Character Creation: 7th Sea 2nd Ed

Trying to get caught up again, so here we go!

The Game: 7th Sea (2nd Ed)

The Publisher: John Wick Presents

Degree of Familiarity: None with this particular game. I played the 1st ed once or twice

Books Required: Just the one.

Wow, 7th Sea 2nd Ed. If you had asked me in 2012, when I was tentatively running my first Kickstarter, what pre-existing RPG property was going to be the first to break a million bucks on the platform, I probably would have guessed some iteration of D&D, maybe Exalted (since that hadn't shit the bed quite yet). I don't think I ever in a million years would have guessed 7th Sea. But there it was, beating the shit out of the records, smashing through stretch goals, and people were really goddamned enthused by the whole thing. In the Kickstarter's wake, JWP (and, behind it as manager, Mark Truman, which was the smartest thing John Wick could possibly have done) had a whole slew of upcoming releases and some really, really talented folks working on them.

And past the core book, I really didn't bother looking at them. That's no knock against anyone, just that the game kinda fell off my radar because no one in my group was champing at the bit to play it, and I had other fish to fry. I have friends who have run and played it pretty extensively, and they all say the same thing: It's beautifully and stylish, but it's a bugger to run because of the narrative load it places on the GM.

Having made characters for all of the games (the ones with chargen rules, anyway) in the Big Book of Little Games, I can say that surprises me not a whit. John's games pretty much all ask for input from the players in a "let's all imagine this scene together" way, but they consolidate power pretty heavily with the GM. I don't say that as a bad thing, necessarily - my main criticism of John's games is that they tend to be half-finished, and that is not a problem with 7th Sea. But, doing a lot of prep for a game is one thing. Determining details in the moment is a different skill set, and I can see how running this game would get difficult.

But with that said, I love this book. The artwork is beautiful, the layout is amazing (Thomas Deeny FTW), and the writing is good. A little more reliant on sentence fragments than I'd like. Just par for the course, really.

And, more to the point, the game wants me to run it. I've mentioned this before; some games yell "RUN ME," and some kinda offer "run me?" and some games sneer and say "D&D is the only game I know about!" and I tend to put those latter games down and go play Hitman. 7th Sea is very much in the first category, because, I think, in addition to being as accessible as a 300-page hardcover can be, it also goes out of its way to make the game seem awesome.

What I'm saying is, god help me, I might have to run this at some point and see if I can handle the work. For now, however, let's make a character.

Step 0: Concept. The book recommends I play 20 questions, here (with the 20 questions it helpfully provides) and I've got no objection.

1. What Nation is your Hero from? I'm really glad this is the first question, because it's really the most important one in a lot of ways. There are 10 Nations to choose from, and I just happen to have no particular inclinations and a 10-sided die right here. Rolled a 1. OK, Avalon it is! (All of these Nations are analogues of European ones; Avalon, obviously, is not-England.)
2. How would you physically describe your Hero? With my mouth and articulators, obviously. Oh, you mean how would I describe my character's appearance? Gotcha. My Hero is thick-limbed and barrel-chested, with a thick black beard and throaty, bark-like laugh. He's got green eyes and a slightly feral vibe to him.
   
3. Does you Hero have any recurring mannerisms? Be funny to just say "no" and move on. But no, I think that my Hero has a habit of touching people's shoulders and heads when he's talking to them, but if he senses any discomfort, he stops immediately and never does it again (unless he's trying to scare you, of course). He's also missing one tooth in front and sucks air through it when he's thinking.
4. What is your Hero's main motivation? Love. My Hero fell in love with an Inish (that is, not-Irish) lass whom everyone said was touched by the Sidhe. They had a month together, and then she went away, saying that he could find her "in the ebb of the tide, or on the waning of the summer." He's been trying to figure that out ever since.
   
5. What is your Hero's greatest strength? Greatest weakness? My Hero is physically strong and tough, and has a heart to match. He's loyal and he's persistent. On the downside, he's perhaps not well-suited to riddles, which made the fact that he fell in love with a fey-touched lass (or so they say) a little problematic. He's also got a bit of a temper.
6. What are your Hero's most and least favorite things? Ignoring the unnecessary modification of the superlative, my character's favorite thing is his lady-love. But failing that, he likes fireside tales. Roasting meat or veggies in the fire, quaffing mulled wine, telling tall tales or ghost stories or just fun anecdotes. You can learn a lot about someone from the stories they tell. His least favorite thing is churches. He can't explain why, but they make him feel cold and queasy. That's not to say he's not a believer, or that he dislikes devout folks. It's just...churches make him uncomfortable.
7. What about your Hero's psychology? What an awful question. What about it? My character, like I said, has anger issues. His anger isn't a controlled, useful thing. It's ugly and feral and violent. That said, getting him angry really requires something actively cruel or personal. A brigand trying to rob him, hey, he's not going to let that happen, but he's not going to kill the fellow either. A brigand who harms or threatens a child? That fucker's going to regret getting up this morning. He's also a hopeless romantic, and cries at weddings and during ballads.
8. What is your Hero's single greatest fear? Invalidity. He's afraid of becoming crippled, or blind, or mad, or otherwise so infirm that he can't take care of himself or others. He watched it happen to his grandfather, the man just got older and sicker and wouldn't die.
   
9. What are your Hero's highest ambitions? Greatest love? My character wants to find his Inish lass and learn what it would take for her to return to Avalon with him and settle down. Failing that, he's willing to become a rover like she is if it means understanding the riddle of her heart.
   
10. What is your Hero's opinion of his country? If asked, he would absolutely take up arms in defense of Avalon, but he wakes every day knowing he has to feed himself, and generally the Queen doesn't help with that. Which is fine, that's not what queens do. He sees matters on a national scale as pretty far removed from his life.
11. Does your Hero have any prejudices? He doesn't trust priests or other folks who choose to be in churches full time. That attitude might extend to folks who spend all their time in universities, but I don't think he's been to one yet.
12. Where do your Hero's loyalties lie? Whoever is around. He's bad at conceiving of situations that aren't in front of him, and that means he'll jump to defend someone he's never met because they need the help. He's nominally loyal to his Queen and country, but he'd be hard-pressed to say what that means.
13. Is your Hero in love? I think we've covered this; hopelessly in love with an Inish lass named Moira.
14. What about your Hero's family? He's got a pretty big family - three brothers and two sisters, plus both parents and a few sundry aunts and uncles nearby. That's why he felt OK leaving to chase Moira. His father wasn't crazy about this idea, but his mother packed him some food and clothes and told him to find her and win her heart.
15. What would your Hero's parents describe him? Dad would say: "He's strong and true and a hard worker, but he needs to get his head out of the clouds and back to work." Mom would say: "For so many years I thought he had no poetry in his soul, and then he met her and it all just blossomed forth like blooms in spring."
16. Is your Hero a gentle? Nope.
17. How religious is your Hero? Not especially. He's nominally a member of the Church of Avalon, but he's not terribly learned or observant.
    
18. Is your Hero a member of a guild, gentle's club, or secret society? I'm gonna say probably not, but if something comes up later in the chargen process that makes sense I may change my mind.
19. What does your Hero think of Sorcery? I think Sorcery falls into the category of things that my Hero hasn't really had to think about, so it may as well not exist. His opinion of Sorcery is likely to be formed by however he first encounters it.
20. If you could, what advice would you give your Hero? "Love is action."

Step One: Traits. Got 5 Traits, they all start at 2, and I get 2 more points to throw in. I'm gonna put them both into Brawn.

Step Two: Nation Bonus. As I'm from Avalon, I can take a +1 to either Resolve or Panache. Resolve, I think, makes the most sense.

Step Three: Backgrounds. I get two of these. They're basically to represent my life up to this point. Well, I will take Farmkid and Pugilist, those seem best representative of my character's life to this point. That gives me the Legendary Trait, Survivalist, Boxer, and Staredown Advantages, whatever that means. Also means I get a Hero Point when I drop a weapon to fight someone with fists, regardless of what they're packing, and (oh, this is perfect) when I solve a complex problem with some folksy, simple, farm-based solution.

Step Four: Skills. I get 10 points to buy Skills, but I can't go above 3 during chargen. So: Brawl to 3, obviously. Also Athletics. Three into Intimidate, 6 spent. One more into Ride, one into Hide, and two into Notice makes 10!

Step Five: Advantages. I get 5 points to buy Advantages, in addition to the four I got from Backgrounds. Well, two points gets me Reckless Takedown; I can immediately drop a Brute Squad by taking a Dramatic Wound. I'll spend 1 and take Large. Two left. I think I'll take Handy, that plays into his upbringing.

Step Six: Arcana. Ooh, Tarot stuff. Kinda. It's a unique deck with only 20 Major Arcana. Normally I'd draw randomly, but I dunno, I have a pretty good sense of this guy, so maybe I'll just choose. I need two, one for Virtue and one for Hubris. Well, the Emperor's Hubris is Hot-Headed, so that's perfect. For Virtue, I'll take the Road, which gives me Friendly.

Step Seven: Stories. Every Hero has a Story, and I have to say, there are a lot of RPGs that includes elements like this (Blue Rose, which I just finished running, is one), but I really like this system for it. It includes mechanical rewards, which is good, and provides a multi-step structure to the Hero's Story. Smart.

Anyway, my character's Story is pretty obviously that he wants to find Moira. I'll set the Goal as "Solve Moira's riddle", which means that he'll find her but not that they'll end up together necessarily. For the reward, I kind of feel like this should make him smarter, so I'll say it's a dot of Wits. Gaining a dot in a Trait makes this a five-step Story, which is perfect; I'd want it to be a pretty major journey for him.

But what should the first step on said Story be? I'll say it's "Learn the destination of the Weeping Bride." (That's the ship Moira left on.)

Step Eight: Details. Filling in the rest of the blanks, then. I don't start with any Reputations, so that's easy.

Languages: I speak Old Théan and one more. Avalon was under Montaigne rule for a long time, which means that I probably speak their language. I suppose I could also speak Inish, if that's a language. No spot on the character sheet for this, anyway. I'll say he speaks Montaigne.

Secret Society, nope, don't need one.

Wealth: Start at zero, which makes sense.

Last thing is name, actually. I'll say his name is Tristan, because I can't resist tempting fate.