of rogues menacing a captive in a tomb-like setting.

The interior is black-and-white except for full color maps on the inside covers. The interior is illustrated by Toren "MacBin" Atkinson, Clarence Harrison, and Pete Schlough. The illustrations are nicely done and Harrison, a traditional TGM artist, does some of his best work here.

Co-designer Christopher West is responsible for the maps herein. The maps are crisp and attractive, and includes a versatile selection of maps: there are full color versions of the city maps on the inside covers and unkeyed versions in the appendices for distributing to players. However, the player maps lack any sort of explicit permission to photocopy.

A Deeper Look
(This section contains some spoilers.)

Thieves' Quarter is arranged into three chapters plus appendices. The three chapters cover places, people, and plots respectively, though NPCs associated with specific locales are covered in the first chapter.

The book depicts elements of the "Old Quarter" or "Thieves' Quarter" of a city called Liberty. Though maps (and some vague descriptions) are provides for the city of Liberty as a whole, the intent is that GMs will be able to use the locales and characters in the book in their own cities without using Liberty.

As the focus of this city is a somewhat lawless quarter of the city, the locales tend to focus on rather seedy to outright criminal locales. Though the Thieves' Quarter is depicted in the light of one in which crime is rampant, the authors are careful not to overplay this aspect of the quarter to the length that it seems implausible.

One of the central features and power blocks of the Thieves' Quarter is the nameless thieves' guild. The guild is headed by a mysterious man leading a double life, while his lieutenant poses as a figurehead. The guild has the services of a potent sorceress, who is also the lover of the guildmaster.

Other locales include multiple taverns and inns, a brothel, a gambling den, and more exotic locales. A good example of the latter (on par with the classic Citybook series) is Maegrim's Marvelous Menagerie, a zoo of unusual creatures, many of which are really polymorphed victims. This is a fine and good plot, but falls down on the d20 system details. The source of these transformations is a wand of baleful polymorph. The problem with this is that baleful polymorph cannot be used to transform victims into creatures with greater than 1 HD, and is too high level to be used in a wand.

In addition to the city maps, each locale has a nicely illustrated map. The maps are textured and detailed, and use a "tile" effect to create a grid (similar to various maps for d20 system products by Ed Bourelle.)

The various NPCs are all very useful, and aside from the gaffes already noted, have few system issues. In addition to the standard statistic block information, each NPCs has background and personal details and history, a summary of allies and enemies, and a description of tactics.

The third plots chapter is brief. The plots are not full adventures, but well outlined plots for the PCs to get embroiled in that involve major factions and details in the book. The chapter also includes another NPC, a new creature (skincrawler tattoo), and a drug.

An appendix provides random encounters for characters in the city. The encounters are not merely a listing of NPCs or NPC types detailed in the book assigned to a table; each encounter includes a brief description of the circumstances of the encounter, which can make things a bit easier for the GM and interesting for the players.

Conclusions

I typically find NPC resources nice in theory but tough to use in practice. Thieves' Quarter provides what seems to be a good example to follow for other such supplements: it is more than just a series of stat blocks and background descriptions. It provides locales and situations in a manner that is flexible enough to insert in any game, but in a rather more useful format than more stripped down offerings.

Overall Grade: A-

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Welcome to the fantastic city of Liberty: where life is cheap, and only the bravest - or most foolhardy - venture out alone at night. Modular in design, this d20 sourcebook features two dozen lushly created maps by master cartographer Christopher West, dozens of fully developed NPCs, and extensive encounter tables loaded with adventure hooks.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I own this and like it, a lot. I can't wait to see the rest of the series. Beautiful maps too.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Thieves’ Quarters is a city sourcebook for any fantasy d20 game. Written by JD Wiker and Christopher West and originally published by the Game Mechanics in PDF and Green Ronin Publishing in print, this review handles the print version. This book runs 80 pages and costs $17.95. Interior covers are used and are in full color while the book proper is in black and white.

The maps are easy on the eyes and have that one factor I look for in a map, utility. I can hand draw these out and not have to wonder if I made a mistake or if the artist did. The full color map of the city is a great tool to show the players, as is the illustrated overview of the city. Interior art ranges from some great pieces by fan favorite Toren Atkinson, to the heavy pen works of Clarence Harrison and the standard work of Pete Schlough. Layout is standard two columns with important information pulled out in gray text. Borders are a faded view of the city map.

How best to describe this product? How about pointing out that it’s not a book chocked full of new rogue PrCs, feats, magic items and other mechanical goodies? How about noting that it briefly details the city of Liberty and it’s various quarters before moving onto the Thieves’ Quarters proper and giving the GM the tools he needs to make that section of the city sing for him.

It does this by providing interlinked NPCs, maps, and numerous adventure seeds. Now not every location is mapped or even detailed. We get several general details for certain establishments like drinking holes but the big ones are covered. How about visiting the Sea-Wolf Tavern and admiring the golem arms of Captain Varribo? How about moving through Maegrin’s Marvelous Menagerie and marveling at the various beasts provided for both public and private display? How about entering the arena at the Chaos Pit? And for all of you players out there playing orphans, how about visiting your old stomping grounds at Vosch’s Orphanage?

For me, one of the things that make this product live is that despite their power, the thieves’ guild isn’t the only thing going on in town. We have small fry setting up shop beneath them as well as big game movers setting up shop and preparing their own long-term plans. We have a priest whose willing to help those who pay for their services based on their ability, as well as a pair of dwarves who can help the players gain a discount on their magic items if they give them a finder’s fee.

As a matter of fact, those individuals not in their own buildings are all covered in the section chapter here. My personal favorite is the misunderstood mage-rogue Rumennera while the watch captain Vird Kasko may wind up as a patron for those who abide by Liberty’s laws or a nemesis for those who join the thieves.

In detailing it’s NPCs, it doesn’t just provide game stats. We get background, enemies, allies, combat tactics, and at the end of the book, adventure seeds in the form of ‘plots’. Heck, anyone who has the old Runequest Cities book may want to flip to the encounters section just to see how familiar some of those tables look. Yeah, we have a prostitute on the table, but no specific prostitute table. Shame that eh?

I know, it’s a short review but this product is either going to appeal to you or it’s not. I hear all these internet tales of people demanding more ‘fluff’ in their products but such products are usually looked over for those with game mechanics because the products with ‘fluff’ in them aren’t the specific ‘fluff’ that the gamer was looking for. “Oh no, I wanted something with lots of gnomes in it!” I’m hoping that we at least get to see the Mercenaries Quarter as that one should handle the fighters and provide some great examples of a d20 fantasy mercenary guild to go along with some of the high powered ones I already have.

If you want lots of detailed locations with NPCs and plots to last you months of game time, then Thieves’ Quarter is for you.

 

[GameWyrd]

The Game Mechanics' and Green Ronin's first City Quarter Sourcebook is Thieves' Quarters. This is a review of the paper version which came out after the PDF original.

Comparisons between City Quarters and Freeport are inevitable so let's rush to get them over and done with. The Thieves' Quarter is set in the town of Liberty. The goal of the series (or one of them, I'd hope) is to build up Liberty quarter by quarter. Alternatively quarters can be used as microcosms in their own right. The plan, the hope, is that with just a little tinkering Liberty or the Thieves' Quarter will be suitable for almost any setting.

I thought of Freeport within seconds of reading the introduction to the Thieves' Quarter. The Thieves' Quarter is supposed to be a grim place, with no last minute rescues and danger around every corner. It's really hard to do this in D&D style d20. Freeport started out as a "realistic" city with intrigue and promise. I feel Freeport lost it in the end; the cohesion of the city fell apart as supplement after supplement came out. Depending on how you took the supplements Freeport might turn out to be a city in Hell and on the back of giant turtle. Riiight. I honestly wonder whether this phenomenon is one of the reasons the city of Liberty is being sold to us in the way that it is. We'll have more City Quarter supplements but rather than dilute Liberty they'll build Liberty. There's a cost to pay for this - I don't have a sense of Liberty yet. I don't want to set a game in Liberty with just the Thieves' Quarter as support. What if the players went elsewhere? I could wing it... but might wing something mutually exclusive with what's published in the future.

You can have both cities in your game. In the Freeport setting there's the city of Libertyville. We're reminded in Thieves' Quarter that Libertyville is supposed to have been destroyed but you might be in a position where you can ignore that safely (it's not been mentioned in-game yet) or you might not mind a little ret-conning.

And, of course, you might not have Freeport and might not care one whit about the other setting. It's also worth noting that Thieves' Quarter isn't just a Green Ronin publication, and that it's a The Game Mechanics book too.

Liberty begins life, briefly, as a small fishing community. Then the pirates found it. It took an annoyed pirate captain to finally bring some sense of real law and order to growing town. There are interactions with surrounding empires and battles against the Lich-King's forces. If you want to drop the Thieves' Quarter into an established city in an established setting or just drop Liberty into an established setting then very little of the history is important and most will need to be ignored. The key facts are that the city is on the coast and has a network of caves which made it attractive to pirates. If you are looking for a new world setting then there's enough here to tempt you. The default world setting sounds interesting! There's not nearly enough information here to actually use it but perhaps once Liberty has been built (quarter by quarter) we'll see wider area supplements. Currently, with just Thieves' Quarter to use, I feel as if I'd have to ignore all the names and events suggested here as they're meaningless to me and simply hog the best plot spaces which I could myself with NPCs and plot hooks of my own invention. In theory, this could change as new City Quarter Sourcebooks start to weave things together.

There are laws in Liberty against carrying weapons. In most cases you're left carrying just a dagger and not so imposing armour. In other cases you can peace bound your weapon. It seems fairly easy for a group of PCs to get themselves listed as official "men at arms" as bypass most of these restrictions. A decent policy on weapons is vital for any city setting, especially if you're aiming for a dangerous thieves' quarter. Unless you're playing in a grim and gritty, low magic setting (which Liberty is not), a pair of thieves waiting to ambush the heroes in a dark alley is not going to be a real danger. By restricting weapons in Liberty we help to create a setting where the Thieves' Quarter might actually be a dangerous place. Magic remains a challenge to the atmosphere, though.

This City Quarter Sourcebook is divided into three key sections: places, people and plots.

It's in Places that we get to admire one of Thieves' Quarters great strengths. The cartography in the book is great; especially the colour maps in the book's inside pages. There are maps of the whole city too. Though we don't know much else about Liberty we can see where the Thieves Quarter (known as the Old Quarter locally) fits in. For each location we've a succinct but not too sketchy floor plan. Many of the interesting locations in the Thieves Quarter have hidden exits or hides and so the maps are especially handy here. There are plenty of taverns and inns. As we're looking at the Thieves Quarter (much easier to make interesting than Temple or Noble districts) we've brothels and abandoned buildings too.

Then there's Soot Street. Liberty is build over a network of caves and tunnels - one of the reasons why the city grew in the way it did. It's common sense that the thieves use these. Soot Street is the "official" main concourse of these tunnels and chambers. We've maps for Soot Street and information for the "shops" which pepper the popular bypass. There's a gladiator arena in Liberty.

In actual fact we have people as well as places in this chapter. The book describes and stats NPCs necessary for each location; shop owners and barmaids, etc.

The hallmarks of D&D high fantasy are common throughout. Half-race NPCs are not unusual, were it might become an issue we've given stats for external or internal walls, magic is common and we even have one tavern owner with a pair of "golem arms" in lieu of his real arms. I'd treat that last one with caution. It's all a matter of ambience. If you're doing your best to leave the magic and monsters outside the city's gates and are trying to emphasis that in the Thieves Quarter you have to live on your quick wits... imagine what a pair of golem arms would do to that.

The second section looks at key people. As you'd hope we have the high-ups on the actual Thieves' Guild here. Will come as a terrible surprise to you to discover that the person who most people believe heads the Guild isn't actually the boss? He's just the second in charge? I doubt it. It would be more surprising to find the head of the Thieves Guild was actually the boss you spoke to.

If you're worried about spoilers - oops - better stop reading now.

The head of the Thieves Guild makes heavy use of a ring of Chameleon Power. I know; there's a whopping great plot crunch there. What if he looses it? He's the head of the Thieves Guild by night and a respectable member of the Seafarers Guild by day. I do appreciate all the plot twists that can bring. In almost any other set up I'd welcome the idea... but it's tricky here. I don't have the Nobles' Quarter sourcebook from The Game Mechanics. Even if I had the Nobles' Quarter book I might not want to use it. One of the goals of the Thieves' Quarter is that it can work as an independent "plug-n-play" for any city in any setting. Clearly the quarter's ability to be used in any city is restricted if such a key character is so closely tied to another quarter! The city quarters are supposed to be microcosms.

The key thieves aren't actually detailed in the People chapter of the book either. They're described and statted in the Places chapter at the start of the book. Oh well. The NPCs left over for this section are the likes of Watch Captains and rogue thieves. In fact, chapter two is only five pages long.

The last section of the book looks at Plots. I thought at first that this would be a mini-adventure section - but it isn't. There's an old and evil cult on the rise again in Liberty. This isn't a short adventure (though you could use it as such) but an on-going issue. Similarly, the influence of the foreign Kunarath Syndicate is unlikely to be dealt with in one scenario and would be a waste to do so. The biggest threat to the Thieves Quarter comes from outside and from organised crime from an exotic elsewhere. There are pros and con here. On the pro side I like the shades of grey this introduces. Characters could be evil or less than good thieves and rogues from Liberty's Old Quarter but working, as it happens, to assist the city by preventing the influence of the Kunarath Syndicate growing. On the con side we're left with a key plot that we can't really explore. We don't have any other rules or knowledge about the homelands of the Kunarath Syndicate. If we're using the Thieves Quarter as a plug'n'play (or even Liberty itself) then it's especially hard to use the Kunarath Syndicate. What if there's no suitable alternative in the game world you're using?

The Thieves' Quarter oozes professionalism and quality. The book is nicely bound, has easy to read but tight print (more words for your money) and plenty of illustrations (the cartography really is good). As a flagship product for the City Quarters series it does well. I'd like to collect the series. It's about US $18 for 80 pages which isn't too shabby for this day and age either.

Over all I think you have to look at Thieves' Quarter - A City Quarter Sourcebook from three points of view. As a plug'n'play supplement it's not all that great. It's not particularly plug'n'play. By the time you sanitise the book for your campaign then you're left with the filler (though professional and easy to use filler it is). As part of a greater Liberty setting the book is better but hindered by the lack of a greater Liberty setting. You can't really use the book as such yet. The third point of view, the fairest one to use, merges the two previous points together. The Thieves Quarter just about gives you a setting which you can use in just about any way you see fit. If you can use it then you'll benefit from the detail provided. You might loose some of the most interesting features but you'll be left with interesting inns with handy stats for guards nearby. You'll be left with a Day Watch Captain who's keen on surprise inspections for reasons which make sense. You'll have a quarter with coherent rumours and where the same names might come up again and again.

In short, I quite liked the Thieves Quarter but don't think I can use it. Not yet. It's going to be one of those occasions where I pounce on the next supplement as soon as I see it.

* This Thieves' Quarter: A City Quarters Sourcebook review was first published at GameWyrd.