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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e
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...
Ok, so it's not that I misplaced it... I'l try to ask about it next monday in the Ks...
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!
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.
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?