When I heard that Alderac was adapting their award winning 7th Sea Rpg for the D20 system, I was upset. I am a huge fan of 7th Sea. I have bought most of the books and GMed a bunch of games. I have made so many characters that I can make a complete character in less than thirty minutes. Mostly everything about the system I love. I love the Combat system where even starting characters can defeat masters. I love the Magic system. Each one has its own flavor and function. For example, Glamour is the Magic of Myths and legends and Zerstorung is the magic of destruction. I also loved the Swordsman Schools. Each Swordsman school has a different philosophy and mindset. For example, One Swordsman School, Leegstra is a style for berserkers, while another, Aldana, is the style for the traditional combat person. Basically, I love all aspects of the 7th Sea RPG.
Last week, the local RPG distributor had a copy on one of its shelf. I had to buy it because I wanted to see how the the 7th sea system was adapted. Because I had very low expectations of the book, I expected that I was going to complain. I was pleasently surprised.
The Swashbuckling Adventures default setting is Théah, a 17th century earthlike place. It is a place that is familar and different with broad generalizations and specific differences. Each of the seven known countries has a different style and a different real world counterpart. Avalon is the rough equivalent of the British Isles and is inhabited by magical creatures called the Sidhe (pronounced 'shee'). Castille is Spain and the Spanish empire. Crescent is the arab nations. Eisen is Germany. Montaigne is France. Ussura is Russia. Vendel/Vesten are the Netherlands and the Slavic States respectively. Vodacce is Italy. Each Country has its own style and flavor. Basically I am indifferent to this part because Chapters 1 9 are exactly like the 7th Sea descriptions.
Now for what I like about this book. I love the new character classes. In this book, there are 12 new base characters classes, most of them are variations of Rogues and Fighters. There is one that is a variation of the sorcerer. Each one fills a specific niche instead of a general one. A Noble is different than a Wanderer and so on.
Another thing I love is the variety of Priestige classes for the system. The book breaks them up into universal and Country specific categories. While most of them are fighters types, they each fill a specific style. there is the previously mentioned berserkers and Aldana and others like the Steil and unabwendar command schools. Each uses a different philosophy. This will make my fighter a little more interesting. The priestage classes makes d20 interesting.
Another thing that is great are the feats. there is over 100 separate feats. Some of them are maneuvers from the 7th sea, while others are the skill packages. Each one helps the character to become more heroic. Also, some like Greater Sneak Attack and Improved Sneak Attack makes the rogue a little more deadlier.
While I beleived that the system is well designed, I also beleived that there should have been more though to it. Most of the priestige classes are available at 3rd level. while the more powerful ones are available at 6th level. (Note: for the purposes of this article, I will be using the Fighter as the base class.) In the 7th sea roll and keep system, they were available at the beginning and some had a restrictive requirements. They were designed to make the character fit into the role. Another problem I have with the system is the relatively lack of game balence. Each of the priestige classes gives one or two free feats at first level. If done correctly, a 10th level character with a priestige class or two is a broken chracter indeed. While some are well thought out, others are not. The Leegstra Berserker at third level, can cancel all damage from one attack while Soldano gains three virtual feats. This is not balenced by any means.
In conclusion, I beleived that Swashbuckling adventures is a well designed book that is way too powerful for a balenced campaign. If a DM wants to allow it, they must spend a little time to adapt the campaign setting to keep the balence in their games. Also , it is worth the hefty price tag. My only other complaints are the lack of demihumans and the lack of magic character classes.
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