1648 - Revised 7th Sea?

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

This was posted by John Wick on the 7th Sea Facebook page last year (October)

Hi there. You might remember me.
In 2010, I returned to the world of samurai with a game called "Blood & Honor: Samurai Tragedy in Old Japan."
In 2012, I'm returning to another world. Here's a hint...

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/maps/europe_1648_westphal_1884.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=243662649019243&id=34834308255

I saw that post today, so I started looking around. I found this video

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7ltWAs9Y3Q]John Wick Presents 2012 Announcements! - YouTube[/ame]

At 8:55, he teases a new product he'll be putting out this year: 1648. The quote "It's exactly what you think it is." The evidence points towards some revamp of 7th Sea.

 

[kitsune9]

That will be great. I would very much like to get a revised edition of 7th Sea.

 

[Starman]

That would be very cool. I really enjoy the spirit of 7th Sea, but the rules do need just a bit of tweaking to really bring it out.

 

[kitsune9]

If I remember correctly, 7th Sea had monsters and such in it as well?

 

[Piratecat]

It's funny. I'm not usually a person to hold grudges, but John Wick made such a bad impression on me with his anti-D&D rants back in 2002 that I don't think I've ever bought any of his work. I'll be excited to see how this new 7th Sea is, though. A good game trumps old annoyance every single time.

 

[mkill]

Memories... Fauner Pösen, the only NPC I ever wanted to kill for having a horrible stupid name.

7th Sea had great ideas, but felt too much like Disneyland and not enough like 17th century Europe with dashing swordsmen and occult sorcerers. We'll see what he'll come up with.

 

[D'karr]

It's funny. I'm not usually a person to hold grudges, but John Wick made such a bad impression on me with his anti-D&D rants back in 2002 that I don't think I've ever bought any of his work. I'll be excited to see how this new 7th Sea is, though. A good game trumps old annoyance every single time.

This has happened to me with several game designers. I'd almost prefer for them to design, and keep their personal opinions to themselves.

 

[Daztur]

Don't really hold it too much against him, pretty much every long-standing gamer who plays a variety of games (including me) goes through a "D&D is STUPID! I'm too GOOD for that STUPID game!" phrase (not meant to be John Wick's quotation, more my thinking a few years back before I got back into D&D). Hard to blame someone for what I've done myself...

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

I love the 7th Sea setting. I like the global conspiracies, the secret societies, sorcery being related to the nobility, national politics, church politics, etc.

However, the mechanics need some major overhauls

• Sorcery as a more appealing option for players. All sorcery should be decoupled from Drama Dice.
• Revamp the Virtue / Hubris system so that a Virtue doesn't effectively cost 20 HP (they cost 10, but buying a Virtue means you can't get +10 points for taking a Hubris). Additionally, most Virtues need a bump in their power.
• Traits trump knacks way too much.
• The Skill / Knack system needs a major, major overhaul. There are too many skill and too many knacks that do almost the same thing. For example, Courtier has the following knacks all related to speaking: Oratory, Diplomacy, Gossip, Politics, Scheming, Seduction, Sincerity.

 

[Gryph]

Don't really hold it too much against him, pretty much every long-standing gamer who plays a variety of games (including me) goes through a "D&D is STUPID! I'm too GOOD for that STUPID game!" phrase (not meant to be John Wick's quotation, more my thinking a few years back before I got back into D&D). Hard to blame someone for what I've done myself...

Very much this.

Back in the mid-80's my gaming group became very "D&D is stupid". Our catch phrase (embarassing now) was "Gygax is a shoe salesman."

In the pre-internet world, we were unaware that EGG was being forced out of TSR and that the additions we were seeing and hated (Dungeoneer's Survival Guide) were not the work of the creator of the game.

It took the release of 3.0 for me to re-acquire my respect for the original game design.

I like John Wick's fluff and settings and have little liking for his dice pool mechanics; but I don't really hold his rants about a game design so different from his own work against him.