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7th Sea is one of the most anticipated games of the last few years and it has finally arrrived. After reading the Players' Guide I came away disappointed by the lackluster effort put forth. The game that stressed that cinematic appeal delivers with solid mechanics and a good character creation system, but lacks substance and flavor. At times I felt that they were stretching material out and that is evident by the poor format they used. If AEG used the Palladium or White Wolf format for this book it would've only been about one hundred pages,just think of 7th Sea as a 96 page supplement forced into 256 page so they could slap a $30 price tag on it and give a reason for putting out the GM Guide which uses the same format and is another $30 book.

Now, I realized before I got into 7th Sea that it would be based on Europe during the 17th century and would share many ideas, but I had no idea that AEG was so unoriginal as to copy and paste a European History book and simply change the names and call the world Theah. You can call it Europe Lite. The world of Theah has no spark and no soul, it is boring and quite a yawn. The world is suppose to be in turmiol, but they authors can't seem get that across very well and what you have it a hollow setting. I would've preferred if they just used Europe as the setting and just put a fantasy twist to it.

Now, let's get to the good part. The game mechanics and character creation system are both done very nicely. I especially like the latter which gives you plenty of freedom in choosing what you would like to be. Some of the options include a swordsman who has acquired a fighting style from the various military academis across Theah, Noble Sorcerers who follow five different paths of magic, Exlporers searching for artifacts from the lost civilization of Syrne, Spies and agents of the various secret societies, priest, pirates, etc. The skill system is very good where it allows you plenty of options and gives you a broad range of skills to start out with. The most impressive part has to be the background and Arcana. The background section allows you to customize a nice start up story your hero while the Arcana allows you the option of picking a heroic virtue or dangerous trait otherwise known as a Hubris.

The only part of character creation I didn't like were the Sorcerers who seemed too mundane for this action packed/cinematic setting. With the exception of Porte(Dimension Magic) and to a lesser degree Laerdom(Rune Magic)it seemed to a bit bland and tasteless. The Shapeshifters are boring, the Fate Witches reminds me of my local fortune teller then a real cinematic witch, and Glamour Magic which uses myth to fuel it's power is really not that flamboyant.

The mechanics for 7th Sea is a variant of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG system. L5R had a very deadly system so 7th Sea has changed the wound system around and has made it harder for you to die and has also introduced Drama Dice. Now, Drama Dice remind me of Fate Chips from Deadlands. At the beginning of the game you get a certain amount of drama dice depending on what your lowest character trait is. You can use these dice to preform heroic actions or even use them exploit your enemies flaws. The villains also get drama dice to use against the player character and this can be tons of fun.

Once you get passed the boring setting you really do have a good game. The characters are fun and the system is a blast. If anything sells 7th it will most likely be the art, with color painting by Terese Nielson and the amazing pencil work of Palladium/L5R artist Ramon Perez the book is beautiful if nothing else. I really think the Players' Guide and and Game Masters' Guide should've been in one book. With a different format and good editing this setting could've been one hardcover mainbook for $30 at no more then 300 pages. For the first time you can say that AEG has thought with their wallet with little care for the gamer.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

7th Sea Players' Guide
Author: Jennifer Wick and John Wick Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Line: 7th Sea Cost: 29.95 Page count: 256 Capsule Review by Steven M. Marella on 06/25/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	7th Sea is one of the most anticipated games of the last few years and it has finally arrrived. After reading the Players' Guide I came away disappointed by the lackluster effort put forth. The game that stressed that cinematic appeal delivers with solid mechanics and a good character creation system, but lacks substance and flavor. At times I felt that they were stretching material out and that is evident by the poor format they used. If AEG used the Palladium or White Wolf format for this book it would've only been about one hundred pages,just think of 7th Sea as a 96 page supplement forced into 256 page so they could slap a $30 price tag on it and give a reason for putting out the GM Guide which uses the same format and is another $30 book. Now, I realized before I got into 7th Sea that it would be based on Europe during the 17th century and would share many ideas, but I had no idea that AEG was so unoriginal as to copy and paste a European History book and simply change the names and call the world Theah. You can call it Europe Lite. The world of Theah has no spark and no soul, it is boring and quite a yawn. The world is suppose to be in turmiol, but they authors can't seem get that across very well and what you have it a hollow setting. I would've preferred if they just used Europe as the setting and just put a fantasy twist to it. Now, let's get to the good part. The game mechanics and character creation system are both done very nicely. I especially like the latter which gives you plenty of freedom in choosing what you would like to be. Some of the options include a swordsman who has acquired a fighting style from the various military academis across Theah, Noble Sorcerers who follow five different paths of magic, Exlporers searching for artifacts from the lost civilization of Syrne, Spies and agents of the various secret societies, priest, pirates, etc. The skill system is very good where it allows you plenty of options and gives you a broad range of skills to start out with. The most impressive part has to be the background and Arcana. The background section allows you to customize a nice start up story your hero while the Arcana allows you the option of picking a heroic virtue or dangerous trait otherwise known as a Hubris. The only part of character creation I didn't like were the Sorcerers who seemed too mundane for this action packed/cinematic setting. With the exception of Porte(Dimension Magic) and to a lesser degree Laerdom(Rune Magic)it seemed to a bit bland and tasteless. The Shapeshifters are boring, the Fate Witches reminds me of my local fortune teller then a real cinematic witch, and Glamour Magic which uses myth to fuel it's power is really not that flamboyant. The mechanics for 7th Sea is a variant of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG system. L5R had a very deadly system so 7th Sea has changed the wound system around and has made it harder for you to die and has also introduced Drama Dice. Now, Drama Dice remind me of Fate Chips from Deadlands. At the beginning of the game you get a certain amount of drama dice depending on what your lowest character trait is. You can use these dice to preform heroic actions or even use them exploit your enemies flaws. The villains also get drama dice to use against the player character and this can be tons of fun. Once you get passed the boring setting you really do have a good game. The characters are fun and the system is a blast. If anything sells 7th it will most likely be the art, with color painting by Terese Nielson and the amazing pencil work of Palladium/L5R artist Ramon Perez the book is beautiful if nothing else. I really think the Players' Guide and and Game Masters' Guide should've been in one book. With a different format and good editing this setting could've been one hardcover mainbook for $30 at no more then 300 pages. For the first time you can say that AEG has thought with their wallet with little care for the gamer. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

7th Sea Players' Guide