John Wick has come a long way.
by Les Simpson
After breaking into the gaming industry by writing an infamous Shadis article in defense of diceless roleplaying, the Minnesota native went to work at Alderac Entertainment Group as the story coordinator/compiler for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. That quickly led to the design and development of the popular L5R RPG. Now, along with his wife, Jennifer, and the rest of the AEG crew, he is getting ready to set sail with a new RPG. Pyramid caught up with the man himself to discover more about 7th Sea.
John, when movie concepts are being pitched around, for better or worse, they're often described in familiar terms, like "Die Hard on a bus" or "Men In Black in the old west." Is it possible to describe 7th Sea in that fashion?
Actually, it is. The best way to describe it is "swashbuckling and sorcery." 7th Sea is going to do for 18th century Europe what L5R did for feudal Japan. We want people to be familiar with the world at first glance and then be amazed how different the details are. We've focused on the best things about each European nation during this time period and have summoned those different images up, giving them different names but keeping the emotions behind them.
There hasn't been a swashbuckling game on the market in quite a while. What led you to try and bring the genre back?
It all stemmed from us thinking about what we were going to do next here at AEG. I was having dinner with my wife one night and . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 19, 1999
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