7th Sea Core Rulebook (Second Edition) is a role playing game supplement that is now published through Chaosium Inc. but was originally published through John Wick Presents. This is the core book for the second edition of the 7th Sea role playing game.
The supplement is available as a PDF for $24.99 from DriveThruRPG but was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. It is also available as a printed book from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and has 307 pages. Of these, two are the front and rear covers, one is the front matter, one the Table of Contents, two pages are the Index and Advantage List and two pages have a map of Théah and a character sheet (the map is a different size page).
There are two versions of the core book, one low and one high resolution, a PDF character sheet and two maps of Théah, one in-world sepia toned map and the other colour and having more details.
The supplement opens with A Day’s Work, a piece of in-universe fiction.
Chapter 1: Welcome to 7th Sea briefly introduces the setting and the concept of a role playing game.
Chapter 2: Théah has a map of Théah, which is the world’s equivalent of Europe, in a variation of the 17th century, and then overviews of the different nations; Avalon, Castille, Eisen, the Highland Marches, Inismore, Montaigne, the Samartian Commonwealth, Ussura, Vestenmennavenjar and Vodacce. Each nation is given an overview, culture and other details and relationships with other nations. The real-world origins of each nation is fairly easy to determine, even though there may be differences. The recent War of the Cross can be identified as being the Thirty Years War. The feel is therefore of 17th century Europe, albeit one with some differences, and not just the inclusion of magic in one form or another.
After the nations are given an overview, the Seven Seas are then covered. Except there are only six; it is thought that the 7th Sea is a doorway to other worlds or the home of creatures such as the Sidhe. The courts of Théah are next, with Montaigne, Vesten and Avalon having the busiest. The Duellist’s Guild was founded to keep a level of control on duels by adding requirements that the guild be involved.
The Vaticine Church of the Prophets gets an extensive section as it has a significant influence on life. It is clearly based on the Roman Catholic Church but with extensive differences – not least that there are four prophets, three that were and one to be – that influenced it. This church is more focused on knowledge than faith – or at least it used to be before the Inquisition’s increased power in recent years. The church also suffered a recent schism – the Objectionist Reform – which also lead to the recent War of the Cross.
Knowledge for the setting is then covered; it is stated to be slightly in advance of the real world’s 17th century, although the Inquisition has recently been murdering scientists, especially in Castille where they can act more openly.
There are different groups of pirates and privateers operating, although with different motives – the Avalonian Sea Dogs are strongly suspected of working for the crown. There are also a number of different secret societies with different motivations, some recently driven underground by the actions of the Inquisition. Next is the Syrneth ruins; a precursor race of some type whose relics can be found in a number of places. It’s not stated just what these creatures were. Théah’s Monsters has a brief description of some monsters, but no game stats for them.
Chapter 3: Making a Hero starts with sections on each of the ten countries covered in Chapter 2. They cover things such as appearance, religion, attitudes and professions, and are intended to give an idea as to what a character from each country will behave like. These are not in quite the same order as in Chapter 2; in that chapter Inismore and the Highland Marches were in alphabetical order whilst in this they follow Avalon, and in that order.
Hero Creation starts with a list of nine steps to follow – the first is Step 0 – with overviews of each before moving onto the steps. Step 0 is actually 20 questions to answer about your hero, one of which is country of origin. The next steps are Traits, Nation Bonus, Backgrounds (which includes generic ones and ones specific to nations), Skills, Advantages (these cost from 1-5 points, although the point cost can vary depending on the nation of origin or are only available to characters from specific nations and some can only be taken at character creation), Arcana are pairs of Virtues and Hubris that can be determined using a Sorte deck) each gives a benefit and a drawback; one normally uses Hero Points, the other gains them). Stories are next and appear to be an important part of the game and give rewards when they are completed; there are different types of stories and there are also three more detailed examples. Step 8 is the final step, and it’s Details. These are things such as reputation, languages, secret societies and wealth points, with wounds explained.
Chapter 4: Action and Drama is essentially the base of the system’s mechanics. Most actions are not risky, but it’s the ones that are that important. These are modified by relevant traits and skills. Actions that create Risks give opportunities and consequences, which can be modified by Raises. In this chapter are Flair and Pressure and an explanation of Hero Points (which have been mentioned a few times previously).
The Action Sequence is how to handle rounds when they involve multiple heroes or heroes and villains. Rounds have a five-step structure. Following the Action Sequence is Wounds & Dramatic Wounds and how they are caused, avoided and made. Dramatic Wounds have a game effect – they can actually make a hero more competent. Heroes can take wounds for other heroes and wounds never kill a hero, only making them Helpless – although a villain can kill a helpless hero. There is an example of an action sequence, which would appear to have a heavy influence by storytelling – the GM can assign extra dice depending on how well a player describes what their character is going to do.
Dramatic Sequences (the text switches between Dramatic Sequence and Dramatic Scene practically interchangeably) are for sequences that are not a sudden flurry of action. They can be social situations or slow infiltrations for example. They are otherwise very similar to Action Sequences in how they are handled; it’s just using typically different skills over a longer period of game time. There is, just like with the Action Sequence, an example given.
There are Game Master Rules that are a part of Chapter 4. It starts with a warning that players do not need the information in the section and should skip it, then moves on to Brute Squads. Brute Squads are the underlings that Villains use against Heroes. They are simply groups of goons that have only one stat, Strength, although special Brute Squads may have abilities. There is also a sidebar on creating NPC heroes. Villains are the primary foes to Heroes and only have two stats, Strength and Influence. Strength is how dangerous a Villain is in combat essentially and Influence is self-explanatory. Going head-to-head with Villains is, to start with, a losing proposition. Heroes will need to whittle away their powerbase first. Monsters are non-human foes that Heroes can face, and these have special abilities. Game Master Stories are said to be similar to player stories, and can be of different lengths, from a single session to a campaign. There are example stories and suggestions on how to change track. Finally, Corruption is how a Hero can become a Villain – and therefore an NPC – by deliberately doing evil acts.
Chapter 5: Sorcery has system’s different types of magic. There is a sidebar saying that sorcery’s power is too great for characters – but they’ve been given it anyway. And that it is a good way to become a villain. Sorcery, of all types, is pretty dangerous for the user.
The first type of sorcery in Hexenwerk from Eisen, which carries a death penalty in many parts of the country. Hexenwerk has different Unguents to create, Major and Minor, and they can be used to battle undead and monsters. Many of the Unguents are less than pleasant – the Major ones involve mucking around with corpses to collect pieces for use, and sometimes these Unguents need eating. Hexenwerk is one of the darker, less pleasant types of sorcery.
Knights of Avalon is the second type of sorcery. Each knight is an embodiment of one of the twenty knights of King Elilodd, and there can only be one embodiment at a time, limiting the total number of Knights to twenty. The Knights have to follow a code, or risk losing their powers, and there is a description of each of the original Knights. Each Knight gains minor and major Glamours.
Mother’s Touch (Dar Matushki) is Ussuran sorcery and is granted by Marshuka. These are gifts, many of which involve or are related to a number of animals, but there are also restrictions. If a restriction is broken, a character will need to do penance to recover the gift.
Porté is the sorcery of Montaigne and is kept under noble control. It involves cutting bleeding wounds in the world which can be used to transport items. The items need to be marked with blood first; a minor mark can be brought through to the sorcier and the sorcier can travel to the location of a major mark.
Sanderis is the sorcery of Sarmatia and it involves in making deals with dievai. The one making the deal has a specific dievas, and both are out to destroy each other, Major and minor favours can be done by the dievas, and major ones always lead to Corruption. The dievas are divided into different types with examples of what would be major and minor favours for each.
Sorte, or fate magic, is the final type of sorcery and it is only found in Vodacce women. Sorte allows the practitioner to control the fate of others, including blessings and curses. It is considered to be one of the most powerful types of sorcery and, of course, comes with a number of disadvantages, Practitioners may also use something called the sorte deck.
Chapter 6: Duelling has information on the Duelist’s Guild, maneuverers that can be done by any duellist and a variety of different styles, each of which has a bonus.
Chapter 7: Sailing starts with what a sailor is, before moving on to different types; merchants, naval, privateers and pirates. The different members of a ship’s crew, from the captain down to the ordinary seaman are then covered, with a sidebar on a pirate ship’s crew.
The section has a number of superstitions before moving on to ships themselves. There are different types of ships and the history and origin of a specific ship can give it a number of advantages. Similarly, adventures a ship has been on can do the same. Each ship has hits, crew, cargo and wealth and there are rules on battles, which could be with other ships or with sea monsters.
Chapter 8: Secret Societies has the rules on such. There are a number of societies that characters can join and one that is only available to villains (merely attempting to join it will turn a Hero into a Villain). Characters can earn favour for doing actions for a society and in return they can exchange this for benefits. Each society has different interests and different benefits.
Chapter 9: Game Master is the final chapter and begins with some basics on being a GM, such as table rules, spotlighting different characters and the three hats a GM wears, author, storyteller and referee. These hats are gone into more detail next. Author covers scope, such as personal and epic, and the different types of stories that can be played, as well as the plot.
The referee hat section covers rulings, rather than rules, making decisions and consequences. In 7th Sea, Heroes cannot die other than at the hands of a Villain, and death scenes for Heroes should be designed well in advance, essentially during creation. A player decides what their Hero is willing to die for. Action scenes are intended to be action filled, with both players and Referee having to quickly make decisions.
The section on the storyteller act covers telling the stories and there is a section on wrapping things up after a game session to see how it went for the players.
Finally, there is a section on Villains, how to create them, their motives and how to run them.
The Appendix simply has the Index and Advantages List.
7th Sea Core Rulebook (Second Edition) in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but, for the length of the book, the bookmarks could be deeper. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. The Index is reasonably thorough. Navigation is okay, but could be better for the PDF’s size.
The text maintains a two-column full-colour layout and appeared to be free of errors. There are a lot of full colour illustrations, up to two-page spreads at the beginning of each chapter. Presentation is excellent.
A rather odd part of the layout is that some game terms and concepts are referenced before they are even described. So, Hero Points are used mechanically before the reader knows just what they are. Sidebars, internal hyperlinks or even just references to page numbers could have helped with this; a reader new to the system can literally not know what the text is talking about.
7th Sea, despite the use of dice, is a very narrative driven system. Heroes can literally not be killed by anything but Villains. Plus, killing helpless people is a villainous act, so characters who go around slaughtering Villains may become one themselves. This may be a bit odd for players and GMs who are used to more dangerous systems.
The core book contains a lot of setting information. The system appears to be intimately connected to the setting and vice versa. Trying to run it outside the 7th Sea setting is probably not going to work, and the actual game information doesn’t take up much of the book – and a good chunk of that is dependent on the setting. There are supplements for different continents that presumably add new options, but these are likely to be tied to the setting as well. So, anyone who doesn’t like the idea of playing a swashbuckling character in a version of the 17th century is probably not going to enjoy 7th Sea.
7th Sea is a very narrative driven game, with fast action scenes that are enacted in pretty much real time; no stopping around to think things through. The almost total inability to die does make this a lot safer though. This is definitely not going to be a system that appeals to everyone. 7th Sea is for a certain type of game in a certain type of world and it can be found by clicking here.
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