Alaxk Knight of Galt
First Post
This post is in praise of my favorite game system and setting: 7th Sea
- The Setting - First and foremost, 7th Sea is about the setting. 7 nations (England, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, and Netherlands/Norway), secret societies, sorcery, the inquisition hunting said sorcerers (and heretics in general), monsters and other horrors lurking in the shadows, pirates, and profound secrets make the game world.
- Cinematic Combat - Miniatures are not needed, characters have limited immunity to death, and the game encourages you to do wild, daring things in combat. This combat style is reinforced by the mechanics (flesh and dramatic wounds, drama dice to help do crazy things, drama dice are awarded when you do crazy things, and brute squads). The system also resolves combat quickly; it's not uncommon to finish several fights in a four-hour session while still having plenty of time for role-playing
Furthermore, the rules support using just about anything as a weapon (through a skill called Dirty Fighting). Want shake up a Champaign bottle and use the cork as a projectile, the game has you covered. Want to smash a chair over a bad guy, not a problem. Want to block that rapier with your book of the prophets, give the dice a roll and see if you can pull it off.
- Ridiculous Accents - Break out your worst French or Russian accent, everyone will appreciate it.
- Traits and Combat - Every trait (a trait is the equivalent of the six basic stats in DnD) in combat is used every round in a natural way: Brawn (damage and soaking), Finesse (attacking), Wits (defense), Resolve (number of Dramatic Wounds you have), Panache (number of actions you take per round).
Furthermore, it's very esay to apply these traits to various non-character entities such as ships and armies.
- Hubris - While characters can take a Virtue, most characters take a Hubris for extra points in character creation. If a player wants to, this can be great fun. In a game I'm playing now, I have the Trusting Hubris. Anything anyone says, I take at face value. Furthermore, the GM can activate your hubris to aid in the story telling. Are you Righteous, the GM can spend a drama die to make you a hundred percent sure that the questionable action you just suggested is the moral and right thing to do.
- Backgrounds as a Player Mechanic - You can spend points on various backgrounds for your character. This gives GMs great hooks, helps to flesh out your character, and awards bonus XP when the character background becomes a part of the story. Backgrounds are a great way for the player to give direction to the game.
- Guns and Swords - This is game and fantasy setting that handles both guns and swords very well. Guns are very powerful (they deal lots of damage, you can't use an active defense against them, and they are more likely to cause massive amounts of dramatic wounds), but require a long time to reload (basically, the rest of the combat). So once you shoot your gun, the best thing you can do is to switch to some sort of melee weapon.
