RPGFit check
Is Trials of the Thief-Taker worth it for you?
We tell you who should skip it, too.
Play it if you…
Good fit- Interactive-fiction readers who want historical crime stories rather than graphical adventures
- Players interested in branching moral choices who do not require a fixed heroic role
- Fans of text-led role-playing who enjoy social encounters, romance, and criminal career paths
Skip it if you…
Saves you a refund- Players who need graphics, animation, or sound will hit the wall immediately because the experience is text-only.
- Players seeking action-heavy combat or visually directed exploration may find the choice-driven novel too passive.
- Readers who want a short, linear story may not suit a 140,000-word adventure with multiple career directions.
Our take on Trials of the Thief-Taker
The bounce point arrives at the presentation layer: anyone expecting to fire a flintlock through an on-screen action sequence will instead read text and choose responses. The game’s crime-solving, relationships, and career changes all operate through written scenes rather than audiovisual play.
What is Trials of the Thief-Taker?
This 140,000-word interactive novel follows a thief-taker working in London in 1729, before the creation of police.
Cases involve recovering stolen property and pursuing smugglers, highwaymen, counterfeiters, and other criminals. Choices determine whether the protagonist serves justice, acts for money, creates crimes to solve, builds a criminal organization, establishes a police force, or combines opposing paths. The story supports male, female, and disguised-female protagonists, with gay or straight romances. Encounters can involve capture, friendship, or romance with officials, courtiers, criminals, and other figures. Progress can rely on persuasion, horsemanship, street knowledge, or fighting. The game is entirely text-based, with no graphics or sound effects, and includes the dice game Hazard.
How Trials of the Thief-Taker plays
- 01Branching criminal career
- Choices can lead toward justice, paid investigations, organized crime, a police force, or combinations of these paths.
- 02Multiple protagonist identities
- The character can be male, female, or a woman presenting as a man, with gay or straight romance options.
- 03Social and physical tactics
- Cases can be handled through persuasion, riding, street knowledge, or direct combat.
- 04Historical London setting
- The story takes place in 1729 and includes period vocabulary, manners, harsh laws, and gaming houses.
- 05Character relationships
- Officials, courtiers, highwaymen, smugglers, escape artists, and grave-robbers can be captured, befriended, or romanced.
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Trials of the Thief-Taker: platforms & release
Is Trials of the Thief-Taker worth it?
It is worth it if: interactive-fiction readers who want historical crime stories rather than graphical adventures. Skip it if: players who need graphics, animation, or sound will hit the wall immediately because the experience is text-only.
Where can I download Trials of the Thief-Taker?
Use the Download Now button on this page: it opens Trials of the Thief-Taker's store page, where you can choose how to get it.
What platforms is Trials of the Thief-Taker on?
Windows, macOS and Linux.
