Hi, I am completely new to 7th Sea and will be playing in a short-term game which might possibly turn into something longer-term later on. I will probably be playing a Sanderis Sorceress from the Samaritan Commonwealth with high perception (empathy, notice) but not very good combat skills. I am overwhelmed by the number of Arcana-Virtue-Vice choices. I must confess I am coming in from a D&D 5E mindset. I was wondering a) which virtue/hubris options are your favorites and b) do you think there are any power-gamer's choices?
Fri, 03/24/2017 - 20:33
#1
Ogre Mage
Favorite 2E Virtue and Hubris
new player question
It some ways it depends on what you want to do, but I think the Virtues are where mechanical benefit is most obvious, whereas the Hubrises are much more about roleplaying.
There is one Vice which people might say is power-gamey. Curious: gain an HP for acting like a PC.
With regards to Curious, I'd require that the Hero has to be investigating something that is most certainly dangerous. Much the same as I'd require Foolhardy and Hot-Headed to actually put the Hero in serious danger to get the Hero Point instead of simply acting brash/reckless or getting angry over the littlest things respectively. Or witih Bitterness and the Hero simply being obstinate in the hopes of getting an easy Hero Point.
Then again, it'd be an easy Hubris to get out of the way early in the session, so you as the GM don't have to worry about the Hero suddenly springing it on you towards the session's end.
Dono's Gaming & Etc Blog
http://jedimorningfire.blogspot.com/
Glorious and it's counterpart Subtle can be pretty amazing, especially if you're rolling a lot of dice on your Risk. Only catch is that you either have to be the center of attention or acting behind the scenes respectively, situations that you may not always be able to set up when you'd really want to use your Virtue. Of course, if you're able to set up the situations those Virtues require, the effects can be amazing. I played a Castillian Duelist with Glorious in a friend's running of the old Erebus Cross adventure series, and there were instances where I was entering a one-on-one duel (with plenty of spectators) with 16 Raises; GM made sure that wouldn't be the case when it came time to confront the final BBEG if only to ensure the Villain had a chance to at least do some damage before getting his ass-to-ear ratio forcibly adjusted.
Exemplary is an excellent "support ability," since it can allow you and an ally to act well before anyone else, though you'll burn through your Raises a lot faster. But if the GM allows one of the two Heroes to simply abstain from spending Raises out of the pool (i.e. choosing not to act) then that other Hero is going to be a dynamo.
Adaptable is handy for a Hero that's not a Duelist that just wants to hammer an opponent as fast and as hard as they can. Though a Duelist could use it to fire off a Lunge before anybody has a chance to react, inflcting a whole lot of Wounds at once that can't be negated/prevented, making it more dangerous than Victorious.
Willful can utterly shut down a Villain that relies on Danger Point backed special abilities, though it has the drawback of preventing you from spending Hero Pionts.
Wily is pretty much a "get out of trouble free!" card, meaning that if things go really south at least you'll be free to help your allies out later.
Dono's Gaming & Etc Blog
http://jedimorningfire.blogspot.com/