#WeAreAllUs: The Sword of Kings

October 10th marks the first anniversary of Greg Stafford’s passing. To both commemorate that date and celebrate Greg’s contribution to the roleplaying hobby, Chaosium, Inc. is publishing not just one free scenario, but five. One for each of the major roleplaying games published by Chaosium, Inc. Either designed or influenced by Greg, they include RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, King Arthur Pendragon, HeroQuest in Glorantha, Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, and 7th Sea. The aim of these releases is twofold. One is to showcase each of these worlds and roleplaying games, typically with a scenario that can be brought to the table with relative ease, whether that is your own or at a convention, but primarily the purpose is to get everyone sat round the table and playing since we are all roleplayers. In Greg’s words, that #WeAreAllUs.

The Sword of Kings is a scenario for 7th Sea, the preeminent roleplaying game of swashbuckling action, adventure, and storytelling in Théah, an alternate and fantastical version of Europe and beyond in the seventeenth century. Written by the game’s designer, John Wick, it is a one-shot, one-session adventure that can be run as a demonstration scenario, a convention scenario, or a scenario that dropped into an ongoing campaign with relative ease. It is thus quite short, consisting of three scenes and is relatively easy to prepare, but on the downside, as a demonstration or convention scenario, The Sword of Kings is lacking pre-generated player characters. The Game Master will need to prepare these prior to running the game. On the plus side, the scenario comes with staging advice aplenty such that the designer’s voice is strong throughout.

The Sword of Kings begins in medias res—two ships, one of them on fire (the one the heroes are on, of course), a raging storm, and a sea battle—as the stalwart heroes withstand assault after assault from brute squads and a villain bent on getting his hands on the one half of the McGuffin that the heroes have in their possession. The player characters are not meant to know what is going on, but a quick flashback reveals that they are off the Highland Marches having been ashore in Avalon where a woman wearing the symbol of the Explorer’s Society not only told them of a legendary sword that could ruin the reign of Queen Elaine of Avalon, she also gave them half of a map that would lead to its location. Guess who has the other half and happens to be aboard the sailing ship that is not on fire and that the heroes not aboard?

The subsequent acts get the heroes onto the island where clues to the location of the sword might be discerned and from there to its actual location. The simplicity of the set-up and the scenario—which are all but clichés—means that it is not heavily plotted, but instead focuses more on staging its various scenes, such as things that can occur aboard the burning boat, what happens should the heroes be captured, and both who the player characters’ patron might be and who the villain might be. A sample villain is included, but the Game Master is free to create one of her own or simply bring a recurring villain from her own campaign. The plot is definitely more spine upon which the Game Master can hang contingencies and the like in reaction to the player characters’ actions. Adapting to such contingencies likely means that the scenario will never quite turn out the same way twice if run as a demonstration or convention scenario.

The ending in which, of course, the heroes find the sword of the title, may well be slightly downbeat following the excitement of the opening scenes, especially if the Game Master is running it as a demonstration or convention scenario. Perhaps she may well want to add one last confrontation with the villain of the piece, if only to show off what the newly found sword can do. For an ongoing campaign this is less of an issue as ownership of the sword is likely to cause the heroes further complications.

Physically, The Sword of Kings is an eleven page, full-colour, 5.20 MB. Behind its full colour cover, the scenario tidily laid out and written in an engaging style. The scenario comes with a decent map and a decent handout (also a map).


The Sword of Kings is relatively easy to pull and run with a minimum of preparation, that is, if using it in an ongoing campaign. As a demonstration or convention scenario it will need pre-generated characters and those will need preparing ahead of time. Otherwise, The Sword of Kings comes with everything necessary to provide a 7th Sea Game Master and her players with a session’s worth of swashbuckling and sorcery—more than mild peril, a dastardly villain, a McGuffin, and a mystery.

A Taste of the Far East

The setting for 7th Sea, the roleplaying game of swashbuckling and sorcery published by John Wick Presents is the land of Théah. Yet there are lands beyond Théah, which the publisher is only beginning to address with the supplement, 7th Sea: Crescent Empire, which explores the lands immediately to the east of Théah. Yet there are lands beyond this, far to the east—Khitai. Although Khitai marks the return of the designer to the same genre as his highly regarded Legend of the Five Rings, that is, Asian fantasy, 7th Sea: Khitai is different in that it does not dwell solely on its Japanese and Chinese influences and sources. Instead, it encompasses numerous sources and influences and encompasses numerous nations and cultures, from China, Japan, and India to Cambodia, Australasia, and Oceania. Much of the pleasure of seeing these nations and cultures included is that many of them are rarely visited by roleplaying.

The first taste of Khitai comes in the form of 7th Sea: Khitai Quickstart, which includes an overview of the setting and its themes along with a complete adventure. On a very personal level, the difference in themes between Théah and Khitai is twofold. The first is that the heroes—or player characters—are not driven to adventure, but pulled by the Call to Adventure, a very real, spiritual urge to fulfill their destiny. This call is made by the Song of the World and places a duty upon the heroes that is much greater than their personal desires. The second is that in Khitai, honour is supernatural rather than personal.

7th Sea: Khitai uses the same mechanics as 7th Sea. These are essentially ‘roll and pair’, the players and the Game Master rolling pools of ten-sided dice to create ‘pairs’ of one, two, three, or more dice that each add up to ten or more. Each ‘pair’ is a Raise, which are spent to carry out actions in Action and Dramatic scenes. For the player characters, these pools are created from a combination of a character’s trait plus skill, for example, Honesty + Convince or Peace + Brawl. These combinations are called Approaches, which define how a character will do something. For example, Joy + Weaponry if a character wants to smash his way through a Brute Squad—the equivalent of a band of minions or goons or guards in Khitai—using her tetsubo or Wisdom + Mysticism if a character wants to search his memory for what he knows of a particular Kamuy or nature spirit. Bonus dice are rewarded for varying a character’s Approach from action to action and for providing an engaging description of said Approaches. In comparison, the Game Master rolls a pool of dice equal to the Strength of the Villain or Brute Squad.

In a scene, Raises are then spent to inflict or block damage, to avoid Consequences—bad things that might happen to a character, to purchase Opportunities—advantages and bonuses that a character can find or gain in a scene, and to discover clues in a scene. Although the dice rolling mechanic is very much that of the traditional roleplaying game, the application is much more akin to that of a storytelling roleplaying game.

There is one change in the rules between 7th Sea: Khitai and 7th Sea, a rule that the Game Master can import back to 7th Sea if he so desires. This is how Brute Squads work and the rule change makes them much more of a challenge. In combat in 7th Sea, a Brute Squad inflicts wounds, one wound per Raise, which a character counters with his Raises also on a one-for-one basis. In Khitai, when the Game Master spends Raises for a Brute Squad, it does not inflict Wounds on a one-for-one basis, but rather inflicts Wounds equal to the current Strength of the Brute Squad. The character can still counter this attack with a Raise and so block the Wounds.

The 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart introduces the setting and its rules in smart fashion. Barring the change in how Brute Squads work, the Game Master and his players will have no issue with the rules if they have played 7th Sea. Likewise, someone new to both 7th Sea and Khitai may not adjust as easily to the roleplaying game’s more storytelling rules if they are used to traditional games. Even though there is a limited amount of space in 7th Sea: Khitai Quickstart, it could have done with deeper examples of play, especially given the switch it makes from traditional to storytelling roleplaying games. This is because it makes a radical change in the names it gives the player characters’ Traits. In 7th Sea, these are Brawn, Finesse, Resolve, Wits, and Panache—a very traditional set of characteristics and easy to apply. In Khitai, the Traits are Compassion, Honesty, Joy, Loyalty, Peace, Respect, and Wisdom. Now a character only has five of these seven, these five being the ones they value, but they are more conceptual in nature and not as easy to apply on a case by case basis.

There are seven nations described in Khitai, but only two are detailed in the 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart and visited in the adventure, ‘Life-Giving Sword, Death-Giving Sword’. The first nation is the island archipelago of Fuso, known for the rift between its traditional shaman-chieftains and the upstart warlord leaders, or daimyos, the most ambitious of which would rule not just Fuso, but all of Khitai. The shaman-chieftains are also capable of talking with the kamuy, which are natural spirits, guardian angels, ancestor spirits, and so on. In this, Khitai draws from the Ainu mystical tradition rather than from the Kami and mystical traditions of Japan. The second nation is the Kingdom of Han, noted for its scholastic and artistic excellence—as well as the literacy of its people—though riven by nepotism and corruption, including in its military.

‘Life-Giving Sword, Death-Giving Sword’ is a three act scenario, a tale of love, greed, and revenge. The heroes are travelling when they realise that they are close to a monastery where they sheltered before, but upon arriving at its doors, they find that it has literally just burned down. Investigation reveals that it was no accident and worse, an ancient and mystical blade is missing. Duty bound, the heroes must follow the thief across Fuso and beyond, harried by assassins and bandits along the way. Alongside the combat, there are scenes involving investigation, persuasion, and negotiation, so there is plenty of opportunity for the heroes to exercise their skills and do so creatively. Overall, ‘Life-Giving Sword, Death-Giving Sword’ is a very straightforward scenario, almost linear, and presented in a step-by-step fashion. This makes it easy to run and the Game Master should have no issues running the scenario.

Rounding out 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart are five player characters, ready to play ‘Life-Giving Sword, Death-Giving Sword’. They include a female mystic and clan heir, a male samurai advisor and duellist, a female warrior monk, a male courtier from Han, and a male spymaster, exiled from another nation, Shenzhou. This is a good mix and they are clearly presented and laid out, with clear explanations of their abilities and their advantages.

Physically, the 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart is a well presented and easy read. The writing needs an edit here and there, but this is a minor issue. Much like 7th Sea, the 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart is superbly illustrated in full colour with great artwork that captures some of mysticism and action of the setting.

If the 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart has an issue, it is that it does not address the honour as supernatural aspect of the setting as well as it does the Call to Adventure. This though, will not stop the Game Master from successfully running the scenario and the players from enjoying it. This is an excellent scenario and should provide an engaging session or two’s worth of roleplaying and excitement. Not too complex and with the right mix of ingredients and challenges, 7th Sea: Khitai QuickStart is an excellent introduction to Khitai and a good option for a group looking for a one-shot or a taster.

—oOo—

7th Sea: Khitai is currently funding on Kickstarter.

Swashbuckling & Sorcery

From Game Designers’ Workshop’s En Garde!, Yaquinto Publication’s Pirates and Plunder, and Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Privateers and Gentlemen to The Australian Gaming Group’s Lace & Steel, Evil Hat Production’s Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies, and Triple Ace Games’ All For One: Régime Diabolique, the swashbuckling RPG has been a perennial favourite. Yet few have managed to capture all of the roleplaying genre’s elements—swashbuckling, sorcery, pirates, romance, adventure—with as much love as 7th Sea. Originally published by Alderac Entertainment Group in 1999, it was co-designed by John Wick, best known for Play Dirty and Legend of the Five Rings. For almost a decade though, the 7th Sea roleplaying game has been out of print, but with the acquisition of the publishing rights by John Wick and the subsequent successful funding of a new edition on Kickstarter, 7th Sea is in print again with an all new Second Edition.

Now published by John Wick Presents, 7th Sea presents a setting that is very like the Europe of the late seventeenth century. There are pirates, there is religious rivalry, there are flashing blades and musketry, there is diplomacy and intrigue, there is adventure and romance, there is disruption in country after country as medieval kingdoms evolve into modern nation states. Yet there are large differences also. There is an equality between the genders and races; greater advances have been made in the sciences as much as the Inquisition would seek to burn all knowledge of it; there are superstitions and monsters who are much more than folklore; and there is real magic, whether that is the Glamour magic of Avalon, the Sorte or ‘fate’ magic of the Vodacce women, or the Le Magie des Portails or Porté of Montaigne. This is a roleplaying game of great heroes and heroines, but also great villains; a roleplaying game in which the player characters are expected to be those heroes and heroines; and a roleplaying game which draws mechanically from the past as much as it does from the now, for 7th Sea is as much a storytelling game as it is a roleplaying game.

Unfortunately, right from the start, 7th Sea has a problem and that is with its overview. Now 7th Sea is a roleplaying game with an extensive background and setting as befits a line with some forty or releases for its first edition alone, and yet whilst some of that setting is given in the 7th Sea corebook for its second edition, what it really lacks is a timeline. This is a problem because the focus of 7th Sea is very much on recent events, many of which are mentioned in the 7th Sea core book’s setting material, yet without a timeline, the game feels hamstrung because it has no history let alone a sense of history and worse, because it has no context. Without that context, it is difficult for the players to create characters and it is difficult for the Game Master to create scenarios because it is difficult to tie them back into the setting.

A less pressing issue concerns the name of the roleplaying game. 7th Sea refers to the mythical sea beyond the six seas that surround the game’s setting. There is an explanation for this, but it seems so odd that this explanation appears almost a hundred pages into the book when it feels like it should and could have been mentioned much, much earlier.

The setting for 7th Sea is Théah. The year is 1668 Anno Veritas. The continent is dominated by eight countries—Avalon, Castille, Eisen, Montaigne, the Sarmatian Commonwealth, Ussura, Vestenmennavenjar, and Vodacce. Each of these countries has parallels with those of seventeenth century Europe. So, Avalon is actually the dominant nation in the Glamour Isles, the others being Inismore and The Highland Marches, all three countries being home also to the Sidhe. It equates to Elizabethan England and is ruled by Queen Elaine, who recently became the Keeper of the Sacred Graal following a civil war. Avalon has a powerful navy and her queen is said to issue letters of marque to the privateers known as the ‘Sea Dogs’. Castille is Spain, weakened following an invasion by neighbouring Montaigne, but dominated by the church—the Vaticine Church of the Prophets—which has recently moved its headquarters there from Vodacce and is itself dominated by the Inquisition following the death of its head, the Hierophant. The corruption of both the church and the nobility is opposed by the masked vigilante, ‘El Vagabundo’, whose identity remains unknown. Eisen equates to the German states of the Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years War, or rather, the War of the Cross which has ravaged the land and left it infested with all manner of monsters. Eisen is also a source of the metal known as ‘Drachenstein’, which when turned into arms and armour, is one of the most effective things against the monsters. Montaigne is pre-revolutionary France, a rich land in the which the rich live lavishly off the backs of the peasantry and whose whims set the fashion trends across the continent.

To the east lies the Sarmatian Commonwealth, which equates to Poland, and is best known for its radical form of government. To prevent the corrupt House of Nobles from running the country in its own interests, the king elevated everyone to the nobility and effectively created Théah’s first democracy. Ussura is medieval Russia, a land which literally supports those who respect it and destroys those who do not. The most striking figure in Ussura is Matushka, mother figure who can show great kindness and even grant magic, but is also capable of great wrath. Vestenmennavenjar equates to an alliance between the Vikings and the Hanseatic League, an alliance of proud warriors and wily merchants. They trade everywhere, their guilds dominate various trades, and their guilders have become common coinage accepted almost everywhere. Lastly, Vodacce is Italy governed by feuding city states. It dominates church politics even though it is no longer home to the Vaticine Church of the Prophets and it values its women for their beauty, their Sorte or ‘fate’ magic, but not their ability to learn.

Beyond the six seas that surround Théah, there are several far-off lands. Khitai, the Crescent Empire, and Cathay lie to the east, whilst the New World can be reached in the west. There is also the past to be explored, the ruins of the mysterious Lost Syrneth being the foundation upon which many cities of Théah are built.

So what can you do in Théah and 7th Sea? As a melange of ideas and genres, 7th Sea provides numerous options. The continent is rife with intrigue, whether that is in the feuds between the rival merchant princes of Voddace or the petit rivalries at the court of l’Empereur of Montaigne. There are monsters to hunt and kill in Eisen; ruins and distant lands to be discovered and documented, perhaps for the Explorer’s Society; there are ships aplenty to crew, perhaps as privateer with the Sea Dogs, a pirate sailing as part of the Brotherhood of the Coast, or a nation’s navy tracking down pirates. There are rebellions to foment, perhaps against church and state with the Rilasciare, or against the Inquisition as part of the efforts of the Invisible College to protect science. Ultimately, there are the dastardly plans of great villains to thwart, secrets to be recovered, damsels and swains to rescued, buckles to be swashed, and days to be saved.

The next question is, what can you play? Options include—but are not limited to—a Puritan of Avalon, an Alquimista (alchemist) of Castille, an Ungetümjäger (Monster Hunter) of Eisen, a L’ami du Roi (courtier) of Montaigne, a Winged Hussar of The Sarmatian Commonwealth, a Cossack of Ussura, a Guildmästaren of Vestenmennavenjar, or Bravo of Vodacce. Each of the eight nations has several of these backgrounds which are in addition to the thirty or so basic backgrounds which range from archaeologist and aristocrat to soldier and spy. Characters or rather, Heroes, because in 7th Sea that is what the player characters are, are themselves defined by five traits—Brawn, Finesse, Resolve, Wits, and Panache—and sixteen broad skills. These are Aim, Athletics, Brawl, Convince, Empathy, Hide, Intimidate, Notice, Perform, Ride, Sailing, Scholarship, Tempt, Theft, Warfare, and Weaponry. A Hero will also have Arcana, divided into Hubris and Virtue, personality traits which will earn him Hero Points when roleplayed or tagged by the Game Master. Similarly, each Background will have a Quirk which can be triggered to earn Hero Points. Plus, he will have Advantages, but notably, not Disadvantages. 7th Sea does not have Disadvantages.

To create a Hero, a player must first play the Game of Twenty Questions—in a fashion previously seen in Legends of the Five Rings—to set some facts down about his character and only then select his character’s nation and his two Backgrounds. So your character might be an Engineer-Crafter, a Consigliere-Priest, a Pugilist-Mercenary, an Orphan-Criminal, a Bearsark-Sjørøver (a berserker-pirate), a Sorcier Porté-Aristocrat, and so on. The choice of nation determines the bonus to one Trait, whilst each Background provides a quirk, some Advantages, and bonuses to various skills. In addition, a player has extra points to assign to Traits and extra points with which to purchase more Advantages. Lastly, he selects Arcana.

—oOo—

Our first sample Hero is Héctor de Estrella de Lucas del San Gustavo, a disposed noble from Castille. In the peace following the war the Montaigne invasion, the soldier was expecting to return home to marry Beatriz, his father’s ward, but heavy taxes forced his father’s hand. In return for paying the taxes, Beatriz was betrothed to the Vizconde Alonso de Esteban del Galán and Héctor was disgusted at his father’s actions. Especially since Beatriz would not be the Vizconde’s first wife and Héctor suspected that marrying Beatriz was a means to obtain her dowry. One too many heated arguments and Héctor’s father disowned him, with Héctor fleeing and vowing to win her hand back and raise the monies to pay for the taxes himself.

Héctor de Estrella de Lucas del San Gustavo
Nationality: Castille
Concept: Errant Hidalgo
Backgrounds: Aristocrat, Diestro

Brawn 2
Finesse 3
Resolve 2
Wits 3
Panache 3

Quirk: Earn a Hero Point when you best a trained duellist at her own game.
Quirk: Earn a Hero Point when you prove there is more to nobility than expensive clothes and attending court.
Advantages: Fencer, Disarming Smile, Rich, Fascinate, Duellist Academy (Aldana)
Skills: Aim 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 0, Convince 3, Empathy 3, Hide 0, Intimidate 1, Notice 1, Perform 2, Ride 1, Sailing 0, Scholarship 1, Tempt 1, Theft 0, Warfare 1, Weaponry 3

Arcana: The Sun
Hubris: Proud (Receive a Hero Point when you refuse an offer of aid)
Virtue: Glorious (Activate when the centre of attention to have all dice count as a Raise.)

Story: A True Betrothal
Héctor’s true love and his father’s ward, Beatriz, has been betrothed to the Vizconde Alonso de Esteban del Galán to pay for taxes owed. Héctor has sworn to win her hand true and fair.
Ending: ‘To win the hand of Beatriz’
Reward: Convince (Rank 4)
Steps:

1. Write a letter to Beatriz ensuring her of my intentions and ensure she receives it.
2. Investigate Vizconde Alonso de Esteban del Galán to see if the rumours about are true.
3. Gather evidence of the Vizconde Alonso de Esteban del Galán’s activities.
4. Present the truth about her betrothed to Beatriz.

—oOo—

One of the last steps in creating a Hero is setting up his Story. This begins with deciding upon the theme for the Story and its ending. So, for example, Héctor’s Story is very much one of romance, so the ending might be ‘To win the hand of Beatriz’, but it might ultimately turn out to be ‘Beatriz rejects him telling that she is betrothed to another man’. That depends upon the outcome of the Story, which will involve several steps. So, Gunther, a Ungetümjäger whose family were butchered by a thing of the night has the story, ‘Discover more about the creature that butchered my family’, which he builds with the following steps, ‘Return to the scene of my family’s death’, followed by ‘Study at Freiburg University to learn more of the creature’. The outcome of a story can be an improvement to a skill, a trait, an advantage, a quirk, an arcana, and so on, the new value being equal to the number of steps in the story. So in Gunther’s case, the reward is to raise his Scholarship skill from one to two.

This is the primary means of improving a character in 7th Sea. Instead of using the Experience Points of traditional roleplaying games, the improvement is explicitly tied to a Hero’s story and is set up beforehand. Now whilst it is clever and it does move 7th Sea away from traditional roleplaying towards storytelling, it comes with a number of consequences. One is that the greater the desired reward, the greater the number of steps required and the greater the number of descriptions required to detail each of those steps. So to improve the Weaponry skill from three to four would require four steps, and then from four to five, another five steps. Of course, this sets out for both player and Game Master what steps the player’s character has to take to achieve each objective, but in the long term, this is likely to prove something of challenge as the players try and be original and consistent in building longer and longer stories—and that does not count the players who find this sort of thing difficult anyway.

This also means that the Game Master cannot just create a scenario and run that—at least not very often. Like character stories, Game Master stories also consist of steps, although what the rewards are for completing all of the steps, well, the book is somewhat hazy about… In addition to the steps of the Game Master story, the Game Master has to take into consideration the steps for each of his players’ Heroes’ stories, and when this involves multiple Heroes, it can be a lot to take into consideration. Yet the Game Master cannot ignore, because without fulfilling them, a Hero cannot progress.

In traditional roleplaying games, the amount of damage a player character can take will vary from character to character. Unless changed by an Advantage, each Hero has the same damage track, or ‘Death Spiral’, some twenty pips long. Every fifth pip of damage represents a dramatic wound, which grants a Hero an advantage or inflicts a penalty. So for example, upon suffering the first dramatic wound, a Hero is given an extra die to roll when he acts, but upon the second, the Villain that the Hero is facing gains two extra dice!

Unlike other roleplaying games, when a Hero suffers a fourth dramatic wound and thus runs out of wounds, he is not dead, but helpless and cannot act. At this point, a Hero can be killed by a Villain, but even this action requires the expenditure of a Danger Point by the Game Master and a murderous declaration. Even then, another Hero can leap into save the helpless Hero. Similarly, should a Hero reduce a Villain to the equivalent of helpless, he cannot simply kill him. It takes the declaration of intent and the expenditure of a Hero Point. What this highlights is that the damage in 7th Sea is designed to be dramatic and to add to the story not just represent mechanically how much pain a Hero is in.

Should a Hero act in a way that is evil, such as inflicting unnecessary suffering or not acting to save another when the opportunity arose, then he can accrue Corruption Points. These have no mechanical effect in game, but the more corrupt acts he commits, the Corruption Points he gains and they escalate very quickly. The more they do, the greater the chance of the Hero turning into a Villain and becoming an NPC. There is a way though, via a Redemption Story, but this is hard work upon the part of the failing Hero.

One other option a Hero has is to join a secret society. Some ten are given, including  the pirates of The Brotherhood of the Coast, monster-battling knights of Die Kreutzritter, the scholars and archaeologists of the Explorer’s Society, along with what each wants, knows, and can help with. Joining one is essentially free, but a Hero can only join the one and be trusted. In return, he can gain and earn favours with the secret society and this can provide motivation for the Hero and storylines for the Game Master.

Mechanically, 7th Sea uses pools of ten-sided dice, but where both the previous edition and Legend of the Five Rings used ‘Roll and Keep’ where the player or Game Master selected the dice results and added them together, 7th Sea uses a ‘Roll and Pair’ mechanic. When a player or the Game Master rolls the dice, his aim is to build totals of ten or more using two or more dice. So rolling six dice, a player might roll 2, 3, 4, 4, 8, and 10. This would be paired like so, 3+4+4, 8+2, and 10, to give three results of ten or more. Each result being known as a Raise (which should confuse any long-time player of Legend of the Five Rings). The number of dice to be rolled will be determined by the combination of trait and skill used, for example, Finesse and Weaponry to delicately cut at an opponent with a rapier, Wits and Tempt to wheedle some information out of someone, or Panache and Perform to impress someone with your singing. Further dice can be earned through the expenditure of Hero Points as well as from various advantages, but they can also be earned through storytelling—dynamic and verbal. The latter by a player character describing how his character will undertake an action, the former for the first use of a trait and skill combination, which will lead to a character switching between combinations of trait and skill to both gain the bonus and give dynamism to the action.

For example, James McTavish rushes into battle wielding his country’s signature weapon, a claymore. This means that his player will roll seven dice for James’ Brawn and Weaponry. His player adds one die because James has the Bruiser advantage, which gives him an extra die for welding a heavy weapon, in this case, the claymore; he gains a second die for using the Brawn and Weaponry combination for the first time; and a third for the description given by his player of “With a scream, I ferociously charge into the soldiers surrounding the cardinal, attempting to knock as many aside as I can.” This gives the player a total of ten dice. On a subsequent turn, the player decides that James will switch to Finesse and Weaponry, which gives him a base of six dice to roll. His player adds one die for the Bruiser advantage, a second die for using the combination for the first time, and a third for the description, “Not all of the cardinal’s men have been scattered, so I am forced to fight them blade to blade, knocking them aside to put them out of the battle.” So nine dice to roll then.

Conversely, Brute Squads—and groups of monsters who are like squads, such as a horde of shambling corpses or a pack of ravenous wolves—do not roll dice. Instead, they simply have Strength value, representing how damage they would inflict if left to attack unchecked. Their Strength value also represents how much damage the squad can take, so reducing a squad’s Strength also reduces how much damage it does in combat. Both types of squad, Brute or Monster can have qualities. For example, Guards, which force attacks against a Villain to be made against the Brute Squad accompanying the Villain with less damage, whilst Assassins can go first and inflict damage first. Monsters have qualities such as Shadowy, which makes them more difficult to track, or Chitinous, which negates damage from a single attack. A quality particular to monsters is that of Fear, which reduces the number of dice rolled by a Hero. Many of these qualities require the Game Master to expend a Danger Point to trigger.

Villains, whether monsters or humans, are slightly more complex. Like the Heroes, a Villain has Arcana—a Virtue and Hubris—and has Advantages, but a Villain does not have skills. Instead, a Villain has a Villainy Rank which is divided between two Traits, Strength and Influence. The first represents a Villain’s personal abilities, the second his power in the world. Thus, the first might be his swordsmanship, his sorcerous abilities, his charm, and so on, rolled just like a Hero’s skills are rolled, whilst the second is his money, his allies, his political power, and so on. To thwart a Villain, the Heroes can undermine his Influence, but to defeat him, they must battle him face to face and reduce his Strength. Villains being Villains, they are always scheming and schemes require the investment of Influence. This is permanent. If he succeeds, a Villain gains the Influence back and more, but if the Heroes thwart him, the Villain loses that investment—permanently. Villains are notoriously difficult to defeat though and it takes a lot of effort upon the part of the Heroes to defeat a Villain.

One advantage that Heroes have is Hero Points. All Heroes start each session with one Hero Point. More can be earned by a player or the Game Master activating a Hero’s Hubris, roleplaying a Hero’s Quirks (from his Backgrounds), a player having his Hero accept defeat, and by the Game Master buying any unpaired dice that not part of a Raise. The Game Master also gains a Danger Point this way. Hero Points can be spent to gain dice—on a one-for-one basis—before a roll or given to another Hero to help him with three extra dice. Certain Advantages require Hero Points to be activated and Hero Points can be spent to allow a Hero to act if he is helpless. Unfortunately, where a Hero has Hero Points, a Villain—and thus the Game Master—has Danger Points. These can be spent to raise the target required for a Raise (a success), to add dice to the Villain’s action, to activate a special ability of the Villain or a Brute Squad, or to kill a helpless Hero. The Game Master begins each session with Danger Points equal to the number of Heroes.

7th Sea being a roleplaying game of swashbuckling and sorcery means that it needs mechanics for duelling, sorcery, and seamanship. Duelling requires attendance at a duelling academy, there being one per nation, and in game terms, this requires the Duellist Academy advantage. Graduates are also members of the Duellist Guild and can thus initiate duels. A duellist is taught several common manoeuvres—slash, parry, feint, and so on—plus a Style Bonus unique to each academy. For example, the Valroux style is defensive in nature, requiring the use of a primary weapon and a main gauche. Its style bonus, Valroux Press, is a blocking manoeuvre which limits the number of wounds which can be inflicted and makes the opponent’s next action more difficult. In battle, manoeuvres cannot be repeatedly used, but instead must be alternated, so what results is the back and forth of swordplay so beloved of the genre and the movies. 7th Sea’s treatment of all things nautical is unsurprisingly aimed at telling stories rather than running a simulation of naval encounters. It is informative, gives you everything you might need to know to play and run shipboard and ship-to-ship encounters, including battles and trading, but without unnecessary detail. Ships can also have histories and adventures, both building a vessel’s legend, and with it, that of the Heroes.

If 7th Sea’s treatment of sailing and duelling is quite straightforward, the same cannot be said of sorcery, which really comes down to a number of subsystems, one per type of sorcery per nation. So Hexenwerk is practised in Eisen and involves the preparation of unguents from the dead combined with herbs, poisons, and other ingredients. Some like, Winter’s Scowl, which requires holy water, a thorny rose stem, and drops of the sorcerer’s blood, can be used to inflict wounds on an undead and stun them—and so aid against the undead that plagues Eisen. Others, like Master’s Bread, which requires a combination of a dead brain with hallucinogens, enables the practitioner, upon eating the resulting doughy result, to command an undead Monster Squad, have less savoury uses and explains why Hexenwerk is illegal, punishable by death. The Knights of Avalon practise glamours, each embodying one of the knights of legend and a particular Trait like Brawn or Wits. Unlike Hexenwerk, Glamours have Ranks and so can be improved. The La Magie des Portails or ‘Porté’ of Montaigne involves the sorcerer cutting holes and doorways in the fabric of the universe. These bleed and scream, but by placing a mark on objects—in his own blood, a sorcerer can pull the object to him or pull himself to the object, no matter how far away it is. Most famously, the Sorte of ‘fate magic’ of certain Vodacce women who manipulate the strands that connect all things to change the fate of those around them with Tesse or weaves, perhaps to place a blessing or a curse on someone, or even to meddle with their Hubris or Virtue. As a Sorte Strega—or ‘fate witch’—manipulates these strands, the power of her Tesse grow, but so do the lashes that fate binds to her. To remove these lashes a Sorte Strega must pay in blood or bad luck, that is, wounds or further Danger Points for the Game Master.

Typically, a Hero only gains a minor and a major sorcerous effect when purchasing the Sorcery Advantage. To improve his Sorcery, a Hero will need to complete a five step story as the advantage costs five points! If a Hero wants to become a powerful sorcerer, then this must be done again and again, so a lengthy process. That said, it does not take a Hero long to become a powerful sorcerer and some of the powers are potent indeed. The Hero is not really meant to fully embrace these powers though, but rather use them wisely lest the power goes to his head and perhaps leads to his becoming corrupted.

The treatment of the various sorcerous powers is uneven. For example, there is lots of flavour detail in the description of Hexenwork, but not really many powers for a character to learn unless he wants to learn the darker practices. The Knights of Avalon are given lots of Glamours and a sense of progress in that each possesses a rank and can be improved. In comparison, Sorte and Porté can only do a few things and feel decidedly underwritten, but they are powerful, in many ways more powerful than the other forms of sorcery. The underwritten nature leaves the Game Master to wonder at just how much more there is to magic in Théah.

—oOo—

Our second sample Hero is Iolandia, a Sorte Strega from Vodacce who was orphaned and kidnapped as a child and forced to study ‘fate magic’ or Sorte. She never learnt who her captors were before managing to escape in her teens and she had to live on the streets and by her wits for many years. She became a burglar and a thief, at times applying her Sorte to give her an advantage, first in Vodacce, but when the princes’ men hunted her, then in Montaigne and Castille. The black clad men and women have followed her again and again and now she wants to find out who they are, why they want her, and what happened to her parents.

Iolandia
Nationality: Vodacce
Concept: Rogue Sorte Strega
Backgrounds: Sorte Strega, Criminal

Brawn 2
Finesse 3
Resolve 3
Wits 2
Panache 3

Quirk: Earn a Hero Point when you commit to a dangerous course of action that you believe is destiny.
Quirk: Earn a Hero Point when you break the law in pursuit of a noble endeavour.
Advantages: Brush Pass, Camaraderie, Second Story Work, Sorcery, Sorcery, Streetwise, Time Sense
Skills: Aim 0, Athletics 3, Brawl 1, Convince 2, Empathy 1, Hide 3, Intimidate 1, Notice 1, Perform 2, Ride 1, Sailing 0, Scholarship 0, Tempt 2, Theft 3, Warfare 0, Weaponry 0

Sorcery—Sorte
Minor Tessere: Read, Arcana, Bless, Curse
Major Tessere: Blessing, Curse

Arcana: Coins (for the Ferryman)
Hubris: Relentless (Receive a Hero Point when you refuse to leave well enough alone or quit whilst you are ahead, and it gets you into trouble).
The Fool
Virtue: Wily (Activate to escape danger from the current scene. You cannot rescue anyone, but yourself.)

Story: Who am I?
Iolandia does not know who her parents were, why she was kidnapped and why she is hunted. She wants to find out why. Starting with the name of the organisation after her.
Ending: ‘To find out who is after her.’
Reward: Scholarship (Rank 1)
Steps:

1. Kidnap one of the men or women after her and interrogate them to find out what she needs to know.

 —oOo—

The game itself is played out in a series of sequences, either Dramatic or Action. Whilst both can handle conflict or adversity, the latter handles furious bursts of activity, combat, and derring do, the former are extended scenes which might cover an evening at a duke’s ball, a burglary attempt on a merchant’s house, or a sea voyage into pirate ridden waters. During play it is possible to switch back and forth between the two, according to the needs of the story, but both involve Risks and both are constructed with Consequences and Opportunities. Consequences represent what can go wrong if the Heroes fail at a Risk, whilst Opportunities represent chances for the Heroes to learn more information, run into a contact, find a conveniently placed item, lock eyes with a villain leading to a duel, and so on. To overcome Risks, avoid Consequences, and take Opportunities involves the expenditure of Raises. A Hero might roll enough Raises to overcome a Risk, avoid the Consequences, and take advantage of the Opportunities, but then again, he might not. In which case, he might have enough to overcome the Risk, but not grab an Opportunity whilst avoiding the Consequences. So, he might get away with kicking the villain off the top of the speeding coach and grabbing the necklace that he stole from the duke’s mistress, but he might find himself hanging onto the door to the coach as it careers into a narrow street.

What a player does at the start of either Action Sequence or Dramatic Sequence is decide upon his Hero’s approach. This determines what combination of Trait and Skill a player must roll. For example, to fire the cannon aboard a pirate ship, a player might roll Wits+Aim; to impress someone with your singing, then a player should roll Panache+Perform; and to taunt an opponent in a duel, a player might roll Wits+Weaponry. In a Dramatic Sequence, there is no specific order in which the players spend their Heroes’ Raises beyond in the demands of the story, but in an Action Sequence, the player with the highest number of Raises gets to spend them first, then the others play theirs with the Game Master running a countdown. In combat, damage is inflicted or blocked on a one-for-one basis, and unless a Hero has an Advantage or been to a Duelling Academy, the damage will come from the roll rather than from the quality of the weapon wielded.

—oOo—

In our sample Dramatic Sequence, the Heroes are in the Castille port of Arisent when Iolandia is kidnapped! Her compatriots, Héctor de Estrella de Lucas del San Gustavo and James McTavish, know that she was last seen in and around the harbour, so decide they must search this area for her. The Game Master asks what approaches their players will take in conducting this search. James’ player states his approach will be direct, using his bluff presence to scare some answers out of the inhabitants of the port area. The Game Master suggests that James’ player will be rolling Brawn+Intimidation. Héctor’s player states that Héctor will be charming and friendly, attempting to make a good impression. The Game Master says that this is Héctor is using his Panache+Convince. The Game Master also states that the players will need two Raises if they are to overcome the Risk and learn what has happened to Iolandia. He also informs them that there is one Consequence and two Opportunities.

James’ player rolls seven dice for his Brawn+Intimidation. He rolls 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 9. Since his Intimidation skill is 3, he can re-roll a die, but only gets a 1, so no change to the rolls. These he pairs into three Raises (3+9, 3+9, and 6+5). The Game Master decides that he will purchase the unused 2, which gives him a Danger Point and James’ player a Hero Point. Héctor’s player rolls six dice for his Panache+Convince. He also gets a reroll because his Convince is 3. He rolls 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, and 10. Since this will give him four Raises (1+9, 3+7, 10, 10), he decides not reroll.

With four Raises, Héctor’s player goes first and describes how he speaks quietly to some of the smugglers in the port and asks if they have seen Iolandia. By expending two Raises, he learns that she is being held aboard the La Sybella Nera, a Vodacce vessel. This leaves him with two Raises and means that James’ player has three Raises, so can act next. He uses two of them to learn the same thing, leaving him with one raise. With two Raises left, Héctor’s player goes next and uses one Raise to avoid the Consequence—this being that the crew of the La Sybella Nera will not learn of his enquiries—and uses the other Raise to activate the first Opportunity. The Game Master tells Héctor’s player that he finds a boatman who knows the waters of Arisent who is willing to row them out to the Vodacce vessel. He has no Raises left, but James does. James’ player spends the last Raise not to avoid the Consequence, but to activate the other Opportunity and learns that the La Sybella Nera is due to sail on the morning tide.

So at the end of the Dramatic Sequence, the Heroes know where Iolandia is, know how to get there and when. The crew of La Sybella Nera know that James McTavish is looking for her, but not Héctor. The Game Master now decides to switch to an Action Sequence in which James and Héctor will raid La Sybella Nera. He asks for their players for their approaches. James’ player states that since the enemy knows that he is coming, he will be direct, rowing up to the ship, climb the side of the hull, and facing whomever he finds, claymore in hand, yelling all the way. The Game Master decides that this involves Brawn+Weaponry and awards James’ player two extra dice, one for the flair of the description and another for the first time use in the scene. Héctor’s player decides that he will climb up the stern of the La Sybella Nero while everyone aboard is distracted by the loud, bluff, Highland Marcher. This the Game Master sets as Finesse+Athletics and again awards him two extra dice. James’ player makes life easier for Héctor by giving him a Hero Point, which lets him roll three extra dice.

Aboard the La Sybella Nera is not only a Strength 6 Brute Squad, but also a Rank 12 (Strength 8/Influence 4) Villain, Lady Sybella herself! She is a Duellist and knows the Mantovani style, which uses a whip and is popular in Vodacce. She also has the Disarming Smile Advantage, the Hubris, ‘Star-Crossed’, and the Virtue, ‘Adaptable’. The Game Master sets the Consequences at three to reflect the fact that the crew of La Sybella Nera are on guard, but also tells both players that there is one Opportunity to activate.

James’ player rolls seven dice for his Brawn+Athletics, plus the two awarded by the Game Master. He rolls 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 7, 7, 9, and 10. As he has a skill of 3 in Athletics, he can re-roll one die, which he does. He pairs the results in five Raises (4+6, 4+7, 4+7, 2+9, 10). Héctor’s player rolls five dice for his Finesse+Athletics, plus plus the two awarded by the Game Master and the three granted by James’ Hero Point. This gives him ten dice to roll and gives him the results of 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10, and 10. He pairs these into six Raises (1+9, 2+8, 4+7, 10, 10, and 10)—a good result.

The Game Master only has to roll dice for Lady Sybella as the Brute Squad has a simple Strength of 6 and does not roll dice. He rolls eight dice for Lady Sybella with the results, 2, 4, 5, 7, 7, 7, and 9. This he pairs in three Raises (2+9, 4+7, and 5+7). So in order of initiative, Héctor has six Raises, James has five Raises, and has Sybella has three Raises. The round begins with Héctor spends one Raise to climb up the stern of La Sybella Nera and another to unlatch a window and slide quietly into the cabin. There he discovers Iolandia tied up and gagged. This leaves Héctor with four Raises and because James has five, he goes next. He uses one to row around the side of the ship, another to climb up the side, and a third to pull the member of the Brute Squad over the side. This reduces the size of the Brute Squad from six to five and leaves him with two Raises, but he is aboard La Sybella Nera.

Héctor has four Raises and acts next. He spends one to active the Opportunity and the Game Master says that as he hears the sound of the Highland Marcher outside making his presence known, Héctor can sneak over and slip the gag free of Iolandia’s mouth. He also spends his remaining three Raises to avoid the Consequences. The Game Master explains that Héctor is quiet enough that no one hears him in the cabin. Outside on the main, James is confronted by both the Brute Squad, currently with a Strength of 5, and the Lady Sybella. She has three Raises so acts next. Since they are faced by one man, using one Raise the Lady Sybella orders the remaining crew, the Brute Squad, to attack. It would inflict five Wounds on James, but his player expends the last of his Raises to block part of the damage and he takes only three Wounds.

No one has any Raises left bar the Lady Sybella. First, the Game Master spends a Danger Point to activate the Brute Squad’s Pirate ability and have them abduct an NPC. This will be for the Member Squad who was pulled overboard by James, to heave himself into and hijack the boat that James and Héctor were rowed to La Sybella Nera in. If the player characters are able to get free of the ship, they will need to find another way back to the shore. They just do not know it yet! Then the Game Master points out that because James did not buy off the Consequences, the Lady Sybella, although unaware of Héctor because he did buy off the Consequences, is suspicious of the Highland Marcher attacking alone. The Game Master spends one to have say, “I cannot believe that you are all that has come to rescue my prisoner. My crew will deal with you while I ensure my pretty charge is still mine.” As the round comes to an end, the Lady Sybella bursts into the captain’s cabin to discover Héctor about to untie Iolandia as the sounds of battle continue.

James’ player declares that James will swing his claymore about ferociously, attempting to knock as many of the Brute Squad over the side as he can. This gives him seven dice for his Brawn+Athletics, one for his Bruiser Advantage, one for his first use in the Action Sequence, and another for Flair. He gets the results 1, 1, 2, 2, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, and 9. With a skill of three, he re-rolls a 1 and gets a 2. He pairs these into four Raises (1+9, 2+2+6, 5+5 and 7+7). Héctor’s player declares that Héctor will engage Lady Sybella in a duel, capturing her sole attention with a swish and flick of his blade. Héctor has six dice for his Panche+Weaponry, one for his Flair and first use of this combination, plus one for his Fencer Advantage. His player also says that he will spend a Hero Point to activate his Fascinate Advantage and capture Lady Sybella’s attention. He rolls 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10. He can re-roll a 3 and gets a 10. He pairs these into five Raises (3+9, 3+7, 4+6, 10, and 10). Iolandia also gets to act this turn and her player says that she will appear to struggle to get free, but will actually be using her Sorte sorcery to affect Lady Sybella. The Game Master lets her roll Iolandia’s Panache+Convince. This gives her five dice dice plus one each for the first use and flair. She rolls 2, 5, 5, 5, 8, 9, and 10, which become four Raises (2+8, 5+5, 5+9, and 10). Lastly, the Game Master will roll eight dice for Lady Sybella, but will add two further dice by expending a Danger Point. He rolls 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, and 8, which become four Raises (1+1+8, 4+4, 5+5, and 3+8). The order of action is Héctor with five Raises, then Lady Sybella—Villains always go before a Hero if they have the same number of Raises, then James and Iolandia. The Brute Squad will act when Lady Sybella does.

Héctor dances forward, blade in hand and with one Raise slashes at Lady Sybella’s sword arm. This would inflict three Wounds (equal to Héctor’s Weaponry skill), but with everyone on four Raises, Lady Sybella acts next and parries, blocking these Wounds. Out on the deck, the Brute Squad harries at James. The squad will inflict five Wounds on him, so James is forced use his Raises to block all but a single Wound. Neither he nor the Brute Squad will act again in this round. Iolandia acts next and uses a Raise to activate her Sorte sorcery and Read to see the Arcana in the cabin. Héctor presses forward, this time with an Aldana Ruse, a special maneuvre, which will inflict extra damage equal to his Panache when Lady Sybella next takes damage and combines it with a Feint, inflicting a knick to his opponent’s wrist in addition to the Wounds caused by the Aldana Ruse. This means that both Lady Sybella and Iolandia have three Raises left, whilst Héctor has two.

Lady Sybella acts next and deploys the Mantovani Flay, a maneuvre of her duelling school which requires the use of her whip. With a crack of the leather she ensnares Héctor’s weapon in an attempt to prevent him lunging at her again. It also inflicts a Wound on the man from Castille. Having read the arcana of the cabin, Iolandia activates Lady Sybella’s Hubris, ‘Star-Crossed’, which means that she is smitten with Héctor! This costs Iolandia’s player a Raise and causes Iolandia to suffer a Lash, a sorcerous effect that will cut her if she is not careful. Everyone is now on two Raises. 

The Game Master decides that Lady Sybella, sword in hand, but whip wrapped around Héctor’s rapier, will huskily say, “I have one of your blades in my grasp… perhaps I should make a grasp for the other?” Héctor cocks an eyebrow and responds, “You have just one of my blades my lady, but not my heart.” His player also says that he will spend a Hero Point to activate Héctor’s Fascinate Advantage and capture Lady Sybella’s attention. The Game Master agrees that he definitely has her attention. Iolandia will act now, using her last two Raises to slip free of her bonds and crack the Lady Sybella over the head with a chair. As she keels over, Héctor says, “...and I thought it was my sparkling personality that floored her.”  With that, the two head for the main deck where they can hear a bellowing Highland Marcher.

—oOo—

 Given the author’s past experience in writing both Play Dirty and Play Dirty 2, it is no surprise that the gamer mastering section for 7th Sea is very well done—and in places just as brutal. It gives three approaches—or hats—to being a Game Master in 7th Sea—Author, Referee, and Storyteller. The first covers the scope of a story, the various modes or genres which fit within the 7th Sea oeuvre—oddly not romance, themes and dramatic situations, and plots. The second looks in more details at the rules and explores the nature of Consequences. This is important because it is so very difficult to die in 7th Sea and challenging to tell stories when death is not on the line. The third discusses the literary techniques—Five Questions (how, what, where, who, and why), Five Senses, and Five Voices of narrative (action, description, dialogue, exposition, and thought)—and how to apply them to a game. Rounding the section off is a look at something rare in mainstream roleplaying games—the GMasking how he did after the game—and an better look at villains and how to handle them. Overall, this brings 7th Sea to a more than impressive close. It is never less than helpful, but it takes the times to be chatty and friendly when it is needed.

Physically, 7th Sea is a stunning book. Although the book needs an edit in places, it reads well and is tidy looking. The index is simply awful and the publisher should know better… The artwork though is just perfect for the swashbuckling genre of 7th Sea, capturing the action, the romance, the intrigue, and more. The quality of the book really is eye-catching.

One issue with 7th Sea is the disconnect between its intent and certain aspects the setting of Théah. 7th Sea promises an equality between races and genders. It almost, but not quite delivers on that promise. For the most part, there is a balance in terms of race and gender in what you can play. The issue is with the nation of Vodacce, first in its treatment of women, not allowing to be literate, merely decorative, whilst allowing mistresses to be both, and with the Sorte Strega, who can only be women (thus not be male Heroes). Now this is relatively minor issue with 7th Sea. The fact that there is no timeline much more of an issue, as is the feeling that some sections are succinct, sorcery in particular, giving just enough to play with and no more. What a prospective Game Master may find disconcerting is a lack of a scenario, story ideas and story benefits for him to work with. 

Fundamentally, there are three things that 7th Sea does. The first is mechanical in nature, stripping the crunchy heft of other roleplaying games away from the Game Master, leaving him to concentrate on the storytelling, which of course will keep him fairly busy. Whilst it pares down the mechanical elements of player characters—for example, no disadvantages and minimalised wound track, it still leaves them with a lot to work with in comparison with that of the Game Master. This comparatively greater mechanical heft on the part of the player characters is what allows the players and their Heroes to engage with the setting of Théah. 

The second thing that 7th Sea does is enforce its genre, in particular, one of heroic swashbuckling, making it difficult for the player characters or Heroes to act unherocially by having it difficult to kill Villains, Heroes, and NPCs and by punishing Heroes with Corruption if they commit evil acts. It also does this by making duelling stronger than standard melee combat and whilst making black powder weapons nasty, having duelling be effectively faster and more deadly in the long run.

The third thing is an adoption of changes in play and game mastering styles and techniques from the past decade and a half. Some of these come straight out of the author’s own gamemastering playbooks—Play Dirty and Play Dirty 2—but others come from the Indie roleplaying game movement. Most obviously, in the die reward for Flair—for a player describing how his Hero acts, but also for the increased capacity for input into the story from the players  in creating Opportunities during an Action Sequences and Dramatic Sequences, and in building their own Stories by outlining their objective step-by-step.

Above all, what 7th Sea does is update a revered classic and does so in a modern, accessible fashion. It firmly places the action and the mechanics in the hands of the players whilst encouraging their Heroes to be heroic and their players to play them as such. Although both the players and the Game Master share the storytelling, 7th Sea gives the Game Master some great tools to facilitate of the action, the mystery, the romance, and the intrigue of both Theáh and the genre.

Roleplaying Magic Items II

If there was an issue with WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha, the latest design from John Wick, the designer of Legend of the Five Rings and Houses of the Blooded, it was that the RPG lacked an actual background or setting. WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha is a game in which valiant heroes wield great swords, ambitious men command the powers of ancient rings, mighty kings crown themselves with bejewelled coronets to control the fates of others, and potent mages brandish arcane staves to draw upon the forces of magic and manipulate creation itself… Whilst this would appear to be inspired by the One Ring from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings or the sword Stormbringer in Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels, yet in WIELD, the players do not roleplay these heroes, Frodo Baggins in the case of the One Ring or Elric in the case of Stormbringer, but rather they primarily roleplay the artefacts themselves; and the heroes? Well, they do roleplay the heroes, but heroes who are wielding artefacts played by other players. For despite the power and the ambitions of these powerful artefacts, not a single one can apply its great abilities, for it takes a great ‘hero’—or ‘pawn’ as the Vatcha call them to wield the powers of a Vatcha, for they are but a means to an end to bring about the destinies of the ‘Vatcha’ or ‘wilful weapons’…

Despite not having an actual setting, there is at least an implied genre in WIELD—that of the fantasy genre. This though was not enough and what both it and the lack of a setting meant was that WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha at least felt incomplete if it was not ‘actually’ incomplete. This issue is no longer a problem, as part of the successful Kickstarter campaign, John Wick also published the WIELD Companion. This supplement contains not only new fiction, but also a host of new Domains—aspects or elements from which a Vacha draws its powers, such as Air, Insight, and Shadow, as well as eight settings that take Vacha to medieval Japan, a London of Victoriana, way out West, and more. In the process it does Science Fiction, Fantasy, and the Fantastic, encompassing a gamut of genres, in turn giving yet more Domains and the much needed settings that serve to showcase just what WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha can do.

Topping and tailing the WIELD Companion is a set of paired pieces of fiction. Aping the Swords & Sorcery genre this is a Conan-esque tales that nicely depicts the insidious influence of the Vatcha and their ambitions. The first mechanical element presented in the WIELD Companion are all of the Domains and their associated Powers from WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha. This may seem like a waste of space, but their reprint serves as a handy reference for Fate—as the GM is known in WIELD—and players alike. With this list out of the way, the supplement gets down to the first of the eight settings. This is ‘Dark Chrome’, a Cyberpunk setting in which cyberware have begun to suffer Glitches that are reputedly supposed to cause those it is installed in to go crazy and enough damage to level city blocks. As a result, the five major cyberware companies have formed the Cyberware Conventions to investigate and prevent further incidents. The truth is that these pieces of Glitched cyberware are actually Vatcha that have  become sentient. The Domains are designed around Acquisitions such as Hammer Hand or Double Barrel Laser, Athletics such as Cybernetic Strength, and so on. The other change is that each Wielder begins with all of the dice in any Control Risk, and for each item of Cyberware installed gives up these dice to the Vatcha. Written by Alan Venables, Ro Watts, and Gillian Fraser, this effectively reverses the control relationship between Vatcha and Wielder, but neatly models the effect of cyberware seen in other genre RPGs.

‘Old Japan’ is the second setting, one which will familiar to its author, Ben Woerner, the designer of the RPG, A World of Dew. In the world of Old Japan, the Kami have long helped mankind to survive and prosper, many also bonding permanently with parts of the world around them or manmade items. These are the Yorishiro, known for their spiritual purity and dedication to combating the Oni, the bonding between dark Kami and evil men. Although the Dark Tenno Lord, the First of the Oni, has been imprisoned, Old Japan continues to be plagued by Oni, and as one of the Yorishio, the player characters have sworn to guide mankind and defend him against the Oni. Each Yorishiro consists of a vessel—such as a tea cup, an item of jewellery, a pet, or even a walking castle or hut—and a Kami heritage, like Wind, Insects, Justice, or the Seven Fortunes. The number of Domains a Kami holds sway over depends on its age, one if a Summer Kami, two if an Autumn Kami, and three if a Winter Kami. There are fewer Domains to choose from than in standard WIELD and the geis—or geas—that can be placed upon a player by Fate varies according to the time of day. During the day, as Lady Sun, Fate will demand that a character help another, save a village, or go on a quest, whilst at night, as Lord Moon, Fate will demand that the hero stand aside and let something terrible happen, kill someone, or end the suffering of a great and injured kami beast lord. Where Lord Moon is cold and calculating, Lady Sun is compassionate and impulsive.

What ‘Old Japan’ does not detail is whether not there will ever be the need for a Control Risk between Yorishiro and wielder, but given the benevolent outlook of the Yorishiro, this seems unlikely. ‘Old Japan’ does feel like it moves WIELD away from its player to player confrontation and towards a traditional roleplaying game.

John Wick and Gillian Fraser’s ‘Old Smoke’ presents a setting in which rampant Victoriana crashes into the Victorian Age to make both the fiction and the history a reality… Aleister Crowley is the Wickedest Man in the World, Professor Moriarty the ‘Napoleon of Crime’, Jack the Ripper a fiend hell-bent on performing an ancient blood ritual to make himself into a god, and Mycroft Holmes the greatest detective ever to sit in an armchair. Just as these facts are true, so is the feared existence of conspiracies and secret societies—the Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign, and more—whose sole aim is the capture and control of the ‘synesthesiactical fineins’, as vatcha are known in the ‘Old Smoke’, and thus the powers they grant. All wielders are part of one of these conspiracies, whilst the domains granted by the vatcha are subtler and more insidious, including Control, Fear, Illusion, Necromancy, Sex, and Shadow amongst others. Membership of certain conspiracies does grant some protection, the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign against fear for example. ‘Old Smoke’ is a conspiratorial free-for-all that feels as if it is going to develop ultimately into a player versus player contest for dominance, whilst the darker nature of its Domains make it more of an adult game.

‘Princesses of Ellysial’ by Charlotte Bethel and Gillian Fraser is another Japanese setting, but one drawn from the ‘magical girl’ genre of manga or anime. Vatcha are an item of jewellery—a Princess, or a flower—a prince. A female wielder can only use the jewellery, a male wielder only the flower. The Domains—Beauty, Crystal, Friendship, Justice, Love, Mercy, Spirit, and Stardust—are inherently positive and can only be fully used when a wielder has transformed. This transformation is a theme, decided upon before play begins, and can be school uniforms, fantasy armour, sailor suits, and so on. Perhaps the most radical change in comparison to the default player versus player set-up in WIELD, is that in ‘Princesses of Ellysial’ the players are a team—in the setting described the team is combatting the Shadow Witch Uorusa. Like ‘Old Japan’, ‘Princesses of Ellysial’ is a more positive setting and it would be suitable for play with younger players.

Japan is again the inspiration for the fifth setting, ‘Sentient Frames’ by Alan Venable. Here the Vatcha are artificial intelligences that help Frame Pilots compete in Mecha Game matches. Unfortunately, as a Frame Pilot seeks to upgrade his Frame, he becomes increasingly addicted to the AI, forcing him into melancholia, anger, jealousy, and finally stability—the latter where AI has achieved ‘Bliss’ with the Pilot. The Domains in ‘Sentient Frames’ are enhancements to the Frame, such as Ballistic, Bots, Command, Force Fields, Melee, and so on. ‘Sentient Frames’ reverses the standard control structure of WIELD—a Vatcha gaining more control the more powers it grants to the wielder rather than giving it up. ‘Sentient Frames’ benefits from more background information and thus feels more developed than the other settings in the WIELD Companion.

Alan Venable and Gillian Fraser’s ‘The Big Dust’ throws down the Vatcha into the lawless, ruthless lands of the Wild West where they are firearms—derringers, pistols, revolver, and rifles; tools—such as saddles, shovels, stagecoaches, and so on; or trinkets—like hats, deputy badges, pocket watches, or poker chips. The Vatcha notably collect and absorb the Destinies of their wielders and if left unfulfilled will drive future wielders to complete them—even if this involves multiple destinies. They are also only wielded by the incomers to the Wild West—the Natives of the Big Dust will not wield or attack a wielder, although they do know how to destroy the Vatcha. ‘The Big Dust’ includes some excellent Domains, such as Gunslingin’, Preachin’, and Wranglin’, but as strongly thematic as it feels, it is underdeveloped and some advice on handling multiple destinies would not have been amiss.

The last and seventh setting in the WIELD Companion is ‘Whispering Shadows’ by Gillian Fraser in which the vatcha are spirits that have escaped to this side of the mirror to possess members of humanity and turn them into monsters. Whether Blood Spirits, Buried Spirits, Deep Spirits, and so on, their collective aim is to destroy the Guardian of the Sun or ‘the Warden’ who sends creatures to hunt down the vatcha spirits and in destroying them, seeks to restore the peace of the world. In ‘Whispering Shadows’ a vatcha’s Domains are determined by his Spirit type and a vatcha gains more rather than loses control by giving its powers away. Again, this is a darker setting for WIELD with more insidious powers—plus the fact that wielders exude an aura of fear. There is also the aspect that the vatcha are lying to their wielders, claiming that they are protecting humanity against the minions of ‘the Warden’. Yet again, it feels under-developed, there being no discussion of how the vatchas’ enemy can be destroyed and no suggestion as to his minions.

Rounding out the WIELD Companion is Mark Diaz Truman’s ‘Vatcha in Fate’, a guide to using vatcha in Evil Hat Games’ Fate Core. Two means are provided, one described as safe, the other not. The first method again casts the vatcha as the key player characters, each vatcha possessing Domains as well as Aspects tied to its Goal, Connections to the other player character vatcha, and lastly to its means of Destruction. Each vatcha has a single skill, Control, rolled to overcome its current wielder. Some agreement will need to be made to cover how each power from the Domains works in Fate Core as converting them all would require another book. The wielders also need to be created, but they are relatively weak, being mere pawns. Another advantage that the vatcha have over these pawns is that only they get Fate Points, but are restricted to spending them via their current wielder—change wielder and any excess Fate Points earned under the previous wielder are lost. The second method is in some ways more interesting—it adds vatcha to Fate Core as NPCs. The players create characters as they would normally and get to wield the vatcha, but the GM controls and plays each of the vatcha. The danger is that this sets up a potential ‘player versus GM’ situation in a game, but this does not mean that the situation is without potential.

Physically, the WIELD Companion is decently presented. Although there is no index, the list of contents at the front of the book makes up for it, especially when looking for a particular Domain or power. The supplement is very lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent.

There are some excellent settings in the WIELD Companion and there is no denying that the supplement does solid job of showcasing the potential in the concept and mechanics presented in WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha. Unfortunately, some of the seven settings do feel under-developed and could have benefited with more background or more detail. Perhaps if one of these settings had been presented in the core rules, then there might have been space here for the extra material. Nevertheless, the WIELD Companion is worth reading for its development of the WIELD concept and the numerous new Domains that come with the seven settings—and some of the settings are good too.

Roleplaying Magic Items

The latest RPG from John Wick, the designer of Legend of the Five Rings and Houses of the Blooded, is WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha. This is an RPG in which the destinies and histories of great and powerful artefacts are told. It is a game in which valiant heroes wield great swords, ambitious men command the powers of ancient rings, mighty kings crown themselves with bejewelled coronets to control the fates of others, and potent mages brandish arcane staves to draw upon the forces of magic and manipulate creation itself… The obvious inspiration for WIELD then, is the One Ring from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings or the sword Stormbringer in Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels. Yet in WIELD, the players do not roleplay these heroes, Frodo Baggins in the case of the One Ring or Elric in the case of Stormbringer, but rather they roleplay the artefacts themselves; and the heroes? For despite the power and the ambitions of these powerful artefacts, not a single one can apply its great abilities, for it takes a great ‘hero’—or ‘pawn’ as the Vatcha call them to wield the powers of a Vatcha, for they are but a means to an end to bring about the destinies of the ‘Vatcha’ or ‘wilful weapons’…

Actually, in WIELD, the players not only roleplay the Vatcha, they do play the heroes who wield them. Except that whilst a player roleplays a Vatcha, he does not roleplay the hero wielding that Vatcha, but roleplays a hero wielding another player’s Vacha! Now this reminiscent of another design by John Wick, the RPG Enemy Gods, in which each player took on the role of a hero during the Bronze Age whose destiny would be influenced by the gods—gods roleplayed by all of the players. Further, the idea behind WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha is also reminiscent of Bloodlust, the French sword and sorcery role-playing game originally published by Asmodée Éditions which is yet to see an English language translation. In that RPG, the players take on the roles of living god-weapons that fell from the stars and are wielded by mighty thewed warriors who hew across an ancient jungle continent that looks not unlike Antarctica. WIELD though, has no such setting and much like Enemy Gods—though it should be noted that Enemy Gods did include sample settings—its setting is implied, being an archetypal fantasy setting of some kind.

Funded via Kickstarter, WIELD has been brought to print with surprising speed in comparison with some Kickstarter projects. Unfortunately, this has meant that the book feels rough and incomplete in places. Had there been an editor involved then the reader might not have needed to make several obvious assumptions. Now this does not mean that WIELD is either incomprehensible or unplayable. It just feels rushed.

The set-up in WIELD is simple. Each player controls a Vatcha, a wilful weapon, which will grant its great powers to a hero, who will in return act as the Vatcha’s agent in bringing about the Vacha’s destiny because the Vacha cannot wield its own power—only a hero can. The hero who wields the Vatcha is not controlled by the same player, but the player sat next to him. Further, since a Vatcha must grant some of its power to its wielder there is plenty of potential for tension between Vatcha and hero and for storytelling as the last thing that a Vatcha wants to do is give its hero too much power and become subservient to him.

To create a Vatcha a player selects an item, which can be anything from a sword, boots, or a chair to a coin, item of luggage, or Police Box!* Each Vatcha has one, two, or three Dominions over which it has power, including elements like Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, or Creation, Destruction, Life, and so on. Every Vatcha has a goal, for example, ‘Become the true ruler of Kuritana’ or ‘Destroy the Dark Blade’, the latter another Vatcha. For every goal there are four steps that need to be defined. Then a history for the Vatcha is created by building connections with those of the other players. Penultimately, a player needs to decide how his Vatcha can be destroyed—this should be epic, but not impossible—and decide on a name.

*The latter two are simply included on the list. WIELD has nothing whatsoever to do with either the Discworld or Doctor Who, but their inclusion both suggests possibilities and hints at the relationships between Rincewind and the Luggage and the Doctor and the TARDIS.

Gauntlet of Life
Domains: Creation, Life, Light
Goal: Restore the Theocracy of the White God
Identify the Pietist of the White God
Bear witness to a miracle of the Pietist of the White God
Keep the Pietist of the White God alive against heresy
Proselytise the Piety of the White God
Connections: Singe, the Shotel of the Ashes (Helped rescue the Gauntlet from Foice the Sheer, Black Ice Demon); Lyre of the Bard Lord (Worn by the same wielder); The Ring of Fire (A previous wielder attempted to destroy the Gauntlet of Life); The Golden Veil of Houri (Co-operated together to hobble Menorenth the Bloody)
Means of Destruction: Worn by Black Ice Demon for a 100 years and then burnt in a hellforge

Then Fate—as the GM is known in WIELD—steps in and creates the Heroes that will wield the Vatcha. This includes the Hero’s name, Background (what the hero was doing before picking up the Vatcha), Destiny (what Fate had in mind for the hero before he picked up the Vatcha), personality traits, and any equipment. It is implied that Fate should create a deck of Heroes and assign them randomly and then assign a Vatcha a new one when the previous Hero dies. The dead Hero is shuffled back into the deck. Each time a Hero is draw and assigned to a Vatcha, the Hero acquires a new personality trait.

Verinor the Sailor
Destiny: Sail to the ends of the world and return
Personality Trait: Charming
Wounds: (1) (2) (3)
Equipment: Sword, coil of rope

Lastly, the Vatcha’s player assigns some of his powers to the Hero. These come from the Domains selected during the Vatcha’s creation. There is a limit to how many Powers a Vatcha can bestow; too few and the Hero cannot do great things, but too many and the Hero may wrest control of over all of the Vatcha’s powers and the Vatcha itself. A Vatcha has ten points of Control to assign and the more Powers he assigns, the more Control he loses… A quarter of WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha is devoted to listing the powers Domain by Domain.

It should be noted that like most storytelling roleplaying games, the only form of progression in WIELD is narrative based—there is no form of mechanical progression, such as Experience Points. Thus progression solely rests on the Goal of the Vatcha and the Destiny of one Hero after another.

To undertake an action, a player has to ‘take a chance’. This involves rolling two six-sided dice and adding the result to beat a target—‘Easy’ (no roll required), ‘Hard’ (six or more), ‘Heroic’ (twelve or more), ‘Epic’ (eighteen or more), and ‘Impossible’ (twenty-five or more). Bonus dice can be added to the pool for a Hero’s Background, for any of a Hero’s Personality Traits, if the action furthers his Destiny, and if any of his equipment is pertinent. Even if the player rolls the dice and fails to beat the target, he does not necessarily fail at the task. Rather, he succeeds with Complications, one for every target threshold missed.

For example, Verinor the Sailor is aboard his ship when it is caught in a ferocious storm and one of his passengers—who happens to be young and pretty—is swept overboard. He leaps to the rescue. Fate decides that this is a Epic action, setting the target at eighteen. Verinor’s player takes up two dice to which adds another die for his ‘Sailor’ Background and another for his equipment, the coil of rope. He rolls four dice, but only gets a result of fourteen, so fails the roll. This is enough to obtain a Heroic result, but not an Epic, so his player has to choose a Complication, which in this case is that the young passenger is betrothed to another man.

Alternatively, a Hero might offer a Fate a geis—or geas—so that he can automatically succeed at a challenge. This would require the Hero to undertake a particular action—or not, of course. A small geis might be not to look at another woman for a week, or a year for a large geis, or forever for a major geis. The exact terms of the geis is open to negotiation, but a geis cannot be offered if the Challenge is a conflict between the heroes. Breaking a geis allows Fate to force failures upon a Hero.

Combat is where WIELD gets odd. A Hero can either attack or defend—not both, or he can use a power. Each round Fate counts to five and if a Hero wants to attack, his player points to the intended target, holding out the number of fingers to indicate the amount of damage he wants to inflict. This can be against another Hero or Fate if fighting an NPC. Conversely, if a Hero wants to defend himself, his player holds a number of fingers against his chest to indicate how many wounds he wants his Hero to protect himself against. The number of fingers in either case corresponds to the five target levels—Easy, Hard, Heroic, Epic, and Impossible—that a Hero rolls against when taking a chance. If any Hero uses a Power, then it activates before any combat, but again the player needs to indicate the rank of the Power used using his fingers and with higher ranked Powers going before lower ranked Powers.

Apart from Powers taking effect first, combat is meant to be resolved simultaneously, but as a mechanic it feels rough and incomplete. It does not help that Fate also has to handle any NPCs, having to decide and note down what they are doing from turn to turn as this disrupts the physicality of the rest of the combat mechanic. Ultimately, this leaves WIELD too readily open to disagreement at the table and it will need Fate to have a very steady hand at the tiller if a game is not going awry…

Then is of course the tension at the heart of the game—that is, between a Hero and his Vatcha—or is it a Vatcha and his Hero?—and the players for each. A Hero is capable of free action, but his Vatcha is not, despite the Vatcha granting the Hero some of its Powers. There is of course, nothing to stop a Hero from doing what his Vatcha wants and if so, it is a simple matter of their respective players coming to an agreement. If a Hero does not want to do what a Vatcha wants, then the Vatcha can call for a Control Risk. This is an opposed roll, the winner deciding the course of an action.

Although WIELD includes guidelines for groups and monsters, and some notes for adjusting some of the game’s parameters, it feels rather light in terms of advice for the GM—or rather, Fate.  It also leaves Fate and his players to their own devices when it comes a setting, though the WIELD Companion does provide several, including a Cyberpunk setting and settings in both the Old West and Old Japan.

WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha is a game that almost does nothing except present challenges. The first is in the players having to portray two characters, one of which is not their own. Admittedly this will not present too much difficulty for anyone who has experience playing storytelling games, but having to differentiate between the two does not make it any easier—though it should be pointed out that solutions to this are discussed in the book. The second is overcoming the natural inclination for a player to make his current Hero his primary character, when in fact it is the Vatcha that is a player’s primary character. In fact, the Hero is the Vatcha’s tool (and Hit Points), not the other way around. The third challenge is set of rules that are underwritten, that feel rough and ready, and which are not helped by the slim advice for the GM or Fate. Lastly, WIELD leaves all of the challenge and effort of world building to Fate and his players—there is no advice in WIELD, no discussion of WIELD on other genres, and no example settings. Again neither will too much of a challenge to experienced players and players of storytelling games, but a page of advice devoted to each of the possible genres would have been reasonable inclusion.

Yet despite the challenges in WIELD, there is no denying that there is a gem of an idea at its heart and that gem is its greatest, and best, challenge, that of roleplaying two different characters with different agendas linked to separate players. It sets up tensions between the linked players that are rife with potential and playability. WIELD: Chronicles of the Vatcha is a great idea that is not as well supported or developed as it could have been.