The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The world of 7th Sea is a complex adaptation of 17th century Europe into fantasy setting called Theah. No such translation would be complete without detailing the thinkers and inventors of that age. Invisible College performs this function whole-heartedly if a bit inconsistently.

The book is broken into four main chapters with a short piece of fiction and introduction. This is standard fare for the Secret Society Series of which Invisible College is the fourth. The Invisible College was formed to protect scholars and scientist from the recently empowered Inquisition, or at least that is how previous books describe the society. This image is preserved in this book, but additional pieces have been added. All in all this is the least about face I have noticed in the Secret Society series. So gamemasters should find it easier to incorporate this book into existing games.

Spoiler Warning: I will describing many of the secrets in this book, but I will allude to them, so be warned.

Chapter 1: Hypothesis

This section is the lion's share of the book detailing the the society as a whole. Here we find a list of twenty-one "Masters" who act as the public faces of the Society. Among them are the Thean versions of Galieo, Newton, Kepler, and Decartes. The history section comes with a well deserved spoiler warning, it is here we learn that the society not only wishes to enlighten the masses with science, but protect them from potentially dangerous discoveries and technology. We also find descriptions of the hideouts, structure, and directives of the Society.

This chapter contains a good amount of useful information and nearly all of it written in an interesting manner. The largest irritation I had with this section was an erroneous page reference in the Gallegos entry, which had me hoping for some further clarification of the historical synopsis later in the book.

One oddity is that the Masters section details twenty-one Masters (two of whom are deceased), and there are a total of twenty-four, leaving three to be filled in by the gamemasters. Why exactly twenty-four masters is needed is a complete mystery to me.

Chapter 2: Theory

This chapter was intended to be the player readable descriptions for various NPC's. Some of these NPC's were "Masters" from Chapter 1, but most are new. Unfortunately the average member of the Society should know only two other full members (excluding party members) and even then only by pseudonyms. These descriptions contain fairly secret information, such as the existence of an experimental rifle and some caution should be exercised with them. On the other hand the history and ideas keep the section very interesting.

Chapter 3: Experimentation

This section describes the new game mechanics developed for this book. Some are interesting and well done, such as a new Swordsman school focusing on active defense and an Advantage to reflect an older an wiser character. Some are confusing or insufficiently detailed.

The Alchemy advantage lets you perform Blood Science (which I'll get to a bit later) and traditional alchemy. But no details are even suggested for traditional alchemy. There is a reference to the Rose and Cross book, but without a page number, making it fairly difficult to find (I gave up after twenty minutes of searching).

There are also rules presented in this section for inventions. For the most part these rules work well for the genre, but one feature seems a problematic. The difficulty of the invention is increased by the number of years before the invention was created in the real world. This typically provides a good judge of difficulty, but one example invention deals with sorcery, making a real world analog fairly hard to find.

Lastly is a detailed description of Blood Science, alchemy using sorcerous blood. One major inconsistency I find in this section is a frequent reference to the potions generating significant sorcerous powers, especially offensive ones. However most of the potions described are fairly weak and give abilities like speaking with animals and improved appearance. In fact several of the potions are used as missile weapons, exploding or burning. This contradicts the later references that all potions must be consumed to functions. In short Blood Science is an interesting idea, but the execution needed more fewer contradictions.

Chapter 4: Proof

This chapter starts with a few pages on playing a scientist, and some on playing a non-scientist in the College. The scientist section was almost entirely based on stereotypes, suggesting that the player should pick a research field first, as the defining characteristic of their character. Then they should choose an archetype based on how capable the scientist is in science and more mundane maters. It seems to me that defining a character in this way is analogous to basing a character entirely on a swordsman school, ultimately not very interesting. I would have preferred something addressing the reasons why someone becomes a scientist. All in all this sections was the part I liked least.

The next part of this section dealt with the NPC secrets and statistics. Many NPC's possess powers in other books, but the writers have chosen to include short summaries of their abilities, alleviating the need for excessive referencing. The last part consists of some description of the Inquisition, the College's primary foe. While useful, it acts more as a plug for the future Vaticine Church supplement than as a solid description of the Inquisition's methods. Of course I didn't buy the book for information about the Inquisition.

Summary: This book is a good one, it reads well and reveals enough to be interesting, without being encyclopedic. The problems in the book stem from inconsistencies in mechanics and layout. Also the placing of potential spoiler information is supposedly safe areas is somewhat irritating. All in all it is a fairly solid book in all areas.

Mendel Schmiedekamp

The Invisible College
Item type: RPG Product Name: The Invisible College Author: Boerwinkle, Kevin P., et al. Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Line: 7th Sea SKU: 7306 Cost: $19.95 Page count: 125 ISBN: 188795322-1 Genres: Ratings: Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Review type: Capsule Review Genre tags:	The world of 7th Sea is a complex adaptation of 17th century Europe into fantasy setting called Theah. No such translation would be complete without detailing the thinkers and inventors of that age. Invisible College performs this function whole-heartedly if a bit inconsistently. The book is broken into four main chapters with a short piece of fiction and introduction. This is standard fare for the Secret Society Series of which Invisible College is the fourth. The Invisible College was formed to protect scholars and scientist from the recently empowered Inquisition, or at least that is how previous books describe the society. This image is preserved in this book, but additional pieces have been added. All in all this is the least about face I have noticed in the Secret Society series. So gamemasters should find it easier to incorporate this book into existing games. Spoiler Warning: I will describing many of the secrets in this book, but I will allude to them, so be warned. Chapter 1: Hypothesis This section is the lion's share of the book detailing the the society as a whole. Here we find a list of twenty-one "Masters" who act as the public faces of the Society. Among them are the Thean versions of Galieo, Newton, Kepler, and Decartes. The history section comes with a well deserved spoiler warning, it is here we learn that the society not only wishes to enlighten the masses with science, but protect them from potentially dangerous discoveries and technology. We also find descriptions of the hideouts, structure, and directives of the Society. This chapter contains a good amount of useful information and nearly all of it written in an interesting manner. The largest irritation I had with this section was an erroneous page reference in the Gallegos entry, which had me hoping for some further clarification of the historical synopsis later in the book. One oddity is that the Masters section details twenty-one Masters (two of whom are deceased), and there are a total of twenty-four, leaving three to be filled in by the gamemasters. Why exactly twenty-four masters is needed is a complete mystery to me. Chapter 2: Theory This chapter was intended to be the player readable descriptions for various NPC's. Some of these NPC's were "Masters" from Chapter 1, but most are new. Unfortunately the average member of the Society should know only two other full members (excluding party members) and even then only by pseudonyms. These descriptions contain fairly secret information, such as the existence of an experimental rifle and some caution should be exercised with them. On the other hand the history and ideas keep the section very interesting. Chapter 3: Experimentation This section describes the new game mechanics developed for this book. Some are interesting and well done, such as a new Swordsman school focusing on active defense and an Advantage to reflect an older an wiser character. Some are confusing or insufficiently detailed. The Alchemy advantage lets you perform Blood Science (which I'll get to a bit later) and traditional alchemy. But no details are even suggested for traditional alchemy. There is a reference to the Rose and Cross book, but without a page number, making it fairly difficult to find (I gave up after twenty minutes of searching). There are also rules presented in this section for inventions. For the most part these rules work well for the genre, but one feature seems a problematic. The difficulty of the invention is increased by the number of years before the invention was created in the real world. This typically provides a good judge of difficulty, but one example invention deals with sorcery, making a real world analog fairly hard to find. Lastly is a detailed description of Blood Science, alchemy using sorcerous blood. One major inconsistency I find in this section is a frequent reference to the potions generating significant sorcerous powers, especially offensive ones. However most of the potions described are fairly weak and give abilities like speaking with animals and improved appearance. In fact several of the potions are used as missile weapons, exploding or burning. This contradicts the later references that all potions must be consumed to functions. In short Blood Science is an interesting idea, but the execution needed more fewer contradictions. Chapter 4: Proof This chapter starts with a few pages on playing a scientist, and some on playing a non-scientist in the College. The scientist section was almost entirely based on stereotypes, suggesting that the player should pick a research field first, as the defining characteristic of their character. Then they should choose an archetype based on how capable the scientist is in science and more mundane maters. It seems to me that defining a character in this way is analogous to basing a character entirely on a swordsman school, ultimately not very interesting. I would have preferred something addressing the reasons why someone becomes a scientist. All in all this sections was the part I liked least. The next part of this section dealt with the NPC secrets and statistics. Many NPC's possess powers in other books, but the writers have chosen to include short summaries of their abilities, alleviating the need for excessive referencing. The last part consists of some description of the Inquisition, the College's primary foe. While useful, it acts more as a plug for the future Vaticine Church supplement than as a solid description of the Inquisition's methods. Of course I didn't buy the book for information about the Inquisition. Summary: This book is a good one, it reads well and reveals enough to be interesting, without being encyclopedic. The problems in the book stem from inconsistencies in mechanics and layout. Also the placing of potential spoiler information is supposedly safe areas is somewhat irritating. All in all it is a fairly solid book in all areas. Mendel Schmiedekamp