Customer Reviews

Thieves' World: Shadowspawn's Guide To Sanctuary (Thieves' World d20 3.5 Roleplaying)

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This is one of several manuals or modules available for the latest attempt at a Thieves' World RPG (Chaosium took the first swing back in 1981). Other volumes from this go-around include a player's handbook, a gazetteer, and an introductory adventure. Endorsed by Lynn Abbey, who was heavily involved throughout Green Ronin's development of the RPG material, this book gives a significant amount of background details on the city of Sanctuary, the core setting for the game.

What I actually found most valuable were the two lengthy sections on prominent NPCs from both the "classic" era (during the original run of the dozen or so anthologies in the '80s and '90s) and from the current period that was introduced in a fairly recent relaunch novel and a couple of ensuing story collections. There's plenty of stuff to be found on old favorites like Lythande, Jubal, Enas Yorl, Lalo, Shadowspawn, and even the vile Tempus, not to mention all of the assorted enemies such as Ischade and Roxanne. Biographies of the characters in the new age are also provided, although so far only Cauvin has really stood out.

I have a bit of a quibble with the map of Sanctuary, which seems dramatically out of scale. Note that if you are yearning for information about anything outside of the city, you must pick up the gazetteer, because this book does deliver what it promises: stuff about Sanctuary, and not much else. So if you really must know about Ranke and Ilsig and such, the gazetteer is a must-have (it is also packed with historical backgrounds on all of Sanctuary's neighbors).

I probably had bloated expectations for this book, but for whatever reason, I ended up mildly disappointed. I would rate it at 3.5 out of 5. Important note for RPG-types: as far as gaming goes, this setting is very heavily skewed toward fighters and thieves, unsurprisingly; clerics and mages would have a rough time of it. And it's definitely both a low-tech and low-magic world, which is true to the source material.

Overall, a good resource for character backgrounds and some commentary on the city.