The Inside Scoop on Gaming

In terms of physical layout, the 7th Sea GM's screen has 3 parts. The first is, of course, the screen. Inside is a thick (64 page) booklet with two sections, an adventure and some background information on the Explorers Society, one of the gameworld factions.

It should be noted that while I attempt to minimize the spoilers revealed in this review, players who's GM may be running this adventure may wish to avoid this review.

1. The Screen

The screen is, physically, about what one would expect. Three panels of sturdy stock with artwork on one side and charts on the other. The artwork is not bad, depicting a naval battle, but is not as compelling as, say, the color plates from the Player's Guide. It is perhaps unfair to hold the cover of a GM's screen to so high a standard, but the quality of the color art in 7S has set the bar fairly high.

There aren't a huge number of necessary charts required for 7th Sea, so that left a lot of potential empty space on the Screen (or very big charts). AEG made good use of most of that space, and put in sections of text to serve as a quick reference for many important parts of the game. 7S dedicates a lot of time and effort to targeting new gamers, and this GM's screen is very much targeted at the GM who is not yet fully comfortable with the system, and as such seems like a tremendously useful tool, putting most of what the GM needs at their fingertips. Naturally, there are charts I would have preferred to have(like the thumbnail maps from the GMG) , but that is mostly a matter of taste.

My only real objection is that the largest single chart is effectively an index for the main books. This seems a fairly roundabout way to go about things, and I'm not sure it was the best use of space.

2. The Adventure - The Erebus Cross Part one (of three): The Lady's Favor

While there are a few flaws to this adventure, and a few more idiosyncracies, overall it is well designed and it approaches an essentially open ended genre in a very flexible fashion. (Disclaimer: I did not run the adventure as presented, because the plot-line presented does not coincide with my existing campaign. However, I had been planning a similar trip to Ussura to see General Montegue, so it was very easy to recycle many of the ideas from this adventure for my campaign).

The core plot of the adventure is straightforward enough - the PC's must perform a dangerous mission for a lady of Montaigne that requires them to cross Theah to General Montegue's army in Ussura. Naturally, they are pursued, and must hazard numerous obstacles, chases, narrow escapes and other dangers one would expect in a swashbuckling adventure.

The greatest strength of this adventure is the format. Rather than presenting a sequence of orchestrated events, the adventure consists of 4 "Hard Points", scenes that need to occur for the adventure to move forward, and a collection of "Soft Points", events which can be inserted along the way as suit the GM's taste. The soft points are a great design approach, and are part of why this adventure has been so easy for me to adapt to my campaign. Even those soft points I do not use for this adventure are easy enough to hang onto for later games. This struck a nice balance between random encounters that make no sense and overly structured event trees. In fairness, it represents how I tend to sketch out adventures for my own games, so there is a reason I'm enamored with the idea.

For my money, even the two middle "Hard Points" had some wiggle room. The Second is necessary only because it ties the characters into elements that will be useful for the overarching Erebus Cross story, which will be expanded in parts 2 and 3 of this trilogy. The Third boggled me somewhat; it was an interesting enough scene, involving a dangerous supernatural foe and some potential for a good scare, but it was not apparent to me why it was necessary for the storyline. It's possible it may have bearing on the overall story arc, but as is, it left me somewhat baffled.

There are a few idiosyncracies to this adventure. These aren't problems per se, but they are particular ideas that may or may not work for every GM. For example, much of the adventure hinges upon a pair of Syrneth artifacts. Now, these are great MacGuffins, and are essential to the overall story of the trilogy, but the adventure could be run just as easily without them. If, as a GM, Syrneth artifacts will not be uncommon in your campaign, this probably won't be a problem, but if you want them (or at least those with real power) to be rare and exceptional (more akin to philosopher's stones from Fading Suns) then you might find their use a little troubling. This is not a real problem, but simply a question of taste you may wish to consider.

Similarly, the GM may have to do more than a little bit of fudging to keep the PC's pursuers dangerous. If, as a GM, you have no problem with that, then it shouldn't be a problem, but otherwise you run the risk of a clever party obliterating their pursuers early on.

Montegue is also given stats, which is disappointing, if only because it runs the risk that "If you give it stats, players will try to kill it." Since AEG is very careful about not making that mistake in other products, the inclusion of stats here was somewhat baffling.

Finally, GMs more interested in intrigue and politics may be disappointed that the apparent focus of the reminder of the trilogy will be the Syrneth artifacts. In the face of the truly interesting can of worms they have just opened in Montaigne, a quest for artifacts might seem unimportant.

All these are questions of emphasis however, and it speaks well for the adaptability of the system that if a GM wished to turn the adventure to suit his or her taste, it could easily be done. The only real complaint I have with the adventure is that the NPC use of Porte magic seems to violate the existing rules. This is irksome, but not crippling.

Overall, It's a good adventure, though not necessarily a great one. Where it shines is in the flexibility of its presentation and the ease with which any GM can make it truly their own.

3. Explorer's Society

This was both the most interesting and the most frustrating part of the trio for me. It provides an expanded history and description of the Explorer's Society, which is a good read, but not particularly exciting. It does provide names for some of the notables and give an interesting tie in to Caligari so fleshing out the politics of the Explorer's Society is certainly much easier. Meaty stuff, but nothing exceptional.

Where this gets interesting is in fleshing out some of the Explorer Society's findings and Theories about the Syrneth. The amazing thing is that it has almost nothing to do with artifacts or ruins, but rather raises a number of disturbing questions as to who the Syrneth were. Now, naturally this had always been a question, but the information presented hints at enough that I am now as interested in discovering the secret of the Syrneth as I have been to discover the secret of the 7th Sea.

This is not to say that you cannot run an explorer's society campaign without this information, but it will be an immense help, especially if you are interested in being consistent with later revelations. The problem being, of course, unless there's some more information revealed by the time your PC's find out what's presented in this section, you're all going to feel pretty frustrated, provided of course that you are interested in the explanation that AEG has in mind.

There is also information provided on a few Syrneth digs. Two of them sounded like potential dungeon crawls, but the additional information provided on the sewers of Charouse slightly fleshes out that provided in the GM's guide and held promise of interesting future information.

There are also hints and references to the 7th Sea and Cathay which were intriguing but served merely to whet the appetite.

One nice touch is that much of the information is presented in a semi-correspondance style, so a few ES NPC's are introduced in an oblique manner.

Summary

These were really three very different products that would be fairly schizophrenic later in the product run. However, as the first supplement after the main rules, with fans hungry for anything they can get their hands on, this isn't much of a problem.

The screen itself serves its purpose, providing most of the essential charts, and is nicely weighted towards helping GM's get comfortable with the system.

The adventure is all right, though not exceptional in terms of plot and storyline. However, it's presentation and modularity not only make it useful, but establish a good model for further adventures.

The Explorer's Society information is good, but will hopefully be given better treatment at some point further down the line. Naturally, none of this is necessary, since a GM can make up whatever explanations they want for the Syrneth, but if a part of the appeal of 7S is an interest in the explanations Mr. Wick has, the Explorer's Society information is likely to both intrigue and frustrate fans.

If a screen, an adventure, or information on the ES are absolutely necessary for your game, then this supplement is what you need, but otherwise, GM's may find it useful, but not essential.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

7th Seas Game Master's Screen
Author: Rob Vaux, Jennifer Wick, Patrick Kapera, Kevin Wilson and Ray Yand Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Line: 7th Sea Cost: ~$20 Page count: 64 Capsule Review by Rob Donoghue on 08/17/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Historical Conspiracy	In terms of physical layout, the 7th Sea GM's screen has 3 parts. The first is, of course, the screen. Inside is a thick (64 page) booklet with two sections, an adventure and some background information on the Explorers Society, one of the gameworld factions. It should be noted that while I attempt to minimize the spoilers revealed in this review, players who's GM may be running this adventure may wish to avoid this review. 1. The Screen The screen is, physically, about what one would expect. Three panels of sturdy stock with artwork on one side and charts on the other. The artwork is not bad, depicting a naval battle, but is not as compelling as, say, the color plates from the Player's Guide. It is perhaps unfair to hold the cover of a GM's screen to so high a standard, but the quality of the color art in 7S has set the bar fairly high. There aren't a huge number of necessary charts required for 7th Sea, so that left a lot of potential empty space on the Screen (or very big charts). AEG made good use of most of that space, and put in sections of text to serve as a quick reference for many important parts of the game. 7S dedicates a lot of time and effort to targeting new gamers, and this GM's screen is very much targeted at the GM who is not yet fully comfortable with the system, and as such seems like a tremendously useful tool, putting most of what the GM needs at their fingertips. Naturally, there are charts I would have preferred to have(like the thumbnail maps from the GMG) , but that is mostly a matter of taste. My only real objection is that the largest single chart is effectively an index for the main books. This seems a fairly roundabout way to go about things, and I'm not sure it was the best use of space. 2. The Adventure - The Erebus Cross Part one (of three): The Lady's Favor While there are a few flaws to this adventure, and a few more idiosyncracies, overall it is well designed and it approaches an essentially open ended genre in a very flexible fashion. (Disclaimer: I did not run the adventure as presented, because the plot-line presented does not coincide with my existing campaign. However, I had been planning a similar trip to Ussura to see General Montegue, so it was very easy to recycle many of the ideas from this adventure for my campaign). The core plot of the adventure is straightforward enough - the PC's must perform a dangerous mission for a lady of Montaigne that requires them to cross Theah to General Montegue's army in Ussura. Naturally, they are pursued, and must hazard numerous obstacles, chases, narrow escapes and other dangers one would expect in a swashbuckling adventure. The greatest strength of this adventure is the format. Rather than presenting a sequence of orchestrated events, the adventure consists of 4 "Hard Points", scenes that need to occur for the adventure to move forward, and a collection of "Soft Points", events which can be inserted along the way as suit the GM's taste. The soft points are a great design approach, and are part of why this adventure has been so easy for me to adapt to my campaign. Even those soft points I do not use for this adventure are easy enough to hang onto for later games. This struck a nice balance between random encounters that make no sense and overly structured event trees. In fairness, it represents how I tend to sketch out adventures for my own games, so there is a reason I'm enamored with the idea. For my money, even the two middle "Hard Points" had some wiggle room. The Second is necessary only because it ties the characters into elements that will be useful for the overarching Erebus Cross story, which will be expanded in parts 2 and 3 of this trilogy. The Third boggled me somewhat; it was an interesting enough scene, involving a dangerous supernatural foe and some potential for a good scare, but it was not apparent to me why it was necessary for the storyline. It's possible it may have bearing on the overall story arc, but as is, it left me somewhat baffled. There are a few idiosyncracies to this adventure. These aren't problems per se, but they are particular ideas that may or may not work for every GM. For example, much of the adventure hinges upon a pair of Syrneth artifacts. Now, these are great MacGuffins, and are essential to the overall story of the trilogy, but the adventure could be run just as easily without them. If, as a GM, Syrneth artifacts will not be uncommon in your campaign, this probably won't be a problem, but if you want them (or at least those with real power) to be rare and exceptional (more akin to philosopher's stones from Fading Suns) then you might find their use a little troubling. This is not a real problem, but simply a question of taste you may wish to consider. Similarly, the GM may have to do more than a little bit of fudging to keep the PC's pursuers dangerous. If, as a GM, you have no problem with that, then it shouldn't be a problem, but otherwise you run the risk of a clever party obliterating their pursuers early on. Montegue is also given stats, which is disappointing, if only because it runs the risk that "If you give it stats, players will try to kill it." Since AEG is very careful about not making that mistake in other products, the inclusion of stats here was somewhat baffling. Finally, GMs more interested in intrigue and politics may be disappointed that the apparent focus of the reminder of the trilogy will be the Syrneth artifacts. In the face of the truly interesting can of worms they have just opened in Montaigne, a quest for artifacts might seem unimportant. All these are questions of emphasis however, and it speaks well for the adaptability of the system that if a GM wished to turn the adventure to suit his or her taste, it could easily be done. The only real complaint I have with the adventure is that the NPC use of Porte magic seems to violate the existing rules. This is irksome, but not crippling. Overall, It's a good adventure, though not necessarily a great one. Where it shines is in the flexibility of its presentation and the ease with which any GM can make it truly their own. 3. Explorer's Society This was both the most interesting and the most frustrating part of the trio for me. It provides an expanded history and description of the Explorer's Society, which is a good read, but not particularly exciting. It does provide names for some of the notables and give an interesting tie in to Caligari so fleshing out the politics of the Explorer's Society is certainly much easier. Meaty stuff, but nothing exceptional. Where this gets interesting is in fleshing out some of the Explorer Society's findings and Theories about the Syrneth. The amazing thing is that it has almost nothing to do with artifacts or ruins, but rather raises a number of disturbing questions as to who the Syrneth were. Now, naturally this had always been a question, but the information presented hints at enough that I am now as interested in discovering the secret of the Syrneth as I have been to discover the secret of the 7th Sea. This is not to say that you cannot run an explorer's society campaign without this information, but it will be an immense help, especially if you are interested in being consistent with later revelations. The problem being, of course, unless there's some more information revealed by the time your PC's find out what's presented in this section, you're all going to feel pretty frustrated, provided of course that you are interested in the explanation that AEG has in mind. There is also information provided on a few Syrneth digs. Two of them sounded like potential dungeon crawls, but the additional information provided on the sewers of Charouse slightly fleshes out that provided in the GM's guide and held promise of interesting future information. There are also hints and references to the 7th Sea and Cathay which were intriguing but served merely to whet the appetite. One nice touch is that much of the information is presented in a semi-correspondance style, so a few ES NPC's are introduced in an oblique manner. Summary These were really three very different products that would be fairly schizophrenic later in the product run. However, as the first supplement after the main rules, with fans hungry for anything they can get their hands on, this isn't much of a problem. The screen itself serves its purpose, providing most of the essential charts, and is nicely weighted towards helping GM's get comfortable with the system. The adventure is all right, though not exceptional in terms of plot and storyline. However, it's presentation and modularity not only make it useful, but establish a good model for further adventures. The Explorer's Society information is good, but will hopefully be given better treatment at some point further down the line. Naturally, none of this is necessary, since a GM can make up whatever explanations they want for the Syrneth, but if a part of the appeal of 7S is an interest in the explanations Mr. Wick has, the Explorer's Society information is likely to both intrigue and frustrate fans. If a screen, an adventure, or information on the ES are absolutely necessary for your game, then this supplement is what you need, but otherwise, GM's may find it useful, but not essential. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)

7th Seas Game Master's Screen

1. The Screen

2. The Adventure - The Erebus Cross Part one (of three): The Lady's Favor

3. Explorer's Society

Summary