DiMarzio on 30/9/2021 at 21:42
I just finished Thief Gold again and I'm playing some TDP/TG fan missions to play to get in the mood for Thief II. And I was wondering if are there any missions that expand on the story of Garrett and/or are placed directly between some OMs. Most fan missions just follow the independent episode format where the events or the timing doesn't really depend on or change anything. They occur on some vague time (before or after Thief 2 usually) and the plot is completely independent.
But are there missions that try to be "canon"? T2X would be an obvious example as it is overlapping with the events of Thief II. Are there any other such missions?
baeuchlein on 30/9/2021 at 23:59
There are a few missions which try to fit into the timeline, but I don't remember many ones that really make much of that idea - mainly because the Thief timeline between Thief 1 and Thief 3 is fixed, and a mission author can't put anything in there that completely changes (Thief) history and still fits perfectly into the events set by the three games.
Trail of Blood 2 is set shortly after Thief 2's Trail of Blood mission. Garrett is sent out by Victoria to find out why her contact with some Pagans suddenly broke off.
Patriot happens a while after Thief 3 and partially deals with the events at the end of that game. Magic has been destroyed, at least partially, when the main opponent of Thief 3 has been defeated. New powers as well as older ones that still remain form what the Keepers might call "a new balance". The events of "Patriot" concentrate on other issues, though.
The Builder's Paradise is set just after Garrett's attempt to get rid of Karras in Thief 2, but in this case it is assumed that Garrett failed to save The City. Karras has retreated to something he imagines to become a paradise in the eyes of him (and, as he believes, the Master Builder as well), which is a world forever changed by Rust gas and dominated by Karras' mechanical/robotic creations. Thus, this does not completely fit into the Thief 2 timeline, but rather forks off of it at the end of Thief 2. And of course, Thief 3 would not happen the way we know it, then.
Keeper of the Prophesies, a campaign made by frobber, takes place a while after Thief 2. Garrett needs to have maintenance applied to his mechanical eye, but things quickly go into a completely different direction then. The campaign only uses this connection to the Thief timeline to get things going; as far as I remember, there is nothing in there later on that changes much of history as we know it.
Better off Dead features the dead body of the Trickster, but also a living Victoria who is known to Garrett as an opponent. Therefore, this mission most likely belongs somewhere between Thief 1 and 2. It does not expand much on that part of history though, just shows us a landscape formed and dominated by the Trickster's creatures.
There are several other missions that are somehow connected to the events of the first two or three games, but many of them do not change much, and in several cases, the missions do not really add much to "historic" Thief events. Only very few missions actually place themselves in a specific time in "history", and maybe even base their plot or events on that.
michael a on 1/10/2021 at 07:08
Some more about Mechs and their slightly growing influence (not sure if they are canon):
Being Thief series are serving as some kind of prequel series to the Thief 2 IIRC: Garrett investigates (for the Keepers) some new Mechanists' mechanical creations - Big Child of Karras. Those two are huge city missions.
Sabotage in Eastport (1 million contest entry) is another Mechanist-related mission: Garrett sabotaging new modification of Mechanists' bot. This mission actually interwoven into the storyline of Thief 2.
Feast of Pilgrims and Troubling Transitions (both are city missions from Thief 2 Anniversary Contest) are also describing life and earlier times of Mech order. It's fun to see them as some kind of prequel (FoP) and sequel (TT). Karras is just talented engineer and only begins building Mech sect in FoP and in TT his organisation slowly seizes control on remaining Hammerite buildings.
There are some another missions set somewhere before or during Thief 2. Hidden Agenda is yet another excellent Mechanist investigation mission and Into the Odd also happens somewhere in this timeline.
bassoferrol on 1/10/2021 at 11:24
The Restored Cathedral for Thief Gold.
skacky on 3/10/2021 at 17:02
I can think of three at the moment:
My own Shadow Politics, which takes place between Thieves' Guild and The Sword, Downtowne Funk that takes place immediately after Thieves' Guild, and then The Hand of Glory, which takes place between Assassins and The Sword.
john9818a on 4/10/2021 at 23:46
The mission I am currently working on doesn't really expand on Thief 2, but I did remove references to Sheriff Truart in the Watch guards' schemas since Sheriff Truart at this point is dead and no longer Sheriff.
