Publisher: post world games
Near the Western cliffs of the Black Plateau, overlooking the wine dark sea, stands the city-state of Thorn, the last, great walled city. There is a place for everybody in Thorn. Welcome home.
Thorn is a fantasy roleplaying game set in a fictional bronze age, in the most important city in the world. Drawing from ancient Akkadia, Assyria, Babylon, and Sumer, the game is meant to be played in the city-state of Thorn and environs, but it is not meant to replicate the entirety of the ancient world.
However, these rules can be ignored and the setting can be dropped into any campaign already underway. What sets Thorn apart is the culture, intrigue, and mystical nature of the city.
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Thorn is an ancient city-state, a great city-state, a towering testament to centuries of rule. It is also the last city-state of its kind. Pharaohs and senators come and go. Dynasties fade. But power and wealth remain constants in the city-state of Thorn. People come from throughout the Empire to gaze upon Thorn’s perfectly etched stone walls and the mosaics of the gods, to hear great celebrities perform, to behold the excitement of the chariot races, and to witness the Pharaoh herself.
Today, a new Pharaoh reigns over the city-state, replacing a disgraced leader hidden in exile, who drove Thorn to the edge of ruin. Although the new Pharaoh intends to return the great city to the splendor of its golden age, this past year has seen obstruction from the Senate, resulting in societal decline. People live in poverty, Thorn’s borders shrink, and the military flounders, all while foreign missionaries lure the Kisharan faithful away from the old gods.
For the common citizen of Thorn, the passing days are measured in strife as the city-state struggles to recover from the misguided rule of a selfish Pharaoh. The wealthy of Thorn rise above such suffering, insulated in equal measure by both money and power, though they face their own trials as they struggle to hold onto such things. Life in Thorn is currently comfortable for no one.
In a constant state of flux, Thorn itself is eternal — it has weathered political upheaval, natural disasters, wars, and more. And when the dust clears again, it will remain. So long as the people believe this, there is little need to correct its drifting course.
Thorn is a place of power and status, and both have a way of keeping a tower stable.
Or knock is all down like a house of cards.
“The Pharaoh is dead. Long live the eternal state of Thorn. Usher in the living gods.”
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The 50 words or less description of Thorn is: A new Pharaoh sits upon the throne of the greatest city in the world, after the disastrous reign of the previous ruler nearly collapsed the kingdom. The military is a shell of its former self and a new religious movement looks to subsume the city. Cults and superstitions are rampant.
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Includes a map, two versions of the 180-page world and game in PDF format, 4 different character sheets, and a 1-page player handout.
Price: $14.95
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