7th Sea: General Impressions?

[DentArthurDent]

I just read a summary of the 7th Sea system. I have lots of questions, but first, has anyone played 7th Seas and what were your general impressions?

[death tribble]

I have played and I enjoyed it. My gaming was at conventions so the gaming was a bit more prepared. Piracy and Three Musketeer swashbuckling are really in my wheelhouse. 

[Cygnia]

HUGE 7th Sea fan here -- with the caveat, I prefer 1st ed to 2nd.

 

Seriously, I write 7th Sea fanfiction.  My Monday game is 7th Sea.  I'm playing one of my favorite characters EVER in an online 7th Sea game. And we're starting a new twelve year living campaign at Origins next year (just finished up the FIRST twelve year campaign last year).  I actually get to feel like a Big Damn Hero.

 

Give me the game's guidelines and I can kitbash a 7th Sea character in 30 minutes.

 

(I may be a wee bit of a fanatic towards 7th Sea)

[DentArthurDent]

The list of Skills and Specialties seems pretty long. What’s your take on the Skills?

[Cygnia]

The later books definitely added to the bloat.  Like, the skills Waylay and Lie In Wait should have been merged as an example.  Didn't help that there was a LOT of changes on the editorial front behind the scenes.  The aforementioned living campaign I'm involved in at Origins REFUSES to allow the Cathay book as a source just because of the imbalanced power creep it holds.

 

Character building, I take advantage that knacks can be improved right off the bat if you take skills that have the same knack.  Athlete and Pugilism can start you off with your Footwork knack at 2 as an example.

[Steve]

What are some of the most awesome synergy combinations of knacks and skills?

 

What are the worst examples of munchkinism that can be legally achieved?

[Cygnia]

Depends on how you wanna munchkin?

 

Like if you want to be a skill monkey?

1. play a Castillian

2. take the University advantage (Castillian PCs spend only 2 hero points at character creation instead of 4).  University has you purchase Civil Skills at 1HP apiece instead of 2.

3. take Castillian Education (costs 10HP, but it's a Castillian only advantage) CE lets you buy Advanced Civil Knacks as if they were Basic. 1 HP as opposed to 3 HP.

4. Prepare to make a GM cry

5.  Let's start with the simple stuff.  Sailor, for example, is a Civil Skill.  Which has "Swimming" as an Advanced knack.  No more worrying about being dunked off the pier as a newbie!

6. Useful Advanced Civil knacks I try to snag: Diplomacy/Gossip/Sincerity (all advanced under Courtier) Ambush (found under Criminal/Bodyguard/Hunter), Cold Read (Performer), Occult/Natural Philosophy (Scholar).  If you're playing a Doctor, get Surgery and Examiner

7. Acrobat is a Civil Skill.  Acrobat has Rolling AND Swinging as Advanced Knacks -- perfect defenses to have in a swashbuckling themed game

8. A LOT of the Secret Society books has some "interesting" Civil skills.  Like Fence or Bomb-Making or Arson

[Steve]

I like the game world of 7th Sea, but I will likely use Hero to run it someday. Except for some of the magic, it doesn’t look to be horrifically difficult to transfer over.

[DentArthurDent]

7 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Depends on how you wanna munchkin?

That sounds really interesting! Do you have a specific character’s skill list or character sheet that you could share?

[HeroGM]

On 9/22/2024 at 2:13 PM, Steve said:

I like the game world of 7th Sea, but I will likely use Hero to run it someday. Except for some of the magic, it doesn’t look to be horrifically difficult to transfer over.

 

 

I would take the d20 version of 7th Sea and use Killershrike's website to convert the majority over and then eyeball the rest