Twisting Alleyways & Outlaw Thieves - Haven The Free City & The Stormbringer Rpg

 "HAVEN — The Free City can be used with any fantasy role-playing system that accepts the existence of magic and a multi-racial universe, and is designed as an interrelated series with Thieves' Guild™, forming the basis for a complete campaign universe. Ample space is provided for the GM to incorporate features, politics, and personalities from his own campaign into the fabric of the city. This package includes:

• An Overview of the city of Haven and the region of the Ten Cities, and explanations of the terminology used in the books;
• 7 booklets describing the 7 boroughs and neighborhoods of the city, with major families, personalities, shops, taverns, and residences, and possible adventures;
• A booklet of random encounters and statistics for all NPCs described in the text;
• 11 detailed neighborhood maps showing the locations of shops and other places of interest described in the text; (Actually, it's 10 cardstock maps... this is a misprint)
• A poster-sized color map of the entire city, showing over 100 noted landmarks.

"So if your players are looking for a place to spend the ill-gotten gains from their last expedition, seeking to establish a more permanent base of operations for their favorite adventurers, or are just plain tired of skulking around uncharted dungeon corridors for the twentieth week in a row, bring them to HAVEN — The Free City, the biggest and best fantasy city ever published!"

1984 ... Gamelords 3930"

Wayback in the early two thousands our group of retrobates got deeply involved with using our scale ship for pirating and raids against the Pan Tangian empire. And we needed an off the cuff deeply involved city to unload our ill gotten  goods too. We had a mixed crew of renagade Pan Tangians, Tragic Millenium, Vikings, and Young Kingdom rejects. And my uncle started us with Gamelords Haven The Free City but adapted it straight into a Stormbringer rpg location. Here our Vikings speaking an archaic form of French & Pidget trade language unloaded our ill gotten goods. And man we took a bath on some of the trade goods. We got our scale ship upgraded, traded out our exterior crew, upgraded the dry dock for her, and somehow Haven became our home away from home during the Nineties under my uncle's ever watchful DM's eye. Haven can still be gotten from Game Science right over here. Now our Stormbringer rpg campaigns began to incorporate more outlaws, renagades, and scallywags. And this was due to our almost constant need to keep up with repairs on our scale ship. We kept running into Pan Tangian & Tragic Millenium agents who were trying to find our crew because we were known outlaws. Why didn't we go back to Sancutary?! We weren't exactly welcome back there because our party owed money to every bookie and loanshark in the city. 

So our base of operations became in Haven and it was fitting. To this day Haven has a soft spot in our hearts and our party really fit in among the riff raff of Haven. We also had quite a few urban based adventures among the back alleys and businesses of Haven. 

Then there was the fact that Haven really fit the back alley nature of the thieving, pirate, and renagade life style that our party developed during our Stormbringer play. And then there was the fact that Haven supported piracy with Lair of the Free Booters supplement and adventure. 
Haven had a sorta of aura of adventure about it. Because it fit the Stormbringer, and Avalon Hill Ruinquest Third edition vibe far better then we as players expected. 

When one of our crew was killed we'd spin out the next crew member into our party of scum & villainy. 
Trade Town from Lair of the Freebooters was a perfect little port for piracy. That is until the damn Pan Tangians showed up again. And we really began to concentrate on building our crews with more outlaws and mercenaries after the last encounter. We had the local pirates on our side after the Pan Tangians consigned more then a few of the pirates souls into waiting tentacles of Pyray the Whisperer of Impossible secrets. 

Our party eventually wound up within the Grand Arena having to go undercover, to buy back, escape from, and finally fight our way out of the same arena. Our party ended up in the Grand arena and this is where Avalon Hill's Runequest third edition's Monster Collseum appeared on the table top. And here's where our group actually got deeply into 15 MM miniatures! These miniatures work so well with the Avalon Hill Runequest Monster Coliseum set. If your looking for a very good overview/review of Haven The Free City check out this entry on the Blackgate blog here. 

Old School Mail - Haven The Free City (Formerly titled The Free City of Haven) For OSR & Old School Rpg Gaming Systems

 Different Worlds Publications mailed me a physical copy of Haven Free City. Haven is one  of the most interesting cities in old school fantasy rpg's. Haven has alot to offer & it takes its old school 1984 second edition roots on its sleeve. 

Haven The Free City feels like a 'real city' & contains everything that the dungeon master needs to bring Haven to life. Each of the sections of the boxed set has a booklet that goes with a section of the city map.

 
And the details in the Haven box set bear this out:

"In this first of three volumes in the chronicles of the city of Haven, GMs will find more than enough material for many months of urban adventuring, including:

• Over 100 well-described shops and shopkeepers
• 60 interesting random city street encounters
• 300 personable NPCs for the players to interact with
• 25 scenario outlines to involve the adventurers with the conflicts and desires of the city's denizens"

"Haven - The Free City can be used with any fantasy role-playing system that accepts the existence of magic and a multi-racial universe, and is designed as an interrelated series with Thieves' Guild, forming the basis for a complete campaign universe. Ample space is provided for the GM to incorporate features, politics, and personalities from his own campaign into the fabric of the city. This package includes:

• An Overview of the city of Haven and the region of the Ten Cities, and explanations of the terminology used in the books;
• 7 booklets describing the 7 boroughs and neighborhoods of the city, with major families, personalities, shops, taverns, and residences, and possible adventures;
• A booklet of random encounters and statistics for all NPCs described in the text;
• 11 detailed neighborhood maps showing the locations of shops and other places of interest described in the text;
• A poster-sized color map of the entire city, showing over 100 noted landmarks."

Haven doesn't just feel like another cookie cutter fantasy city but a living late Medival city. And here in is where my DMing instincts kick in. Haven belongs in a late period Dark Ages setting where Elves, Dwarves, etc. all exist and  mix in a crime ridden swirl of smoke, smells, food, urine, & urban weirdness. 

Because of the way that Haven The Free City is set up it would easy to port this into any number of OSR systems. 

 Haven is one of those box sets that I can clearly see using with a whole lot of other Dungeons & Dragons style systems. Take for example using Haven with the Hyperborea Rpg as an advanced trading state . A place  just off the usual routes of the bowl setting of Hyperborea but in the warmer waters making the city a place of temperate water and accessible by boat. The city thrives because of geo thermal vents and trades with far less advanced 'barbarians'. 

Haven is perfect for use as a city for Castles & Crusdes as a minor kingdom that has it's borders far more secure and its trade status as fixed. Here Haven thrives because of it's status as city non gratus able to mix & match the wide variety of fantasy races, themes, etc. all under its umbrella of use. 

Haven could also be a perfect city for a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign as a starting city where the characters can use it as a home base of operations between weird adventures. It could also be a city where characters pick up other PC's after the violence of LoFP affairs & adventures claims another victim. 

Lion & Dragon is another rpg where Haven can shine as one of the last bastions of European civilization along the old Silk Road trade routes. Haven does last after the events of Sword & Caravan but instead is sacked. But until then it offers a refuge for weary travelers and a perfect trade venture. 

All in all I think that Haven the Free City is a great addition to any dungeon master's tool box. And it works very well as a well for grounding PC's within a workable city or urban setting for further adventures. Next time we look at Haven The Free City we'll dive into its incredible streets. 

Haven The Free City (Formerly titled The Free City of Haven)  For OSR & Old School Rpg Gaming Systems

OSR Commentary Thieves Guild Second Edition & Haven The Free City

 This new, completely revised second edition of the Thieves' Guild rules now provides more ways than ever for players to experience the danger-filled life of a medieval brigand, burglar, or cutpurse. Thieves' Guild gives thief characters opportunities to use a wide range of thieving skills and abilities to plan and commit the perfect crime. In addition to basic game mechanics, system rules cove every aspect of thieving activity, including:

Basic Thieving Abilities Thievish Combat Tactics Disguises and Diversions Tailing and Surveillance Poisons and Venoms

Fencing Stolen Goods Medieval Justice Ransoming Prisoners Underworld Organizations And Much More!

"Thieves' Guild also contains introductory scenarios to start you on your life of crime, from highwaymen preying on the traveling traders and merchants, to daring burglars seeking the treasures of wealthy city dwellers! Just remember that it's brains rather then brawn that you'll need to avoid the forces of law and order, and the fiendish twists and traps that may stand between you and the booty that could be yours!"

"Thieves' Guild is part of Gamelords' complete Fantasy System, role-playing for the discriminating palate, providing a new dimension of excitement for players who are tired of mindless die rolling and hack-and-slash adventuring. This package includes Basic Character Creation, a separate book describing a detailed character creation system that features flexibility and decision-making by the player as he designed his character's abilities, past heritage, and personality, both at the time of initial creation and as the character advances. The Fantasy System places the emphasis of the game back on role-playing and creative group interaction, and features simple, straightforward game mechanics, with a variety of optional additions for GameMasters who want to introduce greater realism into their campaign."

There are times when one hates remaking the wheel & that's no joke.Thieves Guild by Different Worlds Ltd.  added quite a bit of solidly old school material that it made it excelllent for playing a practical Robert E. Howard Conan style game without the over arching issues of alignment. Issues that seemed to crop up in the grand game with frighteningly regularity. Now at length in the past I spoke of Game Lords Ltd. Thieves Guild which remains one of our  all time favorite 'add on' systems for old school Dungeons & Dragons style games.And don't just take my word on the Thieves Guild box set check out the Heroes & Otherworlds blog take on this relic of the gaming past here. 

The Heroes & Otherworlds blog brings up an important point about the Thieves Guild Box set; "In a nutshell, Thieves Guild was a D&D-esque system/setting focused on, well, thieves and running adventures around being the bad guy.  Fun things like tomb robbing, hostage taking, banditry, burglary, etc.  The tagline for Thieves Guild was "Sometimes it's more fun to play the bad guys." At times they are right.  We enjoyed playing Thieves Guild and used the GameLords City of Haven setting as a back drop for many adventures. In fact Brian Isikoff has used Haven with Heroes & Other Worlds as well." 
So Thieves Guild remains out in the wild today with it's systems mostly forgotten by the old school except for some of its die hard fans. The fact that Thieves Guild is so fondly remembered is interesting. And the fact that its peusdo Reniessance setting is so much embodied by the Haven The Free City campaign setting has one wondering about resurrecting both Haven & the Thieves Guild systems. 

With Haven the advantage is the layout, cartography, and even the entire city is right there for the DM to pick up and run with. So we can see that both Thieves Guild & Haven The Free City would be excellent additions to say a Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg campaign. Everything is right there from playing the 'bad guys' to full out businesses to play around in. 
However the imagination turns to Castles & Crusades because Haven seems just the sort of a setting where the fantasy races, businesses, etc. all scream mid level old school  fantasy. This also comes into the light for Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg where the player's PC's could be taking over block by block. 
For a combination of Greyhawk & Haven The Free city this adds in that Haven is simply another city on the waterways of Gary Gygax's fantasy campaign. A place of the illusion of wealth & a couldran of greed blending underneath.