7th Sea in the Real World

[otomodave]

I am starting a new 7th Sea campaign tomorrow. The thing is, as much as I like the Setting of Theah, I don't feel that there is enough "world". It's just Europe and some islands. I could add stuff, like Niyambe and Northern Crown, even Rokugan and the Burning Sands. But then, why not just use the real world and "fantasy it up" a little.
To that end, I plan on using a real world of the late 17th or 18th century and adding some of the things from Theah. The sorceries would exist, but would be less main-stream. The Secret Societies definitely make the list. I would also keep the Syrneth and Sidhe, though the Sidhe would play a less prominent role in England than they do in Avalon. Some of the NPC's would even be included (including probably the Black Freighter and maybe even Reis).
What are people's opinions on the matter?
Anybody have a good suggestion for a starting year?
Any cool new schools or sorceries to possibly add?

 

[Wednesday Boy]

There were some supplement books that detailed other areas of the 7th Sea world. They could help you expand the breadth of the world and allow you to choose whether to stay in the 7th Sea setting or the real world. The books were: Crescent Empire (the Arabian inspired area), Cathay: Jewel of the East (the Chinese inspired area), and Islands of Gold: The Midnight Archipelago (the island areas). Crescent EMpire is in the d10 system and the other two are in the d20 system but can still be mined for setting flavor.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Before I'd axe Theah, I'd ask why the story would require this. Do you ever intend for the Heroes to go to Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or the New World? Do you want a different cast of characters? Do you hate the setting's plot lines? Do you want fueding over colonies, the East India Company, or Red Coats? Can these items be added to the setting without destroying it's charm?

I'd keep in mind that Theah is your sandbox, not AEG's. Change the world to meet your game, not the game to meet the world. The last time I ran a 7th Sea game, I plotted out the story I wanted to tell and altered the world to fit it. I changed what happened to the First Prophet, changed the goal of the inquisition, I added dozens of my own NPCs, a new secret society, and advanced events as they related to the game.

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Bonus Post!

Here are some sites and house rules I use when I run 7th Sea
Behind the Name: the Meaning, Etymology and History of First Names - A great site for names. You can sort by nationality and gender
Aldana Steel: House Rules - An interesting collection of house rules.

My House Rules

• Everybody has an Arcana. A Player who takes a Hubris gets 10 extra points. A player who doesn't take a Hubris gets a Virtue for free.
• When you earn a drama dice a bonus drama die, you get an XP. You get no bonus XP from unspent drama dice.
• Pyeryem Sorcerers gain a number of "phantom" Drama Dice each day equal to the lowest of their Brawn or Resolve; these Drama Dice can only be used to activate their Sorcery, and they may not be "stored" from one day to the next.
• Players may award a drama die by universal acclaim or if they suggest a particularlly vile idea for the GM to use.
• Fear is a 5+(5*Fear Rating) check (instead of 5* Fear Rating)
• Active Defenses get a free raise to be in line with the free raise of passive defenses
• Carring Capacity rules - Each point of brawn allows you to carry
  
  [*]One Musket
  [*]Two Pistols
  [*]Four throwing daggers​
• Dramatis Personae (see the Aldana Steel site)
• A character can aid another character if they have the Knack being used. One character performs the action rolling his/her Trait+Knack. Each player assisting can roll one unkept die to assist. The character who rolled Trait+Knack decides which dice he/she uses for calculating the check.
• XP Menu

I am playing with a new system called the XP Menu. Basically, you give some bonus XP at the start of the game to charactes who are built with your story in mind. This is a sample XP Menu from a game (players could only earn 7 XP off this chart):

XP Menu Sample

• 5 XP: Rose and Cross Membership
• 5 XP: Invisible College Membership
• 5 XP: Nationality - Castille or Montaigne
• 2-8 XP: Commission - (1 XP / HP Spent)
• 4 XP: Ordained
• 2 XP: Tenure
• 2 XP: Published
• 1 XP: R/W Castille
• 1 XP: R/W Montaigne
• 2 XP: Skills: Priest, Scholar, Teacher (only one)
• 2 XP: Skills: Courtier, Spy, Streetwise (only one)
• 2 XP: Skills: Commander
• 2 XP: Featured Contact (one of 5 featured contacts presented to the players before character creation)

I'm still looking for a good rule that makes traits and skills balance out a bit better. If you've got one, I'd love to hear it

 

[otomodave]

I have played in and ran many games in Theah, and do enjoy the setting. I do really enjoy the depth of the nations as outlined in the Nation Books (the pride and joy of my RPG book collection). I have the Crescent, Cathay, and Midinight Archipelago books, but feel that more would be better. I was considering the Nyambe stuff, because I feel that an Africa is a must. I also feel that a version of the Americas is needed, like say Northern Crown. I haven't yet had a chance to get in deep on those settings, but the recommendation of Aldana Steel is a plus. But while I was considering adding all of these to make the world a little closer to the real world, I thought why not use the real world for this campaign. In most campaigns it wouldn't really be an issue, but for this one I plan a great deal of seagoing exploration, so I want all of those exciting locales.
I still do and always will love the beautiful shores of Theah, if for no other reason than Villanova lives there.
I like some of those house rules mentioned above. The extra XP only being given for awarded experience has been one I have used for awhile, since players are by nature XP greedy. I also like allowing the players to award XP. It makes it more fun for everybody. I use some modifications to the general mechanics of schools that I read on a website, but I cannot remember to whom the credit belongs. Basically, it does away with Exploit weakness as a normal school knack and instead allows you to advance on the remaining knacks plus your primary attack knack. Exploit weakness still exists, but you must earn the right to increase it by besting someone of the appropriate school.
I also plan on limiting the number of raises a person can take to the rank of the knack being used. I hope that this will encourage people to increase knacks instead of simply relying on traits. Of course, special situations may arise, but that is the life of the GM.

 

[S'mon]

I remember hating the Theah map on sight. I'd recommend keeping everything you like in it, but expand it with real-world analogues of the missing continents.

 

[fireinthedust]

Here's a suggestion: regardless where the game is set (real world or Theah) you create a sort of mini-setting for the campaign.

Look at Pirates of the Carribean:

1) Tortuga: it's the dirty pirate town. Lots of pirates, "loose women" and suchnot. Prepare stats for a bar fight, and descriptions of pathetic pirates whenever the PCs recruit for their own crew.

2) Port Royal: the colony/governor's home. Lots of soldiers, so don't act up; prepare some chase scenes with soldiers running after PCs.

3) Ilsa Muerte: the mysterious island where treasure is buried.

4) The open seas: Details of the ship's layout, rules for stormy weather, and ship-to-ship combat (cannon and boarding parties).


And that's really it. The other movies follow those guidelines with their own locations (cannibal island locations, pirate prison (theoretically), swamp, pirate stronghold, Singapore/asian pirate town), but that's all that's important.

The difference is that whichever you use, you'll be picking spots for them in your setting.


Also: 7th Sea was out way before Pirates came out. Ergo, Europe was all that mattered, and various vague islands could cover anything needed for "some pirate plot".


A counter-example would be if you're running Ravenloft materials. Castle Ravenloft could be in Transylvania (the province of Barovia) or you could have it in Barovia the Domain. Either way you're going to have the village, the Castle, the haunted forest, the gypsies, and theoretically the city wherever the PCs hail from (Paris, London, or the FRCS city of Waterdeep, as you will).

 

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

I think this one is much better then the one in the book.

 

[fireinthedust]

I can't Google up quickstart rules (ie: a rules sample for character generation) unless I buy the pdf.

Any resources online for this?

 

[havard]

I like this idea alot!

I like alot of things about 7th Sea, but I never liked how Theah was almost like Europe, except not. Also, some of the changes were pretty stupid and others seemed pointless. I do see some difficulties with assigning character generation abilities to new nationalities, but I guess you could simply assign them to pretty much the corresponding parts of Europe.

-Havard