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The Knights of the Rose and Cross is the first book on the Secret Societies of Theah written for the 7th Sea game. It is split into four parts with two of those parts split in half.

The book starts with the first half of a story that gives you some basic ideas as to what the life of a member of the order would be like. It is well written, but felt very disjointed to me considering that the second half of the story isn't told until you are about half way through the book.

After the story you reach the first section of the book that details the society's agendas and goals. If you are a 7th Sea player who has no interest in playing a member of this society I would not bother picking it up! All you would get out of it would be about five pages of usable information. And a breif section on what is rumored about the society.If you are interested in playing a member of this society, or are the GM of the game I would highly recommend this book. After the public face of the order is given you start getting the real scoop. The book gives an indepth look at the history of the order ,their relationship to various other secret societies and nations , and one really big secret only this order knows that, if exposed, could change Theah. After all of that there are some brief descriptions of some of the chapter houses and rules of the order. (There are no chapter houses in Ussura.) There is also a breif bit about the codes, hand-signs, and ciphers used by the Knights.

Next is a section on the Patrons and knights of the order. One of the biggest complaints I heard about Pirate Nations was there were too many NPC's. In this book there are a total of fifteen NPC's who are given breif descriptions and only ten or so have been given complete descriptions. Most of the NPCknights know at least one secret pertaining to the order , and NPC patrons have plenty of missions that theywant the knights to undertake for them. The NPC's are well varied and give a good idea of what different members want out of the order.

The third section covers the new information on creatinga member of the order. This information includes a new swordsman style, some new backgrounds, advantages, and a new sorcery-like ability called the Vow. For the most part it covers everything that you need to play a member of the order. I have only two problems with this section, but I will go over them at the end of this review.

The last section is split into two parts. The first part is for the players and talks about the code of Chivalry, things that you can do to help fit an existing character into the order, how to handle promotions, and the delicate situations that the knights are trying to deal with across Theah. The most important information in this section is the cost of advantages for a character after character creation. The second part is the GM's section. It includes a quick start adventure, a more detailed discussion of some of the adventure hooks that appeared in the rest of the book, a section on using the "invisibles" which are a secrect order within the society, as well as some more information on how to use the Vow.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I like that they don't tell you everything in the first book and this book gives you a world altering secret. I hope that they continue with this track because it makes these books more fun to read. Now for my two problems with the book. The first is that since the knights are a semi-religious order and the religion is anti-sorcery, you would expect that the book would give you an idea as to whether or not they accept those of sorcerous blood into the order. Unfortunately there is no mention of it one way or the other, but they do imply that those with the blood of sorcerers are allowed into the order. The only other complaint that I had was with the Vow advantage. I didn't feel it was very well worked out, being both too vague compared to the rest of the

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Knights of the Rose and Cross
Author: John Wick Category: game Company/Publisher: AEG Line: 7th Sea Cost: 19.95 Page count: 121 SKU: 7302 Capsule Review by Robert James on 12/05/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	The Knights of the Rose and Cross is the first book on the Secret Societies of Theah written for the 7th Sea game. It is split into four parts with two of those parts split in half. The book starts with the first half of a story that gives you some basic ideas as to what the life of a member of the order would be like. It is well written, but felt very disjointed to me considering that the second half of the story isn't told until you are about half way through the book. After the story you reach the first section of the book that details the society's agendas and goals. If you are a 7th Sea player who has no interest in playing a member of this society I would not bother picking it up! All you would get out of it would be about five pages of usable information. And a breif section on what is rumored about the society.If you are interested in playing a member of this society, or are the GM of the game I would highly recommend this book. After the public face of the order is given you start getting the real scoop. The book gives an indepth look at the history of the order ,their relationship to various other secret societies and nations , and one really big secret only this order knows that, if exposed, could change Theah. After all of that there are some brief descriptions of some of the chapter houses and rules of the order. (There are no chapter houses in Ussura.) There is also a breif bit about the codes, hand-signs, and ciphers used by the Knights. Next is a section on the Patrons and knights of the order. One of the biggest complaints I heard about Pirate Nations was there were too many NPC's. In this book there are a total of fifteen NPC's who are given breif descriptions and only ten or so have been given complete descriptions. Most of the NPCknights know at least one secret pertaining to the order , and NPC patrons have plenty of missions that theywant the knights to undertake for them. The NPC's are well varied and give a good idea of what different members want out of the order. The third section covers the new information on creatinga member of the order. This information includes a new swordsman style, some new backgrounds, advantages, and a new sorcery-like ability called the Vow. For the most part it covers everything that you need to play a member of the order. I have only two problems with this section, but I will go over them at the end of this review. The last section is split into two parts. The first part is for the players and talks about the code of Chivalry, things that you can do to help fit an existing character into the order, how to handle promotions, and the delicate situations that the knights are trying to deal with across Theah. The most important information in this section is the cost of advantages for a character after character creation. The second part is the GM's section. It includes a quick start adventure, a more detailed discussion of some of the adventure hooks that appeared in the rest of the book, a section on using the "invisibles" which are a secrect order within the society, as well as some more information on how to use the Vow. Overall I really enjoyed this book. I like that they don't tell you everything in the first book and this book gives you a world altering secret. I hope that they continue with this track because it makes these books more fun to read. Now for my two problems with the book. The first is that since the knights are a semi-religious order and the religion is anti-sorcery, you would expect that the book would give you an idea as to whether or not they accept those of sorcerous blood into the order. Unfortunately there is no mention of it one way or the other, but they do imply that those with the blood of sorcerers are allowed into the order. The only other complaint that I had was with the Vow advantage. I didn't feel it was very well worked out, being both too vague compared to the rest of the Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)