Nefarious Villains
Precarious Plots
Breathtaking Cliffhangers
All in a day's work

7th Sea is a game of action and high adventure in a world of musketeers, pirates, secret societies and political intrigue. Everything a Game Master needs is included in the pages of this book.

The Théah Sourcebook: Detailed essays and maps on Théah's nations, cultures, secret societies and the Vaticine Church.

Flexible rules: A vast supply of advanced and optional rules including mass combat, boarding actions and ship-to-ship skirmishes. Each rule is presented in a modular format so GMs can use only what they like.

Advice: Tons of hints and tips, dozens of story hooks, how to make the most out of your villains, story-building techniques, writing adventures, running action scenes, and much more!

The indispensible guide for 7th Sea Game Masters.

- From the 7th Sea Game Master's Guide -

The 7th Sea Games Masters Guide is basically the second half of the 7th Sea rulebook. You get all the basics in the Players Guide, but I would recommend you buy both books before running the game as this book is crammed with useful, if not essential stuff. It has been broken down into four major sections and then there’s an appendix at the end. There is also a bit called Points of View at the start of each section. No, its not a naff TV program about pointless people whining, it’s a story set in the 7th Sea world and is great for getting more of a feeling for the game.

The first section is about Theah, which is the land where the game is set. It gives you a description of each major factions homeland, with stuff on the people, the government, the economy and the military. There is also a rundown on the major NPC’s of each nation.

The first section also has information on some of the other factions in 7th Sea. There are details on the “Brotherhood of The Coast”, which is a Pirate group that has recently taken over an old prison island. They have expanded on the Vaticine Church as well. This is the largest religious organisation in Theah and if you are playing 7th Sea in it’s true form the Church will more than likely play a part in your adventures at some point. The last few pages in this section cover the Secret Societies. This builds on the info in the Player’s Guide and is especially useful if any of your players choose to become a member in one of the groups.

The second part of this book is called Villain and is about helping GM’s improve their games and shows them how to make villains into real bad boys.

The information in this section is tailored towards enhancing particular situations in games (like gambling) and if you choose one or two of these at a time you will find that your game will get more detailed. To much of this though and boredom may rule supreme, after all unless everyone is involved in a particular event, drawing it out can get tiresome. Like they say, know your group… pearls of wisdom lie hidden in the pages of RPG’s.

The Villain part helps the GM add that little bit more to his naughty chaps. It basically gives the GM the chance to make a character, albeit an evil one. There is also a Bestiary hanging around near the end of this section. It has the standard short description of what the creature is like and then a bit of info on their in-game stats. Lot’s of good things for hurting player’s real bad in here, not that I condone that sort of thing of course, then again a good maiming never hurt anyone did it?

Drama is the name of the next section. This section is used to give you even more of the optional rules that can be used in your game if a particular situation arises. It has rules covering different types of damage, ship-to-ship combat, poisons and lot’s more. The way they have split off some of the more advanced rules works really well. It helps you build up the game gradually and keeps the number of rules you have to learn to start playing at a minimum.

The final section is called Game Master. This section (shockingly) focuses on the GM and aims to help them run a good game. It does this via the interesting method of explaining the three hats that a GM wears. The first of these is the Author hat and is related to the way a GM has to write stories. The second is the Storyteller hat and is about how a GM has to tell the player’s a story. The final hat is the referee’s hat and is about the GM being a moderator and making sure that the game remains fun and fair. The breakdown of each of these includes information on everything from different game types to dealing with character death.

The one thing I’m not to sure about is the date on the front cover of these books either. It suggests that Alderac are going to re-release the game at some point with a few changes to the games storyline. They advanced the Legend of The Five Rings storyline recently and it received mixed views from our gaming group, sadly with more people against, than for the changes.

Overview time comes around again. This is the most essential book you’ll need outside of the Player’s Guide when it comes to running the game. It is well written and laid out in a fashion so logical that even Spock would be proud. The way the rules have been designed in a “use them if you want” style does nothing but good for the game. It allows you to introduce new rules if you like them and because it’s up to you if you use them or not it helps stop rule-mongering players quoting page numbers at you.

If this is the only book you buy after the Player’s Guide, then you’ll miss out on loads of great books, but at least you’ll have picked the best of the rest. Definitely a worthy addition to the world of 7th Sea.

Reviewed By Jon Simpson