Thieves' World (role-playing game)

Thieves' World is a role-playing game supplement published by Chaosium in 1981, based on the Thieves' World series of novels. It was notable for including rules and statistics allowing for its use with nine different fantasy and science-fiction RPG gaming systems.

Thieves' World
Thieves' World (boxed set)
published by Chaosium in 1981.
Illustration by Walter Velez.
Designer(s)Dave Arneson, Eric Goldberg, Rudy Kraft, Wes Ives, Stephen Marsh, Midkemia Press, Marc W. Miller, Steve Perrin, Lawrence Schick, Ken St. Andre
Publisher(s)Chaosium
Publication date1981
Genre(s)Fantasy
System(s)Basic Role-Playing

Contents

The Thieves' World Complete Sanctuary Adventure Pack is a boxed set published by Chaosium in 1981, containing: 1) The Player's Guide to Sanctuary; 2) The Gamemaster's Guide to Sanctuary; 3) Personalities of Sanctuary; 4) Map of Sanctuary; 5) Map of the Maze; 6) Map of the Maze Underground.[1]

Just as the Thieves' World series of books was a shared universe with multiple authors using a common setting, Chaosium initially positioned the Thieves' World RPG as a setting that could be used with multiple game systems. The Personalities of Sanctuary included statistics and gaming notes for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Adventures in Fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery, DragonQuest, Dungeons & Dragons, The Fantasy Trip, RuneQuest, Traveller, and Tunnels & Trolls. Later products in the series provided stats only for RuneQuest and Rolemaster/Middle-earth Role Playing. Thieves' World series contributing novelists Lynn Abbey, Poul Anderson, Robert Asprin, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brunner, Christine DeWees, David Drake, Philip José Farmer, Joe Haldeman, Janet Morris, Andrew Offutt, and A.E. van Vogt wrote descriptions, essays, and short stories for the player and game master volumes in the box set, and game designers Dave Arneson, Eric Goldberg, Rudy Kraft, Wes Ives, Stephen Marsh, Midkemia Press, Marc W. Miller, Steve Perrin, Lawrence Schick, and Ken St. Andre helped translate the world into the various game systems.[2]

Reception

Harry White reviewed Thieves' World in The Space Gamer No. 45.[3] White commented that "it's worth the price. Thieves' World provides a wealth of information for repeated use but allows considerable flexibility for individual creativity and customizing. Physically, typographically and artistically it is a quality product. Highly recommended if you don't expect miracles and need a home for your adventurers."[3]

Thieves' World was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1981".[4]

Oliver Dickinson reviewed Thieves' World for White Dwarf #30, giving it an overall rating of 10 out of 10, and stated that "This has to be one of the most challenging adventure packs to come on the market. It is a whole city, realised with a richness and thoroughness of detail that matches City State of the Invincible Overlord, and though not as comprehensive as this, it presented in a much more readable form."[1]

Steve List reviewed Thieves' World in Ares Magazine #13 and commented that "Thieves' World is not a work that allows a GM to spend merely a few hours reading it, nor does it present a campaign that will be exhausted in a few playings. It does provide a vehicle with which a GM willing to devote the time can create an entire city which should never grow stale no matter how many times it is visited."[5]

J C Conner reviewed Thieves' World for Imagine magazine, and stated that "There is plenty of information in this pack for the DM to make a really first rate and exciting city for the players, fleshed out by their collective imaginations and perhaps coloured by the books, if you can get them. The set may seem a little pricey - what isn't these days? - but it is worth every penny."[6]

John O'Neill of Black Gate comments: "It was a beautiful product that rose above the gimmick at its core. Sanctuary was the city where anything could happen, where characters created by some of the best fantasy writers of the generation crossed paths and shared adventures. Chaosium's Thieves' World became the setting where gamers of every stripe could likewise gather and share a beer... and perhaps an expedition into the caverns beneath The Maze together."[7]

Reviews

References
  1. Dickinson, Oliver (April–May 1982). "Open Box: Thieves' World". White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (30): 16. ISSN 0265-8712.
  2. "Thieves' World as a Rosetta Stone of early RPGs". Wayne's Books. April 15, 2020. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  3. White, Harry (November 1981). "Capsule Reviews". The Space Gamer. Steve Jackson Games (45): 32.
  4. "The 1981 Origins Awards". The Game Manufacturers Association. Archived from the original on 2012-12-16.
  5. List, Steve (Winter 1983). "RP Gaming". Ares Magazine. TSR, Inc. (13): 39.
  6. Conner, J C (September 1983). "Game Reviews". Imagine (review). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. (6): 42.
  7. https://www.blackgate.com/2013/04/18/vintage-treasures-chaosiums-thieves-world/
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