7th Sea

7th Sea is a swashbuckling fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of piracy, duels and intrigue in the world of Théah, created by Jennifer Wick and John Wick, with Kevin Wilson co-writing, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) in April 1999. It won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of 1999, presented in 2000, and was fairly well received. The game originally used a d10 roll-and-keep system, in which players roll a pool of ten-sided dice (d10) and keep only some of them. It also inspired a collectible card game that was discontinued in 2005. In 2004 AEG moved the line to the d20 System and renamed it Swashbuckling Adventures, a change many fans of the original rules disliked. Later books supported both systems. The first edition later went out of print, and volunteer writers have since released e-books and adventures for it. Chaosium acquired 7th Sea and its rights in 2019. The second edition of the game was released in 2016 as 7th Sea Second Edition, a new system from John Wick Presents. Description Players take on heroes in Théah, a fantasy version of 17th-century Europe whose nations are exaggerated versions of real kingdoms. The setting draws on 1600s European literature, with sorcery playing a major role and a dominant religion that resembles gnostic Christianity, complete with a parallel to the Spanish Inquisition. The Game Master (GM) runs adventures of sea voyages, court intrigue and sword fights. The game asks a table to embrace the swashbuckling genre and the era's romance, and to tolerate a 1990s rulebook that is now out of print. Anyone picking it up should check which system a given book is written for, since AEG published for both the original roll-and-keep rules and the d20 System.

7th Sea Second Edition is a swashbuckling tabletop roleplaying game of high adventure, intrigue and romance in Théah, a magical continent inspired by 17th-century Europe, published by John Wick Presents in 2016. It was written by John Wick, Mike Curry, Rob Justice, Mark Diaz Truman and Jesse Heinig. AEG transferred the publication rights to John Wick Presents in 2015, and the second edition was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in March 2016 with the core rules appearing in June 2016. It won six ENNIE Awards in 2017. In 2019 Chaosium acquired 7th Sea and its rights, with John Wick joining Chaosium as creative director, and the line is now sold through Chaosium's store. Later books added the Crescent Empire, the New World, Ifri and the Woven Land. The system directly replaced 7th Sea First Edition (1999), although it is a new set of rules and not a revision of the original. Description Players take on heroes who uncover global conspiracies, explore the ruins of a vanished race and protect the rightful rulers of Théah from villains. The Game Master (GM) runs the story and the villains, and the game's structure, built around personal Stories, suits campaigns more than one-shots. A reviewer described it as a narrative indie game dressed up as a traditional one. The game asks a table to be comfortable with negotiating the fiction and with a GM who plans scenes in advance. The setting chapter runs to 96 pages in a hardback of about 300 pages, and players may expect more rules than the game actually uses.