7th Sea Hits Kickstarter

John Wick bought the rights to his 1999 7th Sea roleplaying game back last year with the intention of releasing a second edition of the game. That new edition has just hit Kickstarter with a bang - $66K in under an hour, more than double its funding goal. "John Wick brings 7th Sea back in a 300-page, full-color, hardbound book. Revised rules, revised Nations, updated for the 21st Century." John Wick is, of course, an international assassin who goes on a revenge spree after some Russian criminals kill his dog. No, wait, wrong John Wick.

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There's already a Quick Start PDF, which backers get free access to immediately. You get two PDFs - an adventure called Long Live the Prince!, and five pregenerated characters. The adventure is 33 pages long, and includes basic rules. The Kickstarter itself offers the hardback for $60, or the PDF for $20.

What's 7th Sea? Well, it's an RPG by John Wick, originally released in 1999. In Wick's own words, "7th Sea was a game inspired by the works of Alexandre Dumas, The Princess Bride, and other novels and movies of high adventure, and it played fast and furious, emulating the pace we've come to expect from movies such as Captain Blood, The Three Musketeers, and Pirates of the Caribbean." The setting, Theah, is very similar to 17th Century Europe.

The 2nd Edition of 7th Sea (the one being Kickstarted now) is the 3rd most anticipated RPG of 2016.

Wick himself is no stranger to controversy. He recently told us about how Tomb of Horrors is the "worst, &#@&$&@est, most disgusting piece of pig vomit ever published". A couple of years ago, he created widespread internet arguments when he stated that "The first four editions of D&D are not roleplaying games."

You can find the 7th Sea Kickstarter here.

 

[fuindordm]

I'm very excited to see that he's dramatically expanding the geography of the setting!
Ben

 

[Morrus]

$145K. I think this one's going to break some records.

 

[TroyBentonGames]

Good on you John. Glad to see this one take off the way it did.

 

[Paraxis]

Anyone that has funded this, could you give a short example of task resolution from the quick start, is it the roll and keep system, a variant of it, or something entirely new and different.

 

[NerfedWizard]

Anyone that has funded this, could you give a short example of task resolution from the quick start, is it the roll and keep system, a variant of it, or something entirely new and different.

It's explained on the Kickstarter:-

Fans of the old game will be glad to hear we still have the classic five Traits—Brawn, Finesse, Resolve, Wits, and Panache—as well as Skills to describe your character’s training and experience. However, instead of Roll and Keep your Trait, it’s now Roll and Keep Everything. That’s right, you keep all your dice and use them to resolve risky and dangerous actions.

After you roll, you take your dice and make sets of 10. Each set is a Raise. You can use Raises to accomplish goals, overcome obstacles, and dodge consequences. In other words, Raises make your character awesome. And as a 7th Sea Hero… you’ll have lots of Raises.

 

[Canezar]

Anyone that has funded this, could you give a short example of task resolution from the quick start, is it the roll and keep system, a variant of it, or something entirely new and different.

You declare your intent, the GM assigns consequences (run through a burning building, take two wounds). You roll trait+applicable skill, keep all your dice and make sets of 10 (do not sum the total). Every set is a raise, which are assigned to success or dodging consequences (two raises mean you could get through the building but take one wound, or take no wounds and get stuck in the building). Duels play out differently, a lot more back and forth between the participants but you're still assigning raises to get things done.

 

[Barantor]

You declare your intent, the GM assigns consequences (run through a burning building, take two wounds). You roll trait+applicable skill, keep all your dice and make sets of 10 (do not sum the total). Every set is a raise, which are assigned to success or dodging consequences (two raises mean you could get through the building but take one wound, or take no wounds and get stuck in the building). Duels play out differently, a lot more back and forth between the participants but you're still assigning raises to get things done.

Few questions if you don't mind.

Does this make combat rather long or does it resolve rather quickly?

Does the default setting use gunpowder or is it more about swashbuckling style action?

Class system or is it fairly open style?

Thanks.

 

[Canezar]

Few questions if you don't mind.

1. From what I have read, 'Action Scenes' can be resolved fairly quickly, the system is much more cinematic than the first edition was. Combat against minions will play out like you'd expect a movie would, fights against Villains and their henchmen could potentially drag out due to how they scale but that is really up to the GM.

2. 7th Sea has always used gunpowder, Pirates of the Caribbean tech level. Swashbuckling is heavily encouraged though, as the stat line for a gun is basically the same as a sword (heroes have stats, everything else is a prop).

3. Open style, characters built from backgrounds and advantages rather than a specific class (no word on build-breakdown or advancement yet).

 

[Zaran]

This is the same system that Legend of the Five Rings uses or am I thinking of another setting?