7th Sea

Setting Rules

Character Creation Rules

▼ Free Languages

With this rule, the Language skill is abolished. Characters speak whatever languages, at whatever fluency, is appropriate to their background.

Most characters will only speak their native tongue. But plenty might be bilingual and/or have minor knowledge of other languages.

If there comes a time when a die roll is necessary to determine if a character can communicate or understand something in another language, make a Common Knowledge roll, with appropriate modifiers depending on the character’s background.

If deciphering ancient inscriptions or trying to understand detailed writings in a foreign tongue, roll Research.

Learning new languages or improving fluency should be discussed between the player and the Game Master. There is no need to spend Advances.

The first language a character speaks is assumed to be the native tongue of their nation. A common second language is Low Théan, as it serves as a lingua franca (trade tongue). However, it is considered rather vulgar; no one of standing would be caught dead speaking it in court or other respectable settings.

The languages spoken in Théah are:

• Castillo (Castille)
• Cymru (Avalon)
• Eisen (Eisen)
• High Eisen (Eisen)
• Low Théan (trade tongue)
• Montaigne (Montaigne)
• Théan (Old Republic)
• Teodoran (ancient Ussura)
• Tikaret-baraji (Crescent Empire)
• Ussuran (Ussura)
• Vendel (Vendel/Vestenmannavnjar)
• Vodacce (Vodacce)

Combat Rules

▼ Armor and Swimming

It is particularly difficult to swim while wearing armor. Characters subtract any Encumbrance penalties as usual from the Athletics (swimming) rolls, but also subtract the natural bonus of any armor worn as well. Ignore magical bonuses, considering only the bonus of a basic suit of that type.

A suit of leather, for example, adds +1 to the user’s Toughness, and so subtracts –1 from their Athletics (swimming) rolls. (Leather also weighs twice as much when wet.)

▼ Death & Defeat

In some settings, death is a rare occurrence. This options reflects a more narrative fate for great heroes who fall in battle.

When a hero is Incapacitated by lethal damage, they make an immediate Vigor roll and check the results below (don’t use the regular Incapacitation rules in Savage Worlds).

• Critical Failure: The character is not Incapacitated but instead goes out in a Blaze of Glory (see below).
• Failure: The hero is Incapacitated and Defeated (see below).
• Success: The character is Incapacitated and Injured. Roll on the Injury Table in Savage Worlds. The Injury goes away once all Wounds are healed.
• Raise: The character is Incapacitated, but a Healing roll at −2 gets them up and fighting on the next round (with all their Wounds as usual).

Blaze of Glory

Great heroes and villains should have memorable and desperate dooms.

When a hero Critically Fails their Vigor roll due to Incapacitation, they're awarded a point of Conviction and three Bennies. These should be used sparingly, as they are the character’s insurance for lasting the rest of the session until their chosen moment arrives. All effects of the attack that triggered Blaze of Glory are completely negated. This includes being Shaken.

At any point during the remainder of the session, the character may spend that point of Conviction to perform the amazing feat that will result in their death. The Game Master should make this moment as memorable and epic as possible. After the character’s Conviction bonus expires (remember, they can spend Bennies to prolong it), they die, hopefully having taken out some of their adversaries or accomplished a significant goal with their sacrifice.

Of course the Game Master may always work with the player to simply narrate some dramatic and purposeful end rather than gaming it out.

Death isn’t usually permanent in comics. If the player and Game Master want the hero to come back, they can—perhaps transformed with new or altered powers. With the GM’s permission, you may alter a returning character’s profile or create it from scratch. Such a return should be suitably melodramatic. Exactly when and how this happens is up to the GM and the player, but it should be a significant and memorable event in the campaign.

Defeated

The hero is beaten and bloodied but will live to fight another day. They must choose one of the following results:

• Go out in a Blaze of Glory (see above).
• Roll on the Injury Table in Savage Worlds. The injury is permanent.
• Lose one step in an Attribute.
• Lose an Edge.
• Gain a Major Hindrance, perhaps reflecting a permanent mental or physical injury from the fight.

▼ Unarmored Hero

If a Wild Card chooses not to wear any armor (ignoring shields), they add a +2 bonus to their Soak rolls!

▼ Wound Cap

Characters can never suffer more than four Wounds in a single hit and therefore never have to Soak more than four wounds either.

Large Creatures: The Wound Cap applies even to creatures with more than three Wounds (due to their Scale or the Resilient/Very Resilient Special Ability). A Huge creature that can take five Wounds, for example, can’t take more than four from a single attack, so it can’t normally be killed with a single attack. The GM can always overrule this in specific and obvious situations, of course, such as massive blasts, falling from towering cliffs or mountains, etc.

Gameplay Rules

▼ Cliffhangers

At the end of a round, and assuming they’re desperate enough, the players may decide to call for a Cliffhanger to get them out of trouble (majority rules if there’s a debate). If so, they roll a die and accept the results of the Cliffhanger table below! This will almost certainly avoid the current danger and grant them additional Bennies or even Conviction, but will open them up to new dangers (and adventures!) as well.

Cliffhanger (d12)

1. Captured: The heroes are overwhelmed, drugged, betrayed, or forced to surrender. They escape the immediate danger but begin the next scene imprisoned, disarmed, restrained, or under guard. Everyone refills their starting Bennies and gains Conviction once the escape scene begins.
2. Death Trap: The enemy leaves the heroes to die in a device, collapsing ruin, burning building, sinking ship, sacrificial chamber, monster pit, or similar peril. Run the escape as a Dramatic Task, Quick Encounter, or hazardous combat scene. Each hero immediately gains three Bennies.
3. Disaster: A massive disaster interrupts the scene: explosion, landslide, storm, flood, fire, stampede, riot, avalanche, magical backlash, or structural collapse. The enemy flees or is scattered. The heroes gain Conviction if they save most of the innocents caught in the disaster.
4. Environmental Hazard: The battlefield itself becomes dangerous. The building catches fire, the ship lists, the bridge cracks, poison gas spreads, etc. Hazardous effects ensue, or perhaps the party must perform a Dramatic Task to avoid disaster! Each hero immediately gains two Bennies.
5. Breakneck Escape: The fight turns into a chase, flight, scramble, or running battle. The heroes avoid the current danger, but the opposition pursues them, the ground gives way beneath them, or the only way out is reckless movement through danger. Each player character immediately gains two Bennies.
6. Out of the Frying Pan: A new threat appears and drives off, destroys, or scatters the current opposition. The new threat is worse, stranger, or more personally dangerous. The heroes draw up to their starting Bennies.
7. Perilous Portal: A new path opens to somewhere. The current opposition is left behind, but the path takes the heroes on a significant detour away from their current destination. Everyone in the party receives two Bennies.
8. Separated: The heroes survive, but the group is split. Each subgroup faces a different immediate problem before they can reunite. Each hero gains two Bennies.
9. Stolen Prize:* The heroes escape, but something important is taken: an artifact, map, prisoner, witness, ally, evidence, treasure, etc. Each hero gains two Bennies.
10. Forced Alliance:** A greater threat forces the heroes and their current foes into temporary cooperation to survive or escape. If the heroes honor the truce, they gain Conviction.
11. Unwanted Rescue: Someone intervenes and saves the heroes, but not for free. A rival, criminal, old enemy, or some other questionable interloper now has leverage over them. The heroes each gain two Bennies.
12. Villainous Escalation: The heroes avoid the current danger, but the larger situation worsens. The villain escapes with the prize, completes a ritual, burns the evidence, frames the party, advances the invasion, or some other major step in their dastardly plan. Everyone gains two Bennies and Conviction.

▼ Conviction

Conviction is a special award granted when a character experiences a great victory or catastrophic misfortune.

Conviction can be spent to add a d6 to all a character’s Trait and damage totals until the beginning of their next turn. This die can Ace, and its result is added to the final total.

Conviction tokens aren’t Bennies and can’t be used as such. They are kept between sessions, however.

A character may maintain Conviction from round to round by spending a Benny (at the start of their turn, before it runs out). Once Conviction lapses, however, the effect ends.

▼ Courage of Heroes

In some settings, heroes can be slowed down by fear, but it does not defeat them. When rolling on the Fear Table use a d12 instead of a d20.

▼ Critical Choices

This rule gives players a means of avoiding a terrible twist of fate, but it may come back to haunt them. When a player rolls a Critical Failure, they have the option of spending a Benny to reroll it. However, the spent Benny goes into the Game Master’s pool.

▼ Downtime

When the Game Master decides there’s “downtime” (generally a few days to a week), you can choose one of the following activities. Each provides a benefit of some sort, from financial rewards to progress in crafting or rerolls on select Traits. Narrate what your hero is doing then follow the instructions under each activity. Some Game Masters might also require characters spend money on Lifestyle (Fantasy Companion, page 50) during Downtime.

Unless an option says otherwise, its effect may only be gained once regardless of how long the downtime lasts. The options are as follows (see the Fantasy Companion for full details):

• Carouse: Spending time socializing with friends, making new ones, or cementing relationships with contacts. Spend money in exchange for a favor.
• Center: Focus on what brings happiness (e.g. quality time with friends, riding a favorite horse, painting, reading, writing, courting a romantic interest, etc.). Gain Conviction.
• Earn: Go get paid!
• Enchant: Create magic items. Requires Artificer Edge.
• Train: Practice a skill to gain a free reroll for an entire encounter.
• Research: Gain temporary use of a new power or reveal information.
• Rest: Recover Wounds or gain Conviction.

▼ Duels

One of the signature elements of several genres is the duel. Whether it is Robin Hood fencing with the Sheriff of Nottingham, Jedi and Sith lightsabers clashing, or Rocky Balboa trading blows with Apollo Creed, when the action focuses in on such a contest of champions, we know we’re in for a tense, exciting scene.

A duel is a formalized close combat encounter. The most common type of duel in cinema is a sword fight, but it can just as easily use any other melee weapon or even fisticuffs. Usually the duel is between two combatants, but it is possible to have more duelists on one or both sides. There might even be more than two sides for a truly chaotic duel!

Most strikes in a duel will not land, but they often aren’t supposed to. A duel is more than just hacking at one another until someone falls. It is a chess match, every exchange a move and countermove. Each duelist tries to maneuver, trick, or overpower their foe into leaving an opening for a fatal finishing strike.

In game terms, most duels are a series of Tests, potentially with some powers and other actions thrown into the mix.

Special Rules

• The GM declares the start of a duel. Each player that wishes to participate in the duel declares so. These are the Duelists. Any other character that might intervene, but remain outside the duel, is called an Interloper.
• Deal each Duelist one Hole Card, which they should keep hidden. Use a separate deck for this — not the one you’ll deal Action Cards from.
• Interlopers are dealt Action Cards as normal.
• A Duelist may not make an attack roll against another Duelist unless they declare Checkmate (see below). Note that a Test using Fighting, Shooting, or Athletics (throwing) is not an attack roll.
• All Duelists suffer –2 to Soak rolls for Wounds caused by another Duelist. Wounds inflicted by Interlopers are Soaked normally.
• All the usual Combat Options are available to Duelists.

Tests

Tests work a bit differently in a formal duel.

A successful Test makes the enemy Distracted or Vulnerable as usual, but that condition lasts for the duration of the duel, or until the victim spends a Benny to remove the condition.

Success also lets the attacker draw an extra Hole Card.

A raise on the Test does not make the defender Shaken. Instead, it grants the attacker two new Hole Cards instead of one.

Interference: Interlopers can Support an ally in a duel or even Test an enemy, but they can’t affect Hole Cards — only other Duelists can do that.

Shaken: Characters can’t be Shaken by Tests while in a duel. Powers, physical attacks, or other means of causing a Shaken condition work normally.

Checkmate

At the beginning of any round, a Duelist may declare Checkmate. This means they see an opening and have chosen to try to take advantage of it. But if they’ve misjudged, they may leave themselves open to their foe.

A Checkmate round plays out as follows:

1. Each duelist chooses one of the Hole Cards in their hand to play (usually their highest). That is their Action Card for the round and determines who acts first.
2. Reveal all Hole Cards simultaneously (including those still in players’ hands).
3. Attacks play out as normal. If a duelist’s attack is successful, they gain a bonus d6 to damage for each additional Hole Card they have that is higher than their foe’s highest Hole Card.
4. If at least two opposing duelists are still standing, at the end of the Checkmate round, discard all current Hole Cards. Deal one new Hole Card to each remaining duelist and continue the duel.

▼ Villainous Conviction

Villains get Bennies, but at a much slower rate, and while they can be given Conviction if the Game Master desires, it’s not something they earn quite as easily as player characters.

This Setting Rule reinforces that villains do, in fact, get Conviction, helps the Game Master understand when to award it to them, and adds a powerful new ability to even the odds against meddling heroes.

Gaining Conviction

Villains gain Conviction any time they Incapacitate, or capture an important character (GM’s call, but always includes player characters), accomplish some significant part of their scheme, or undergo a major tragedy or triumph.

In the course of play, this means villains gain Conviction as they accomplish their goals, kidnap Dependents, make off with treasures, or destroy some hated target—even if it’s “off-camera.” That lets them start a scene with Conviction, which is another incentive the heroes have for thwarting their plans.

This should usually be visible to the players when they encounter the villain so they know what they’re up against.

Villainous Effects

Villains gain one additional effect when they play Conviction besides the usual d6 bonus to their actions and damage (see Savage Worlds)—they become Unstoppable! This helps even lone villains last a bit longer against those annoying super teams.

Lore

• Cast of 7th Sea

Locations

• Avalon
• Castille

References

• Map of Théah

Galleries

• Flags of Théah
• Icons for 7th Sea
• Images for 7th Sea
• Portraits for 7th Sea
• Ship Icons for 7th Sea
• Ships for 7th Sea

Campaigns

Campaign	Summary

Character Page Tags

Star Wars characters should be tagged according to the guidelines below. Several are added to a page automatically when created with the module above. Modify and remove them as appropriate to the character.

Tag	Use for:	Examples
character	All characters.
character-name	All characters. As it appears in page name.	allende, nelly-graves, el-vago
heritage:nation	Ancestral national heritage (not to be confused with national affiliation; see below).	heritage:avalon, heritage:kanaka, heritage:ussura
affiliation:nation	National affiliation.	affiliation:castille, affiliation:vodacce, affiliation:brotherhood-of-the-coast
affiliation:group	Membership in a guild, secret society, etc.	affiliation:swordsmans-guild, affiliation:vaticine-church, affiliation:rilasciare
affiliation:none	Unaffiliated with any major group.
location:location	A fixture in a given location.	location:carleon, location:eisenfaust, location:salatoga
ship:ship-name	A member of a ship's crew.	ship:revenge, ship:black-pearl, ship:crimson-roger
campaign:campaign‑title	Campaign(s) the character is played in.	campaign:goodfellows, campaign:justify-the-means
npc	Any non-player character.
wip	Work in progress (unfinished page).