"We donna juss take ev'ry waif that wanders in off tha cobblestones. If yer wantin' ta be joinun, yer goita have ta come off twenty gold coins fer tha test. Then we'll be knowin' whether yer havin tha talents fer the job or no."
MetalMan's Review of "Thievery 101: Joining the Watchers" by Wyverns Claw Design
Thievery 101 is a different approach to the WotC D20 license. It harkens back to the old days of one PC adventures when it was only one player and a GM and crosses that with the "side trek" adventures that are popular in Dungeon Magazine.
The Premise:
This adventure covers a young rogue's entry into his thieves guild. Most of the time, this important event in a rogue's career is glossed over in emphasis of the adventuring party's goals. However, Thievery 101 details the events leading up as well as their initiation into the guild that can be done outside of normal game time to flush out the rogues character especially if they happen to be of a more criminal bent.
What Ya Get:
Thievery 101 is available as a sixteen page Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file. You'll want to have a fast internet connection or a good chunk of time that you can tie your computer up with though. The full download of the file is over eighteen megabytes in size. The large file size is explained by the quality of the actual document itself.
Cost:
Thievery 101: Joining the Watchers will set you back a cool $2.95 USD. Payment is made via PayPal so you will need an account set up with that service before you can purchase it.
Appearance:
The adventure is professional quality work right up there with WotC and any other commercial companys products. Text is arranged in two columns per page with the standard grey boxes denoting in-game narration. Sidebars are included for additional information for the GM and they are easily read. There is, however, some typographical errors but nothing that detracts from the adventure itself. Thievery is fully illustrated in black & white and all the artwork is very well done. I would have choosen a better cover image that the one that made the final cut but this could have also been a stylistic choice. The only unfortunate thing about the illustrations is the one for "Thalimin" on page six. Thievery 101 is the first of five mini-modules for rogues that intertwine themselves. I fear the that the Thalimin illustration may be giving away some important plot point later on ... or I could be completely mistaken. Its just hard to see an illustration of a man with a scarred neck and the selfsame man hanging by a rope in the background and not draw conclusions.
The Adventure:
SPOILER WARNING: I will be discussing the plot of the adventure in this review. I am going to try to remain vague about some of it as to not completely ruin everything. If you are planning on playing in this adventure or have reason to believe that your GM will be running it, you may want to stop reading now. Nobody likes to have their fun spoiled (most people don't anyway).
Murders are happening in Kingsreach and they happen to be thieves as the victims. Unknown to the local thieves guild called the Watchers, another faction is trying to muscle in on the protection racket that the guild had been running at the expense of the merchants. Guild thieves sent to collect or who got too inquisitive wound up dead floating in the river. Several plot hooks are given on how to introduce or entice the player into joining the guild... the least of which being is that they're looking for replacements. The adventure starts off easily enough... too easily. A Player used to the "You wanna join? ... Okay. You're in." school of D&D thieves guilds are in for a bit of a shock when their expectations are shattered.
Everything seems to be going ahead as normal when they are hit with their first task - they have to find and find a way into the thieves guild. Once they manage (or fail) to do that, they meet one of the rogues who assigns them a "introductory" job. It isn't. It is a test of both their skills and their loyalty before they are allowed to join the guild. The premise is that one of the merchants that they are "protecting" has been stiffing them some of the money they are owed. It is up to the player to go retrieve what is owed them. Investigation around town will lead the player to the merchant's warehouse that is rigged with nonlethal traps and a guard.
However, unknown to the guild, the thief/merchant who owns the building that is used for a test as well as a legitimate business has their own little secret that they're trying to hide from the Watchers. The player may or may not find this out but it does give a good hook that could be incorporated into a later adventure.
A player shouldn't have too hard a time with this little adventure as its purpose really seems to be to set up the atmosphere of how a thieves guild works and some of the plotting that occurs. What is does accomplish is to develop a well-honed sense of paranoia and distrust in a player. As a bonus though, the player is granted a useful but not overpowering magical item upon initiation into the guild that could be very useful in keeping them alive through their first few levels of adventuring.
The adventure's introduction says that the next adventure in the series will up the danger considerably.
Overall Impression:
This is easily worth the $2.95 that they're asking for this product. One thing I like about Wyverns Claw's approach is that their adventures tend to focus more on characters rather than the group-oriented "el-cheapo" adventures from other companies. While this does limit their usefulness to a single player, the benefits that can be gained from establishing some of the nuances and atmosphere of the world before the players join as a group can be very beneficial in immersing the players into the world you've created for them to play in. This is a wonderful product and one that should be worth your consideration for purchase if I've even managed to intrigue you in the least.
MetalMan signing off.
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