I had actually found this world out while scrolling through the comments of the Exalted kickstarter, and got really interested when I heard it was a swashbuckling world that actually had a place in L5R.

A few wikis later and I got even more interested in it. The Montaigne Musketeers and the Castillian Inquisition especially.

I'm old but discovered the game late. I fell in love with the original 7th Sea in the late 2000s after a friend introduced me to it.

The great thing about 7th Sea (for me) is that it combines my favorite things into one great package. I've always been a fan of the swashbuckling genre, rpgs, and fantasy settings. I also had one hell of a GM running my initial foray into Theah and that really hooked me into the game.

So if you're old like me you know how much fun this game can be and if you're new all I can say is congratulations! I think you're going to have a lot of fun playing in this world. :)

I went and looked, and we bought the GM Guide in June 2000, so not quite as long as I'd thought :-).

But as for how into it we were, well, I created this for us, then decided after going to all that work that I might as well share:
7th Sea Master Index:http://silver-gateway.com/7sea/master-index/index.html

I bought the player's guide and GM's guide back in the day but never got around to running it for my group. Loved the setting, so when j heard about the 2nd edition I jumped at the chance. 

I've been playing 7th Sea since around 2003-2004.... I started working on 2nd Edition around August 2015.

Been playing since 2005. Started out as GMing. Only played it twice (once on a message board and once online). Ran it four times in person and twice online.

Most of my players and myself are history buffs who are fans of romantic literature like The Three Musketeers and The Scarlet Pimpernal, so most of us are very genre savvy. This makes it easy for them to adjust to the new system's demand for both the GM and players to improv on the details in a narrative/theatrical fashion rather than to think tactically like, say, with DnD.

At least three people I know besides myself have been wishing for a 2e/re-release of 7th Sea for about a decade now. We've also gotten other people very interested along the way.

Been all in since nearly the begining, never thought I'd see this, very happy.

I found 7th Sea while browsing the discover list of game projects on Kickstarter. Swashbuckling happens to be one of my favorite story types and I love magic and sorcery so seeing the two combined and allowing play for pirates just cemented this game as one of my favorite setting concepts of all time. I'm obviously new, but I very much look forward to diving into this amazing sounding world that John had built. (Provided I can find a group to play with. My old game group has kind of split up.) :/

I have been around since maybe day 50 of the first edition.  (yep, I didn't buy it right at release, I waited around to try it at a con first) 

But I bought it with the intent that it would be able to serve as the LAST RPG I would ever need to run. 

I stand by that plan.  There is enough in this setting to be able to keep me interested 16+ years down the road. 

 

Now, along that timespan, I have made some of the best friends I will ever have.  I got railroaded into turning it into a LARP.  Somebody dragged me into a bit of freelancing because of that.  I met more amazing friends.  I told more amazing tales.  And I have grown into a 1,000 times better GM. 

This is a thank you for John.  thank you for giving me a chance to play in your world and make mine so much more amazing in the process.

I had honestly never heard of 7th Sea before the Kickstarter. I was there because I was checking out the Kickstarter for Conan.

Old timer here.  A friend introduced me to it right after the game came out and the group as a whole loved the setting.  Of course after the first few games when we were doing things that the GM didn't really care for (i.e. actually playing our hubrises so that he couldn't penalize us with them) we suddenly had to buy our own books so that we could play.  Really looking forward to a new edition so I can introduce some of my friends kids to a game that makes them think as and play a character rather than "kill monster, loot corpse."  

Sorry, not bashing any game system per say, just the atmosphere around the local gaming community and there are several parents amongst my friends that are not happy with what our favorite games from childhood have become.  (We tend to forget how much homebrewing we actually did to make D&D the game we wanted to play).

 

Got to get their parents' permission first.  Not expecting a particularly hard time with that since I know how to scale a game's rating to an appropriate age, but still there's a chance they'll say no.

 

Old Timer. Been playing 7th Sea since 2000 or 2001. I'm in a very cool situation. I consider John Wick one of my best friends.  I met John Wick at a gaming convention here in AZ. He had just recently moved here from LA around the same time I relocated from PA. Outside of the convention game of Houses of the Blooded, my second session was 7th Sea with him as GM. Ever since, John has been at my gaming table. We bonded over our love of professional wrestling and have even produced some podcasts with the BearSwarm! guys ( Mike Curry and Rob Justice) and then we did our own about wrestling history. All during that time, we've enjoyed campaigns in Theah, Rokugan, the insane world of TORG, Monsters in London, Vampires in Los Angeles,  back to Rokugan, Ven in Space, and we set sail again from the shores of Theah.

I'm lucky because I've had the opportunity to play in home games with John as well as Ken St Andre, Shane Hensley, and Ben Woerner. These guys are great game developers, but in the old school in Ken, and the new school in Ben. 

I'm really looking forward to the new rules and the system. 

My Castillain Swordsman Sancho is still one of my favorite characters I've gotten to play. Sancho loves all women and all women love Sancho.... "20 babies"

 

Old - had a group back late 90s that said "Hey, we're playing this swashbuckling game" and I replied "I HATE swashbuckling. It's so cheesy stupid". But I had to play 7th Sea or nothing. A year later, I had all the books. I'd moved away and was playing with a new group. My first and only time GMing was a 7th Sea campaign I came up with that lasted over a year. My seasoned RPing friends introduce me as their "7th Sea person" and told me my campaign was one of the 3 best they'd ever played. 

Needless to say, when I heard there was a 2nd edition, I was all in. So glad so many people are in here with me!

I adored the campaign I ran in the 1st Edition 7th Sea.  It contains many of my happiest RPG memories of my 35+ year history with the hobby.  I'm over the moon that 7th Sea will come back to a new generation of gamers.

I am new, only been playing the past 3 years when my GF introduced me to it.  It is the only RPG she really plays, as her experience with DND hasn't been that great, and the GM we have for 7th Sea is amazing.  No story is perdictable, and nothing is off the table... I have only played 4 characters total for the system An Eisen Noble who was part of the Inquisiton, had all kinds of crazy things, and ended up being 'assigned' to follow a group of mages (2 El fuego, 1 Zorstrum, 1 Porte, 1 Sorte), and they made NO attempts to hide that fact from anyone.. But I joined at the end of the game, so I only got to play my guy 4 times before they started a new camp.  This was supposed to follow the Heroes of Altemera Adventures... but we only did book 1, before the group derailed it, since they didn't like pregen adventures.  I played a Castillian Professor, that had a crazy theory that Man was actually a Syrneth Race, or at the very least, lived along side them.  (Note, this is still before I knew ANYTHING about the setting!), and because of this theory, that he published... he was considered a laughing stock, and had many visits from Verdugo.  His adventures.. went insane.  If the game continued, he probably would have ither ended up dead, a villain, or VERY enlightened...  I also played a Tarkir Pirate that found his way to the Brotherhood of the Coast, and signed on to one of their ships.  Was the only 'pirate' game I have seenthis group play, and it ended because of scedualling difficulties.  The last person (who I am currently playing as) is an Eisen Noble, who got 'given up' to the Montainge, so he got Dispossessed, and discovered that he is actually the Son of the Imperitor's Butler.  SO he went from having no money, to lots of it.  But, he is a strong Vatacine Man, and is someone who believes in helping the little guy.  What he doesn't know yet, is that he is being looked at for Recrutiment by both the Black Cross, and the Rilechier..... This game is loads of fun, trying to navigate Montainge Court Politics, with a Brutish Drexel using Eisen...

Old.

I stumbled across some promotions for the game on AEG's website about a month before it's release.  Just a bunch of flavor text and short vignettes really.  I was immediately hooked and at my FLGS the morning the two core books hit the shelves.  I remember my first thoughts being disappoionted by the cover of the GM Guide (the player book cover is beautiful) and being left underwhelmed by the maps.  But I bought them both anyway.  Understand, previous to this I really didn't know anything about L5R other than it existed.

It was a good run, but while I never let the metaplot get in my way, I became very disillusioned with AEG's practices a few years later when, after being teased with the whole "Atlantis" plot line at GenCon and waiting a year for something to come of it, what we got was Waves of Blood where the whole thing was wrapped up as an afterthought.  I mean, it's not even worth spoiler tags it was so badly bungled.

While I haven't actively played for years, my group still talks about our experience with 7th Sea.  And there has always been an open invitation to return to the lands of Theah.  Next year seems like the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Tom

New.

I stopped GMing & playing RPGs in the mid-nineties, when I finished my last degree and no longer had sufficient free time.  I started getting back into more storytelling-focused games like Fiasco over the last couple of years, and had been kicking around running some kind of longform RPG campaign once again when I learned about the KS campaign.  Early Modern Europe and swashbuckling are right in the center of one of my interests.

I am oldster from the AEG days.  I play tested for them for awhile in the early to mid 2000s and became very disappointed in the way they handled their properties and eventually just washed my hands of them.

 

I've ran and played in quite a few 1e games and am starting a new 1e game this coming weekend.  Some of the more memorable characters include...

 

Gianni di Caligari - A Vodacce member of the Invisible College.  He was an avid astronomer and ground the lenses for his telescopes.  He accidentally invented sunglasses when the Inquistion raided his lab and a batch of lenses got smoked during the escape.  Gianni noticed they blocked most of the Sun's glare and set a pair in binoculars to make solar observations.  Afterwords he dupicated the accident and when spotted with them at a daytime party in Montaigne, they became all the rage, and were called "Giannis" in his honor.  He used his newfound wealth to fund a large observatory/fortress.

 

Heinrich von Isselmann - The second son of minor Eisen nobility.  Heinrich eventually reunited Eisen as the Iron Republic.  The final holdout was Sieger who he ended up dueling for control of the Koenigreich.  Both were in full dracheneisen regalia and in the first round Heinrich tossed down his sword and went to grapple with Sieger.  Once he had a good hold he whispered in the Eisenfursten's ear, "You ever eaten crab the way the Vesten do?  First, you crack the shell."  He then got ahold of when the lacings of Seiger's drachenschuppe and tore it apart, pulling the pauldron on his right side free.  "Then you pull out the meat," as he began pummeling the exposed weakspot.  Seiger eventually was worn down and Heinrich was declared the First Governor of the Republic.

 

Antoin(ette) di Bernoulli - An escaped abused wife of a Vodacce nobleman.  She disguised herself as a man and worked as the Master of the Tops on a privateer, her true gender only known to the Captain, Bosun, and Ship's Chirurgeon.  She learned to fence and eventually threw off her disguise at a party in Castille to challenge her erstwhile husband to a duel, promising him he'd never see another sunrise.  She won and before the final blow was struck her former husband revealed their daughter was still alive and if she let him live, he'd tell her where to find her.  She stayed her hand, but kept her promise by blinding the villain.

Heyo, new guy here, in more ways than one. I'm new to the world of 7th Sea, a first time Kickstarter backer, have nearly no background in tabletops, and am the recently christened DM of all things related to 7th Sea. Back in high school, a group of my friends were involved in a Star Wars D&D campaign ran by one of the teachers afterschool. A few of them wanted me to join up, but I was never invited by the teacher, though later tales of how things turned out were rather offputting and made me kind of glad I never got drawn into it. At the end of senior year, i was invited to a Pathfinder campaign ran by one of those friends. After what seemed like tens of hours online reading about classes, the bestiaries, rules, spell lists, and a few class guides, it became my big thing for a few weeks and I was super excited. Unfortunately, this turned out to end in one unspectacular two hour session that ended before we even got to the first big action scene.

Then, I was browsing a site I frequent when I found a link to an article talking about the recently revived 7th Sea and why the author enjoyed the original showed up. The article got me interested, the Kickstarter page got me reading, the $1 Quickstart made me a backer, and the great deal of the $40+ levels locked me in. Well, those things and the fact that my girlfriend and roomate (both part of the Star Wars group) are really into pirates and swashbuckling (and are helping pay for it). In any case, I'm excited for the stories we're all about to weave and can't wait for the 1st edition stuff to drop so I can start compiling and planning!

Old timer here. Wife and I were looking for a new game to try in the late 90's and I liked the cover of the Players Guide . We picked it up and the rest is History . We have explored all around Theah and from 7th Sea we found one of our other all-time favorites L5R. We have a pair of characters that have been played from the begining and the continue to this day.

- Natalia Fascali, cousin of Prince Fascali (And secretly on of his agents when he wants to deny everything) , former Cresent Slave and now  Pirate Captain of The Vodacce Wind. She has worked with the Sea Dogs and has a special hatred of the Inquisition. Her crew consists of Vodacce ruffians, Castillian refuges on the run from the Inquisition, and Highlanders from Avalon. A common exchange on her ship is :

Natalia;" Shes an Inquisition ship..What shall we do?"

a single crew member: " Chase her down Captain"

Natalia: " And Then ?" 

A few of the Crew : " Board and Plunder her Captain"

Natalia: " And Then?"

Whole Crew " Send her to the bottom!!!!"

 

- Fergus McKay Highland warrior and Student of the McDonald school. He was the first person Natalia released during the revolt on the Crecent Slave Ship and he has been with her ever since. He loves to drink and spend his money , Fight during a boarding action( He loves to be the first one to touch the enemies decks) and be First Mate to Natalia. He is also a master of the Tops but the crew usually has him stay out of the rigging due to his perchance for wearing a Kilt in true Highland fashion. 

Together they have sailed all over Theah and have no plans on stopping anytime soon ( Inquisition ships consider this your warning)

Old timer since fairly early in the AEG period.  Abused the d20 game a bit, but it's not really....good.  Been playing 7th Sea fairly regularly and have run Erebus Cross several times for various groups.  My characters of note are Remy Valroux du Paix, a knight of the Rose and Cross, and Antonio da Luca, a long-suffering Vodacce valet turned gunner's mate, constantly surrounded by Finnegan boxers and Rasmussen murderists.

Basically first time for me.  For me the first exposure to the world was actually some old card packs.  I wonder if that's the case for anyone else.

I played a couple of campaigns and a lot of LRPG. In fact, I'm preparing one just now.

Me, an old fellow. I have all the 1st edition stuff printed in spanish (with its maaaany errata). My characters:

-Carmen Acevedo de Soldano, a castillian soldier against Montaigne, a sorceress who's terrified of her blazing powers, and a probationary member of Los Vagos (I hate this. In spanish "vago" means "lazy". The spanish version names them as "Los Vagabundos", that is literally "The Wanderers", although I think the meaning is more like "The Beggars").

-Wulfsteinn, son of Wulfgaard, a vesten skjaeren, hounded by the Vendel League, a mercenary in Freiburg during the Battle of Freiburg.

My Wife and I came into 7th Sea very early on.  We still have our first printing Player's and GM's guides.

I've played a couple of games of 7th Sea about 8 or 9 years ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly, but I still consider myself a newbie. Not enough exposure to the game to have a great familiarity with it, but I'm really excited to see where 2e takes us.

 

Being a big Errol Flynn fan, I jumped (cut the chandelier rope and swung thru the window) at the chance to play 7th Sea about 9 years ago. Unfortunately the group broke up after a few sessions. I went on to play dozens of other games systems since, but 7th Sea was always one of my top 3 favorite games.

When a friend told me about the Kickstarter I immediately logged in, it was only a few hours old at the time but I  didn't waste any time pledging. Now it's just a matter of getting my current group up to speed.  

 

 

 

I got into 7th Sea with the first edition years and years ago. Our group only played a few sessions before everyone lost interest (GM ran it like a hack and slash campaign, which I hated. He was a killer GM, which everyone else hated.)

I tried to run a campaign myself, but as I was a first time GM, I made a bunch of newbie mistakes. The players were not understanding.

 

I still love the game and the setting though. I hope to be able to get back into it (if I can find a new group.)

I am not new to the setting but never got to play 1st edition with anyone. But the setting was worth my pledge.

I've played in and run a number of 1st ed campaigns over the years, so I think I count as an old hand.

Morgan Wolfe, suggested some interesting options so we have a thread to discuss existing online tools and propose new ones (Morgan Wolfe, I moved the comments to that thread below): http://www.7thsea2e.com/port/forum/online-game-tools

I´ve fought in the War of the Cross, I´ve defended my homeland against the Montaigne invasion, I´ve salied the seven seas... And I will do it again!!

Unfortunately our old ship wrecked long ago, but a new flagship is in the shipyard. Newer, faster and with more cannons!

Yeeeehaaaa!

Ahoy! New blood here. I stumbled upon play dirty years ago and John must have had my email address because of that. I got an email about the KS and had to check it out because I was always so impressed with John's writings/teachings. I am so excited for Gencon!

I've been GM'ing Shadowrun for awhile now (and in years past dnd) and tomorrow my group is checking out the KS, we'll see how it goes. One thing that is so great so far is a good friend of mine is coming down to join the group. He doesn't play most RPG's anymore because he doesn't like any of the ones with way too much crunchy rules that bog down. But 7th sea has peeked his interest!

Old. Very old. The file date on the earliest 7th sea file I could find was July, 1999 (being the original character sheet for Ysabette du Montaigne) I drifted away from 7th Sea not long after I stopped going to Gen Con (those hotel rooms were just too much, and the balance point between "fun" and "work" for making and running 5-7 games to get some of that covered by Gen Con was starting to tip to far to work) but I'm very glad to be back. :)

I have very fond memories of a game played back home in Bristol just before I moved in 2000, so I guess I count as an early player. I've been out of the loop since then (especially in the d20 era), but the Kickstarter has dredged up all my nostalgia.

It helps than nearly all of the rules ideas seem to match my own recent ideas for cinematic rules mechanics...

Old fan here, I was an L5R fan before it was released and remember the 'A Differenct Kind of Honor, a Different Kind of Steel' advertising page in one of the L5R books and was immediatly interested. I think I was hounding my local comic/gaming shop every week for the release date.
I haven't played for a long time, although the kickstarted reignited interst in a few of my gaming group and we're making characters for a 1e game next session.

Owned some of the core rule books, never got to play though. The system always looked like it was a system I would prefer though. The old system.