Aliens have been mentioned. What are the aliens? Are they space faring aliens? Is there a mother ship? Why are they interested in Terra?

Can we be careful with the GM Spoilers folks? The title of this thread is "Newbies and First Timers" - most of this isn't exactly the stuff a brand new player should have any clue about. I know the question was asked, but we can keep it vaguer or create a new thread for GMs and link to it. Rev's had a good structure for addressing stuff like that.

Another question: The QS didn't seem to give a definitive answer on character Disadvantages. Will there be any sort of negative character traits? I've always found those fun for building unique characters.

The "Alien" aspects of certain backstory groups also grew greater when the later wave of writers shifted them into that mode from the very brief write ups we had seen in the core book.  Some of it came from the artifacts that were included that had a very sci-fi feel. 

This system can function very well without them being present or using the tech they produced.  I have managed to ignore almost all of it since the beginning and had a very good time without it. 

But this is very much the argument that science we don't understand is termed "magic".  Rob and John may call them Demons, Sidhe or Syrneth but what they are is a non-human influence. 

Was 1e well designed for solo or small group play? Some RPG systems are pretty tough on groups unless there are a fair number of characters filling different roles.

As long as the GM is prepared for it, you can run it for a single player. 1st Ed was open for skill selection so a player can take as many as they can afford. I have a regular player that makes a point of doing that. Your biggest hassle in the small group play is language barriers. I usually require players to spend on the local language for the campaign. The most I have seated for tabletop play was 15 in one session. At that scale the main goal is to spread the spotlight and keep combats short to avoid excess dice rolling.

Oh man, Language barriers... Playing a Cathayan that only knows 1 language from Thea fluently, and a pidgeon of most the other major ones... THAT was a good time.  I learned Kanuben before I finished getting the xp for Montaign... 

 

 

I'm thinking this might have been answered in a 1e sourcebook, but I'm curious: Has JW explained why he picked the year 1668 for the game's start year? I've been looking through invention and historical timelines to see what was going on in the real 1668.

It fits into the era they were looking to emulate. Beyond that, it flows well off the tongue? No idea for certain. But it is just after the fire of London that lead the era to be called "Restoration". (The fire and the sudden upswing in the sciences restoring what was " lost" knowledge). It's probably less about what happened in that year specific and more what happened in the handful of years before and after. Setting it as a good average point to kick things off.

By the by, it's a breeze to Google up a map of London from just after the fire. It has a sizable gap right in the middle of it to fill with your own buildings. Might be the only map from outside 7th sea I ever used in the game.

I always suspected it was because the year was prominently displayed at the beginning of Cutthroat Island.

New to 7th Sea and DMing, though I have yet to organize a game. Kickstarter really intrigued me, so I backed it and have only just gotten my friends introduced.

Does anyone have general advice for someone jumping off of a D&D/FFG system for the first time, and taking the leap from player to DM? Just the fact that there are no equipment lists threw me off! But I really like the world and narrative system, so I'll get the hang of it.

Also: Is it 1668, or 1968? One of the maps in the printed book says 1968. Page 21.

It's 1668. That date is centered in the Restoration era following the real world great fire of London. It really was a time that was on the cusp of some great advancements. My best advice is to keep in mind it's a system of story not combat. Sure we have sword fights but they are a side effect of the adventure. AND ASK QUESTIONS when in doubt. Many of is have been with the setting since '99. We are here to help.

I think that if you just look at the plotlines, you could build off the first Ed adventures. The problem is that just enough storyline has changed that most of them will not fit the official background established. (Case in poont:the Erebus cross trilogy that started with the gm screen focuses on the war between castille and Montaigne, the Montaigne military retreat from ussura, A Heilgrund plot that might still be in play, and a take on the syrneth that possibly isn't). The Freiburg set contains an even mix of stuff that is still workable and plots that do not fit the campaign world but the key plot involves a Dracheneisen mine which is invalid.

The adventures hold up but the new edition reset the world. Certain nations are no longer at war, certain world leaders have changed, some nations no longer share borders. But there are great ideas in the old edition stuff. There will be material from the fans as soon as they open the page on drive thru for content.

Hello Heroes,

[This is my first time posting here, so if there's a correct way to post things, please let me know.] Beyond that, I had posted a question on the kickstarter unaware of these 7S 2e forums, and I would like possibly some more thoughts on it. The question is about slavery existing in 7th Sea 2e. From what I can tell and have been able to find out about 7th Sea is that the setting is a lot more light-hearted game. With gender equality being more of a thing and possibly the friendliness between countries is a lot stronger, but whether slavery exists or not, I have been told that only villains would be behind such evil, not necessarily any one country being behind it, which is fine.

Haha, so after all that would it be okay if, i guess another secret organization was created, almost like an underground villain orginazation that would be the one's behind such evil acts like slavery, corrupt deals, torture, negative influence on the people, etc? A few reasons why I'm asking is because, I wanted to know if this would go against the intended idea of 7th Sea and if homebrewing another secret group would unbalance the game in some way?

 

Thank you very much for your help,

- Potens

Thanks, that's very helpful. I haven't read through all of 2e , but is there a process for making a villains secret organization? Or would you suggest a better way to go about it? - Potens

The old version had much of the same restriction on morally wrong behaviors, it just didn't announce it to the public. ( The freelancers were certainly set on a path of what we can and cannot do in the setting). That said, there is nothing about adding new secret societies to the game that would unbalance anything, ever. The Rye Grin and Adventurers Society of Luthon were both home campaign material before they were published. The only thing you want to avoid is creating so many the players are overwhelmed. As for a villain society that is behind the worst things imaginable (should you and the players want to deal with that. And I get a group wanting to be heroes that end this sort of thing) you don't need to make one. NOM or Novus Ordum Mundi, was designed to handle this. The description may not spell it out but the cabal of 13 or so members are the most adept villains in the game and certainly capable of masterminding international horrors like slavery.

If a GM really to have the players kill the brutes, they can on a case by case basis rule a fight to be "non corrupting" and I think it would be fine. But it should be an exception and not a practice. My reasoning on this could fill pages, here is the short answers. 1- Dumas does have them killing in a few scenes but most of that is "war" or a situation where the villain will not accept quarter. But there are even more scenes where the brutes take a wound and are out of the fight. Maybe they die later maybe they live to 80. The point is that the hero beat them and they moved on to a viable target knowing the defeated brute would have enough honor to not get back up and re-engage because that is how things were done. Corruption is as much about winning the fight by unsavory means as it is about actually killing. Do as mucj as you need to win and it's seen as a fair fight even if the loser has a sucking chest wound and needs carried to a surgeon gets an infection and dies months later. Overwhelm him with a flurry of feints, cut his suspenders and push him into the lake, same result. You have proven the better swordsman today and the brute is too embarrassed to continue. But defeat every opponent by stabbingbtyembthrough the heart and whispers start about you being a butcher. Strangers avoid you and ministers denounce what you do. People stop fighting fair with you and that combines to weigh on your conscience. Killing is what criminals and highwaymen do. Not heroes. The hero should be looking for the better path even if it is harder. But sometimes, every other route is blocked and to save a life you have to take one. If the hero has exhausted their other options and the situation calls for it, sometimes a bad man just needs killing. Even Superman has fallen to that point a couple times. And situationally that may or may not come with corruption. Use your judgement in this and allatters I'm he game. A corruption point is not an absolute punishment, it's a gateway to a new story for redemption. If a player really wants to kill an NPC and take that storyline on, that is a good thing for your game.

As a GM, the balance you are looking for is that you never need to detail WHAT happens to them.  Once they are down, they are down and you move on to other matters.  Players don't have to declare they are wounding or killing them.  They describe an intent to fight them, overwhelm them or just blandly attack them and we resolve it.  Ideally, you want them doing it with interesting descriptions (beyond "I attack" or "I kill") but that is all you need to devote to the event.  Describe the target going down and move along. 

 

One of the aspects that actually appeal to me about the game is the concept that the heroes don't kill.  they are above that.  It makes it a little harder on them, it lets the bad guys come back to haunt them, and it totally goes against the mindset of most RPGs and I love that. 

Hello Dudes, I have a question about a city. I'm not sure if there's mysteries behind it, but in Eisen on the SouthEast corner of The Wälder. There is a city dot without a name. Directly in between Stutzung and Heilgrund. I looked in the Eisen section of the book and didn't see any talk about it. Does any know anything about this city?