From: jeff-hartsell Subject: [7th Sea RPG GM] 7th Sea House Rules Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 12:24:39 -0500 All right people, as you can see I sent this to the GM 7th Sea mailing list, I BBCed you all to hide your address in case you did not want it spread through cyberspace. Anyway, I wanted to share this with others on the list. So far it looks like we have a Vestenmannavnjar Swordsman (Jeremy), an Highland Marches Explorer (Marty), a Montaigne Duelist (Hobie), and an Eisen Field Chaplain (John). I still need to hear from Bill, Randy, and Josh concerning characters. HOUSE RULES SO FAR (thanks to all those that have developed these ideas) Swordsmen Schools You get 4 free points to spend in basic knacks within your chosen school. Aldana Swordsman School Apprentice: Students of Aldana are very adept at spotting the right moment in which to attack. You may roll one unkept Action die during initiative for every Mastery level you have in Aldana (Apprentice = 1, Journeyman = 2, Master = 3). Feint/Beat Knacks Use the Feint or Beat Knack instead of the Attack Knack when rolling for them. TN to be hit: Passive defense is knack*3 = TN (no +5) Active Defense is knack*3 + 5 (so if you use an action for an active defense you get the +5) Parrying is rolled at the beginning of a fight and those dice are called "parry dice". These are set aside and used during a fight to increase the target number to be hit in a given phase (until your next action). The parry dice can be rolled again to "refresh" the pool as an action. You only get as many parry dice as your parry knack with the weapon you are using. So, a person with Parry (heavy weapon) of 3 would roll 3 parry dice at the beginning of combat and these could be used to increase the TN to hit you. Combat example: Joe has: Brawn 3 Finesse 3 Wits 2 Resolve 3 Panache 3 Attack (fencing blade) 2 Parry (fencing blade) 3 Footwork 2 He rolls 1, 4, 9 for his action dice and 3, 7, 9 for his parry dice. He holds phase 1 action (initiative 14) and gets attacked in phase 3, Joe can elect to use footwork as a passive defense for a TN of 10, parry as a passive defense for a TN of 15, or he can use his held action and make an active defense, Parry in this case, for a TN of 20. Plus, Joe could use any of the parry dice to increase any of the TNs. Since this opponent is an especially nasty fighter, Joe decides to use the held action and use an active defense and the 9 parry die. So, his TN to be hit is 29. Joe is missed and he goes again in phase 4 (13). Joe elects to attack and has a 5k3 attack with his blade. He hits an does a 5k2 hit (3 brawn + 2k2 for the weapon). In phase 6 Joe gets attacked. He cannot abort to an active defense because he has only 1 action die left, so he has to use a passive defense. His TN to be hit is 15 (parry 3 * 5). He elects to use a parry die, the 4, so the TN is 19. Oops, Joe gets disarmed!! Joe gets attacked again in phase 8. This time, he cannot use his parry passive defense because he has no sword and he cannot use his last parry die to increase the TN. So, Joe has to use his fancy footwork to save himself. The TN to hit poor Joe is 10 (footwork 2 * 5); this could hurt!!! Armor Since this might be a popular item, I will allow people to purchase armor. This is not the uber-dracheneisen armor. This is plain-Jane, can help in a pinch, but is not that flexible armor. There are two levels of armor. Leather "armor" or metal "armor". Leather gives you a +1 unkept die to soak damage and lowers your unkept die by 1 for all physical actions, such as fighting, damage, climbing, balance, etc. Metal armor gives you +2 unkept dice to soak damage, but you lose 1 kept die for all physical actions. The Hands of Fate (in the GM book, with a tweak) The party is going to have a "pool" of fate. This fate is represented in game terms by dice that anyone can use to help SOMEONE ELSE succeed. Any action can be made to succeed by pulling a fate die out of the pool. This is done before the action is taken. The pool is replenished when drama dice are used for actions that are deemed dramatic by the GM. The more often and more dramatic you all are the better your fate. Or course, bad mojo can creep into your fates, so the pool can also have The Black Hands of Fate. The bad mojo ends up in the pool when...well, I'll let you all figure that out...as well as the effect. Drama Dice Drama dice are kept dice rolled EITHER before the action or after. This way, you can take advantage of getting another dice to choose out of the pool or you can wait to see if you make the roll and then spend the die. You can spend multiple drama dice on one roll. Drama dice can replace an action dice for the purpose of aborting to an active defense. I think these little tweaks will help resolve some of the issues that may crop up. -- Contents Copyright (C) 1997,98,99 by ALDERAC ENTERTAINMENT GROUP, INC.