7th Sea and other magical piratey things question

[Ninjaguiden]

Halfway through the latest episode and I was just wondering what Kevin meant saying he made a "crippled" character? Did he spread his focus too much between the porte magic and the sword skills?

[Sabwones]

Ninja: I think that's what he meant. If I recall correctly 1st Edition had a lot of potential for less seasoned players to wind up creating characters who had a lot of skills, but couldn't maximise their usefulness. 2nd Ed boiled that all down significantly.

Your dad is baller as hell, man. What was it like keeping a hawk, by chance? I can only imagine how difficult that would be.

She was very interesting. We had access to a lot of open farmland that a friend owned, so we got to work with the glove and lure, although I was scared shitless pretty much 90% of the time.

I much preferred the pig. Even when he very nearly ate my little brother.

Ah, good times.

[UnitOmega]

Yeah, in the original 7th Sea, it's a pure point-buy game, and buying both a Swordsman School and a full-powered Sorcery is very expensive point-wise, without even getting into special advantages (like Kevin's sword), buying up your stats and other things. It's not-helped that the way "skills" and knacks work is also a little convoluted - but it basically means that while he's really badass and cool, it's a huge bitch in points for Kevin's character to both diversify into non-Swordsman or Sorcery related things and also improve both of those qualities.

2E is a lot more forgiving in that regard, you could be a Duelist who is also a sorcerer and could even have an additional background/history on top of that, and be even more spread out, and still be pretty good - but its much more narrative focused and less mechanically fiddly so it's not as big of a deal anyway.

[QueenAelin]

Yes. this is why if you look at Chesca's sheet? She has tons of skills that are never used but were useful enough that they COULD have come up? I didn't even buy a sword school and felt strained dumping everything into Sorte

[QueenAelin]

talk like a pirate day

[Kevin]

Halfway through the latest episode and I was just wondering what Kevin meant saying he made a "crippled" character? Did he spread his focus too much between the porte magic and the sword skills?

Yeah, in the original 7th Sea, it's a pure point-buy game, and buying both a Swordsman School and a full-powered Sorcery is very expensive point-wise, without even getting into special advantages (like Kevin's sword), buying up your stats and other things. It's not-helped that the way "skills" and knacks work is also a little convoluted - but it basically means that while he's really badass and cool, it's a huge bitch in points for Kevin's character to both diversify into non-Swordsman or Sorcery related things and also improve both of those qualities.

2E is a lot more forgiving in that regard, you could be a Duelist who is also a sorcerer and could even have an additional background/history on top of that, and be even more spread out, and still be pretty good - but its much more narrative focused and less mechanically fiddly so it's not as big of a deal anyway.

That's it exactly.  I had fun, though.  The one thing I still really had going for me was panache.  I couldn't do things well, but at least I could fail at a lot of things every turn.

[luffy316]

so in the latest 7th Sea with the soul-gem that possesses people, why was Francesca immune to them? witch powers?

[Syn]

She wasn't, actually! I rolled randomly each time one of them interacted with a gem, since not all of them contained entities and they required proper eye contact. So when francesca rolled lucky, i pulled her aside and said "dont worry, im just messing with them." And when when it finally came up unlucky, I told the player the bad news.

[Ninjaguiden]

So am I understanding it correctly that there was an entire play written up this session? Because even if it's just a general structure that's still awesome improvisation. This campaign really has come into a great place with the later episodes, can't wait to see more.

Also Charlie, Funny Valentine should have been the third choice this election

Spoiler: show

[Syn]

Nope, not a thing was written ahead of time, except the general palace setting and that there was a play at all. Full marks to the crew for making it a memorable scene. Thanks for the post though, it's really encouraging to get feedback! 7th Sea is kind of my nostalgia system, so it's always great to hear how other people are experiencing it without my rose colored glasses.

[Ninjaguiden]

The system seems fine, though you guys have gone into a few of the places where it's age is showing. From your perspective as a long time fan then, is the systems of the 2nd edition shaping up into something you think will work better?

[Syn]

The age was... definitely an issue. Having run a few games of 2E, I think it's a much more fitting set of mechanics for their narrative, although there are still some tricky bits and bobs that aren't perfectly polished or masterfully balanced. Generally speaking, I would very much recommend it over 1E.

[crazon]

Welp, purchased a copy of 7th Sea 2nd Ed. Thanks James! (that's actually sincere)

I've got a question about the geographical changes. What's your feelings regarding the changes? Like Avalon's change dont seem so bad, but they have re-drawn Vendel/Vestenmannavnjar from a series of islands into a mainland peninsula. I recall you saying in one of the episode it was once a larger landmass in it's history, so is this a retcon in 2nd ed? Or is there an in-setting reason the islands are no longer? Is this in the same time period as first edition? Seems like a big change since I always imagined Kirk being a port city from the episodes where the crew visited it and now on the map it's fairly land-locked. Also Cathay is not even on the map anymore save steppes.

I'm just curious on your opinions of the changes? (Anyone's really.)

[Sabwones]

From what I experienced, it seems like 2nd ed is more of a soft reboot - there's a lot of the same themes, but there's been an awful lot of shuffling about of lore and mechanics. Much of it at least plays well, although I would argue that the Corruption system is a tiny bit vicious:

Every time you do a notably non-heoric deed, you gain 1 Corruption and roll 1d10. If you hit your Corruption or go below, you become a Villain (essentially your character is out of the game bar a significant GM fiat).

The next time you act out, you gain 2, then 4, then you just insta-Villain. So you have three strikes, then your fourth is game over for your player. You can get rid of corruption, but it's a long and fairly arduous process to do so.

Now I don't mind much of this, but as my group discovered, rolling a 1 on your first Corruption check is a bit harsh. Losing my character by drinking a potion that conferred an automatic check was...well...let's say I swore. A lot. Particularly when the GM decided to go with it since it was the end of the campaign.

>:C

[Capman]

From what I experienced, it seems like 2nd ed is more of a soft reboot - there's a lot of the same themes, but there's been an awful lot of shuffling about of lore and mechanics. Much of it at least plays well, although I would argue that the Corruption system is a tiny bit vicious:

Every time you do a notably non-heoric deed, you gain 1 Corruption and roll 1d10. If you hit your Corruption or go below, you become a Villain (essentially your character is out of the game bar a significant GM fiat).

The next time you act out, you gain 2, then 4, then you just insta-Villain. So you have three strikes, then your fourth is game over for your player. You can get rid of corruption, but it's a long and fairly arduous process to do so.

Now I don't mind much of this, but as my group discovered, rolling a 1 on your first Corruption check is a bit harsh. Losing my character by drinking a potion that conferred an automatic check was...well...let's say I swore. A lot. Particularly when the GM decided to go with it since it was the end of the campaign.

>:C

This reads like a morality system designed to try and curb asshole players (not that those rules ever work).  I'd go with rule zero and ditch it if you don't like using it.