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Mr Big
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

I would suspect that if someone were to take the Twice Blooded sorcery they could play a fate witch that had nothing to do with the cruel Vodacce politics.  I've never seen a single Twice Blooded sorceror before though.  I remember I brought up the topic before and the only one anyone could cite from the books was Koschei who hardly fits the Player's Guide's description of a Twice Blooded sorceror.  He just happens to have magic similar to El Fuego Adentro along with Pyeryem.

I think Sorte can be passed on by noble Vodacce males too.  If you were really intent on avoiding Vodacce politics altogether but really liked the sorcery you could say one of the parents happened to be Vodacce but you lived the life of one of the other countries.

Can you still do cool things with Sorte and be limited to the Apprentice abilities?  Some of the blessings and stuff you can do to help rolls in the Vodacce book only require Apprentice level I remember.

EDIT: I was going back and rereading that old twice blooded sorcery thread and there was a historical reference of one with a Crescent sorcery that Ravenshadow listed..

The one I can think of off the top of
my head is a historical one called Khorvo bin Lehena who had Pyeryem
and Duman'kir. Crescent Book p79.


10/08/2008 13:29:46


Salamanca
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

 Again, the fate witch that abandons society should not need to be the norm to make the character playable.  A single pirate fate witch is interesting and tere are what, 2 or 3 in the metaplot already?  you add another couple via player selection and next thing you know, everybody has one. 

And then nobody is in the mainstream.  Foppish guy with sword that taunts everyone?  that fits the stereotype and the standard for most swordsmen.  Nobody minds when they are crawling out of the woodwork, it's expected. 

As for the Ussuran noble thing, that is an entirely different issue.  He wants to play the noble as backwards, it can fit the nation.  but what you describe is an issue of player attention need and a weak GM that will not push him out of the spotlight for the other player's turns.  On the other side of this, you need to accept he deserves some time as well. 

And Grace:  You have a perscription not a subscription. 


10/08/2008 12:41:32


Black Jack Rackham
Re :   Reply To Lady%20Grace

Reply to Lady Grace (10/07/2008 16:30:54)


One day, my husband and I are going to find a game where we get to play a happily married illiterate Fate Witch and her husband looking to get revenge on these precious little snowflakes who keeps slandering about their country. 

I know which character in my All-Fate-Witch game to give you now...

Mark


10/07/2008 17:30:03


Lady Grace
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

 Fate Witches, unfortunately in my experience, tend to attract drama queens, spotlight whores and/or angst bunnies for players.  The first strega I ever came across was "the favorite niece of Vincenzo Caligari" who was allowed to read with no drawbacks, was fabulously wealthy and was having affairs with Sandoval, Allende AND El Vago.  If she couldn't throw money, pull strands or sleep with someone to make a problem go away, she'd chuck poison daggers at it.  The GM at our table just couldn't say "HELL NO!"

This did a LOT to colour my mood against Fate Witches.  And then came the ones who had to be abused runaways to make matters worse (always, of course, with Above Average Appearance or better and always were given a secret education at the Dilatente despite the fact it's described as a VERY EXCLUSIVE school).

One day, my husband and I are going to find a game where we get to play a happily married illiterate Fate Witch and her husband looking to get revenge on these precious little snowflakes who keeps slandering about their country.  Yeah, let's see how well you read now after we BURN YOUR EYEBALLS OUT OF YOUR SOCKETS, YOU [BLEEP]ING HERETIC!

(I don't have issues...I have a subscription. ;-D)

10/07/2008 16:30:54


SirHarliquin
Topic :   Writen Flaws in the books

Here is one I found:

Page 67 of the Montaigne book,

Pascal Vestanzi, Great Vodacce Sculptor

Pascal is a tall swarthy man with dark hair and black eyes.

Although he is in his late forties, he looks no more than

thirty years old. He has rough hands with thick, stubby

fingers. Looking at them, one would never believe that he

is the greatest Vodacce sculptor alive.

When he was a child, Pascal played among the beautiful

fountains of Vodacce, pretending to be a great prince. But

one afternoon, a passing Fate Witch yelled as a letter she

was reading was torn from her hands and blew right toward


What is a passing Fate Witch doing Reading???????????


10/07/2008 14:43:24


Mr Big
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

So is it basically that fate witches are always victims of Vodacce politics that you don't like them for players?  What about characters like Alesio or Lucrezia who have left that society behind?  Argh, it's the pirate's life for me!

10/07/2008 14:32:29


Mr Big
Re :   POLL: Your Favorite Swashbuckling Scene

It’s hard for me to remember the dialogue for my favorite swashbuckling scenes.  As a GM though I have always tried to come up with unique settings for fight scenes.  My favorite was set on a jungle island.

A lost ship from the Castillian armada was found stuck in the middle of the island(This was before the T.V. show Lost).   The ship was sticking straight up with its prow visible in a lake full of quick sand. Idling around the quick sand and ship was a jungle full of crocodiles.

The heroes had to climb to a cliff and repel down to the ship to rescue a hostage hidden inside.  When they got to the hostage the villain blew a bunch of gunpowder in the hull of the ship.  It blew a hole in the ship and caused the quick sand to come flooding in.

The ship began to sink and the heroes had to escape.  One hero ended up falling into the quick sand but was pulled up by a rope just as a crocodile was about to take a snap at him.


10/07/2008 14:21:19


SirHarliquin
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

Reply to Salamanca and Black Jack Rackam


For the most part, the players in my group have stayed within cannon. We have a group of mostly Noble characters so it puts us in a lot of courtly scenes not seen by typical sailor. I only have a real problem with one of the other characters in the group. He is supposed to be a Ussuran Pyrem, he is supposed to be a Noble. The problem with him as "I" see it, he acts like a country pig farmer. A Noble would see the need to interact in a court setting. I realize that his style may work well for him but its a little more than that. If the group is trying to roleplay going shopping for clothes or some other roleplay setting, he tries to change the subject away from the discussion that most of the group is having.


Example.. group is roleplaying a humorous thing with doing something like shopping for clothes. He wants the GM to role play talking with the horses of a random caridge out on the street. He will interupt the thing setting and try to turn it on to himself and the animals.


I will say that the GM has gotten him back several times. He once went out scouting an attacking army. While he was out, (and this was him doing it), He grabbed a mouse to eat. Then while the party was doing something somewhere else, he broke in to start doing something with himself again. The GM started with him talking to another mouse who made his perception check to see the tail of the first one hanging out of the sorcerer's mouth. It wouldn't talk to him.


I'm sure you all have one, there seems to be one in every group.


 

10/07/2008 13:47:34


Salamanca
Re :   Reply To SirHarliquin

Reply to SirHarliquin (10/06/2008 08:38:55)


Consider this, The game states that they are:

 illiterate, sheltered, must wear black dresses and veils, always watched by family, always feared by family and others (generaly speaking of course) and many other considerations...

Personally I took all that into consideration when I started Angelina. Yes she was a runaway and illterate. But she could speak Eisen due to her grandmother's teaching her. She also knew some villanova school of fencing.

Being a stunning Beauty she charmed Oskar Dags in Freiberg and started buy leardom runes. When her family finally caught up with her between the group fighting them off and capturing The member of the family leading them.



And we see once again that while you would THINK most people would stay withing canon, they never actually stay within canon. 

I have NEVER seen a fate witch played within the constraints of what is described.  The reason for that is it is not any fun to play a character that must constantly concede all activity to the whims of another player, or worse, NPC.  This is the same reason people don't build Tyro Rose and Cross members.  It's a bad design idea. 

Personally, I would be delighted to seeing someone stay as close as you did to the design (outside of taking Villanova you really are not that bad in terms of violation)   But I still think the fate witch and sorcery in general is a cheesy power in a game that does not need it to be successful. 


10/07/2008 12:23:15


Black Jack Rackham
Re :   Reply To SirHarliquin

Reply to SirHarliquin (10/06/2008 10:38:55)

If you ran a campaign in such a way as to eliminate their being feared and always watched, they could play a much different role. As it is most people will stay within cannon of the game, therefore to play the character you have to at least start with those limitations.


Playing a game centered in Vodacce you wouldn't necessarily be limited in that way but outside of that. She would either have to be a runaway (the most common), on an errand or meeting her betrothed or travelling with her family i.e (husband).


You've hit on one reason I dislike/fear letting players have a completely free hand with character generation.  I could certainly work up a Vodacce game in which one of the players wants to play a non-escaped fate witch.  Heck I think that could be lots of fun.  BUT that same Fate Witch, a Vesten Bersark, a Cathayan Martial Artist and a native from the New World.  Please just kill me now.

Mark


10/07/2008 12:05:42


Black Jack Rackham
Re :   Plot / Adventure Ideas ***SPOILERS***

With us cruising in on Halloween, I've been thinking about a horror-themed adventure and thought I should share.  Enjoy (or not).

In the frozen heart of Ussura's Veche Douma, the shadows grow longer as the cold and the dark of winter winter approach.  In the foothills of the Gora Sorivdgrastov, the small village of Vyatka lies huttled in horror.  Every Soldi for the past month a young girl from the village has gone missing.  At first it was attributed to the dark or the cold, and then to any of the wild animals that frequent the Azov forest or the mountains.  Some spoke in hushed tones of the witch who lived just outside of town or of unfriendly neighbors who's daughters were still safe.  However, in time, all eyes peered up into the Mountains of Smoke, toward Valaamzhensky Castle and the monster who's said to still dwell there, sleeping in eternal sleep waiting for virgin's blood to make her live once again.

So, where does this go?  Well it does go to the castle and to a monster who seeks the blood of a hundred virgins, but it does not involve Saska Tomiech or her infant son.  Instead, it is one of the villagers.  The first of the girls to disappear did so not for supernatural reasons but because Ussura is a harsh place. Unhinged by grief, the girl's father (who's heard the stories about Saska's baths) intends to use her foul magics in a misguided attempt to bring his precious daughter back to life.

I haven't thought much more than that, but I'm sure that'll get you thinking, again.

Mark


10/07/2008 11:58:18


Mr Big
Re :   Radical change to Swordsman's Guild politics...

Actually I think it was Barna here himself who invented the Duelist skill set.  I can't take credit for it but I do remember it was well received back then.

Punishments for the swordsman's guild range from a fine, temporary suspension, expulsion, or the most severe punishment of death.  Page 19 of the Swordsman's Guild book talks briefly about it.

Like you said I think there should be a TN associated to getting out of trouble with the guild.  The harsher the punishment would have been the higher the TN.  Then a swordsman can roll their Wits + Law against the TN to avoid getting out of trouble for dueling another swordsman.  If successful the proper paperwork can be made up but either way the swordsman is off the hook.  A brief warning could be given if the guild was really upset about the loss of a swordsman.

10/06/2008 13:20:43


SirHarliquin
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

Please excuse the spelling errors.


And it was Diegos sister not hers that convinced him to marry Angelina.


 

10/06/2008 10:42:05


SirHarliquin
Re :   POLL: What Type of Game Do You Like?

Reply to BlackJack Rackham

Personally I would love to go to Origins to play with you guys, However due to ecconomic situations in the household I don't think thats possible.

I conceed your point, however I don't think the character class of Fate Witches are to blame for this. The game has set their template so that it is much more limited than any other template seems impossible to play.

Consider this, The game states that they are:

 illiterate, sheltered, must wear black dresses and veils, always watched by family, always feared by family and others (generaly speaking of course) and many other considerations...

If you ran a campaign in such a way as to eliminate their being feared and always watched, they could play a much different role. As it is most people will stay within cannon of the game, therefore to play the character you have to at least start with those limitations.

Playing a game centered in Vodacce you wouldn't necessarily be limited in that way but outside of that. She would either have to be a runaway (the most common), on an errand or meeting her betrothed or travelling with her family i.e (husband).

Personally I took all that into consideration when I started Angelina. Yes she was a runaway and illterate. But she could speak Eisen due to her grandmother's teaching her. She also knew some villanova school of fencing. (Our GM institued being an initiate of a school, for 7HP's you could learn the basic manuevers but not the Apprentice level abilities) She eventually has bought them up some to Apprentice.

Being a stunning Beauty she charmed Oskar Dags in Freiberg and started buy leardom runes. When her family finally caught up with her between the group fighting them off and capturing The member of the family leading them.

(history of Angelina Falisci)

When I generated her I only picked the family not family connections so don't blame me. One of the NPC's was Diego Soldano who was travelling with his sister also an NPC. Angelina was attracted to him for two reasons. One he had a loyal arcana and two he saved her from certain death when the Verschlingen tried to bite her. She had run out of actions adn he used his lightning reflexes and parried the blow. These two things had her madly in love with him and one night she seduced him. Her sister got into the act and told him he could act that way with a noble woman so he proposed and she accepted. This was of course before the encounter with her family. While on a trip to Charouse to go shopping for a wedding dress we were running in (mightier than the sword) and were invited to Le'Emporer's court for saving the Musician. Unfortunately she could be announced under an assumed name so she went as her self. Thats where her Uncle was courting the woman he was in love with (I'm sure your starting to guess who her Uncle was). Yes it was Donello Falisci, They had her pretty much bagged when she activated her leardom runes and the temperature started to drop radically in summer time. The rest of the party managed to free her and capture her Uncle. The ensuing negotiations
found him agreeable once he realized thar Diego was the heir to the Soldano Vinyards. A match made in wine so to speak. So he was getting rid of a problem Fate Witch by marrying her off and getting some access to the Soldano Vinyards. He also asked her help in arranging some Fate strands so that his paramour who hated him actually fell in love with him. She did that under the condition that he give her away at the wedding and provide the wine at the reception. So things have worked out for her in that regard. She can go ba



10/06/2008 10:38:55


Lady Grace
Re :   POLL: Your Favorite Swashbuckling Scene

I'm just going to link to a previous story I've posted here... :)

NEVER TRUST THE VENDEL!

10/05/2008 17:37:04


Black Jack Rackham
Topic :   POLL: Your Favorite Swashbuckling Scene

So, give it up.  What was the best, what made you say, that was AWESOME!, etc.

To start this off, here's mine.

My character Don Miguel had taken a commission from the swordsman's guild for 6 cents.  A reprobate had forced himself on three local women who wished him punished.  After the battle (in which he fought dishonestly and Don Miguel was almost knocked unconscious), with the help of my second (Don Miguel was, after all, crippled by this point), we were bringing him to justice (he'd confessed his sins to me during the battle).  But instead of taking him directly to jail I decided to detour to his victims so that they could witness first hand, his humiliation.

At the first victim (who wanted to see his blood), Don Miguel said, "You wanted his blood?  Here it is, His, and a little bit of mine."

At the second (who believed that the only thing men were good for was their money), Don Miguel said, "You think the only thing you have in common with men is the coin you can get from them?  Well [He] never paid you, so here is his sword, the most expensive thing he owns."

At the third (who'd gone into shock and refused to speak) Don Miguel said nothing but cuffed the ruffian on the ear.  When he didn't understand, Don Miguel looked pointedly at the young lady and cuffed him again.  Still not understanding Don Miguel grabbed him by the ear, tweaking it painfully and whispered to him, "Say It."

"I'm Sorry."

It was totally unscripted, I never even considered it until the GM asked if we were turning him over to the guard, but then suddenly I knew what to do.

and It Was AWESOME!

Mark


10/05/2008 12:28:40


Black Jack Rackham
Re :   Reply To Mr%20Big

Reply to Mr Big (10/04/2008 11:40:30)

I was reading over this discussion and the fact that swordsmen have to get permission to duel each other also bugs me.  My solution to this is to bring in the Law knack.  The higher a character's Law knack is the more trouble they can avoid getting into when breaking one of the guild rules.  Pretty simple and it brings importance to a knack that I find can often be neglected.

There was a skill set that was invented on this forums a while ago too called Duelist that had Law as an advanced knack.  If a swordsman has this skill set then they can eventually invest in the Law knack as well.


Duelist
To be a professional duelist, one needs a little more than just skill with the blade. There is the business side of the occupation to remember, too. This skill is essentially a type of Merchant skill for the hired blade.

Basic Knacks: First Aid, Menial Tasks, Etiquette, Footwork
Advanced Knacks: Haggling, Law, Cold Read, Side Step


An interesting resolution.  How would using Law to avoid consequences work?  Like passive defense, the Duelist can get away with 5*Law Knack worth of trouble? or To get out of trouble character rolls Wits + Law with TN (Variable by circumstance) to get out of trouble?

I suspect the latter, which brings another question.  Normally in 7th Sea it's just a pass/fail.  Need to hit TN 45 and roll 44?  Same thing as rolling 7.  You might need to add in something like, For each 5 (or 10 or whatever) below the TN a character rolls, some additional negative consequences apply.

I'm also curious to see the consequences.  IIRC, the Swordsman's Guild book doesn't explicitly say what happened to Swordsmen who dueled illegally, just that the consequences were serious.

Now on to your new Skill. 

First, would it be a Civil or Martial skill?  I assumed Martial until you mentioned Merchant. 

Second, I'm guessing that care of the sword is subsumed under the knack Menial Tasks? 

Third, Haggling, care to explain why?  I thought the fees for duels were set by rank?

Fourth, no Oratory?  I assumed there to be lots of blustering to the crowds about why the duel was taking place and/or the relative (or lack thereof) merits of your opponent were commonplace.

Fifth, since this is a Guild, shouldn't there be some knack for Duelists to pass on what they know?  Perhaps Training? (although now that I look back at the Merchant skill it doesn't have Training as an advanced Knack, a failing I think...)

Sixth, this last one may be just a matter of paperwork, but it seems to me with this skill, that the EW's you can gain for other schools should be recorded here.   

All in all, I really like it.  Thanks for sharing Mr. Big.

Mark


10/05/2008 08:39:57