Pretty fun tbh

So, in the 3rd edition playtest adventure, there's a note that Verdugo is 93 years old at the time of the adventure... Which I find strange. I'm not sure if it's been stated elsewhere, but I always thought of him as much younger than that, around 50 at most.

Hey all I have a bunch of 7th sea bulk that someone gave me. I’ve never played. Would anyone be interested in obtaining it?

So, after asking about systems in this subreddit and before designing my campaign, I decided to gather my players for a quick chat about what they expect during the campaign. We talked about themes, mood, gameplay, what they want to play and what they strictly want to avoid.

We had a great discussion, but usually, these chats just give you an overall vibe rather than actionable numbers you can use for campaign creation. After our talk, I let a day pass so they had time to reflect on everything. Then, I sent them a quick form to fill out so I'd have actual data.

The result of the survey were quite interesting! On some points, everyone was aligned, while on others, opinions were totally split.

Since the 7th Sea setting allows for such a wide variety of adventures, these questions really helped me scope the campaign.

Here is a summarized version of the form. Maybe it will be useful to some of you when planning your next campaign!

Scale Questions (Rate 1 to 5)

• Level of Adversity: 1 (Cinematic Heroes) ↔ 5 (Lovecraftian Spiral)
• Combat Frequency: 1 (Rare) ↔ 5 (Action-Heavy)
• Politics & Intrigue: 1 (Straightforward) ↔ 5 (Game of Thrones)
• Espionage & Subterfuge: 1 (Open Conflict) ↔ 5 (Cloak & Dagger)
• War & Conflict: 1 (Peacetime) ↔ 5 (Total War)
• Horror & Supernatural: 1 (Swashbuckling Fun) ↔ 5 (Eldritch Horror)
• Mystery & Investigation: 1 (Action-First) ↔ 5 (Sherlock Holmes)
• Scale of Stakes: 1 (Personal) ↔ 5 (Apocalyptic)
• Magic Prevalence: 1 (Rare/Feared) ↔ 5 (High Fantasy/Everywhere)
• Setting Focus: 1 (Landlocked/Courts) ↔ 5 (The Pirate's Life)
• Party Cohesion: 1 (Ride or Die/No Secrets) ↔ 5 (Drama & Betrayal/PvP)
• Heroic Tone: 1 (Classic Romanticism) ↔ 5 (Gritty Cynicism)

Open-Ended Questions

• Themes & Triggers: What specific themes do you strictly want to avoid? What is one theme you are dying to explore?
• Inspirations: Cite 3 media influences (movies, books, games, anime) for the vibe you want this campaign to have.

The next step will be to design the campaign frame and share it with the player. Campaign frames are a fantastic tool from the core book of Daggerheart. I will share the process in the next post.

Thx Armada6136 for your interest in the development of the campaign, your comment in my last post motivated me to do this one and the next one. I hope people find this helpful.

I'm looking for someone to write my 7thsea campaign for me, of course I'm willing to pay

[It would be nice to get a 3rd Ed tag for the subreddit]

This is feedback based on how the system is in its current form. I'm aware that my feedback is exactly what they're looking for, with intention to change. So please do not misconstrue my criticisms here of the aplha as red flag for whatever the finished product will be.

1. There's no perception skill? There's a skill in the text called investigation, but on the character sheets it's called Research. It's not clear how one would make a perception roll to spot details through a spyglass, or listen for distant cannon fire.

2. Weapons do not have damage. Each character has a Wound Modifier, which is based off one of the five traits - brawn, finesse, resolve, wits, panache - and that wound modifier determines how much damage you do, whether you are using your fists or a musket. I don't care for this part.

3. As expected, rolling variable numbers of dice to beat a variable target number, with each roll requiring a variable number of successes got real old real fast. Now, I love old shadowrun, but it's just not a streamlined dice mechanic.

4. The only magic provided in the starter was Strega for the Vodacce. It certainly gives you a lot more to do; provide bonuses, give out penalties, other fun things. You take fate lashes to perform them, then cash in HP to erase fate lashes.

5. No method to bruce strength something. I had a player want to smash down a door, but there's no skill to do so, and no rules for performing an action that doesn't have a skill. I'm assuming you just roll brawn. But it's your skill that determines what your target number is (base TN 10, minus whatever your skill is 0-5), so without a skill, is their target number to break down a door always 10? Without a skill, your rolling less dice, rolling 3 instead of 6. And what if the door is strong and the threshold is 3? Are they supposed to roll three nat 10s to break down a door? That's not cinematic.

At the end of the sessions, the base dice mechanic is really holding things back. I how to see it change.

Ask me any follow ups and I'll tell you what I can.

If so, how is it?

A couple of things I've been considering for my game, and very open to feedback:

I'm hoping to encourage my players to dive deeper into the combat mechanics. So I'm toying with a combat idea: anyone can spend a Drama Die to use an Active Defense in combat, even if they're out of actions for that round. I think this might encourage them to take more risks, without leaving themselves completely defenseless.

Moreover, it might help some of my Henchmen and Villains survive a bit longer - my Heroes tend to get the best of them fairly quickly, and I'd like to make some more plot-pivotal encounters more dangerous.

Second, I'm considering a rule which allows players to take advantage of a really high roll, even if they didn't call for any Raises. After dice are rolled, a player can use a Drama Die to gain the effect of any Raises they might have made. So if the TN was 20, and they rolled a 42, they'd get the effect of four raises. I might put a cap on it at a certain number, and potentially disallow it for combat, but I thought it might be a fun addition.

So i don't think i'm going crazy and hope someone can point me in the right direction. I recall reading in one of the books that there was a lake, under which was either a vessel or a city by one of the syrneth races ? Any help more then welcome :)

Hi,

I decided to run 7thsea with my Irls and I am wondering which edition is better to run? I've been interested in the game for a while but just managed to scrounge a group together for it now. I heard that 2e is a little messy, but I also understand its notably less crunchy than first edition.

I am personally someone used to crunch with years of running shadowrun though my players are all 5e onlys.

Finally, is it worth it it just to wait till third drops?

Any answers are appreciated!

An official PDF of playtest materials for 3rd edition was sent out today to 30 players. Luckily, with it being Christmas week, many of my players have time away from work, so we'll be able to play the included adventure and pre-made characters. (There are no rules for character creation; it seems as though we're meant to just test the mechanics.)

Feedback provided to the new developers has seemingly gone a long way, and there is a fair departure from the mess of 2e. Trait+Skill is the main mechanic, and while they might use the phrase "roll & keep", it's not really that; it's roll + count successes.

The number of dice you can roll are floating, not fixed, and the target number that counts as a success is also floating, not fixed. On top of this, the number of successes you have to roll is also floating. (If you've ever played older versions of Shadowrun, it's basically that, with d10s).

If you have Brawn 3 and Attack 3, you roll 6 dice. (Or maybe more, or maybe less, depending on if you have wounds, or magic). Your target number is 7 (or maybe more, or maybe less, depending on the situation). And you have to roll 1 success, or two, or three or more, depending on how difficult the attempt is.

I don't care too much for that. It starts to get messy/confusing when certain situations +/- the number of dice, when other situations +/- the target number you have to hit, and the circumstances +/- the number of successes you need. I'll playtest it, but that's a mechanic that other systems have already used, and have already streamlined out of existence.

Trait+Skill rolls are pass/fail. If you roll enough successes, you succeed. If you don't, you fail. There's no gradient of success, which I think is where TTRPGs have evolved anyway, so I'm kind of disappointed to see that's not a mechanic.

And, of course, a huge asterisks, because this is early playtesting material, and this feedback is exactly what they're looking for to make adjustments. I just thought I'd share some insight, to anyone interested in what things looked like.

Do any of the splat books have any additional Sorte powers or were the first four in the book the only ones ever published?

This webcomic's Europe seemingly follows similar rules and modified history akin to Theah. If you are okay with sex, boobs, etc... It gives a good 7th sea fix

I'm writing a campaign, but I can't get going. The problem is that we've already played the prologue and the party is very happy and wants to continue. I need someone to help me.

I was wondering if anyone had put the Sarmatian Commonwealth into 1st Edition and if so, did you make a Destiny Spread for characters from the Commonwealth?

Snatched these up bc they looked nice. There was one more blister, but the plastic was busted and the minis were missing.

I always see a lot of people complaining about how the system works, and personally, it seems to me that it could be better. I like the Roll and Keep concept, but I think overall, the system could be better. Have you made any adjustments to your games? What would be good? How do you fix the system? Perhaps without actually changing the essence of the game. Perhaps an aggressive overhaul.