OK, so, I haven’t been able to lay my hands on a copy of the first Thieves’ Guild (there is a loose-leaf publication from 1980; that was reprinted as a box set in 1984). Apparently the idea was to make a thief-centric RPG system. I love thieves, so this is something I am going to naturally gravitate toward. It seems to be very skill- and roleplay-centric for 1980.

Anyway, the base rules were expanded across nine numbered volumes. This is Thieves’ Guild II (1980) and it has one of my all time favorite pieces of early RPG art on the cover there. No joke, I love it. It captures something essential about the vibe of the early days of the hobby.

The first bit of the book is devoted to expanding the rules. You get more weapons, some new combat rules, guidelines for hirelings and a set of mini-scenarios for bandit characters. All of this feels somewhere between a hack and a close clone of OD&D. The real treasure though is the adventure site, promised on the cover: the tombs of Shale-Chuun. This is a modular set of tombs, arranged in a valley, each amounting to a mini-dungeon delve filled with traps, hazards and potential wealth (the arrangement is reminiscent of Keep on the Borderlands). Complicating things is the religious order that maintains the tombs and patrols the valley, or, if that isn’t to the GM’s liking, a dragon who has settled in the valley after destroying the guardian order. The tombs themselves are full of their own dangers. Two are presented in full, with guidance on how to construct additional ones using random tables and modular room configurations. The guardian monastery is also detailed. All of this is real good, and ranks as some of the best non-D&D stuff I’ve seen from that era.

The art is pretty good, too — all of it is by Janet Trautvetter. Love that creepy idol of the death goddess with her skeleton children. Creep city.