Studio Agate Takes Over 7th Sea From Chaosium

French publisher Studio Agate is taking over the development and creation of 7th Sea from Chaosium. The news was announced today by Chaosium, alongside a survey to help shape the future of the swashbuckling game. Per the press release, Studio Agate will launch a Patreon page that will give free access to developer insights and progress on future progress. A Kickstarter is also in the works to launch the "next chapter" of the game line.

7th Sea is a swashbuckling-themed game with a core mechanic involving a dice pool of d10s. Players determine the number of d10s they roll based on their trait and skill scores and then add the results together to create scores of 10 or more to make successes that can be spent over a round to influence the narrative or succeed in certain actions.

Studio Agate is best known for developing French language translations of RPGs, including 7th Sea. Last year, Agate successfully launched an English language 7th Sea product - The Price of Arrogance - via a Kickstarter that raised over $190,000.

Ownership of 7th Sea passed from AEG to Chaosium back in 2019. The ownership status of 7th Sea was not addressed in the press release, so it appears that deal involves publication rights and not outright ownership of the IP.

 

[Aldarc]

And the fans of 7th Sea have remained loyal for more than a decade, almost like the fans of Legend of the Five Rings, another game whose first edition was written by John Wick.

My old gaming group in Vienna were fans of 7th Sea but abandoned 7th Sea after 2nd Edition came out. It was too radical of a departure for their tastes. They backed the 7th Sea Kickstarter for all the 7th Sea 1st Edition materials but then gave me the core book for 2E, which has been collecting dust on my shelf.

 

[GrimCo]

There is more mechanical differences between 1st and 2nd ed 7th sea than 3.x and 4th edition D&D. They share setting and name, but game engine is so different that they might as well be two different games. That's one of the reasons lot's of people who loved 1ed as a system didn't really like 2ed.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

This is a great opportunity I fear won't be taken to fix the mechanical issues plaguing the game with a revised edition. The basic concept is sound, but the execution is half baked. Shame to see the property passed around like a hot potato in the meantime.

 

[Jd Smith1]

The setting is interesting, but the mechanics in both editions really fail, IMO, to capture the spirit of the setting.

 

[Tanek]

Maybe we should help them along by pointing out systems that have done justice to Swashbuckling play and suggest why they'd be good for 7th Sea. I'd guess that we'd need to consider magic systems as well. Are there any systems out there right now that would do 7th Sea perfectly in your eyes?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe we should help them along by pointing out systems that have done justice to Swashbuckling play and suggest why they'd be good for 7th Sea. I'd guess that we'd need to consider magic systems as well. Are there any systems out there right now that would do 7th Sea perfectly in your eyes?

I could make great use of the setting (1e) in my Level Up game.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Honestly there isn't anything so unique to the setting that can't be covered by any fantasy roleplaying game. Especially since most campaigns aren't pirate/ship based as most of the art would have you believe.

Personally?

While any fantasy rule system would work fine, if you wanna go for that "swinging from a chandelier while fencing vibe and landing a carpet and riding it down the stairs" sort of thing then Feng Shui.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The setting is interesting, but the mechanics in both editions really fail, IMO, to capture the spirit of the setting.

Really? Couldn't disagree more. I think the first edition d10 Roll & Keep system with exploding dice and players being able to call their own raises is one of the best and most exciting mechanical systems I've ever used and perfect for swashbuckling adventure.

To me, nothing says 'Derring-Do' more than a player seeing the action their character has to accomplish in front of them, the player knowing what the Target Number is to accomplish it, and then the player making the choice to raise the stakes on the action for their potential benefit. The player is basically betting on themselves to accomplish these grand deeds. Go big or go home as it were. And when you have the potential 1 in 10 chance on every one of the handful of dice you are rolling to 'explode' and allow you to roll them a second time (and maybe third time, fourth time etc.)... the act of rolling becomes an excitement point in itself.

Now yes, there are a lot of sticking points on the Skill and Knack systems that are unbalanced in many places, and the Repartee system doesn't merge with Skills and Knacks that well IMO... but the primary mechanical system for the game I think is fabulous for a swashbuckling game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Really? Couldn't disagree more. I think the first edition d10 Roll & Keep system with exploding dice and players being able to call their own raises is one of the best and most exciting mechanical systems I've ever used and perfect for swashbuckling adventure.

To me, nothing says 'Derring-Do' more than a player seeing the action their character has to accomplish in front of them, the player knowing what the Target Number is to accomplish it, and then the player making the choice to raise the stakes on the action for their potential benefit. The player is basically betting on themselves to accomplish these grand deeds. Go big or go home as it were. And when you have the potential 1 in 10 chance on every one of the handful of dice you are rolling to 'explode' and allow you to roll them a second time (and maybe third time, fourth time etc.)... the act of rolling becomes an excitement point in itself.

Now yes, there are a lot of sticking points on the Skill and Knack systems that are unbalanced in many places, and the Repartee system doesn't merge with Skills and Knacks that well IMO... but the primary mechanical system for the game I think is fabulous for a swashbuckling game.

Yeah, I liked the 1e rules and felt they did the setting justice. Nothing about 2e felt right. I just bought into the KS for the 1e backlog.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Yeah, I liked the 1e rules and felt they did the setting justice. Nothing about 2e felt right. I just bought into the KS for the 1e backlog.

They just needed to fix the broken stuff. You could exploit a bunch of stuff like Pommel Strike and if you built your character optimally you could do like 10K10+100 damage, that sort of stuff. Plus, there were a bunch of swordsman schools that were terrible and never worth taking, that sort of thing.