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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009307" data-attributes="member: 172">Swashbuckling Adventures7th Sea was a game by AEG meant to emulate romanticized swashbuckling heroism as portrayed in many films and literature. The game was set in a close analog of renaissance era earth called Theah. After the coming of the d20 Rokugan setting, AEG announced that it would create a conversion of its 7th Sea game, but not exactly in the same vein as Rokugan. The result, Swashbuckling Adventures does provide the basic material you need to run a d20 system game in Theah, but is also intended in large part as a general "swashbuckling" sourcebook.The difference in approach is understandable. There already exists a genre sourcebook for Asian-style fantasy, Oriental Adventures; Rokugan is built on this book. However, there is no equivalent book for "Swashbuckling" type fantasy, so AEG had to start from the ground up.A First LookSwashbuckling Adventures is a 256 page book priced at $34.95The interior text is dense, with a small body text font and an appropriately sized header font. Unfortunately, there are many noticeable editorial gaffes, including homonym confusion (e.g., using "role" instead of "roll", and using "effect" as a verb), mismatches between text and tables, references to skills or feats that don't exist in the d20 system or this book, and omitted ability explanations. The interior uses brown ink for borders, header text, and artwork. Some art is good, but most of it is only passable.A Deeper LookIn large part, Swashbuckling Adventures is intended to adapt the 7th Sea campaign world, Theah, to the d20 system. The world of Theah is very strongly based around Earth (and thence, primarily Europe) in the 17th century. For example, there are close analogs of England, France, Spain, and Italy amongst the described nations. This is probably in an effort to emulate the feel of many tales of swashbuckling heroism that are the game's inspiration. Even so, I am ill at ease with settings that are merely re-warmed historical Earth.However, the book is very "crunchy" and may be of good use to you if your campaign has any renaissance feel at all, and the book does not outright assume that you will be using it to play a d20 Theah game. Some minor parts are Theah specific. The first chapter introduces a number of nationalities. All characters in a Theah are human, but the nationalities tweak the human baseline by exchanging 2 of the bonus human skill points for 2 automatic class skills appropriate to the flavor of the nation.To the end of recreating a lower magic swashbuckling feel to the game, Swashbuckling Adventures introduces three core d20 characters classes reworked to fit Theah game and 11 entirely new core classes.The revised classes include the Thean Bard, Thean Paladin, and the Thean Ranger. These classes retain most of the abilities and characteristics of the core d20 version of the classes. However, they receive other special abilities in place of spellcasting abilities. For example, the Thean Bard receives an Iron Glare abilities that can cause opponents to lose actions in combat.The new classes are:- Alchemist: The alchemist can craft elixirs that are similar to potions, and can eventually brew potions without having access to the attendant spells. - Assassin: The assassin is very similar to the rogue, except with fewer skills and some other class abilities. The assassin receives a powerful "ambush attack" ability that improves the critical threat range and multiplier of a small blade, which to me seems all too redundant with sneak attack. Further, the assassin has an ability with the unfortunate "can automatically take 20 on a skill check" convention. Those who are familiar with the d20 system rules should know that "take 20" is merely shorthand for retying until successful; abilities that allow you to "automatically take 20" are nonsensical. Essentially, what the ability is actually doing is giving the character the rogue's skill mastery ability with an additional +10 to the skill check thrown in!- Courtier: The courtier here is very similar to the courtier in the Rokugan campaign setting. The courtier is a weak combatant, but receives many class abilities that allow them to maximize their skill use in social situations.- Highwayman: The highwayman is a very specialized class, a bandit in a time where firearms are the norm. The class receives abilities that make them very good at handling pistols, but there are otherwise similar to rogues with impugned skill points.- Inquisitor: The inquisitor is a religious character trained in rooting out heretics and striking at enemies of their faith. The have modest combat abilities and paltry skill points, but a menagerie of class abilities that aid in the pursuit of their duties.- Musketeer: As the name should imply, the musketeer is a principled warrior in service to a monarch. They are very similar to fighters, but receive some other abilities at low level to help them fit the mold of duelist better.- Noble: The noble class is a pc-caliber class representing the ruling elite of a nation. Nobles are modest combatants, and have class abilities centered on their leadership traits and social position.- Pirate: Another very specialized class, the pirate is your typical seafaring bandit. Pirates are good fighters, but gain extra skill points at odd intervals, and learn a variety of tactics appropriate to such ruffians.- Spy: Spies are masters of courtly intrigue. They basically resemble rogues with class abilities that give them a slightly stronger social bent.- Swashbuckler: Another very fighter-like class, the swashbuckler is slightly tuned towards the type of finesse appropriate to swashbuckling campaigns.- Wanderer: The wanderer is a rootless traveler with a variety of vocational and trade-oriented abilities.- Witch: The witch is a low powered spellcaster, on the order of the adept. The witch only has 6 levels of spells. Witches initially prepare spells as a wizard, but as they gain experience, they gain a number of innate spells that they do not have to prepare.With the exception of the assassin, I thought the mechanical implementation of these classes was fairly good. That said, I find that most of them were too narrow to be justified as core classes and many of them struck me as redundant. For example, the courtier struck me as way too close to the noble, and the musketeer seems merely a swashbuckler "in the king's service."In addition to the new core classes, Swashbuckling Adventures includes a bevy of new prestige classes. Many of these prestige classes encompass specialized fighting styles, though some represent members of secret societies or other positions on high regard.Most of the fighting styles are short (5 level or less) prestige classes. Many of them are concerned with fencing weapons common to the subgenre emulated by the book, but a fair number represent master of other weapons such as axes or greatswords. Overall, the fighting style prestige classes provide a great resource for those looking to add a bit more distinctiveness to fighting styles in their game.A few of the prestige classes are unabashedly overpowered, with things such as attack progressions in excess of +1 per level. Though the book does warn you about this, I feel as if this was not the right way to handle these classes. If a character is a member of a society that grants them such great power, it is best to represent that power with actual levels, not create classes which circumvent the balance of the level system.Just as there is a large selection of prestige classes, there are many feats. Though my impression of the prestige classes is positive, the feats strike me as more of a mixed batch. First off, the feats chapter is probably the biggest victim of the editorial oversights - there are frequent references to skills and feats that do no exist, and wording that does not make sense given the context and prerequisites of the feat. Many of the feats seem to have abilities that are too arbitrary or all encompassing. The book even reused the name "lightning reflexes" for one of the feats.I found the "class skill expander" feats interesting. Each of these feats has 4 ranks in a particular skill as a prerequisite. The feat grants the character a variety of related skills as class skills. For example, the herbalist feat requires 4 ranks of wilderness lore, but grants wilderness lore, heal, alchemy, and knowledge (nature) as class skills.In addition to the fairly normal types of feats, the book introduces an interesting and melodramatic spin on the feat, called arcana. Only good and evil characters can select arcane, and some arcana grant an extra arcana feat instead of using a feat. These are called hubris or flaws, depending on whether the character is good or evil. On the whole, the idea seems interesting and useful, but it seems as if some information is missing on how to use hubris or flaw feats in the game.In addition to the many character options, the book provides some new equipment (including firearms) and magic items for use in Theah, as well as optional rules that you may wish to use in a swashbuckling game. The advanced rules include rules for bombs, called shots and specific injuries, mass combat, and ship-to-ship combat. The mass combat and ship-to-ship combat rules are comparable to other such rules on the market. While usable and seemingly well thought out, only a few pages are devoted to each topic, and you won't get as much mileage out of these rules as other d20 system rules dedicated to these topics.ConclusionI have never been a big fan of Theah in the first place, so I will leave the judgement as to how good an adaptation this is to more informed reviewers. However, I would have trouble seeing using this book as-is for the basis of a game. The core classes strike me as too close too one another, and many of the classes and feats are rendered unusable by editorial gaffes unless the GM cares to guess what the author meant and make the needed adjustments.However, I do think that there are some good possibilities for this book. Many classes and feats are well conceived, and could be used in a number of games with an emphasis on swashbuckling or stylistic combat. The modified classes would make good alternatives in a low magic game, and the various style prestige classes would do well to add flavor to any campaign.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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