Thieves' World's city of Sanctuary is a robust place for role-playing adventures. The party can go a long time without going beyond the area influenced by the local politics. Beyond that sphere of influence is the Known World, an vast collections of kingdoms, cities, and people mixing together in ways the citizens of Sanctuary may never had thought possible. Thieves World Gazetteer by Lynn Abbey, Brian Campbell, Patrick O'Duffy, and Robert J. Schwalb, from Green Ronin Publishing, provides the information to take a Thieves' World campaign out into this greater land.The Setting
There is about 140 pages of information about the Known World of Thieves' World setting. The information you would expect about the people, kingdoms, cultures, and histories are given. Enough information is given about the main continent to allow for a solid basis of gaming without so much information that constricts a game master from developing an individual flavor. The world is given as an extension of the city, main setting, without taking away from the gaming experience of the streets of the port city.
The feel of the setting is not lost as you expand out from Sanctuary. The majority of the world is not as gritty as the city. The presentation fits into the information presented in some of the independent novels of the characters as they were involved in adventures. It was never a high fantasy setting. However, there are the unknown lands where rumors have come from that would allow for other races and creatures that many people are looking for.
Throughout, the underlying grit is there. The limitations of magic, either arcane or religious, are present. The feel is that when you are out there you are always going to be in competition to survive, working harder to advance. It can be done, but the character is going to have to earn the rewards.
The Information
A gazetteer is useful when it can provide the information you want about the lands so you can incorporate them into your gaming. Thieves' World Gazetteer provides the information.
Chapter one is about the general campaign setting and how it can be tied into other settings.
Chapters two and three are about the lands considered the Known World. These are the kingdoms and people of the main continent. There are several levels of information (historical, geographical, demographics) that allow you to move the game beyond the city of Sanctuary.
Chapter four is about the lands beyond the Known World. This includes the lands across the sea and the lands of the other planes.
Chapter five is devoted to the main deities of the religions from across the lands. Not only are the gods presented as who they are and their areas of their control, the worshippers are also presented on how they fit in. This provides some good information when developing a new area for the players by giving more societal backstory for the non-player characters they are meeting.
Chapter six contains supplemental rules that can be used when adding the different cultures. These include rules that can be used by players and GMs when developing or advancing characters.
The final chapter provides monsters specific to the Thieves' World setting.
The Book
I didn't find this book as well written as Thieves' World Player's Guide and Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary. The information I was looking for as a game master (GM), and a fan of the books, is present. The problem I faced there were places where I had to re-read the paragraph or section because there was information dropped into the middle of it that seemed out of place.
The artwork in the book was is done by the same team of artist and designers. The selection of art promotes the feel of the setting and the books. The pictures promote the information in the text without taking away from it.
The layout of the interior is in black and white without any shading on the pages, which made it easier to read.
Conclusion
There is so much information that came out of the Thieves' World books—the writing of those books spanned over thirty years from many authors with different points of view. It is rich and varied. Thieves World Gazetteer does a good job of pulling together so much of the information and converting it into the D20 game system.
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