Hi everybody!

Sorry for the incredibly embarrasing newb question, but this has been bugging me for a while and I can't go on until I get it right.

As a GM, I don't know how risks work exactly. I understand the basic rules to resolve a risk, and then we have an action sequence (or Action Scene), which is a series of risks/rolls/rounds. This emulates action rounds in more traditional RPG's.

Going over the rules once more in preparation for a game it suddenly dawned on me that 7th Sea 2nd edition doesn't actually have any rules for "reactive" or "passive" rolls (what, I suppose, other RPGs might refer to as "saving throws"). This is obviously fully intentional and I fully understand the reasoning behind it - there's no need to explain that to me. However, thinking back to swashbuckling literature it's hard to deny that sometimes there is value to knowing whether or not a hero is affected by poison, or is succesfully snuck upon, etc.

I've been running a 7th Sea game for a year now in 2nd edition. While I love the setting and even think the rules are nice and lightweight, I've begun to see a pattern in how I'm running and I'm curious how others are dealing with it.

When the game started, I called for "risk rolls" whenever a hero would attempt something that would be considered a risk (sneaking past guards, pickpocketing someone, etc). In the beginning I would assign inpromptu opportunities and consequences and the player would assign their Raises, always succeeding and usually buying off all the other things.

I think I understand action and dramatic sequences well enough.

What confuses me a bit is when, through the course of normal play, a not-so-risky situation arises where a character's talents might be useful, and success or failure both make for potentially interesting twists.

Or perhaps when a single, brief danger is presented.

Let's take an example: A player is talking to a major NPC, but there are facets about this NPC that could lead to a new adventure entirely. However, it's not information the NPC himself is aware of.

I might be reading this wrong but one thing that doesn’t sit well with me is how quickly longer action sequences can be resolved. You know, when you want a bit of ‘back and forth’, a bit of ‘ebb and flow’. For example:

Action Sequence: Storm and Sail

The Heroes are leaving Avalon on a ship bound for Montaigne. Though the weather was overcast, everything was going fine until about half hour into the journey a storm hit them seemingly from nowhere.

Cons