Helpful 7th Sea Links

Helpful Links List

Wiki!!

The 7th Sea Wiki

External Links

Pirates of the Carribean - Facts behind the Fiction - pirate history information, pirate flags, famous pirates, pirate ships, prices, travel by sea. A wealth of information.
Last Names Meanings by Country - a list of surnames by country and their meanings, good for naming characters.
Pirate Site! - another batch of information about piracy. some stuff stolen from here for game use.
Matt's 7th Sea game info - rather than write all this stuff down again, I am just linking here to Matt's site. (House rules listed here are Matt's house rules, not mine. Likewise, the character archive is for his game.) The other links are useful information about the game, history and some mechanics.
Pirate Lingo Glossary - for those of you who want to spice up your character's dialogue (or who want to look up what the heck the gm is talking about!), here's the site for you!
Another Pirate Lingo Glossary - same as above, only AEG's glossary. Obviously there are other links on this page to various 7th Sea resources.
Canadian Privateering Homepage - Some very good mood-setting information. Be sure to read the whole bit on "Barrett's Privateers"! Good stuff!
Pyrate Ships of Yore - excellent information on ship sizes, types and whatnot. Information about the rigging and some nice cut-aways. As a note, there is a huge difference between reality and gaming, so... while our ship is loosely based on historical ships... it really isn't.

Internal Links

The Basic PBeM rules - subject to change!!
Sample Rolls - the basic combat rules and skill checks copied and condensed from the Player's Guide.
The Theahn Calendar
Travel Times by Ship (in Weeks)
The Currency Convertion Chart
Matt's quickie equipment list, when you want to spend your hard earned guilders.
Quickie Guide to Spending Experience
Drama Dice - How to Get Them and What You Can Use Them For.
Reputation Chart - what it is, how you can get it, game effects. - written/copied/condensed by Matt
Laerdom Runes Chart - written by Karen New 10/27!
Dice Roller - an online dice-roller for those of you who don't always have your dice with you! - written by Liz

Other Links

Map of Fire Mountain Island

So, here are the basic rules, which are subject to change as I get a better feel for what we're doing.

Everyone is to check their email regularly. (No, you don't have to click send/recieve every five minutes or anything, but once a day is good and once every three days is the absolute minimum.) If you're going to be away from your email for a few days PLEASE let me know as soon as possible.

Everyone is to make at least one post per week. More posts are encouraged and will be rewarded with extra experience.

Private conversations are encouraged. If you are talking only to one (or a few) other characters, there's no need to spam the list with your personal conversations. You can send those emails back and forth to each other, no problem. HOWEVER, I am to be cc'd on every conversation.

To keep dice-rolling to a minimum and to shorten time between "moves" please think ahead a few moves. You DO NOT need to roll for every action you want to take. You want to walk across the deck. Fine, walk. You want to sprint across the deck while the ship is listing to port, leaping barrels that are spilling everywhere while being chased by members of Reis's crew, that you'll need to roll for. Consult the list below for sample rolls and better still, provide your roll with your action.

Example: There's a bad storm and the mainsail needs to be cut free before the mast breaks or you are driven under. You want to run across the deck holding your knife and cut the lines. Your finesse is 2 and your balance is 3. You have a knife-attack of 2 and a rigging of 3. Your move might look like this: I run across the deck (Fin+balance 5k2 = 10+8+9 = 27) and slash at the ropes (Fin+knife = 4k2 = 7+7=14 or Fin+rigging = 5k2 = 8+8=16) I then attempt to make it back below decks (Fin+Balance 5k2 = 10+10+8+10+2=40)
I know a lot of people haven't played 7th Sea before, so if you have mechanics questions, email me privately and I'll make a judgement call on your rolls. I'm at my computer at least 12 hours a day most of the time, so I should be able to get back with you promptly. I can also get and send emails by phone, so if you need something RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND AND IT CAN'T WAIT, please use this page to send me a phone beep with the number 7572861888 or send an email to my phone. This service has unlimited messaging until January of 2005, after which I get 1000 messages a month, so using this should not be a problem. I will store all of your email addresses on my phone so I can send you emails back. Needless or insistant bugging of the GM may well result in lowered experience points and will probably lead me to mock you, so please, give me some time to get back to you. It shouldn't be that long.

Good description, adequate grammer and spell-checking will OFTEN substitute for rolling dice. I don't expect everyone to be an English major and even those of us who are/were don't always get everything right the first time. However, most email programs come with a spellchecker. PLEASE use it. This is a role-playing game. So, role-play. If you give me a good, descriptive passage I probably won't make you roll, unless you're trying something insanely difficult. Those of you who are on the Hall already know how this works. Those of you who aren't, I'll give you more slack for a time until you get the hang of things.

I TRUST YOU WITH YOUR DICE. Please, please don't make me compromise this. I do not want to make all dice rolls. Obviously, I can't watch you make your dice rolls. So... be honest. (And if you can't be honest, please pretend to botch or fail once in a while so I don't get suspicious. And the other players don't get annoyed.)

Send all combat "moves" directly to me. Do not cc the other players. I will combine the emails into a coherent whole. Official combat "situations" will come out every Friday and Wednesday before 5pm unless otherwise announced. If that means everyone attacks the same Montaigne Naval Officer at the same time or you accidentally shoot one of your party members because they got in the way, so be it. Combat is often a confusing and chaotic thing. "Moves" that you want included are to be sent to me the Thursday or Tuesday prior by midnight or they will not be included. (This rule most likely to change as I see how things actually work out.) Conversations or carousing or other non-combat "moves" can be sent to the list as a whole (or to the characters to whom they are directed) whenever you have time/inclination to do so. These I will also combine and send out as a weekly update on Monday.

All player moves, conversations and other in-game chatter needs to be marked as such before each paragraph. For example:

Reis: The dread captain Reis grabs a rope and swings over onto the Dagger, his crew of cutthroats behind him. "No quarter! No quarter, ya scabbrous dogs!" The sun glints off his strange Syrneth weapon, sending darts of blue and green light over the deck.
Morgan: Panic! Panic! I grab the nearest belaying pin and club myself over the head with it.
Morgan: I swoon acrpss the deck dizzily, pitch over the rail and plummet off the side into the sea.
Conversation is to be placed inside quotation marks. Use your character name to designate who you are. If you want to talk about rules/real life, please keep that seperated from game-conversations and in-character moves so no one gets confused.

I shouldn't have to say this, but I will anyway, just to be clear. PNP (Play Nicely, People) rules are in effect at ALL times. In-character arguements are to be expected, nay even encouraged. Player arguments will be actively discouraged. If you don't agree with something someone else does, please quietly and privately take it up with them. If you can't resolve your own problems, you can bring it to me, but my word is law and once I've settled it, I don't want to hear about it again, ok? ok. We're all adults here, so playing nicely shouldn't be a problem. In-list flames, name-calling, and other examples of third-grade behavior may result in lowered experience, bad things happening to your character, and/or removal from the game. (This includes excessive rules-lawyering, obnoxious correction of other people's spelling or grammar, and other various annoying things. Don't be annoying. It's not that hard!)

Drama

Shamelessly stolen and condensed from the Player's Guide for your consultation. Please don't sue me.

Dice

7th Sea uses ten-sided dice. Whenever the GM tells a player to make a check, the player picks up a number of dice, throws them, and counts up the total. You always want to roll high in 7th Sea. For example: if you roll three dice and they read 3, 8, and 8, the total of your roll is 19 (3+8+8=19).

7th Sea uses a roll and keep system. When we tell you to roll five dice, keep three, you roll five dice and choose any three and keep those totals. Finally, whenever a die rolls a 10, then that die "explodes." An exploding die is rerolled and the next result is added to the first. For example: if you roll a 10, you reroll and get a 5, those two are added togeteher to get 15. No matter how many times a die explodes (10+10+10+10+3, anyone?) it still only counts as 1 kept die.

Actions

If you want to do something, you perform an action. A Target Number (TN) will be assigned by the GM for each action depending on difficulty. The average target number is 15.

Target Number Chart
5	Mundane
10	Easy
15	Average (default target number)
20	Hard
25	Very Hard
30	Heroic
35	Never Done Before
40	Never To Be Done Again

There are two kinds of rolls, simple and contested:

Simple Rolls - the player declares an action and the GM determines which trait is appropriate for that action. He assigns a TN for the action. The player rolls the dice and adds them together to beat the TN.

Contested Rolls - two characters are attempting to make an action against each other. The TN for a contested roll is equal to the opposed Trait x 5. Both characters roll the appropriate trait. if one is successful (Opposing Trait x 5) then he succeeds and his opponnent fails. If both roll successful, the higher roll wins. If both roll unsuccessfully, the contest continues another round/roll.

Trait + Knack

Most actions are rolled as Trait plus Knack, keep Trait. So a roll to shoot someone would be Finesse + Attack (firearms) keep Finesse.

Raises

A player may voluntarily raise any TN by increments of five (so, one raise is TN+5 and three raises is TN+15). Raising allows a Hero to complete a task faster, more efficiently or with more style. "Called shots" is an example of what a Hero can do with a raise.

Combat Rules

Initiative: You get Action Dice equal to your Panache. At the beginning of a combat turn, you roll Panache and you get those actions on the Combat Phase. Initiative Dice do not explode. Example: A Panache of 3 gets a 3, 7 and 7. He goes on Phases 3 and 7 (twice). The order of Phases is determined by the total of the Initiative Roll (in this case, 3+7+7=17) The orders of the Phase are determined by who has the highest Initiative Roll. When you use one of your actions, you remove that die's total from your Initiative Roll. So, when you make your action on 3, your Initiative Roll becomes 14.

Attack and Defense: Finese + Attack keep Finese is your "to hit" roll. Your TN for that attack is determined as your opponent's (Defense Knack x 5)+5. (see table below) Range weapons have a TN penalty (bows are -10 to hit, pistols and muskets are -15)

Damage: Damage is determined as Brawn + Weapon Damage for melee weapons and Weapon Damage only for ranged weapons. So, a sword in the hands of a Hero with a Brawn of 3 would be 5k2 (brawn of 3 + 2k2 sword damage).

Example: Your panache is 3, you roll 2, 7, and 10. In phase 2, you take an action to hit the Villian and miss. However, in phase 4, he swings at you. You may choose to burn both your remaining actions - and thus not get an action in phase 7 and 10 - to parry in phase 4.

Wounds: Roll Brawn with a TN equal to the number of wounds taken. In the above example, our Hero rolls a damage of 1, 1, 4, 9 and 9 and keeps the top two, which equals 18. This is the TN of the wound check. Against an opponent with a Brawn of 3, who rolls 6, 6, and 7. He succeeds his wound check and takes 18 flesh wounds but no dramatic wounds. The next time he is wounded, his TN will go up by 18 + the additional new wounds. If you fail the Wound Check, you suffer a Dramatic Wound For each 20 points you miss your Wound Check by, you take an additional Dramatic Wound. Recieving a Dramatic Wound erases all Flesh Wounds you have gotten until this point, however: if you have a number of Dramatic Wounds equal to your Resolve, none of your dice (except Drama Dice) will explode. If you accumulate a number of Dramatic Wounds equal to your Resolve x 2, you are Knocked Out and will probably wake up in an unenviable position. At the end of combat, all flesh wounds are erased. A surgeon or healer will need to tend to your Dramatic Wounds. It is difficult, but not impossible, to die in 7th Sea. Unless someone makes an effort to kill you, you will wake up. There are some exceptions, obviously.

Defense Knack Table
Defense Knack	When Used
Footwork	At any time unless overruled by another Knack
Parry (weapon)	May be used when holding the appropriate weapon
Balance	When on ship or fighting on an unstable surface
Climbing	when climbing
Leaping	when leaping
Riding	When on horseback
Rolling	when rolling or sliding
Sprinting	while running
Swimming	while swimming or in water
Swinging	when swinging on a rope

Villians, Henchmen and Brutes

A Villian is like a Hero, only evil. They take wounds and make actions exactly like Heroes.

Henchmen are the hangers on of Villians and Heros. They recieve Wounds the same way Heroes do, but are Knocked Out when they receive a number of Dramatic Wounds equal to their resolve.

Brutes are riff-raff. Guardsmen, thugs and other people who show up to get beaten on by Heroes. A group of six Brutes is called a Brute Squad. The normal target number to hit a member of a Brute Squad is 10. Once hit, a Brute is knocked out. No flesh wounds, to dramatic wounds, just out. To hit more than one member of a Brute Squad, Heroes may call Raises. Each raise knocks out an additional Brute.

Drama Dice

Heroes start out with drama dice equal to their lowest trait and gain more by being Heroic. Witty banter, impressive derring do, and other swashbuckly sort of things will earn more drama dice.

Drama dice can be used for: activating certain sorceries, add a kept die to any one Action, get up immediately from being Knocked Out. There are other uses, but we'll cover those as we get to them.

Traits

Brawn: strength and stamina, physical force. Used to lifting heavy items, added to damage rolls.
Finesse: speed, agility and hand-eye coordination. Finesse is used to make to-hit rolls.
Resolve: willpower, determination. How many wounds you can take before being Knocked Out.
Wits: intelligence. Also used for making parries (wits+parry)
Panache: that certain something that makes a hero heroic. Style, grace, impressiveness, social skills. Also used to determining Initiative.

Caveat: Obviously this is not the whole and entire of the rulesbook and I'm sure I've missed some stuff, but this is the basic gaming information for those of you who don't have the books or are in a hurry to reference something.

Calendar
Soldi	Veldi	Amordi	Terdi	Guerdi	Redi	Voltadi
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
The feasting days of the 15th and the 30th are not "real" days and are not considered part of the week.

The months are as follows: Primus, Secundusm Tertius, Quartus, Qunitus, Sextus, Julius, Corantine, Septimus, Octavus, Nonus, Decimus. (those of you with math skills will note this makes 360 days in the year. However, at the end of the year, the Prophet's Mass - a 5 to 6 day celebration depending on the whole leap year thing - fills out the rest of the days and is not included in the months.

Sea Travel in Times in Theah (in weeks)
	--------------------Origin--------------------
Destination	Cathay	Crescent Empire	Midnight Archipelago	Vodacce	Vendel	Ussura	Montaigne	Eisen	Castille	Avalon
Avalon	7-8	5-6	3-4	3-4	1-2	2-3	1-2	1-2	2-3	0-1
Castille	4-5	2-3	2-3	1-2	2-3	3-4	1-2	2-3	0-1	2-3
Eisen	8-9	6-7	4-5	3-4	1-2	1-2	1-2	0-1	2-3	1-2
Montaigne	6-7	4-5	3-4	2-4	1-2	2-3	0-1	1-2	1-2	1-2
Ussura	8-9	7-8	5-6	4-5	1-2	0-1	2-3	1-2	3-4	2-3
Vendel/Vesten	7-8	6-7	4-5	4-5	0-1	1-2	1-2	1-2	2-3	1-2
Vodacce	3-4	2-3	4-5	0-1	4-5	4-5	2-4	3-4	2-3	3-4
Mid. Arch	9+	9+	0-1	4-5	4-5	5-6	3-4	4-5	2-3	3-4
Cres. Empire	1-2	0-1	9+	2-3	6-7	7-8	4-5	6-7	2-3	5-6
Cathay	0-1	1-2	9+	3-4	7-8	8-9	6-7	8-9	4-5	7-8

The Guilder

The exchange rates as determined by the Vendel League upon the creation of the guilder. Because I am weird and complicated, I have reincorperated coinage from history to add to what 7th Sea has done. Thanks.

Avalon: 1 pound = 20 shillings = 20 guilder. There are approximately 8 cents in a penny. (1 pound = 20 shillings = 240 pennies = 2000 cents) Avalon currency is broken down further into the following coinage: Pound, Half-Crown (2 shillings & sixpence), Florin (two shillings), Shilling (1/20 pound or 12 pennies), Sixpence (half a shilling), Threepence (half a sixpence), Penny (240 pennies to a pound) and Halfpenny.

Castille: 1 Dubloon = 100 Maravedi. 1 Guilder = 20 Maravedi. Castillian currency is broken down further into the following coinage: Dubloon, Maravedi, Piece of Eight (10 Pieces of Eight = 1 Maravedi), reals (8 to a piece of eight.). Thus, 1 Guilder = 20 Maravedi = 200 PoE = 1600 reals. There are 16 reals in a cent.

Eisen: 1 Mark = 10 Florins = 100 Pfennig. 1 Guilder = 4 Marks = 40 Florins = 400 pfennig. 4 pfennig = 1 cent. You cannot exchange Guilders for Marks, Florins or Pfennig because the Merchant Guild is trying to take the Eisen coins out of circulation.

Montaigne: 1 Sol = 12 Pistoles. 1 Pistole = 12 Deniers. 1 Guilder = 2 Pistols = 24 Deniers. There are about 2 and a half cents per Denier. Most Montaigne merchants will round down when giving change.

Ussura: Barter. 1 Guilder = 1 chicken. There are no coins in Ussura and they are often very reluctant to take Guilders since you can't eat them or wear them or do anything else useful with them.

Vestenmannavnjar: Barter: the Vestenmannavnjar refuse to use the Guilder for religious reasons.

Vodacce: 1 Senator = 5 Seats. 1 Guilder = 3 Senators = 15 Seats. There are about 6 cents in a Seat.

Experience Points

Buy a new skill Buying a new Skill costs 10xps. When you do so, you get all the knacks at 1, just as in normal character creation. However, if you buy a skill with a knack in it that you already have, you do not get to add the new rank to your existing knack. Thus, if you have a footwork of 2 and you purchase Pugilism Skill, your footwork does not go up.
Buy a new knack house rule Sometimes you don't want all the Knacks in a certain skill. This will cost 6xps. Thus, if you want more than 1 Knack in a given skill, you may as well get the whole skill, but the option to get just 1 knack is open.
Buy a New Background A new background will cost 3, 6 or 9 XPs for a 1-, 2-, or 3-poinbt Background. You may only have a number of backgrounds equal to your Rank in Panache. Thus, if you have a 3 in Panache and you already have 2 backgrounds, you may only purchase one more background.
Raise a Knack In order to increase a Knack, you must spend a number of Experience Points equal to twice the Rank you want to increase the Knack to. For example, if you want to increase a Knack from 2 to 3, you must spend 6 xps. You may raise a Knack by only one Rank per Story. After Hero Creation, advanced knacks cost the same to increase as basic knacks. You can only raise your Knacks to a maximum of Rank 5 under most circumstances. To buy a new Advanced Knack in a skill you already have is 2 xps (rank 0 to rank 1 = 1 point. 1*2=2)
Raise a Trait To increase a Trait, you must spend a number od XPs equal to five times the Rank you want to increase the Trait to (so, a lot!) For example: if you want to increase a Trait from Rank 3 ro Rank 4 you must spend 20 xps. You may raise a trait by only one rank per story. Unless you have a special advantage, Traits can be raised to a maximum of 5.

Things you may NOT do with Experience.

Buy Arcana Virtues are rare, even among Heroes and if you missed the boat when creating your character, you're out of luck. Moreover, if you bought a hubris, you're stuck with it for life.
Buy an Advantage Like Arcana, Advantages just don't magically appear when you have the points for them. On the other hand, your GM may want you to marry into a noble family or something that supplies you with an Advantage you didn't have at Hero creation. In this instnace, your GM will simply give you the new advantage for free.
Raise your Drama Drama is always equal to your lowest Trait. The only way to raise your drama is to raise your traits.

How Much Experience?

Of course everyone wants to know when Experience Points are handed out and how many you're likely to get. Especially with a PBeM game, where a "session" may run over several weeks of emails. The following guidelines will be used and tampered with as I see how things go, ok?

At the end of a Chapter (part of a story - for example, the first Chapter is entitled "Mabon, the Fall Festival." When the Dagger leaves Cardican will be the first hand-out of exps) you will get 1 - 3 xps. These will be based on difficulty of the Chapter, amount of participation, and amount of drama. If you participate regularly, you should expect 2 points. If you are truly creative, actively participating and encouraging others, you will get 3. For truly heroic efforts, 4 points might be awarded. Once in a while.

At the end of a Story (several chapters put together) you will recieve 1 - 5 xps based on the difficulty of the Story. At this time, you may also convert any UNSPENT drama dice into xps.

BONUS EXPERIENCE: Anyone who has a copy of the rules books and wants to do some nice stuff for me, please send me an email letting me know. There are bunches of things I want to add in these sections, so I will almost always have stuff you can type up for me. Thanks!

Drama Dice

Every Hero begins the game with a pool of Drama Dice equal to his lowest Trait. Heros can spend Drama dice in several ways.

Add a Kept Die to any one Action. This can be called after the roll is made, but must be called before the GM describes the result of the Skill Check in question. Drama dice cannot be used after the Action has been successful. In other words, you can't add Drama Dice to the Effect Roll, only to increase the likelihood of success.

Get up. You can use a Drama Die to get up immediately after being Knocked Out. Your Hero must spend the rest of that combat turn recovering, unable to perform any remaining actions. Your TN to be hit during this round is 5 and any other wounds will probably kill you.

Certain Sorcery uses Drama Dice to activate.

Avoid crippled penalties. If you are crippled (have taken as many Dramatic Wounds as equal to your Resolve) your dice no longer explode. Unless you spend a Drama Die, in which case, the Drama Die is the only one that explodes. Please use a different colored die when using this option so you know which Die is the Drama die and which ones aren't.

Getting more Drama Dice

You earn more Drama Dice by active role-playing. If your Hero snaps off Witty Banter at a Villian while engaged in deadly swordplay? You get a Drama Die. If he pauses to kiss the girl before leaping out a window ahead of the guards? Drama Die. In short, whenever you act like a swashbuckler, you get a Drama Die.

Note: There is a witty reparte system in place for those of us who are not as quick-witted as we'd like our characters to be. I would really prefer this not to be used. With an email game, you have plenty of time to think of a witty comment, jeering taunt, or convincing argument. You're not on the spot to come up with the quick one liners (remember, even hollywood pirates have script-writers!) However, if you find yourself completely unable to come up with anything remotely resembling witty, email me and I'll add those rules here. If we end up having to use it, you will NOT receive Drama Dice for using it.