Product Review
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 you'll
really need both books to run the game. This book is
crammed with useful, if not essential stuff, which has
been broken down into four major sections with 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.
Definitely a worthy addition to the
world of 7th Sea.
Reviewed By Jon Simpson |
