Welcome to Four Thieves

NOTE: We’re still under construction, so check back again each week as we finish uploading our existing content onto the new platform. Once we get our feet under us, you can expect a more organized and consistent output. Until then, keep checking on our “Chimerapals” series for some nice vignettes to inspire you to use some new and unique monsters we’ve built for Pathfinder and D&D!

A Greeting from the Four Thieves

Tabletop Role Playing Games are a unique medium for storytelling, and the Four Thieves philosophy contains some foundational assumptions that are an integral part of everything we do.

First, most of our content is not for players. We focus on the folks who do the heavy lifting on (and usually before) game night: the Game Master. We appreciate the challenge you have in weaving an engaging story and keeping up with your players’ antics. We believe that you probably have a better read on what’s going on at your table than we do, and our content is designed with that in mind. Every item, adventure hook, and published module is about as ready-to-play as we can make it… but we know that if you have time, you’ll tinker. So we include our thoughts and gaming philosophy to inspire you and show some ways you could adjust things to fit your purposes.

Second, TTRPGs are not books, movies, or video games. They are a unique medium for collaborative storytelling, and we build our content to lean into those differences. We embrace the concept of collective storytelling, and shape our adventures and modules with a framework of narrative themes like exposition, rising action, climax, and denouement. We also incorporate lessons learned from video games and game theory. For example, we use what we call Rockman Progression to introducing a hazard, theme, or gimmick in a controlled environment and then gradually reintroduce it with increasing complexity or challenge. And of course, we embrace the various types of players that sit down at a table and roll dice to play a game of fantasy adventure. We make room for the players that want to weave plots of intrigue, players that want to solve puzzles, players that want to goof around, and players who just want to kick in the door and stab monsters–and we assume that most groups will have some of each type.

Third, good adventures are inspired and inspiring. We shape our content to bring out the human experiences that let us connect with other people and ideas. We attempt to capture the unique moments of wonder that draw real explorers and adventurers to brave discomfort, pain, and danger. We deliberately make space for players to interact with each other through their characters. Then we put deliberate care into the rewards that the characters earn, with unique trophies and keepsakes.

The Four Thieves Philosophy

We prefer adventures in a world that is Larger, Older, Scarier, Stronger, and Stranger than the player characters. We refer to these themes with the acronym LOSSS, and you’ll see this bias expressed in our art, mechanics, and storytelling. We know many players who prefer to corner one or more aspects of LOSSS in their character concept, often disconnecting them from the human experiences that create great memories. Showcasing LOSSS in the world emphasizes that what makes the characters great isn’t who they are, but what they choose to do. The real magic of TTRPGs isn’t the character, it’s what happens at the table.

The next thing we do to create memorable game moments is to make the connection between struggle and reward. We send players on journeys facing difficulty and discomfort to find rewarding moments, experiences, and treasures that are all the more valuable due to the trials that are endured and hardships overcome. You’ll see this come to life by trying to “embrace the suck” in detail. For example, if your players spend an afternoon slogging through a swamp in the rain, focus on connecting the feeling of misery when your whole body is cold, wet, and tired. Your narration can highlight the feeling of exhaustion when the players win a fight, and the entire adventure should feel tough, uncomfortable, scary, and tiring… until it’s time for a moment of rest.

To contrast the tribulation of adventuring, we reward players with a Moment of Peace and a Moment of Beauty. Described in more detail below, these moments should take the players out of the mechanics of roleplaying and explicitly prompt them to connect with the thoughts and emotions of roleplaying. This provides a narrative pause to humanize their characters and consider questions with interesting implications and answers. These moments are almost exclusively tailored to give the players a sense that if they weren’t crazy, brave, or determined enough to leave the safety of “town,” they would never get to experience these incredible moments. Of course, the moments aren’t the only rewards–Keepsakes & Trophies are the physical rewards of adventuring.

Our themes of LOSSS are at odds with the “magic as a commodity” assumption that is baked into the high-fantasy settings often seen in modern gaming. Our treasures derive some of their “value” in what the characters had to do to get them, despite their system-dependent gold piece value. Many of our own memories of gaming are scattered with random pieces of treasure that had no mechanical value–there was just something about its description that caught our fancy. As a result, you’ll see very few coins in our treasure, but plenty of rich physical descriptions crafted to inspire you and your players in the same way. Our approach to treasure is very deliberate, so you won’t see any magic shops in our games. In our adventures, we include a section called Under the Hood that breaks down what treasure was picked for the adventure, so that you can customize something to fit your party’s needs without shaking up game balance too much. We also include the full item description (including price) for all of our Keepsakes & Trophies, in case you’d like to use these precious rewards outside of our adventure.

THE FOUR THIEVES TOOLBOX

Our philosophy is expressed using a few tools that we use to set tone and control pacing, tension, and engagement with our players, and we’ve listed the most important here.

We also are curating an archive of unique ideas for use in your own games, and we’ve organized them with tags for easy access:

Ultimately, our goal is to guide and equip aspiring Game Masters, and we aim to ease the burden of running a session for those who want to get the most out of your precious gaming hours. We invite you to play with and adapt what we have provided, and make it your own. Much like the Moment of Beauty, use the adventures in this book as avenues to inspire, enthrall, and cultivate inimitable experiences between you and your players. Please enjoy, and embrace the spirit of adventure that calls all of us to the gaming table.

Thank you, 

The Four Thieves