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Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture
First Time Quickstart Guide
GM, newbie, rules

I've never GM'd 7th Sea before so I've decided to use the adventure in the Quickstart (Long Live the Prince). 

Will this work with the full rules 'as is' or is it slightly different? If it's different I'm concerned it'll confuse me

Sorry to keep banging this drum but this example on page 179 still looks wrong to me:

"And the powder room will explode at 2 Raises and everyone takes 5 Wounds.”

Ok the above part is fine because it clearly says that the room explodes at 2 Raises. Nothing ambiguous there. 

The problem for me is in the very next sentence:

"That means, as soon as all of the Heroes have fewer than 2 Raises, the powder room explodes and everyone takes 5 Wounds."

So by that reading, the calamity is going to occur at 2 Raises when all the Heroes have fewer than 2 Raises

Is this right, does it mean exactly what it says, that the room starts to explode at 2 Raises, but doesn't actually explode until all heroes have less than 2 Raises?

If that's true, is it also true for the rest of the examples on page 179?

"If the Heroes don’t grab it [the necklace] by Raise 3, it falls off into the night, down onto the city streets, into the fire, or into the ocean."

By Raise 3, meaning it starts to fall at Raise 3 but doesn't actually fall until all heroes are at fewer than 3 Raises?

“The cannons below explode on Raise 3. Everyone will take 3 Wounds. And, on Raise 1, the ship goes down, dragging you all down into the deep!”

So the cannons start to explode on Raise 3, but do not actually explode until all heroes are at fewer than 3 Raises and the ship drags the heroes to the seabed at Raise 1 but doesn't actually drag them down until all heroes have fewer than 1 Raise?

"For example, if the room’s ceiling will collapse on 2, a Hero who wishes to dive out of the way must spend Raises to do so before the ceiling collapses."

Again then, the room's ceiling begins its collapse on 2 Raises but doesn't actually collapse until all heroes have fewer than 2 Raises?

It looks odd to me.

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"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Cthulhu Netobvious
Cthulhu Netobvious's picture

@Sparky, your post may vanish if the thread is made unstable with too many cut and pastes.

QUESTION by Sparky UK

Core Rulebook Page 172

Step 1: Set Stage

Step 2: Approach

Step 3: Gather Dice

Step 4: Consequences & Opportunities 

Quickstart Adventure Page 15

Step 1: Setting the Stakes
The first thing you do is tell the players what they need to do and what it will cost them to do it. This is Setting the Stakes for the Risk.

Just to clarify, because the Quickstart seems different to the Core rules, you (a) set the scene (b) have the players tell you their approach (c) tell the players which traits and skills to use (d) gather dice (e) announce complications and opportunities (f) count raises use raises to succeed at certain things 

Is that the correct order?

ANSWER: Quoting Kevin Krupp's comment (that did not migrate to this new thread). 

Just to clarify, because the Quickstart seems different to the Core rules, you (a) set the scene (b) have the players tell you their approach (c) tell the players which traits and skills to use (d) gather dice (e) announce complications and opportunities (f) count raises use raises to succeed at certain things 

More or less. There's some additional bits in there, such as changing approach, unskilled actions, adding opportunities, Pressure, etc. Personally, I don't always tell the opportunities up front unless it's an opportunity that's available for anyone in the room, as sometimes they become available throughout the Round due to another person's actions.  Also, sometimes I WILL add consequences mid-Round, but it's because an additional action the hero takes mis-round really warrents its own set of consequences. The QS does away with the "bidding" system since you need to declare how many Raises you're investing into your intent up front, but there's still some of that there.

Here's my advice:

Tell them up front that the game is meant to go fast and that in Action scenes they're not going to have a lot of time to think and strategize. Then introduce the mechanices to them in bites, kicking things off with an Action Scene.

  • For the first Round, treat each Raise like an individual action. Don't introduce any Opportunities or Consequences yet. Don't penalize them for Unskilled actions or Changing Approach. Just get them spending Raises. If you have Villains in the scene attacking them, only have the Villains deal 1 Wound per Raise and encourage them to defend against one or two, but to also take a few. You want them to be get comfortable with taking wounds, since it takes A LOT to actually put down a hero.
     
  • For the second Round, you NEED to introduce at least one Consequence and Opportunity for their Intents. When it's their turn explain that they can spend a Raise for their intent and that they need to also decide if they want to spend a Raise NOW to remove Consequences or take an Opportunity. This is where you start to train to think or Raises as essentially "Round Stamina" rather than "Actions"
     
  • Once you feel like they've got the hang of paying off spending mutliple Raises at a time for Consequences and Opportunities, before you start the next Round, take a moment to explain that up until now you've been letting them just spend Raises however they like, but typically when you take an action that would typically require you to use a different skill than you rolled, you need to spend 2 Raises to change your intent AND you need to spend 2 Raises to accomplish an intent that you are unskilled in. This is a good point to explain that Raises are more like "Round Stamina" than individual "Actions" if they haven't already gotten this. This is also where I tell them that we'll take a break once they finish the Action scene and if they want to reorder some of their skill points now that they know this I'll let them.
     
  • Over time you can start to add in things like "I fail," Pressure, Dueling, Contested Intents, spending Danger Points to force Raises at 15 instead of 10, etc, and while I can usually get most of this into the first Session, I spread it out across multiple scenes. Better to leave out a few rules than to get stuck with analysis paralysis because they're trying to aborb everything at once.
     
    • For the "I fail" what I usually do when I'm ready to show them this, is I pick someone and tell them, before they roll, "Hey, before you roll that, do you want to try something out? Usually you only get 1 HP for doing this, but since this is the first time if you want to do it, I'll give you 2. Instead of rolling, you can choose to fail, and then you get to describe how your failure impacts the scene." I help them craft the failure and I try to make it result in something interesting and complicates things, but is still overall beneficial to the group. I want them to feel positive about failing until they actually WANT to make their character fail and relish when it results in bad things happening that ultimately makes for an interesting story, but I have to get them to trust that I'm not going to just screw them over first.

TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e

Catalina Arciniega
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Think of it like those slow motion scenes in movies, after all, actions happening almost simultaneously on each turn. As soon as the first hero reaches 2 or less raises the room explodes, flames start running wild and debris hits the heroes, but they are heros, so they still get to jump through the window in the last moment flames licking on their backs.

Before 2 raises, the room is safe, at 2 raises the room explodes and the heroes receive damage (they can spend raises to mitigate it), after 2 raises the room has already exploded. If the heroes leave Before 2 raises, they receive no damage, if they leave at 2 raises they receive the damage but have a chance to avoid it, if they didn't leave at 2 raises they don't get to avoid damage and the get blown away by the explosion or need to crawl out of the debris after the explosion.

Same thing with that sliding necklace, it falls at 3 raises but, in that moment it's still close to the roof so, a quick hero can slide down the roof, extend his hand and grab the necklace with one hand while he hangs out the railings with his other hand. But, if none of the heroes did anything to catch it, at the end of that turn the necklace has already fallen into the dark.

Cannons explode at 3 raises unless a hero goes throwing them out before they get to that point, they can jump out and into the water before that to avoid all the damage without needing to spend extra raises or they can stay and suffer the damage.

Same with the ship sinking, they get to jump out before that or during that moment. If a hero didn't manage to scape on time (he has 0 raises), he'll go down with the ship unless any other hero dives down (spends a raises) to save him from drowning.

Catalina Arciniega
Catalina Arciniega's picture

Imagine that ship scene, you say: there are 10 brutes going for the map, the poder kegs explode at 3 raises dealing 5 wounds to each of you and the ship goes down at 1 raise. There are 3 heroes: Françoise, Elza and Jane, they rolled 5, 6 and 4 raises each for this round.

Elza has the most raises so she goes first and charges against the brute squad to slow them down spending an extra raise for damage, she spends 2 raises an now has 4. She takes down 2 brutes, so there are sill 8 brutes who attack her dealing 8 damage.

Next goes Françoise, he rushes through the deck and snatches the map jumping into the water. He spends one raise to snatch the map and another to scape, he's down to 3 raises so the kegs explode. As Françoise is already in the water he doesn't get any damage but neither can he aid his friends on board.

The explosion raises dealing damage to all on board, Elza and Jane have both 4 raises and decide Elza acts first. As she has already taken 8 wounds, she spends all her raises negating damage so that she doesn't get her second dramatic wound. She's got no raises so the ship starts sinking while she recovers from the explosion.

Jane is up the mast when the kegs explode and the ship sinks with four raises in her pool, so she grabs a rope and jumps down reaching for Elza and balancing herself out of the way of the debris and flames from the explosion. She spends one raise to start the action cuting the rope, another to grab the stunned Elza and propel both of them safely into the water while the ship sinks and uses her remaining 2 raises to negate 2 wounds from the explosion.

Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

But the rules say "...as soon as all of the Heroes have fewer than 2 Raises, the powder room explodes and everyone takes 5 Wounds."

I read that as all the heroes have to be on 3 (because you used an example of 3 Raises) or fewer Raises before the powder room explodes and does damage. So in your example, Elza and Jane don't take any damage yet because they both have 4 Raises each. Also, even though Francois has 3 Raises left he wouldn't take damage either, because not all of the heroes are on 3 Raises yet. 

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

Page 187: Dramatic Sequences

The GM tells each player what the circumstances of the Sequence are in general terms and what they can expect. This should include the scope of the Sequence, any dangers that the Heroes are aware of...

Step 4: Actions
The GM narrates the Sequence, describing details, presenting challenges and circumstances. 

Page 188: Red Box

Dramatic Sequences are open sandboxes and not just a series of challenges set up by the GM. The GM isn’t supposed to give the players a list of problems to overcome; that kind of thing happens in Action Sequences!

Are GMs supposed to present problems/challenges in a Dramatic Sequence or not? The above rules seem a little contradictory 

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
This is all based on action use mechanic. Asse each of these consequences costs 1raise to avoid. (Get away from the explosion or take 5 wounds, grab the necklace, get off the boat before it sinks). When you set the timer, you are giving them UNTIL the use of that raise to spend and deal with the problem. You are basically telling your player, " You have until you have spent THIS raise to solve the problem". Here is a good example: a fuse burning toward a powder keg. The players have until the third raise to cut the fuse. Only one player will need to do that. Player one opts to spend his third raise fighting off brutes. Player Two could cut the fuse but spends his action creating an opportunity to capture the villain's pet parrot. Player three decides to spend his third raise capturing the parrot to try and force the villain to surrender. Player four hesitates before deciding to use their third raise to threaten the parrot and PRESSURE the villain to surrender. And that leaves us with player five, the last player in the group. Player five COULD cut the fuse ajd things will be fine. But player five us a bad team player and decides to jump out the window to avoid the blast. Now the players have used up their chances to stop the explosion and the powder keg explodes. Technically, this is at the end of actions on the third raise. The only real issue is how you word the timer. If it makes more sense to you and your players to say " it explodes before anybody takes an action on raise two" the result is the same. I like to say " the result will happen at the end of action three raises" so players are certain they will not be able to effect it with the action 2 raise.
Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

So the reason it says "at 2 Raises" and then "fewer than 2 Raises" is because when you have fewer than 2 Raises, you can't do anything because you no longer have the required 2 Raises?

 

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Yes that is essentially how I read it. Now things to keep in mind are the ability to use remaining raises to alter the effect. If an explosion happens on 3 raises dealing 5 wounds, the players could spend their remaining raises (2) to reduce the damage. Sometimes it may be strategic to possibly trigger a dramatic wound bonus and/ or damage the opponents.
Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Dramatic sequence complications get presented by the GM as they occur. The players do not get a list. It is a more organic process. You set the scene, describe the event ( say a ball where the heroes want to uncover the Host's contacts with the underworld.). Players base an approach off that and roll their raise pool. Then you start narrating. As the players interact with the NPCs and scenery, you decide when their actions warrant an opportunity, risk or consequence that costs them a raise to succeed. The trick to a dramatic scene is nobody knows for certain what is coming up and they need to decide in each case to spend or pass to save raises for later. So you do present problems, just not up front. Sidebar to the question of hiding damage amounts:. I think you can do what you ask about hiding amount IF youale one small change. If you allow a single raise to negate ALL the wounds that would be suffered, it is fair to leave it ambiguous. I might do it by offering negation in stages. (1 raise cancels 1-3 wounds. 2 raises cancels 4-6 wounds) and tell them how many raises are required. So they have idea they would suffer a little or a lot.
Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

Thank you Salamanca

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Sparky UK
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This is my first scene so I was hoping someone might run the rule over it. I've used the trusty old burning building to kick things off.

Starting Scene: Flee a burning room to the courtyard below

The pcs are in Monsignor Blanc’s house (Note: a Parish consists of ten churches in close proximity and a Parish is governed by a Monsignor,) collecting their payment for transporting goods for him. Their last buyer ripped them off and so Monsignor Blanc has decided to take the money that was lost out of the pcs’ payment.

Naturally the pcs did not like this, got into a fist fight with some of Blanc’s guards, and accidentally knocked over an oil lamp that caused a tapestry to catch fire. Before anyone noticed the fire was out of control…

The scene opens with the pcs amidst a room rapidly burning out of control.

Consequences

2 wounds from the flames

Window to courtyard is locked

Courtyard is 20’ below

Opportunities

Blanc’s money chest is on a nearby table (wealth 2 each)

I have a few questions. Let's say a character gets 3 Raises. He uses 1 Raise to avoid 1 Wound, and 1 Raise to dance past the flames and get to the window, where he says - "I open the window."

But the window is locked.

How would I narrate/work this into the scene because the player thinks the window is unlocked but is surprised by it being locked? 

* Do I just allow him to spend a Raise to unlock the window, and if I do, does he roll dice to unlock the window? Or does he just unlock it as part of the Raise?

* Do I tell him the window is locked but that even though he has 1 Raise left he cannot use it this turn and must make another check on his next turn?

* Do I tell him the window is locked when he gets to it and attempts to open it, or should I have mentioned it earlier when I was revealing the Consequences? If when revealing the Consequences, how would the pc even know the window was locked?

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Catalina Arciniega
Catalina Arciniega's picture

You don't tell them the window is locked untill one of the tries to open it. If the first hero wants to open it you should allow it for one raise if they chose the finesse+theft approach, if that's not the case he must spend 2 raises to unlock it or trigger an advantage (dinamic approach).

But the hero could also use a different approach and say he wants to charge out of the window bursting it open (maybe brawn+brawl), in wich case he wouldn't have to spend extra raises to open the window but you could add 1 extra damage from crashing against it.

Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

Thank you Catalina

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Cthulhu Netobvious
Cthulhu Netobvious's picture

Great to hear that @SparkyUK

Also Donovan here upgraded the quickstart Character Sheets to final character rules from 2nd Edition so maybe you could trying them out instead of the stats in the quickstart.

Quickstart Characters with 2e Core Rules

TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e

Sparky UK
Sparky UK's picture

Would it break anything if I raised the traits and skills cap to a 6, a 7 or an 8 even?

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die..." ~ Inigo

Salamanca
Salamanca's picture
Yes, it will in the long run. This system is designed to not even let players max out their Traits at all rank 5. When you raise those limits, what happens is players holding so many raises you can't create enough consequences and opportunities to be a challenge.
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