Hi everybody,
I'll soon do my first 7th Sea session, and I have doubts about the firearms. When I read the rules, I think it's very easy if each player has a firearm (or if one player carry several pistols on him) to defeat a vilain, regardless of his Villainy.
If I understund the rules, using a firearm deals a dramatic wound which connat be avoided, and everyone can take only 4 dramatic wounds before being helpless.
I searched in this forum for threads about this, but found nothing. So maybe I fear for nothing, or I misunderstund the rules?
How do you deal with firearms? Have you some tricks to avoir abuses?
Thank you for your help.
In my opinion, the combat mechanics of 2nd edition is broken. They've put everything in the narrative and don't care about the game system. 2nd edition is more like an semi-interactive theater scene than an RPG.
I've already asked about this myself (http://www.7thsea2e.com/port/forum/even-more-questions question #6). (ok, I have no idea why the link don't work, just do a ctl-f in the forum with 'even more questions')
There is a good point in the answers; Although yes, you could kill a villain with 4 gun shots, you have to survive long enough to shoot those 4 guns.
But mostly it turns around the 'the GM just have to cheat'.
Other that that: there is some mechanics to increase the amounts of dramatic wounds to 5 (an advantage) and there is a dueling school with a maneuver (De Vore Politesse) that can soak up even a dramatic wound from a gun.
But yeah, combat-wise you need to be a duelist or cary a brace of guns.
Anybody else can only do 1 light wounds per raise, period.
I also like how your skills and traits have no effect whatsoever on combat.
Yes, they do determine how many raises you have but that's it. If you have at least 1 Raise, you WILL hit the bad guy, period, no matter if it's a grunt of Captain Reis himself (wait, that's herself now right?).
Same for your health. 8 feet tall viking VS 4 feet tall street urchin? Both will fall with the same amount of damage (4 dramatic wounds).
Anyway.
While this has not come up in our game yet (the abuse part), one way I would handle it is that I would spend a Danger Point to allow a Villain to ignore the 'effects' of the gunshot Wound when determining when the Villain is 'defeated'. Basically it counts as a 'Wound' for Wound effects in combat or for Dramatic Rolls, but doesn't count towards Defeat. Sure, it may be 'cheating' but that's what Danger Points are for :)
There is no real abuse. Characters should not have more than one or two pistols or one musket. Same should apply to Villains.
* Brute squad with firearms also deal this Dramatic wound along Flesh Wounds.
* Villains have more Dramatic Wounds than Heroes
Authot was correct stating 2nd Edition does not have Combat Rules. This is good thing when simulating Cinematic adventures like Swashbuckling. Most other systems fail by using tactical combat.
Villains have more Dramatic Wounds than Heroes
um...no. They don't. They can take more Wounds, but they go down after 4 (or 5) dramatic wounds just like Heroes do.
But regardless, I haven't seen any abuse on this score either. Even if a player demanded to be carrying a brace of six pistols (loaded and primed, of course) at all times, there are plenty of things you can do to whittle that down through basic consequences or through the sly use of raises in a sequence. Guard brutes will help. And I agree I can see spending a Danger Point to neutralize a dramatic would (though better make it interesting and don't abuse it).