Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn, Adventure Review

Sanctuary is a city of intrigue. Plots are thick, sometimes thicker than blood. But, most plots that are put into motion in Thieves' World involve the spilling of blood. And you just found yourself entangled in a plot.

Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn is an adventure for the Thieves' World setting on the Open Gaming License of the D20 system written by Owen K.C. Stephens for Green Ronin Publishing. This adventure is designed for starting characters and works well for players who are new to the setting. It is roughly eighty pages long and includes great information for expanding the adventure into the campaign setting and continuing the players and characters on to other adventures. But first, they have to solve the mystery.

The party is waiting at the Vulgar Unicorn, a famous dive, one evening when they find they have been thrust as the primary suspects in a murder. I'm sure you are surprised to hear that part based on the title of the adventure. The party is given the opportunity to clear themselves of blame by helping to discover who is behind the murder and why it happened. The adventures sets the characters off into the city tracking down clues.

There are a few set scenes with a number of interlude encounters for the players. The interludes are designed to give experience to the characters and the players. For the characters the encounters help provide the experience needed to advance the levels so they are ready to take on the set encounters where major combats occur. By the end of Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn the characters should have gained several levels.

The player experience for the encounters help to introduce them to the city of Sanctuary, its districts and feel. Depending on how the players decide to interact with the encounters helps to determine how well they do in other areas in this adventure and in later games. There is some great information about setting up contacts and building relationships with non-player characters in the city. At the end, if you want to continue in the setting there is information so you can take it several different directions.

There are pre-generated characters available. These are good tools for players who haven't seen the differences presented in the Thieves'' World Player's Handbook (review of Player's Handbook). But, if you have a good group of players who want to bring in characters of their own creation, they would also work.

After going through Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn I found I liked it. The information was well presented to give the introduction to a location that has been part of fantasy reading since the late 1970s. I read those books then and I know this gave me more of a desire to check out the setting. I know the setting of Thieves' World and Sanctuary are not for everyone, in fact I would not recommend this setting for young players. Sanctuary is a dangerous city full of thieves, drugs, prostitutes, and other vices. It is gritty gaming where many times survival was counted as the victory.

Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn was written over ten years ago. So, it uses the D&D 3.5 base of rules. Even with its age I think if you like the grittier style, you should check it out.

Sanctuary is a place of plots. There is always fighting taking place, but it might be a fighting of the minds, or just being able to survive. You might just be looking to make it through the evening earning enough coin to get some food and a place to hole up for the night. Later, then, that may be the time for your own plots.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

You can also join Guild Master Gaming on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter (@GuildMstrGmng).