From: Mark Fender Subject: [GM-7thSea] House rules- Swordsman Knacks Date: Mon, 2 Aug 1999 16:04:03 -0500 By popular demand (okay, no one asked), we present our House Rules for Swordsman Knacks. We (and, for the record, 'we' is me and Chris Smith - the two GMs of 7th Sea in our little neck of the woods) feel that anyone can learn any Swordsman Knack, just not as well as someone who didn't learn it from a school. Each Knack lists a cost, listed as a + (+1, +2, +3). Check the individual Swordsman Style for the cost of a specific Knack. This plus acts as an adder to the base cost of the Knack. For instance, a Swordsman Knack costs 3 points per Rank in character creation. Add the number listed to this base cost. For in-game purposes, the adder adds to the relative level of the Knack. For instance, to increase a Knack not from your school you would find the level you wish to raise it to, add the adder from the chart, and then figure the experience cost based on this. We feel this adequately expresses the difficulty in learning Knacks foreign to your training style while still preventing the odd occurrence such as Amrogia, Aldana, and others of not knowing how to Lunge. Also note that Exploit Weakness is not listed on the chart. This is because we have made a foreign styles Exploit Weakness an Advantage. Another note: Fencing can learn any of these Knacks. But at the highest price. We felt that this would allow for those brilliant swordsmen who taught themselves, while also preventing everyone who wasn't from a Swordsman Style from being better Swordsman than said Stylists. Obviously, in the chart the +0 means that the particular Swordsman Style teaches that Knack already and its cost remains unchanged. Also note that many points could be argued about certain schools being able to learn some Knacks easier. You may not agree with our pricing. However, keep in mind that we balanced all of these with each other, so some of the costs aren't exactly right. We decided that game balance was more important than reality. I apologize if this turns out weird on your computer. If anyone wants, the original chart in Word 97 can be sent to those who request it. Please do not send such requests to the list as this will annoy me and everyone else. Fencing Aldana Ambrogia Donovan Eisenfaust Leegstra Valroux Beat +3 +2 +2 +1 +0 +0 +2 Bind +3 +1 +1 +0 +0 +2 +1 Corps-a-corps +3 +2 +2 +1 +1 +0 +2 Disarm +3 +1 +1 +0 +0 +1 +1 Double-parry +3 +2 +1 +2 +2 +2 +0 Feint +3 +0 +0 +1 +1 +1 +0 Lunge +3 +1 +2 +2 +2 +0 +2 Pommel Strike +3 +2 +0 +2 +1 +1 +2 Riposte +3 +0 +0 +0 +2 +2 +1 Tagging +3 +0 +2 +2 +2 +2 +0