7th Sea - rules questions

[Grynning]

Howdy guys,

I just recently borrowed the 7th Sea player's and gm's guides from a friend after I told him how much I like AEG's L5R rules, but don't like how wrapped up they are in the setting and wanted something a little more adaptable. I've read them now and I find I really like Theah and the ideas in the game, but some of the rules are a bit of a mess. If anyone can help me out with these questions it'd be awesome.

Question 1: Kept dice higher than unkept dice - I never remember running into this when playing L5R, and I don't actually own the books myself, so I'm not sure how this is supposed to work. In one example given in the Player's guide, it says you round the kept dice down to whatever the unkept dice are (since you can't keep more dice than you roll)....but then there's things like the Crossbow having a base damage of 2k3, and as far as I can tell, no trait or skill is added to the unkept dice, so...why the heck is its damage written like that?

Question 2: Swordsmen schools - this is actually several questions. While I may not keep the Theah setting, if I used this system it would be for a similar type of setting so I'd want to keep these in, in some form.

I'm a bit confused as to what these actually give. The rules prefacing them say they give you "one free rank in each of the four swordsman knacks," and each style lists four swordsmen advanced knacks you can advance through the style. I assumed this meant that you would have each of them at rank 1 when you buy the style (which would be consistent with how many points the styles cost). However, all the example swordsmen characters buy these knacks with HP individually (they do *not* have 1 rank in all of them).

Also, when it says you can buy swordsman advanced knacks by virtue of having a style - does this mean you can only advance the four listed in your school, or can you buy any of the swordsman advanced knacks? It seems a bit silly to only be able to buy Corps-a-Corps if you've trained in the Vendel style, for instance, or not being able to buy Riposte for Valreaux.

3: Why can't you buy half-blooded in sorcery AND a swordsman school if you want to? I can't find any explicit rule that says you can't, but all the character sheets have one or the other, not both, and it seems to be implied that sorcerers can't be swordsmen and vice-versa.

4: Where are rules for magical or special items (other than dracheneisen)? The flavor text mentions them fairly frequently (Reis's enchanted scythe, the Vendel chick in the novella having some kind of flame-spitting super-rifle, etc) but I can't find anything in either book mentioning how to handle them. Also the illustrations and text show batman-style grapple guns everywhere, but again, no rules for them.

[Deadmeat.GW]

The main reason it does not given them is that it is extremely expensive to have sorcery and a swordsman school at the start of character creation.

As for the kept dice/unkept dice, it is to make use of raises to increase damage.

So say 2 raises and your damage is now 4K3.

As for example characters...lets say that several of them actually are incorrectly worked out.

All the magic items and all the special stuff is in all the different books, you want the rules you need the books they were put in first.
As for funky things the best books are the Explorer Society and the Invisible College books, these have a lot of the special items in them and rules to 'create' or 'invent' new things (like the grapplegun).

[hamlet]

The magic items are also specifically areas where the GM is expected to create his own thing. To customize the world according to his wishes and the style of the group.

They're the grey areas and the vaguaries of Greyhawk, just in a different setting.

[Marillion]

As for example characters...lets say that several of them actually are incorrectly worked out.

Deadmeat.GW wins understatement of the thread award

That goes for some NPCs, as well. For example, Giovanni Villanova, the epitome of Villain (It's right there in his name!) does not have a Hubris, or a Wile. He has a Virtue, something that is by definition only available to Heroes.

So yes, swordsmen start with all knacks at rank 1, and membership in the swordsmen guild OR some other perk.

For the swordsmen knacks, yes, under normal circumstances you may only advance the ones you get for your school. It may seem silly, but students of Valroux aren't taught how to wrestle or how to counter and attack in the same action; they're taught how to fight stylishly (i.e, with Tagging) and with two weapons. Likewise, students of Eisenfaust don't give a damn about stylishness, and aren't concerned with double-parrying; their panzerhand is enough. What they CAN do is smash through your defenses and take your weapon or render it useless. However, there is an advantage you can take called Specialty which can be bought multiple times, which allows you to purchase ranks in a single knack without meeting the prerequisites. After creation, your GM (in this case, you ) may allow the player to receive training in that single knack, so long as you can find someone willing to train you...

You CAN be a sorcerer and a swordsman at once, but at hero creation it's extremely expensive. Half-blooded sorcery is 20, and a sword school is another 25. Assuming you spend 48 points on traits (leaving 2 at 3 and 3 at 2, fairly common) that means you need to have a Hubris to even have enough points. And that's before buying advantages or skills. You can do it, but it doesn't leave you with a whole lot else that you can do.

As Deadmeat said, you can find rules for special items in supplemental books, particularly Explorer's Society, Invisible College, and Die Kreuzritter. Or just make stuff up. Your call.

And finally, you cannot keep more dice than you roll. This means that if you do not take at least 1 raise with your crossbow, it's only a 2k2 weapon.

Finally, it may help you to download the Rules Compendium, a collection of errata and such that is legally available for free download. It may have clarifications to any further questions you have. Anything else, feel free to ask.