The Inside Scoop on Gaming

7th Sea has caught on with our gaming group like the plague with Pre-renaisance Europe. Within a week anybody who had ever gamed with our group owned a copy of the Player's Guide.

Enthusiasm for a system and background often has trouble standing up against the hard reality of an actual game. This is not the case with 7th Sea. The system is fast and easy to remember, and stays out of the way of the story. It's a lousy simulation of reality, but an excellent simulation of movies like Cutthroat Island or The Three Musketeers. Enverything about the game encourages an over the top style, from the rules for injury (only an act of extreme stupidity can get you killed, otherwise you're just knocked out), to the formalized division of opposition into villians (think Cardinal Richelieu), henchmen (Rochefort), and brutes (the Cardinal's Guards), to a formalized system for Repartee.

Two aspects of the system we particularly liked were Drama Dice and Exploding Dice. These aren't exactly new concepts; West End Games have been using them for a while. But for a game designed for an over the top gaming style, they work very nicely. Our heros get their tails caught in a crack, the drama dice can help pull them out, or at least soften failure's creul blows.

We did not have opportunity to try out the sorcery system. On first view, however, it appears very inriguing. Unlike traditional fantasy systems with spells like "Reduce my enemies to smouldering cinders" and "Fix the dead guy," 7th Sea spells require that the player using them (and the GM running the game) be intelligent enough to actually play a wizard. Rather than provide automatic results, 7th Sea magic provides additional tools to accomplish your character's goals. If you can figure out how to use those tools effectively, they will be very powerful.

On the whole, I think this is an excellent game, and one which our group will play a good deal.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

7th Sea Player's Guide
Author: John Wick, Jenifer Wick, and Justin Wilson Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Line: 7th Sea Cost: 29.95 Page count: 256 SKU: AEG 7001 Playtest Review by Clay Dowling on 09/26/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Historical	7th Sea has caught on with our gaming group like the plague with Pre-renaisance Europe. Within a week anybody who had ever gamed with our group owned a copy of the Player's Guide. Enthusiasm for a system and background often has trouble standing up against the hard reality of an actual game. This is not the case with 7th Sea. The system is fast and easy to remember, and stays out of the way of the story. It's a lousy simulation of reality, but an excellent simulation of movies like Cutthroat Island or The Three Musketeers. Enverything about the game encourages an over the top style, from the rules for injury (only an act of extreme stupidity can get you killed, otherwise you're just knocked out), to the formalized division of opposition into villians (think Cardinal Richelieu), henchmen (Rochefort), and brutes (the Cardinal's Guards), to a formalized system for Repartee. Two aspects of the system we particularly liked were Drama Dice and Exploding Dice. These aren't exactly new concepts; West End Games have been using them for a while. But for a game designed for an over the top gaming style, they work very nicely. Our heros get their tails caught in a crack, the drama dice can help pull them out, or at least soften failure's creul blows. We did not have opportunity to try out the sorcery system. On first view, however, it appears very inriguing. Unlike traditional fantasy systems with spells like "Reduce my enemies to smouldering cinders" and "Fix the dead guy," 7th Sea spells require that the player using them (and the GM running the game) be intelligent enough to actually play a wizard. Rather than provide automatic results, 7th Sea magic provides additional tools to accomplish your character's goals. If you can figure out how to use those tools effectively, they will be very powerful. On the whole, I think this is an excellent game, and one which our group will play a good deal. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

7th Sea Player's Guide