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Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
So you just got your 1st ed pdfs...

And you are wondering what to read or focus on.

Obviously the Player's Guide will give you the best overview.  Surprisingly, most of the GM guide can wait but do read the section toward the back on the Three Hats of the GM.  John boiled down the essence of what it takes to really run a great game in this setting.

IF YOU PLAN ON PLAYING AND NOT RUNNING DO NOT, I REPEAT NOT, READ ANY SOURCEBOOK GM SECTIONS AND CHARACTER SECRETS IN THE BACK OF THE SOURCEBOOKS.

-Pirate Nations gives you some insight on Pirate crews but is mostly about several famous crews. a handful of very cool syrneth artifacts and a great sword school (rogers)

-Montaigne offers a social tracking system for reputation at court.

-Rose and Cross is probably the heart of John's efforts.  Read it, adopt it and live it.

-Die Kruezritter will show you what the old guard keeps talking about when they mention aliens and sci-fi aspects.  but there is a solid core in that book so do not disregard it. 

-Ussura will have you considering a completely contained campaign ignoring the rest of the continent.

-Freiburg is a really complete city campaign with plenty to do and could occupy your group for many sessions.  One of the better city set ups in RPGs.

-Islands of Gold covers those caribbean islands you thought were going to be in Pirate Nations.  they are hit and miss with most players.  You will find a few you like and some you hate.  (the little story in the front about the Comptesse du Bete is based on an ex-girlfriend's character.  Dana killed her off as a favor to me) 

-Montaigne Revolution updates all the storylines and can wait until you absorb the other core books.

-Swordsman's Guild is great for you stat people that just want more combat schools but less for you fluff people. 

-Church of the Prophets covers ALL the religious factions in the game and gives you some insight into the differences.  Don't overlook it. it has some great info.

-Rilasciare gave us the big reveal on the origins of the bargained sorceries.  And proved them more than bomb chucking anarchists.

-Rapier's Edge was written without the team knowing it was the last book.  We thought we were going to the new world next and did the adventure tags in the back as a way to hold people over for a couple of releases.  If you want to use the LARP characters in your second ed tabletop games, convert stats as follows:

Trait or skill

Rank 1 = 1-2 pips on tabletop character

Rank 2 = 3-4 pips tabletop

rank 3 = 5 pips

Most of the advantages were converted to simple add a point or two so let them add a die to a risk when applicable.

The 4 and 20 blackbird adventure in Rapier's Edge was a direct play on using the format from the tv show "24".  We had planned on trying to run it in 24 hours real time with rotating GMs.  This version is stripped down in scope and will not take that long to play. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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True Iskander
True Iskander's picture

Does anyone know of a resource that lists what year each book came out?  I know the books built on each other's histories, so I'm trying to read through them in chronological order.

Joachim Deneuve...
Joachim Deneuve du Surlign's picture

Wikipedia?

Yes.  Looking here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Sea_(role-playing_game)

It isn't explicitly in the article, but looking through the list makes me think that they are listed in chronoogical order there.

True Iskander
True Iskander's picture

I did check that, yeah.  It breaks it down by category, but I was hoping for a timeline that grouped everything together.  But I can also check the copyright year in the PDFs themselves, so it might not be that big of a deal.

Star West
Star West's picture

All of the "Reddish/Purplish" and Nation Books were released first, beginning with the Player's Guide, GM's Guide, and the Erebus Cross adventures. Somewhere in there the Compendium and Villains Kit was added, and then it gets a bit muddy for my memory. I'm pretty sure the Nation Books and Secret Society books were released interwtined together, and I can say with confidence that Pirate Nations was the first of them. While the "goings on" are intertwined, they plot during all of these books sits well on 1668/pre-Montaigne Revolution, which is what really matters.

Then came the blue books (inlcuded the adventure Tangled Strands.) The Blue Books on the wiki are listed in publication order. Waves of Blood capped off the 1668 stuff (and closed out the CCG,) and then The Montaigne Revolution kicked off 1669. The publication of these two books is what really matters, as everything published afterwards was impacted by them.

The Swashbuckling Adventure books came last and are also listed in publication order on the wiki page.

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
You can consider all nation and secret society books to represent 1668. Church of the Prophets, waves of Blood, Freiburg, and Montaigne revolution are the end of 1668 and 1669. As are most of the rest. Rapier's Edge is the end of 1669 leading into 1670. The only real plotline issues you have are Montaigne revolution, waves of Blood and Rapier's Edge. The rest isn't all that major.
Cthulhu Netobvious
Cthulhu Netobvious's picture
I think some of these responses may need to migrate to light entertainment and games for the era.

TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e

Alfredo Tarancón
Alfredo Tarancón's picture

Quick, and maybe, silly question... the Gamemaster screen from first edition hasn't been released yet, right? I was thinking about giving a look to The Lady's Favor, and can't find neither in drivetrhurpg...

True Iskander
True Iskander's picture
I believe I did get the screen, and I definitely got The Lady's Favor. You may want to double-check.
Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Don't believe it has. That was a nice series of adventures to give you a taste of the setting. Quick globetrotter to see all the key points and power people.
Alfredo Tarancón
Alfredo Tarancón's picture

Ok, so it's not that I misplaced it... I'l try to ask about it next monday in the Ks... 

DaWaterRat
DaWaterRat's picture
I have a digital copy of the GM's screen with a download date of June 2nd, 2016 (which is when I finally got around to downloading them all) As, with the exception of a few Talk Like a Pirate promotions, I didn't have any of the 7th Sea PDF's (having physical copies of nearly the whole run), I had to have gotten it as part of the Backer rewards.
Alfredo Tarancón
Alfredo Tarancón's picture

Ok, found it.I went back and checked the order in Drivetrhurpg and there it was, not sure why I didn't have it already. I searched in drivetrurpg for the screen, but it didn't appear in the search results, don't know why...hence my confusion...


Thanks!

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
OK, fun fact. The Comptesse of Lil du Bête that appears in the story at the front of Islands of Gold was a character from my old campaign. Dana Devries used it to prove to some guy on a forum that he was the actual writer and not some troll. He also killed that character off in the story because he had found out it belonged to my ex girlfriend. (That island is in the second adventure. The sorcery there was also the cause of the first player character death in the Crimson Valor living campaign.
Star West
Star West's picture

 Dana Devries used it to prove to some guy on a forum that he was the actual writer and not some troll.

That is amazing! How is Dana these days? I haven't seen him poking around any of the forums or anything 2nd Ed related at all.

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Haven't stayed in touch myself. He settled into Gencon when I settled in at Origins.
True Iskander
True Iskander's picture

Since late March I've been on a quest to read everything related to 1e.  I've made pretty good progress and only have 5 or 6 books left before I get to the Swashbuckling Adventure series.

I've definitely noticed the supplements getting more and more out there on the canon elements - It sounds like Sophia's Daughters has become a pretty infamous example.  Still, I figure reading those supplements is still helpful to build the world and pick up some story hooks I can probably modify as needed.

My question: Multiple people told me to not even bother reading the core SA book, it simply rehashes the setting and doesn't provide any new fluff or worthwhile rules.  Are there any other SA supplements that you would recommend just avoiding entirely?  Where it's so far from the source material that ignoring it is really the best option?

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Ok, there are SA books and there are SA/1st Ed sourcebooks. The 3 core books for swashbuckling adventures just convert everything to d20 and give you a quick synopsis of all the original material you have been reading. After this released, all the sourcebooks got tagged with "swashbuckling adventures" covers. But Islands of Gold, Sidhe book of nightmares and Rapier's Edge are all firmly 1st Ed books with extra stats added on. Stronghold and Hideouts had a little bit more for the d20 crowd but still is useful for some advantages and plot ideas. Knights and Musketeers was a lot of rehashing with a few useful skills. Ships and seabattles tried to make a better use of ship combat and had a good bit of info for travel and cargo. So outside of the 3 corebook all are worth a read.
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