Thieves' World is a game aid published by Chaosium in 1981 and based on Robert L. Asprin's shared world anthologies by the same name. At the time of publication only the original Thieves' World and the second volume, titled Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn, had been published. The anthologies included shared character stories written by a number of popular science fiction/fantasy authors of the day including Poul Anderson and Marion Zimmer Bradley. The short story format lends itself well to a pulp "sword & sorcery" type of story and that's how I recall Thieves' World - as a sword & sorcery setting that shares a lot with pulp era settings like Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar. Chaosium's Thieves' World adventure pack is a colaborative work like the anthologies written with contributions from a number of game designers and includes character stats for the principle non-player characters found in the source stories using nine different roleplaying systems.
Thieves' World is based on the City of Sanctuary, a frontier outpost of the major empire of the known world. Founded by runaway slaves and then having undergone a boom and bust cycle before finally being conquered and occupied by a rival expansionist state, the city is recently added to the empire and the political climate in Sanctuary is one which is yet to settle down. There is a new governor and a new temple is being built to the new Imperial gods. The old local gods and their temples remain, however, and religious tension is reflected by the behavior of worshipers and deities alike (the gods are active in Sanctuary).
Sanctuary is set in a world of men - humans. The Tolkien-esque races are unknown in this setting, but there is plenty of diversity to be found among the competing human cultures. Thieves' World is ripe with urban adventure potential, but there is little support for dungeon delving or even wilderness exploration. You do get a fairly nice large-scale area map showing several cities and seas, but there isn't a lot of details outside the city of Sanctuary itself. One clarification I think needs to be stated for anyone who considers purchasing this product - the box illustration is a bit misleading. I love the atmosphere depicted on the box cover. It is however a bit in-congruent with the actual setting which is much more desert/tropical in nature. The architecture of Sanctuary is mostly flat roof adobe and not the half-timber Elizabethan look I get from the box cover. The interior art depicts characters dressed in short classical Greek style tunics (Rankan Imperials) and middle eastern/India style turbans (native population), both of which are more consistent with the suggested warm climate than the northern European look on the cover.
Thieves' World has occupied a good deal of my reading and planning time this past week or two. The copy pictured above I acquired at Gencon the year it was released and used with various rule systems for a number of years. Eventually I was drawn to newer shiny things and my TW has languished in a state of gaming limbo for a couple decades (or more?). At just a time when I am searching about for a setting to run using the Genesys rules I am reminded of Thieves' World by friends. The Thieves' World setting material is mostly written without reference to a particular system and includes character stats for a number of diverse early rule systems which can help generate ideas for the generic Genesys. I am inclined to think Thieves' World can be run in the cinematic heroic style of a Genesys game, a style which shares some elements of the pulp era stories, but I think I'll have more on that idea later.
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