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.

 

[MGibster]

Swashbuckling adventure, not pirate.

When I read that it was a "pirate" game in the OP I thought to myself that John Wick better not see that. He will most emphatically tell anyone who will listen that it's not a pirate game. He's right of course.

 

[Dire Bare]

Studio Agate does the Fateforge RPG, which is basically another alternate D&D like Tales of the Valiant . . . but with amazing production values and artwork. 7th Sea fans are in for a treat, visually at least!

 

[dbm]

Looking at the survey, it seems both mechanics and world are potentially up for changing specifics.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Judging by the questions on the survey Chaosium sent out yesterday for Studio Agate's revision, I wouldn't hold my breath if you were hoping for a return to first edition setting or mechanics. It looks like either a continuation of what is now current or a further iteration thereof.

Which is...unfortunate.

 

[Jeffzilla]

I love 7S2e, which is weird because I hated it when I first read the books. I literally put them on my shelf for a decade and forgot about them. But then last year I had some new players-- new to roleplaying, not new to 7S-- who saw the books on my bookshelf, asked a few questions, and then BEGGED me to run it. It was strange, but without any expectations about how roleplaying games were "supposed" to work, they accepted the very odd rules system in a way that nobody else that I've ever talked to had, including myself. And the system literally sang!!! There are a few quirks about the game which don't quite work to my satisfaction, but I think the same can be said of almost any other RPG, and I'm now at least sold on the basic concept of the rules. We had a blast playing 2nd edition and I think the system does a great job of creating wild chaotic swashbuckling scenes.

I think the thing that helped me understand the design choices in this game later on was a John Wick interview where he talked about most board games either being roll-the-dice-and-then-move (Monopoly) or move-and-then-roll-the-dice (Risk). He then compared this to roleplaying games, which are generally declare-actions-and-then-roll-the-dice, and described how 7S2e evolved from his efforts to design a roll-the-dice-and-then-declare-actions RPG.

 

[overgeeked]

I love 7S2e, which is weird because I hated it when I first read the books. I literally put them on my shelf for a decade and forgot about them. But then last year I had some new players-- new to roleplaying, not new to 7S-- who saw the books on my bookshelf, asked a few questions, and then BEGGED me to run it. It was strange, but without any expectations about how roleplaying games were "supposed" to work, they accepted the very odd rules system in a way that nobody else that I've ever talked to had, including myself. And the system literally sang!!! There are a few quirks about the game which don't quite work to my satisfaction, but I think the same can be said of almost any other RPG, and I'm now at least sold on the basic concept of the rules. We had a blast playing 2nd edition and I think the system does a great job of creating wild chaotic swashbuckling scenes.

I think the thing that helped me understand the design choices in this game later on was a John Wick interview where he talked about most board games either being roll-the-dice-and-then-move (Monopoly) or move-and-then-roll-the-dice (Risk). He then compared this to roleplaying games, which are generally declare-actions-and-then-roll-the-dice, and described how 7S2e evolved from his efforts to design a roll-the-dice-and-then-declare-actions RPG.

That’s generally how it goes with older, more experienced gamers and these “new fangled” game systems. Decide they’re bad without actually playing them, then when given a chance the games play really well.

Congrats on just giving it a try.

 

[Elvish Lore]

That’s generally how it goes with older, more experienced gamers and these “new fangled” game systems. Decide they’re bad without actually playing them, then when given a chance the games play really well.

Congrats on just giving it a try.

I agree, that does happen a lot.

Luckily, my group and I played it first and then hated it.

 

[eyeheartawk]

I agree, that does happen a lot.

Luckily, my group and I played it first and then hated it.

Same, we tried it twice. Different groups and everyone hated it. Just sort of guessing what skills you're going to use, rolling dice based on that and then, probably, spending those dice generated on that premise on something completely different is not really satisfying. Everyone hated the lore changes (Why is Eisen Ravenloft now, with a national sorcery that is useless outside of monster filled Not-Eisen? Dracheneisen doesn't do anything. etc etc) If you engage in combat without being in a swordsman school combat is literally just "you take one wound" and move on. So, always take a swordman school so combat is at least passably engaging so you can.. do stuff. On that subject, you may as well take a sorcery too since it's so cheap so you have more options. Overall it just reads like a narrative game published in like 2001 or a vacuum completely disregarding anything post that date in narrative design, really shockingly wild decisions made all over the place.

I do like the wound wheel though.

 

[Jeffzilla]

That’s generally how it goes with older, more experienced gamers and these “new fangled” game systems.

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. I don't think I would have bothered running the game at all if some friends who hadn't ever roleplayed before hadn't begged me to run it-- and I don't think I would have enjoyed running it so much had they been grognards like myself who held deeply ingrained notions about what a roleplaying game is or isn't.

But they came to play without any expectations, accepted the game on its own terms, and experienced the same sheer joy that I experienced when I first played D&D nearly 50 years ago.

And man oh man, is that feeling ever contagious at the game table.

 

[Gambit42]

That’s generally how it goes with older, more experienced gamers and these “new fangled” game systems. Decide they’re bad without actually playing them, then when given a chance the games play really well.

Congrats on just giving it a try.

I gave Fantasy Flight Star Wars two different tries that totaled a fair number of months, before finally just accepting, this ain't my jam, and happily went back to Saga Edition as my favored SW system.