7th Sea is coming back

[HairyHeretic]

http://www.alderac.com/blog/2015/11/03/a-return-to-7th-sea/

http://johnwickpresents.com/updates/a-special-jwp-announcement/

According to John Wick, new edition next year.

I think we have a few fans of the game here, so when I saw this I thought I'd share :)

[AmberStarfire]

The news I read was that it's meant to show up on Kickstarter either at the end of this month or beginning of next month. They're adding Poland to the list of countries, changing some of the mythology, as well as the game system, and John Wick's been posting snippets from the new maps on his Facebook page.

Most of that is probably contained in the links you posted, which I read a while ago, but I thought I'd share. :)

[HairyHeretic]

They've been promoing some new / upcoming stuff in the last few days, and it looks like the 7th Sea world is expanding beyond the countries known from the 1st edition. We're going to be seeing a kickstarter starting up in the next few days as well.

[Muse]

Wow!  This is very exciting!

[HairyHeretic]

Sign up for their mailing list. There's stuff on there which hasn't been shared elsewhere, including a draft of the quickstart rules. They mentioned this on their facebook page, so I think I'm okay mentioning it here :)

I'd like to have a try at that, if we had enough people with access to the rules, get an idea for how 2nd edition is changing, because there do look to be some interesting mechanical changes.

[HairyHeretic]

Kickstarter should be up tomorrow.

[HairyHeretic]

So, the kickstarter has been running for a few days now. The initial fully funded mark, $30,000, was apparently hit in 7 minutes. It went over the half million funded mark last night, and still has almost a month to run.

Looks like people want 7th Sea back in a BIG way.

[AmberStarfire]

And it's assured that it will be. :) More donations means more merchandise and stuff, very likely. I would definitely like to see that.

[Wheeler97]

Hi all...

I am not very familiar with 7th Sea, but I was intrigued by the Kickstarter... it seems really generous to receive every 1st and 2nd Edition book PDF for only $40, and get the hardback rulebook for only $20 more.

I'm tempted to back it just to have them as reading material if I don't get in or run a group any time soon.

Is there a good place to find a good overview of the system and setting? I suppose I could back for $1 initially and get access to their Quick Start rules, but cancelling pledges is usually frowned upon.

Thanks

[AmberStarfire]

Hi all...

I am not very familiar with 7th Sea, but I was intrigued by the Kickstarter... it seems really generous to receive every 1st and 2nd Edition book PDF for only $40, and get the hardback rulebook for only $20 more.

I'm tempted to back it just to have them as reading material if I don't get in or run a group any time soon.

Is there a good place to find a good overview of the system and setting? I suppose I could back for $1 initially and get access to their Quick Start rules, but cancelling pledges is usually frowned upon.

Thanks

There's the Alderac page for 7th Sea:
http://www.alderac.com/7thsea/about.html

It's a bit disorganised on the main page but it has a lot of good links. I notice some that used to be around aren't anymore, but there's a lot of information on the net as well. There are different compendiums out there (including an official one), which are mainly rule and background adjustments. I tend to avoid those personally but they have a lot of good information in some of them.

I noticed there's a wiki here:
http://7th-sea.wikia.com/wiki/7th_sea_Wiki

[HairyHeretic]

The setting is basically a fantasy version of medieval Europe, with strange ancient ruins of some long dead race dotted around the place. It's a Swashbuckling setting, so fairly cinematic. I'll let someone more familiar with the rules give you the overview on those, but basically its a number of d10s rolled, some kept, versus a target number that increases as the difficulty of the task does. If you've ever played Legend of the Five Rings, it's a similar mechanic.

[AmberStarfire]

I GM'd it for about 5 years so I know it fairly well. I'm just failing to describe it as well as I mean to. :)

Basically you had 2 main rule systems for it. Alderac d10, which came first, and which was very similar to the system used in first ed Legend of the Five Rings. Then they came out with a d20 version (Swashbuckling Adventures), which had a campaign settings rulebook to use it alongside the d20 rules. Most or all of the Swashbuckling Adventures sourcebooks have rules in them for the d10 system as well. The d10 system is way better than d20, IMO, and it's what most people online tend to play on the sites I've been on.

The system's not too complicated, and d10 was pretty good except for their mass combat rules, which seemed inordinately complicated to me. A lot of people who ran their own games on other roleplaying sites used to have house rules that adapted the rules in the ways they wanted, and I did that too. I'm curious to try out the new system (I haven't with the advance rules they released yet). It looks like an adapted version of d10 from what I've seen.

Basically the game is set in a fantasy version of 17th century earth called Theah, only with higher technology than that in some places, and it has things like swashbuckling, sorcery, secret societies and politics. You'll find spies, pirates, bandits, and musketeers, and knights, nobles, peasants, scholars, musicians, archaeologists, etc. You have fantasy versions of the larger countries in Europe (France = Montaigne; Spain = Castille; Germany = Eisen; England = Avalon; The Highland Marches = Scotland; Inismore: Ireland etc), and also other countries beyond that like Asia = Cathay, Russia = Ussura, Crescent Empire = The Middle East; and other places. Then you have the world of the sidhe (Bryn Bresail). It blends a fantasy take on the world we know with fairytales, and myths, and stories, and comes up with a game that's all round pretty awesome.

[Wheeler97]

So the feedback I received was enough that I pledged $1 to check out their Quick Start ruleset. I have thus far raised my pledge to the $40 level to get all the 2nd and 1st Edition books as PDF. I might go up to $60 to get a hardback copy of the rulebook, but I haven't decided yet. I'm backing another project that will be ending right around the same time, so my checking account might hate me.

It looks like the system is roll d10s, and keep them all to form Raises of 10s. Your dice quantity for each Risk (skill test) is equal to the ranks in both the applicable Trait AND Skill, plus bonus dice that can come from various sources, which include Hero Points or GM rewards for creative description of the action. The system does seem very "cinematic" and not so much meant as a kind of carefully measured simulation (I'm familiar with Pathfinder, for example). I really like the Fantasy Flight Star Wars systems for this reason.

There are a lot of books and extras being unlocked, so the only concern is over how long these will take as they continue to set higher stretch goals. They have said they do not intend to stretch production into 2017 if they can help it. At least the PDFs will be made available as each is finished, rather than all at once.

[HairyHeretic]

Do we have enough people with access to the quickstart rules to have a crack at that scenario?

[AmberStarfire]

I have access to them, so could give it a go.

[Wheeler97]

I'd be willing! They did just release a 2.0 version with updates from feedback they were getting.

[HairyHeretic]

I shall have to go get that then

[AmberStarfire]

Is that a new version of the advance rules?

[Wheeler97]

Is that a new version of the advance rules?

Yes! Apologies, I should have been clearer. Regarding HairyHeretic's suggestion that a group give the quick start/advance rules a go, I was pointing out that they just released a 2.0 update to the quick start scenario based on feedback. I haven't downloaded the updated one yet...

[LoosCannon]

Now to convince my group to take a hiatus from our current campaign and run this... You just made my weekend!

[AmberStarfire]

Word reached me that since the Kickstarter finished (over $1.3 million), they're going to be looking for more writers to work on the forthcoming books.

A call for writers is supposed to be going up on John Wick's site in the near future.

[Bloodied Porcelain]

I'm so excited for this. I backed it at 440. :) I'll have a special edition of the core book and six of the other books, plus all the misc add ons like maps and such. ^.^

[AmberStarfire]

Those options look incredible. We backed the Kickstarter for enough to get the hardback of the core rulebook (I plan to run a campaign of it further down the line), as well as the PDFs from the stretch goals. I already have pretty much all the first ed 7th Sea books. It's the game I know best out of all system games, and I've poured years into running it and playing it. I couldn't not get a copy.

[Bloodied Porcelain]

Those options look incredible. We backed the Kickstarter for enough to get the hardback of the core rulebook (I plan to run a campaign of it further down the line), as well as the PDFs from the stretch goals. I already have pretty much all the first ed 7th Sea books. It's the game I know best out of all system games, and I've poured years into running it and playing it. I couldn't not get a copy.

Yeah, I almost switched over to the 480(I think) level that would give me hard copies of everything, but I figured I can live with only having PDFs of the other five source books while I save up to get hardcopies. xD The maps and such were too good to pass up, since a lot of the add ons won't be available after the kickstarter.

[AmberStarfire]

You might find they'll end up quite valuable in time. So what are your plans for your books? Are you thinking of running one or playing in one?

I have my eye on a sorte deck but I'll probably look for one on Ebay further down the line.

[Bloodied Porcelain]

Well I plan to read them all first. :p But I'm playing in a solo 7th Sea game off of E with a friend (on and off, admittedly... haven't done as much writing recently due to RL stuff) so we may "update" it to 2nd Ed if a lot changes. Or we'll start a new one. Who knows.

I'm also debating working on a campaign for my table top group once we get through the current campaign I'm running for D&D 5e, or we just get bored and need/want a new setting.

[AllieCat]

Was so glad to see this! :) Hopefully I can save a bit of money before BackerKit opens and update my pledge ;)

[Wheeler97]

I couldn't back more than the $60 level for the hardcover book and all the pdfs... I had another Kickstarter I backed for a little more than 3x that amount that ended just two days prior for my favorite board (technically, card) game ever.

[HairyHeretic]

So, since the kickstarter backer should have received the preview PDFs, what do people think about the changes to the world and the system?

[AllieCat]

I like it. I really like it. I so want to play/run a game of it.

Funniest image in the book: A man of Innismore having an angry staredown.. with his horse.

Two swordsmen kissing (yes, MEN).

System is a bit different then first edition, but running NPC's and villains is very very easy. (Villains have one stat, their strength, and whenever they roll to do risks (say, against the players), that's how many dice they roll)

[HairyHeretic]

I'd like to have a go at it myself, but unfortunately I have no interest in playing my Vesten with the changes made. I can sort of accept the merging of Vendel and Vesten, but the removal of laerdom annoys me greatly. I'm hoping it goes back in when they get around to country books.

[Lux12]

Is it weird that I want them to get rid of the old sorcerous blood line magic system? As an occultist it was something that always bothered the living crap out of me.

[AmberStarfire]

Is it weird that I want them to get rid of the old sorcerous blood line magic system? As an occultist it was something that always bothered the living crap out of me.

The one that ties in with the bargainers (like porte and sorte) or the ones that seem to be non-bargainer magic (like glamour), or all of the above?

I'm also not happy that they've changed Vesten and Laerdom, though I have to look at the new book yet.

[AllieCat]

A link to the final PDF has been sent to backers, the PDF is going on sale to non-backers sometime next week, and a 7th sea rpg video game has been announced (like Torment Tides of Numenera)

And of course, the books are being printed now! (happy dances)

[Bloodied Porcelain]

MY BOOK CAME YESTERDAY!

I would have posted about it when it did, but I was too busy geeking out and reading as much as humanly possible in one sitting. And cooing and oohing and ahhhing over the pretty Pirate Edition cover.



Mostly unrelated, but I was also given a gorgeous, nifty journal as a gift by a D&D buddy. Yesterday was like fucking nerd-Christmas. Nerdmas.

[Bloodied Porcelain]

I've been reading. Lots of changes. I'm loving the changes to Eisen.

And I still struggle to pronounce Vestenmennavenjar.

[AmberStarfire]

Your pirate copy is awesome. :) We got ours too (only the regular edition).

I haven't read much of it yet, just browsed it. There's a lot I like from what I've seen so far, but I'm not hugely thrilled with some of the changes. For instance, the Vesten magic/shamanism system and the 'demotion' of Sophia's Daughters. I haven't read deeply enough to determine if they've written out a lot of their back-history, but it looks like it.

I am going to run a 2nd ed game but I'm planning to include some bits and pieces from 1st ed that I liked more or didn't want to lose, rather.

[Wheeler97]

I got my book on Monday and am really excited to try a game... play by post might be really fitting for this as it is so narrative based.

I'm a newcomer to 7th Sea, so I can't compare new to old. At least, I haven't read through or even downloaded all the 1st Edition PDFs.

[AmberStarfire]

The 1st Ed PDFs are definitely worth downloading and checking out. There's a lot of information there in the books that isn't included or is only suggested lightly in the core rulebook, so there's a lot you could gain from them. Some of the books in particular are wonderful. :)

I bought a number of them, in PDF, hardback and paperback, so I consider having that many official PDFs is a bit like a treasure trove.

[HairyHeretic]

The kickstarter had a complete set of 1st ed PDFs at .. I think the $60 and up backer level.

[Wheeler97]

Everything $40+ got all PDFs, of both 1st and 2nd Editions. $60+ included at least the physical copy of the book.

I need to take the time to download everything...