From: owner-gm7thsea@darkedge.com on behalf of Eric G. Silveira [esilv@ainet.com] Sent: Saturday, October 09, 1999 8:45 AM To: gm7thsea@darkedge.com Subject: Re: [7th Sea RPG GM] Crow's Nest #0 (long) Greetings All! Well, having read through Crow's Nest #0 I thought I'd offer some comments....Seeing as this is the GM's list, I don't think spoiler space is needed so here goes... Two new secret societies are briefly examined on page 3. The first is "Sophia's Daughters". Described as "more than just a women's cult hoping to bring equal rights to Theah's "fairer sex". They are a veiled politcal machine, manuevering Theah's men in directions they could never hope to perceive" The write up is not terribly detailed, but this group is credited with placing Ketheryna in Ussura and uses Porte, Sorte, and Gamour as tools to accomplish their goals. They also possesss one the most accurate histories of the world, in the form of detailed diaries kept by every member, and share this library with the Rilasciare on occassion. This is basically a larger, all female version of NOM....Pulling the strings of men everywhere, unperceptable and unknown by the men of Theah. I won't be using them in my game for a couple of reasons. One is that any organization that has every member keep a detailed journal and collects these into libraries is going to be found out. Putting everything down on paper is not the best way to keep a secret. Two, it's kind of odd to me that the Rilisciare and these women work together. The Rils work against all authority and the Daughters have established their own secret authority. Three, why have them? Women in Theah are already acknowlegded as having a better place in society than in Europe. And they seem too 20th century. An iffy prospect and I'm glad that they weren't in the main rulebooks. The second society is The Vendel League. Not really a secret society, the writeup just establishes the goals and character of the League a little more firmly - "It is a very vocal, public agency with a very public agenda; the complete and utter control of Theah's economy". To me this write up has many more campaign possibilities than the Daughters. First off, there will be a war. No way that a group can publically proclaim that they *will* do whatever is necessary to control all trade everywhere is going to be unoposed. The Voddace will find ample cause to put their own bickering and machinations to the side to deal with this. And I don't think that Leon Alexandre is going to be too keen on the Vendel controlling *his* economy. So a good war is brewing. And if you though that the Wars of the Cross were bad, wait til everyone starts fighting over money!!! There's nothing really about the League that we didn't already know; things are more sharply defined though. Next of interest would be The Islanders of Kanuba. A neat little write up of a tropical island discovered in 1665. By whom? Well by "Eisen and Avalon settlers". Hmmmm....Settlers wouldn't very well be going to an island that hadn't been discovered yet, so they must have been on the way to somewhere else! Huzzah! A shred of evidence supporting colonizing efforts prior to 1668... There is a section on having the Kanuba as a PC race that's nifty. It's a bit sparse on detail, but the Kanube characters seem playable and comparable to existing nations. Their sorcery is interesting and a neat idea. Kanuba sorcerors, opahkung in the native tongue, are able to tap into and bring forth an objects innate "kharma" (my word, not theirs). Every object has opah, either nal(curse) or lan(blessings). The sorcery is passive as compared to the others in the game. As an opahkung uses her weapons, the natural nal or lan is brought to the fore. This can, after a time, give the weapon special powers. Disprupting other sorceries, additional points of damage, resistance to breaking, improved accuracy, and extra drama dice. In the case of lan(blessings) the drama dice go to the player, in the case of nal(curse) the GM gets them... Lan or nal is based upon hits and misses. Every five hits you score with a weapon gets you one lan point. Every five misses, one nal point. Drama dice adjustments kick in when a weapon has a 100 rating in lan or nal. Since lan and nal can cancel each other out, it could take quite a while for this level to be acheived... Considering that Opah sorcery costs only 10 points, it seems fairly well balanced and unique. It's not something that will come to the fore right away, but it is something that has it's own special flavor and game effects. Finally, brief information is given on the creation myth and geography of the Kanuba. For a three page write up, this is a very exciting addition to the game. Confirmation of cultures outside of Theah, a treatment that allows for them to be added immediatley to current campaigns, and a unique and flavorful sorcery make this section the best in the issue.... Following the section on the Kanube is a one page story by Kevin WIlson about a Kanuba named Ngali the Gun. The main thing I found of interest was the last line in the description of Ngali - "...and dark, rich skin, like the bitter chocolate occassionally imported from the tropics." Another clear indication that there are colonies out there, and that they will be acknowledged as the source material for the game expands. Not a major revelation, but notable for it's inclusion and the thing I most remember from the story... The rest of the issue has two small pieces about the Sea Dogs and Crimson Roger decks for No Quarter. Neat and interesting if you play the CCG. I myself have an aversion to reading deck building articles. Goes back to when I used to play Magic...*shiver* I'm sure that others will add there insights and opinions on issue #0 and I look forward to reading those...I'd sum up my reaction to the issue thusly - "New 7th Sea material!!! Woohoo!!!" Kind of like the scene in "The Jerk" when the new phone book arrives. There's nothing really stupendous, but by golly! It's new campaign material... Anyhow, as a firend of mine says - Cool beans! Eric (Ack! It's 6am???) --- To unsubscribe, send a message to "majordomo@darkedge.com" and put "unsubscribe gm7thsea (or gm7thsea-digest)" in the body of the message. Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by ALDERAC ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.