A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement 7th Sea: Pirate Nations

7th Sea: Pirate Nations is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. (originally published by John Wick Presents) for use with 7th Sea Second Edition. This is a regional supplement that describes a new area with new character options.

The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG for $19.99 although it was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. There are four PDFs in the supplement; a high-resolution PDF, a low-resolution PDF, a single page ship PDF and a PDF of maps. The supplement is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and has 210 pages. Two pages are the front and rear covers, two are front matter, one the Table of Contents and one the Index and Advantage List. The ship PDF duplicates the ship sheet from the main book and the maps PDF is four pages long and has maps of two different areas, Numa and the Atabean Sea, La Bucca and characters’ map of the Atabean.

Revenge & the Crow is a piece of fiction set within the Pirate Nations.

The Introduction explains that the Pirate Nations value freedom, especially from imperial rulers. The Crescent Empire, Castillian Empire and Montaigne Empires have all had an influence, as has the Atabean Trade Company. It gives an overview of the nations and the magic of the Atabean Sea and a sidebar explains that the pirates are the swashbuckling kind rather than the historical villains.

Chapter 1: Ports of Call starts with overviews of the different nations before moving on to Numa itself. It gives an overview of the current situation, the recent revolution when foreign powers were driven out, people, society, culture and clothing and the concept of Keos, or reputation. There is a method of training warriors called agoge, arts and music, names and the religion, with the different deities detailed. Government is next; Numa lacks a central government, being a collection of different city-states, which may have different methods of rule. There is a leftover bureaucracy from the Crescent Empire and Numa itself has a lot of democracy. Economy and currency are next, because Numa still mints its own coins, followed by details on some town and villages. The Numanari military is next and the country’s relationship with other lands, and notes in playing a Numanari Hero. There are four Numanari notables; unlike most other, published later, 7th Sea Second Edition books, these do not have a page to each one and lack stats. A number of locations are then covered.

It’s finally – and this has not been clear in other supplements – possible to determine just what Numa is based on. In the core book, the references to Numa and Vodacce have been confusing. Numa is the Old Empire, and yet Vodacce was clearly imperial. Vodacce is based in Italy, and therefore its empire was Rome, but Numa also came across in a similar way. There’s enough material now to identify Numa as Greece.

La Bucca starts by giving a history of this prison island, how it was discovered by a cardinal, who learned how to control its monster, and used as a prison until the inhabitants rebelled and managed to make the rebellion stick. It then covers La Bucca today and its current government, including its intended democratic elections and the current ruler. details are given on the Chapters, important groups that run the various parts of the island’s government, La Bucca’s market and the availability of illegal goods, plus privateers who are issued letters of marque by other nations. La Bucca then has a map and various points of interest are described. After this, notable NPCs are covered; again, unlike most 7th Sea supplements, these do not have a page each and lack stats.

The Atabean Sea gives a history of the sea, from the arrival of the Rahuri from the lands of Aztlan to the arrival of the Théans, the forging of agreements and then the arrival of the Atabean Trading Company which is taking control of the region. The Rahuri, the people who live in the region are covered next, with their territory, society, politics and notable NPCs. There is a section on monsters in the Atabean Sea, together with two described creatures, places of importance and Théan colonies in the region.

Aragosta: The Republic of Pirates is another power in the Atabean Sea and it starts by giving the history of how this quite literally pirate nation came to be formed. It covers its currency, which can be unusual as it depends heavily on loot, religion, government, the King, currently Queen, of the Pirates and how two of the first Captains betrayed the nation. How to join the republic and some notable NPCs, both captains and locals, follow, then notable locations on Aragosta itself. Aragosta is also well located for the secret societies to have representatives. Finally, there are some antagonists and some details on the Devil Jonah.

Jaragua is an island that was formerly in the possession of the Atabean Trading Company, who got a lot of wealth from it until the slaves revolted and threw the Company off the island. The Jaraguans come from different cultures, though predominately Ifri and Rahuri, and the new country’s art, music, clothing, currency, government and current relations are covered. The country has been greatly affected by the ATC, including in its religion. Various important NPCs are then detailed together with some important locations.

Atabean Trading Co. starts with an in-character letter from the Company’s founder to its shareholders. It then gives the Company’s philosophy – basically, make money no matter what – and the various operations it is involved in; goods, shipping, exploration, evangelism, slaves and the post. Only the latter is palatable. The most important NPCs of the Company are then covered, together with international relations, Fort Freedom and the points of interest on the island, along with crime and the influence that secret societies have.

Chapter 2: A Pirate’s Life starts with the steps required to create Heroes. The process is the same as in the core book, but there are new options; backgrounds, skills, advantages, arcana, stories and secret societies.

Pirate Sorceries has the new ones for the different nations. Charter Magic is from Aragosta and is one of the simpler ones; characters gain a blessing and can end up with a curse if they break the charter. Kap Sèvi is primarily Jaraguan and is based around Lwa, who are invited to take residence in a character temporarily. There are a number of example Lwa described, with their attitudes and the powers they grant. Mystírios is from Numa and are associated with different gods, with some given. Mohwoo is a sorcery based on tattoos that comes from Khitai but is found in Aragosta.

Swords, Ships & Secrets starts with foreign duellists before moving onto three new duelling styles. Ship History adds new histories to the ones in the core book, followed by new backgrounds and new adventures.

Secret Societies has two new secret societies to encounter, one originally from Vodacce and the other Rahuri, with the benefits of joining them.

Pirate Charters covers the pirate code and the different variations of this, along with letters of marque. There are examples of pirate lingo and a sidebar on Robert Newton and how his portrayal of Long John Silver defined the way people expect pirates to speak (though there is an error in the sidebar; it refers to Newton’s West Country Welsh accent, and the West Country is not in Wales, nor was he Welsh), together with a list of pirate lingo.

Sea Monsters gives details on a number of new monsters, plus new monstrous qualities.

Nautical Campaigns has some suggestions for running such and how not to make them boring, because a long voyage on a ship is boring, especially without any means of entertainment. There are ways of making NPC crew more interesting, so that the characters remember them, followed by details on how navies operate differently to pirates and an overview of the Théan navies. There are ways of telling the sea story, dealing with a lack of knowledge of ships, the role of the Atabean Trading Company as a major villain, types of campaign and adventure hooks.

The Appendix duplicates three of the maps, missing out the characters’ map, from the PDF and has a ship sheet.

7th Sea: Pirate Nations in Review

The PDF has major and minor sections bookmarked, but not subsections. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. The Index covers a range of topics and the Advantage List covers those. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are many colour illustrations, up to two pages in size, all of which appear to be custom. Presentation is very good.

The book describes a number of nations, varying in size but none as large as those in other supplements. The nations are also not in one place, and maps from other supplements are really needed to place. The map from Lands of Gold and Fire has Numa and La Bucca marked on it and the map from The New World has the Atabean Sea. Though there isn’t a map showing how the New World relates to the rest of the world. Rather than the nations have a generally coherent feel, they are a bit over the place, which is only to be expected, given they are in different parts of the world with different origins.

This was the first regional sourcebook published for the Second Edition and feels a bit different in how it’s laid out to others. There are less chapters, for one thing, and far more Heroes and Villains, all described in more detail but without any stats. It does introduce new game options but, as the core rulebook is needed to play, doesn’t duplicate material from it, which leaves more space for describing the world but means that you can’t create a character without the core book. The supplement does introduce new options and new places but is, in some respects, literally all over the place, with locations near to the New World and others between Ifri and Théah. The Atabean Sea is the major area, given the number of locations described, but it isn’t the only one and probably wasn’t large enough to stand alone. 7th Sea: Pirate Nations is a bit of a strange supplement that will perhaps work better with others and it can be found by clicking here.