Thornguard is a solo adventure for the Tunnels and Trolls RPG system. According to the description, there is no overarching quest; the adventure is what you make of it. You could become a city guard and hunt down criminals, or perhaps you would prefer a life of crime yourself and join the Thieves Guild. You may take up a career as a merchant, an adventurer or even a holy initiate, devoting your life to the Red Sun. Illegal actions may land you in prison, or even worse...on the business end of a noose. You can choose to buy property, from a small peasant house to a grand castle. Thornguard is your oyster. It sounds very promising, doesn't it?
Design:
The design of Thornguard is fine, but nothing too special. The font is nice and I really like it, because it is so nice to look at whilst it is also readable and clear. The pictures are atmospheric, but a little bit random. I wish the author had taken a little bit more time to make the pictures match the text.
(17/25)
Gameplay:
Thornguard most certainly has something special to offer. In contrast to other adventures for T&T, you're not forced to take a certain path trough the game. You could walk around the streets to buy some stuff for your next "real" adventure, or you could help the citizens hunt down some vampires. Thornguard still has another gimmick for you tough, in the form of Job boards. When you join certain factions in Thornguard, you get acces to their Job board. These boards are basically a large gambling minigame, which you can use to earn some money in exchange for CON. A nifty little piece of game design, but not something you will be doing for hours. The last gimmick is the order of the red sun, which I liked the best of the book. It gives you a very nice choice: Will you join the order, which gives you free goodies but limited inventory space, or will you decline and live on without these cool stuff?
(21/25)
Difficulty:
This is an easy one: Thornguard is not very hard. It does, however, give you replay value: I can easily see myself come back to Thornguard every now and then to buy some stuff and do some random quests.
(18/25)
Story:
The story is obviously the worst part of Thornguard. Since it doesn't have a linear experience, there isn't much of an story either. The text is is reasonably detailed, but it is nothing special. The beginning is probably the best: It gives you some nice choices and the option to roleplay. As soon as you enter the streets of Thornguard you shouldn't be expecting anything special tough.
(11/25)
Total score:
(70/100)
