#and during the fights i always try and get the bonuses but he's mowing everyone down so fast i can't get any of them

[silenceoflink]

I love my dad, but GOD is he aggravating to play certain video games with.

[tabletopinfinities]

7th Sea

Swashbuckling and Sorcery Piracy and Exploration Espionage and Intrigue Welcome to the New World

What’s the premise?

7th Sea is a world of swashbuckling fantasy, in a setting that’s very much like our Earth circa the Age of Sail, but filled with sorcery, monsters, and the mysterious ruins of a pre-human civilization. The core book focuses on Théah, the 7th Sea world’s equivalent of Europe, which is currently recovering from a bloody war between the traditional Vaticine Church and the reformist Objectionists and emerging into a new age of nationalism and humanism. Monarchs play games of espionage while secret societies work behind the scenes. Traders sail to the New World in search of exotic treasures and pirates follow in their wake. Some nations are even beginning to experiment with a bold new idea - democracy.

The technology level of Théah is slightly higher than our world’s was at the time, thanks partly to a Vaticine Church that values knowledge and discovery and also partly to ancient Syrneth artifacts that are centuries beyond human science. Sorcery and magic are not uncommon - but are primarily the domain of the nobility. Spirits, monsters, and other beings haunt the wild places, and any given folktale has a chance to be true.

The characters you play are all very explicitly Heroes, doing noble deeds to fight tyrannical Villains. The world of 7th Sea has a lot of problems besieging it right now - the looming specter of the Castillian Inquisition, the depredations of the Atabean Trading Company, the tyranny of l’Empereur du Montaigne, just to name a few. It’s a world on the brink of becoming something wonderful - it just needs a few good heroes to show it the way.

You’d like it if you’re into: The Princess Bride, Pirates of the Carribean, Zorro, The Three Musketeers, Brotherhood of the Wolf, old Errol Flynn movies

Why do you recommend it?

If you’ve ever wanted to swing from chandeliers, plunder treasure, cut feathers off caps with a swish of your rapier, and woo the fair maiden / handsome prince / other attractive individual, 7th Sea is the game for you. Magic and strange technology add a great twist to an otherwise straightforward historical fantasy.

7th Sea, the new 2nd edition in particular, is one of the most inclusive and welcoming mainstream RPGs out there. Women and people of color can be characters of all kinds, and queer, trans, and nonbinary characters are littered throughout the books and accepted within the setting itself. That, plus the emphasis on your character being a capital-H Hero, make 7th Sea an unapologetically wholesome game. It’s lighthearted and silly, while still allowing for serious dramatic moments.

Plus your character practically cannot die, no matter how much you screw up.

What are the rules like?

The core idea of 7th Sea is that you will almost always succeed at what you’re trying to do. You’re a Hero, after all. If you don’t roll well enough, though, your success might not be total. The way they mechanically represent this is very narrative-driven and plays quite differently from the standard RPG.

There’s three kinds of rolls to make in 7th Sea. The most basic, the Risk, is when your character is trying to bypass a simple obstacle. For instance, they might be trying to escape from a burning room. You decide what your character’s Approach to that will be, and what combination of skills and traits to use. In this case, they might use Finesse + Athletics to dodge and and jump over falling beams, or perhaps Brawn + Weaponry to use their axe to hack a hole in the wall, or even Panache + Tempt to bat their eyes at the fleeing henchman and tell him that if he rescues you, you’ll surely owe him a favor. Then you roll a d10 for each point you have in the chosen trait and skill. If you’re using a skill you haven’t used yet this scene, roll another die, and if you take the time to describe your action a little, roll a further die. Each set of dice you can add up to 10 is one success - here called Raises.

All it takes to succeed in the Risk is a single Raise. The catch is: there will always be Consequences and Opportunities associated with the Risk. You’ll need to spend additional Raises to either avoid the Consequences or activate the Opportunities. In this scenario, the consequences might be something like “take 3 damage from fire” - and each Raises you spend towards that will remove 1 damage from that. Or perhaps you’ll need to keep your clothes free of ash so you can sneak into the ballroom after like nothing happened. For Opportunities, it might be something like “grab the important-looking letter on the table before it burns” or “lead the poor henchman along enough that he switches sides.” So success or failure is never just binary - unless you roll really well, you’ll have to make some choices about what the effects of your actions on the story will be.

The two other kinds of rolls work in a very similar way. Action Sequences represent fights, chases, and the like, and Dramatic Sequences are extended challenges like sneaking into the castle or snooping around town to find information on the wicked viscount’s plans. You make your Approach, and then each character gets to spend Raises from their pool to take actions. As before, all you need is a single Raise to do something, but if a Hero and a Villain are trying to contest, whoever spends more Raises on it wins. During Action Sequences, you can spend Raises to do damage - yes, this means anything can be used as an attack skill if you’re creative enough (“I use Wits + Scholarship to whip up a gas grenade and throw it at her!”). Action Sequences can have Consequences and Opportunities just like a Risk can, including Brute Squads, which are the nameless flunkies your hero mows through without a second thought. A single point of damage takes out a single brute, but any brutes left alive get to deal damage at the end of the round. There might also be events that happen at certain points in the Action Sequence once everyone’s down to a certain number of Raises - the storm hits the ship at 4 Raises, and it hits the rocks and starts to sink at 1.

Dramatic Sequences are the same but paced over a more extended period of time, and are more about seeing how far you can get in your task before you run out of Raises. As before, each Raise you spend lets you change the scene in some way - climb over the castle wall, for instance. Next, you might have to spend a Raise to sneak past the guards, then to steal the jailer’s key. If you run out, though, you’ll be unable to change the scene any further - so after you’ve rescued your ally from jail and you hear someone’s footsteps approaching, if you don’t have another Raise left to hide you may just have to fight your way out.

Every character is pretty tough and can take a fair amount of damage before going down. For every 5th point of damage you take (or any time you get hit with a firearm, because those things are nasty), you take a Dramatic Wound. Your first Dramatic Wound actually helps you - just like the hero in an adventure story, you become driven to succeed and get a bonus on all your rolls. For your second Dramatic Wound, the tables start to turn and now all the Villains get a bonus on their roles. For the third, you get an even bigger bonus as your heroic determination kicks in - and then at the fourth, you become helpless. Not dead, just unconscious or incapacitated - it takes an explicit act from the GM to actually kill you.

Finally, there’s Hero Points. These work a bit like an expanded version of Inspiration from D&D 5E, and other similar mechanics. Basically, you can spend them for bonuses to your roll, a bonus to someone else’s roll, to fight on for a round after you’re incapacitated, and a few other things. You can also spend them to activate your Knacks, which are big character abilities with effects like “knock out an entire Brute Squad in one go” or Come Hither, which lets you lure a character into another room and return without them… no rolling required. Everyone gets one Hero Point to start, and you can earn more by acting in accordance with your character. You can also get one at any time by choosing to fail a roll - so if you think the odds are overwhelming, or you just want to see what happens if your character gets captured or can’t stop the villain’s plan from succeeding, you can just say “I fail” and bank up another Hero Point for the challenge ahead.

What’s my character like?

Your character is a Hero. They come from a particular Nation that gives them some bonuses, and they have two Backgrounds that tell you what their professions are/were and give them some bonus skills and Advantages, as well as determining what in-character actions give them Hero Points. They have a Virtue and a Hubris, each based off the Major Arcana of the tarot (or Sorte deck, in this world). The Virtue is a powerful special ability they can activate, and the Hubris is a character flaw that you can get a Hero Point for roleplaying. Beyond that, there are no classes per se - the character is yours to define as you see fit. Advantages are the main way of customizing your character and giving them special abilities.

You can choose to take Advantages join a Swordsman School or take Sorcery from your nation of origin. Swordsman Schools give you the option to do some fancy Maneuvers in combat, which let you hit for lots of damage, parry opponents’ attacks, etc, as well as a unique Maneuver for each school based on its preferred weapons and fighting style. The difference in combat effectiveness between a swordsman and a non-swordsman is huge, so if you’re planning on making a character that excels at combat, swordsman is definitely the way to go. You also get to be a part of the Swordsman’s Guild, who are legally allowed to challenge people to duels.

The Core Rules present character creation options only for the primary Théan nations - if you want to play a character from another culture, you’ll need the appropriate book. (See What books should I get?, below.)

Avalon, seat of the Triple Crown, is a green and enchanted land touched by the Sidhe - elves, faeries, goblins, and other creatures. The Sidhe are sometimes beautiful, sometimes hideous, always inhuman, and frequently downright nasty. Queen Elaine recently ascended to the throne after recovering the Graal, throwing off the yoke of Montaignois conquest and bringing the Sidhe back to our world - but now the Sidhe are starting to encroach on human lands. This is a land of faerie tales, and those don’t always end happily.

The other two nations in the Triple Crown are the Highland Marches, a craggy land of proud clans and chieftains, and Inismore, a land with a fondness for stories, whiskey, and a good bar fight. Neither of these two is necessarily happy about being part of the Triple Crown, and there’s a growing separatist movement looking to break the alliance, no matter how much gunpowder and blood it takes.

Avalon’s Sorcery takes the form of becoming one of the Knights of Ellilodd, each one the embodiment of an ancient knight of legend. In exchange for taking a vow to the Graal to be a righteous protector of justice, you can tap into that knight’s legendary powers. Should you break your vow, you’ll need to atone before you can regain your powers, however.

Castille is a sun-dappled nation with a deeply passionate people. They recently held off a Montaignois invasion at dear cost, only to fall under the yoke of the Inquisition. Cardinal Verdugo controls their young king like a puppet while he conducts a reign of terror across Théah aimed at rooting out anything he deems heresy. Castille is the seat of the Vaticine Church, and its people are often devoutly religious and very highly educated thanks to the nation’s excellent universities.

While Castille has no Sorcery in the Core Rules, Nations of Théah, Volume 1 introduces Alquimia as an option, letting you invent various alchemical and technological marvels and advancing along a path of self-improvement towards a grand goal.

Eisen was the center of the fighting between Vaticine and Objectionist, and it left the land a blood-soaked mudhole full of traumatized survivors, divided between small princedoms, some of which seek to unite the nation under their banner. Worse, something about the concentrated misery has spawned literal Horrors, monsters of all shapes and sizes that roam the land and prey on innocent victims. But the people of Eisen are a grim, determined lot, and the nation’s not ready to give up without a fight.

Eisen’s Sorcery, Hexenwerk, is a particularly gruesome art dedicated to refining potions and unguents from dead bodies - and then consuming them to gain powers to fight undead horrors and other foes. Hexen are often hunted down as grave-robbers, but they do what they have to do to survive and stop the Horrors.

Montaigne is often considered the center of Théan culture, or at least the Montaignoise themselves certainly think so. Their courts set the standard for fashion across the continent, and their nobles throw the most lavish parties. Unfortunately, all of this has been built on the backs of the peasantry, who have been pushed to their limit by harsh taxes and conscription to serve in L’Empereur’s frivolous wars. L’Empereur sits on his grand throne, surrounded by an endless party of gilded nobility, oblivious to the whispers of revolution coming from below.

Montaignois Sorcery is passed down through noble bloodlines, but it’s quite ungenteel. The art of Porté lets you rip bleeding holes in reality and slip through the space between to walk to other places, or to pull objects out of thin air. Just never open your eyes while you’re in-between.

The Sarmatian Commonwealth is actually two lands under a single crown - the cosmopolitan Reczezpospolitans, and the more traditional Curonians, who still venerate the old spirits. Recently, the king, disgusted with gridlock in the houses of parliament, made a proclamation of Golden Liberty. This made everyone in Sarmatia was now a noble with voting power, marking the beginning of a chaotic experiment in democracy. Some Sarmatians seek to lead their country into a populist new era, some try to take advantage of the chaos to seize power, and others, resentful of the new order, plot to depose the aging king.

Sanderis, the Sarmatian Sorcery, is about making deals with devils. Dievai, to be more precise. They’ll do anything you wish, from snuffing a candle up to unleashing a firestorm that destroys an entire city - provided that you are willing to pay their price.

Ussura is a massive, wild country with long winters and sparse civilization. The Ussurans are pragmatic and hardy folk, and highly superstitious with good reason - spirits both good and evil thrive in these lands. The greatest among them, Matushka, watches over the Ussuran people like an overprotective mother, rewarding the just and punishing the wicked. The Czar recently died under suspicious circumstances, leaving the nation divided by two potential successors -  one dedicated to modernization, the other seeking to preserve the old ways.

Ussura’s form of Sorcery, Dar Matushki, are the gifts of Matushka herself - often given as the reward for overcoming painful lessons. Those who fall out of favor with her will earn her wrath, however.

Vestenmannavenjar, another cold northern country, is a land of fierce raiders and warriors who have completely reinvented themselves as a modern nation. In recent years they presented the world with a standard, unified currency - the Guilder - that has come to dominate world trade and finance, all to the benefit of the Vesten, of course. Rather than the High King of olden times, they are ruled by the Vendel League, made up of the heads of all the various trade guilds. Now, rather than conquest and pillage, they extract their plunder from fees and interest. Some Vesten mourn for what used to be, a nation of honor and blood replaced by silver and greed.

Vesten has no Sorcery in the core book, but Nations of Théah, Volume 1 introduces Galdr, a magic derived from runic words of power. Each rune grants strengths tempered with weaknesses, to maintain the balance.

Vodacce is a nation of intrigue, divided up between seven Merchant Princes who constantly scheme against each other. Like Castille, they are devoutly Vaticine, but they have a very unorthodox interpretation of sin, believing that it is better to indulge yourself than let desire fester in your heart.

Vodacce’s magic, Sorte, is the exclusive province of women. The Sorte Strega can manipulate the strands of Fate itself, and can be distinguished by their long black veils, to hide the glazed look they get when manipulating destiny. Too much tugging on the strands risks them lashing back out at you, however, giving you bad luck at the worst times. The men of Vodacce all fear the power of Sorte, and keep the women of Vodacce oppressed and illiterate.

In addition to being from a particular nation, your Hero can also join a secret society. In 1st edition, all of these societies had hidden secrets to them that were presented in their own books. Given that some of the 2nd edition versions differ radically from their older incarnations and the book devoted to secret societies hasn’t come out yet, it’s unknown if those secrets still hold true, or if they hold the keys to different world-shattering truths.

Die Kreuzritter are a former order of crusader knights, since gone underground. They hunt monsters and defend the innocent, using the legendary metal called Dracheneisen, which has great powers against monsters and the supernatural.

The Knights of the Rose and Cross, one of the few secret societies with a significant public face, publicly fight injustice and protect the society’s Patrons. There are rumors of hidden occult secrets only revealed to the initiated.

The Invisible College are a loosely-affiliated band of scholars, artists, scientists, and philosophers who seek to preserve knowledge from those who would destroy it - especially the forces of the Inquisition. They have access to devices on the cutting edge of Théan science.

The Brotherhood of the Coast are pirates who have banded together under a shared code of honor, providing protection to ships that pay them and plundering those that don’t.

Močiutės Skara, “Grandmother’s Shawl,” is in its public face an order of nice old ladies who tend to the victims of disasters and wars, and are welcomed across Théah. In private, however, they seek to prevent wars and achieve peace through any means necessary.

Los Vagobundos are dedicated to upholding the reigns of good monarchs and overthrowing unjust ones. Their leader, the masked man called “El Vagobundo,” can appear many places at once - but unbeknownst to outsiders, it’s always a different member under the mask, channeling the power of the legend.

The Rilasciare are anarchist free thinkers who oppose oppression and tyranny in all its forms, but especially seek to do away with the very concept of monarchy. Some accomplish their goals through pranks and subterfuge, others through bombs and daggers.

Sophia’s Daughters, a small branch of the Rilasciare, are more specifically dedicated to aiding the Fate Witches of Vodacce, spiriting them to safety in other nations, educating them in secret, and making strides towards liberation whenever possible.

What’s the campaign like?

In a game where the characters all play Heroes, there’s a strong focus on defeating Villains. Before you fight them directly, you have to defeat their Schemes, upon which they stake some of their influence. Stop the Scheme, and they lose what they wagered, otherwise, they gain back double their investment. Foil enough Schemes, and they’ll be dramatically weakened for the final confrontation. Thus, most campaigns are focused around a central Villain and their underlings that the Heroes can work their way through.

Each of your characters also has their own separate Stories to pursue, which is how the experience system works. You pick what story your Hero will follow, such as “avenge my father’s death,” figure out what benefit they get at the end of the Story, like “Weaponry 5,” and then figure out how many steps the story will have in the story based on what you want. Although you probably know the beginning step of the story (“find the name of the woman who killed my father”) and what the end will be (“I challenge her to a duel”), you and the GM can work together to figure out the most interesting twists along the way (“Step 3: I discover she was secretly my half-sister”). If you want, there’s nothing stopping you from making the ending a tragic one at the last minute, or even deciding that your Hero should fail so that they can be led into a future Story (“She defeated me into the duel and threw me into the sea - but not before she told me the real reason she killed my father!”) In between these main story points, the GM will also weave in their own side stories and recurring stories, which grant rewards in the same way as you complete them.

Odds are also good your party will get access to a ship at some point, this being a setting with an emphasis on seafaring. Ships have their own abilities based on where they were built and their history, and can gain new abilities as the party completes various types of adventures, like unlockable achievements. Players are encouraged to work with the GM and flesh out the ship’s NPC crew. Of course, the crew will also need to be paid regularly lest they turn mutinous.

What books should I get?

It should be noted that 1st edition and 2nd edition are radically different, both in rules and setting. While the 1st edition books are still useful as inspiration, most of the material in them isn’t canonical any more, and a good chunk of the setting is completely new to 2nd edition anyway. Frustratingly, there’s some characters in both editions that didn’t get described in the 2nd edition books on the grounds that they were already described in 1st edition. If you prefer rules that work like a more traditional RPG, 1st edition is probably more for you (and it also has cross-compatibility with the d20 system in its later supplements). Otherwise, stick to the 2nd edition books. You’ll need a copy of the Core Rulebook, and then the other books describe and provide character creation rules for the other nations and continents not described there.

Nations of Théah, Volumes 1 and 2 flesh out the western and eastern nations respectively, adding some more geographical and historical material as well as some new character rules suited for those nations.

Pirate Nations is very useful for a seafaring campaign, covering the various groups in the Atabean Sea, from pirate republics to native sea-monster hunting Rahuri, a slave colony that cast off its chains, and the villainous Atabean Trading Company. It also includes the Théan nation of Numa, once the cradle of Théan civilization.

The Crescent Empire introduces the Middle Eastern-inspired nations, flourishing under a new Caliph who banished her wicked brother from the throne. These five nations are united as one despite their differences, but loyalists to the old Caliph still plant seeds of dissent for his return.

The New World has the Central/South American continent of Aztlan, once ruled by Old Gods that caused a great cataclysm when they were overthrown that made the land itself shift and change. The Aztlani now venture into this uncharted territory to reclaim what they once had, balancing cultural independence against unifying the continent under one flag, whether by alliance or conquest, while wondering how long they can hold back the greedy Théans eyeing the continent’s treasures.

Lands of Gold and Fire presents the African continent, Ifri, home to several wealthy and highly advanced civilizations. They are under threat both from expansionist Théan powers and the Atabean Trading Company, whose campaign of slavery has empowered an ancient evil in the land.

Several other books are forthcoming for 2nd edition, including one with more information on the secret societies, and The Colonies, which will detail the North American continent. Khitai, the Asian continent, will have its own separate game system (called, appropriately, Khitai), with similar but slightly different rules.

What equipment do I need?

7th Sea uses d10s only, and you’ll want about 6-8 on hand per player, plus a decent stockpile for the GM. Sharing dice isn’t recommended here because it’s easier to keep the dice you rolled in front of you to count Raises during Action Sequences. You’ll also need some method of keeping track of Hero Points - poker chips work well, but you can get creative. Official 7th Sea versions of both are available.

There’s also the Sorte Deck, which makes a great in-universe prop (especially for Fate Witches), although you should note that it differs slightly from real-world tarot decks and has a few arcana cards that aren’t detailed even in the Core Rules. You could use it to guide your characters’ fates, or suggest the next step in their Stories.

Notecards are also helpful for tracking ongoing Stories.