Messageboard Golem
First Post
By Joe G Kushner, Staff Editor and Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack
Written by Nancy Berman, Andrew Getting, John Stringfellow and Erik Yaple
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)
96 b&w pages, $24.95
Sizing up the Target
If you’re looking for something to just drop and play into your standard D20 fantasy campaign without any work, move on. If you’re looking for some interesting ideas and magic schools that don’t follow the standards, or if you’re playing Swashbuckling Adventurers as written, this book may be for you.
One of the most interesting things about spellcasting in this setting is that it’s not like in standard d20 campaigns. You won’t see high level wizards and sorcerers tearing up the landscape with fireballs and meteor swarms.
First Blood
The background provides darker origins to most magical houses, a pact that allows certain families power that resembles spellcasting but is actually genetic in nature, more innate like a standard sorcerers abilities. The book covers not only the remaining four houses, but the ‘Old Ways’ as well. The four houses are as follows:
Porte, is based on teleportation magic more similar to the methodology of the movie Event Horizon where the hole you tear in space is in a dark and disturbing place than standard teleport. It’s an interesting plot hook that gets used in several other books and can act as a plot device for several adventurers if not overused.
El Furego Adentro: Fire Magic. What more need be said.
Sorte: People can manipulate destiny.
Zerstorung: Ever want to be able to destroy weapons and armor or rot flesh? That’s this school.
The old ways include the following types of magic:
Glamour: In the latter half of the Corum Series, Corum’s weapons are powerful because people believe they are. Here, legends can generate the power used in magic. An interesting take on things and provides some perception over reality plot hooks that GMs might be able to use.
Laerdom: Runes that rely on true names.
Pyeryem: animal based shapechanging as a girft from Matushka, an ancient goddess of the Ussura.
Scyring: A power from the Lady of the Lake allows the caster to use water as a medium to breech time and space for visions.
Now the thing you might notice is that most of these powers come from something. They are either passed down through the blood or are gifts of something greater. This is one of the innate differences between this setting and standard ones in that not everyone can be a spellcaster.
No where is this difference more clear than the fact that a player who wishes to have such a spellcasting character must take the feat Half Blooded or Full Blooded. Being a Half Blood allows limited level advancement in a single class. The good news is that you can take Half Blood twice to advance in two different classes. For example, if you’ve got two Half Blood, one for El Fuego and one for Porte, you could advance to 7th level in El Fuego Adentro Mage and 7th level Porte.
Critical Hits
Each family class is listed with information on the type of magic that is used, brief history, the steps in achieving power in the school going from apprentice to master and the game rule information. These mages don’t follow a standard progression and each one is different with different abilities and spells and even hit dice per level. El Fuego Adentro Mages for example, get 1d8 hit dice and get a total number of spells known which increases as they rise in level, but isn’t based on limits. For example, a 10th level character can know 15 spells, the levels of which must be those he can cast, but otherwise don’t matter. Want to know 10 first level and 3 fourth and 2 second? No problem.
The varieties of magic within the book allow a GM to customize magic in a much different way than standard d20 but may not mesh well with the standard rules as anything other than an oddity. For example, while the Laedrom Mages use the Living Runes and get d8 hit dice and simple weapon proficiency, they still probably won’t be able to match a priest for spellcasting or martial power and can’t harness the destructive forces of a mage.
Does this mean that they’re worthless? Not at all. The runes themselves have different effects that range from bonuses to saving throws to throwing lightning not to mention the spells that the caster has access to like Haste, Flesh to Stone and Iron Body.
Other magic types include Shamanism featuring the Thean Druid, a hearty fellow with lots of hit dice and a similar spell progression to other classes in this book, Thean Priest, not the standard militant type but a more clerical version with 1d6 hit dice and simple weapon proficiency with some divine inspired abilities like Bless, Turning ability and Summon Miracle, a spell that les the caster use a cleric spell with a DC check equal to the spell’s level x2 plus 10.
Those wanting something a little more scientific may want to look at the Blood Scientist, a strange type of alchemy that requires test subjects to extract blood from and once subjected to an alchemical process, turn the blood into extracts with special abilities based on the family it was taken from. Another look at science is the Invisible College Inventor with a whole little system to create different scientific items. It’s a nice sub system but could use more examples. Still, it’s nice to see things like a Bicycle given d20 stats with the dreaded Mechanized Drum not too far behind.
As far as game stats, I never picked up the 7th Seas book so I don’t know how much of this material is repeated and how much of it is new. The cover mentions that this is based on previously published material so if you’ve got a vast library of 7th Seas stuff and aren’t interested in the d20 stuff, you might want to quickly page through this book. The d20 stats on the other hand, suffer from specificness.
In the Appendix with the new spells, the spells only have the classes from this book listed under their level. Now Doomgraps is a Zer 7 (Zerstorung family) level spell but what level would that be for a mage? Just a little side note would’ve made this much easier than “In Non-Thean campaigns they may be used by whichever spellcasting class the DM sees fit.” I can already see a player with a Druid wanting Hand of Doom, a spell that does 2d10 points of negative energy and ages the victim 1d6 years by going, “But it’s natures wrath man! Look, the book says whatever class and I say its druid!” Little extra effort next time eh?
The book closes out with Cannons, left out of the core rulebook and put on the web. It’s nice to have the rules for ‘em in printed form though. The last pages are a character sheet and the OGL license.
One thing that’s always stood out with the specific settings is that the books are great as far as art and layout goes. This book doesn’t fail to continue that tradition as we get numerous illustrations of the way magic works here in an attractive two-column layout without as many typos and editing gaffs as struck the core book.
Critical Miss
One thing I’ve never liked about AEG’s L5R and Swashbuckling Adventurers books are the prices. They’ve just come out with a compendium of feats that’s 144 pages and costs the same price. Some companies like Sword & Sorcery Studios and Fantasy Flight Games have hardcovers that cost $24.95. Still, in a case like this where they own the properties, they can charge whatever the fans will bear.
As far as open game content, AEG has a fairly standard listing here. Everything that’s 7th Seas specific, including the names, is PI. However, you can use a special license to use the name in that game effect it appears in like the name of a spell or item. Game mechanics like monster stats and spells are OGC.
Swashbuckling Arcana will get an excellent run in Swashbuckling Adventures campaigns that rely on the magic system found in the core Swashbuckling book. Those using the standard d20 rules may want to experiment and see what fits their world and what doesn’t, as the styles here are different from standard spells in both look and feel.
Coup de Grace
If you’re looking to augment the spellcasting methods in your d20 campaign or running a Swashbuckling Adventures game, this book may be for you.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
Written by Nancy Berman, Andrew Getting, John Stringfellow and Erik Yaple
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)
96 b&w pages, $24.95
Sizing up the Target
If you’re looking for something to just drop and play into your standard D20 fantasy campaign without any work, move on. If you’re looking for some interesting ideas and magic schools that don’t follow the standards, or if you’re playing Swashbuckling Adventurers as written, this book may be for you.
One of the most interesting things about spellcasting in this setting is that it’s not like in standard d20 campaigns. You won’t see high level wizards and sorcerers tearing up the landscape with fireballs and meteor swarms.
First Blood
The background provides darker origins to most magical houses, a pact that allows certain families power that resembles spellcasting but is actually genetic in nature, more innate like a standard sorcerers abilities. The book covers not only the remaining four houses, but the ‘Old Ways’ as well. The four houses are as follows:
Porte, is based on teleportation magic more similar to the methodology of the movie Event Horizon where the hole you tear in space is in a dark and disturbing place than standard teleport. It’s an interesting plot hook that gets used in several other books and can act as a plot device for several adventurers if not overused.
El Furego Adentro: Fire Magic. What more need be said.
Sorte: People can manipulate destiny.
Zerstorung: Ever want to be able to destroy weapons and armor or rot flesh? That’s this school.
The old ways include the following types of magic:
Glamour: In the latter half of the Corum Series, Corum’s weapons are powerful because people believe they are. Here, legends can generate the power used in magic. An interesting take on things and provides some perception over reality plot hooks that GMs might be able to use.
Laerdom: Runes that rely on true names.
Pyeryem: animal based shapechanging as a girft from Matushka, an ancient goddess of the Ussura.
Scyring: A power from the Lady of the Lake allows the caster to use water as a medium to breech time and space for visions.
Now the thing you might notice is that most of these powers come from something. They are either passed down through the blood or are gifts of something greater. This is one of the innate differences between this setting and standard ones in that not everyone can be a spellcaster.
No where is this difference more clear than the fact that a player who wishes to have such a spellcasting character must take the feat Half Blooded or Full Blooded. Being a Half Blood allows limited level advancement in a single class. The good news is that you can take Half Blood twice to advance in two different classes. For example, if you’ve got two Half Blood, one for El Fuego and one for Porte, you could advance to 7th level in El Fuego Adentro Mage and 7th level Porte.
Critical Hits
Each family class is listed with information on the type of magic that is used, brief history, the steps in achieving power in the school going from apprentice to master and the game rule information. These mages don’t follow a standard progression and each one is different with different abilities and spells and even hit dice per level. El Fuego Adentro Mages for example, get 1d8 hit dice and get a total number of spells known which increases as they rise in level, but isn’t based on limits. For example, a 10th level character can know 15 spells, the levels of which must be those he can cast, but otherwise don’t matter. Want to know 10 first level and 3 fourth and 2 second? No problem.
The varieties of magic within the book allow a GM to customize magic in a much different way than standard d20 but may not mesh well with the standard rules as anything other than an oddity. For example, while the Laedrom Mages use the Living Runes and get d8 hit dice and simple weapon proficiency, they still probably won’t be able to match a priest for spellcasting or martial power and can’t harness the destructive forces of a mage.
Does this mean that they’re worthless? Not at all. The runes themselves have different effects that range from bonuses to saving throws to throwing lightning not to mention the spells that the caster has access to like Haste, Flesh to Stone and Iron Body.
Other magic types include Shamanism featuring the Thean Druid, a hearty fellow with lots of hit dice and a similar spell progression to other classes in this book, Thean Priest, not the standard militant type but a more clerical version with 1d6 hit dice and simple weapon proficiency with some divine inspired abilities like Bless, Turning ability and Summon Miracle, a spell that les the caster use a cleric spell with a DC check equal to the spell’s level x2 plus 10.
Those wanting something a little more scientific may want to look at the Blood Scientist, a strange type of alchemy that requires test subjects to extract blood from and once subjected to an alchemical process, turn the blood into extracts with special abilities based on the family it was taken from. Another look at science is the Invisible College Inventor with a whole little system to create different scientific items. It’s a nice sub system but could use more examples. Still, it’s nice to see things like a Bicycle given d20 stats with the dreaded Mechanized Drum not too far behind.
As far as game stats, I never picked up the 7th Seas book so I don’t know how much of this material is repeated and how much of it is new. The cover mentions that this is based on previously published material so if you’ve got a vast library of 7th Seas stuff and aren’t interested in the d20 stuff, you might want to quickly page through this book. The d20 stats on the other hand, suffer from specificness.
In the Appendix with the new spells, the spells only have the classes from this book listed under their level. Now Doomgraps is a Zer 7 (Zerstorung family) level spell but what level would that be for a mage? Just a little side note would’ve made this much easier than “In Non-Thean campaigns they may be used by whichever spellcasting class the DM sees fit.” I can already see a player with a Druid wanting Hand of Doom, a spell that does 2d10 points of negative energy and ages the victim 1d6 years by going, “But it’s natures wrath man! Look, the book says whatever class and I say its druid!” Little extra effort next time eh?
The book closes out with Cannons, left out of the core rulebook and put on the web. It’s nice to have the rules for ‘em in printed form though. The last pages are a character sheet and the OGL license.
One thing that’s always stood out with the specific settings is that the books are great as far as art and layout goes. This book doesn’t fail to continue that tradition as we get numerous illustrations of the way magic works here in an attractive two-column layout without as many typos and editing gaffs as struck the core book.
Critical Miss
One thing I’ve never liked about AEG’s L5R and Swashbuckling Adventurers books are the prices. They’ve just come out with a compendium of feats that’s 144 pages and costs the same price. Some companies like Sword & Sorcery Studios and Fantasy Flight Games have hardcovers that cost $24.95. Still, in a case like this where they own the properties, they can charge whatever the fans will bear.
As far as open game content, AEG has a fairly standard listing here. Everything that’s 7th Seas specific, including the names, is PI. However, you can use a special license to use the name in that game effect it appears in like the name of a spell or item. Game mechanics like monster stats and spells are OGC.
Swashbuckling Arcana will get an excellent run in Swashbuckling Adventures campaigns that rely on the magic system found in the core Swashbuckling book. Those using the standard d20 rules may want to experiment and see what fits their world and what doesn’t, as the styles here are different from standard spells in both look and feel.
Coup de Grace
If you’re looking to augment the spellcasting methods in your d20 campaign or running a Swashbuckling Adventures game, this book may be for you.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.
Last edited by a moderator:
