> I didn't find the characters of Thieves World at all impressive being
> little more than well worn fantasy tropes of thief, crime lord,
> mysterious magician etc. Given that much of the alleged development is
> related to events unique to the Thieves World universe, I fear the task
> of translating the characters will be a case to too much work required,
> too little to show for it.
>
Way back in the day, Thieves World lined up with RuneQuest better than did most fantasy sources. Both attempted some measure of 'realism' amidst their fantasy, and while magic was pervasive it didn't allow one to just wave away logical constraints.
I recall an essay included in the Thieves World rpg supplement that was the first clearly articulated argument I'd seen for keeping some realism in fantasy (that one could not gallop a horse all day is one example that sticks in my mind, but there were many others). It really led me to want to find a fantasy rpg rules set other than D&D. When I was introduced to RQ a few years later I gobbled it up, and when I bought the RQ3 Glorantha boxed set, and saw the brief write up about Refuge, I know it seemed clear to me that it a proxy for the Thieve's World setting (I don't recall exactly why anymore).
Having said that, I never thought Thieve's World was a particularly good fit with Glorantha, but way back then there was a shortage of well developed supplements, so the temptation to use whatever you could was high! But this was what, close to thirty years ago?
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