Adapting Seventh Sea Magic to TROS

[Fentible]

Hi all,

   I've been considering running a swashbuckling game (probably set in France in the sixteen hundreds) for quite a while and The Riddle of Steel seems to be the godsend I've been looking for to save me from having to build a system from scratch. However, having played in a 7th sea game for entirely too long of late I've become rather attached to the magic system and I was wondering if any of you guys, more familiar with TROS than I, might have some ideas for how best to adapt it?

   I hope this is seen as an interesting talking point rather than as a lazy GM hoping someone else will do his work for him. :)

Thanks,

Dave

[Stephen]

Well, the Apprentice, Journeyman and Master grades on 7th Sea magic match TROS's Novice, Apprentice and Master quite neatly...  Perhaps instead of Vagaries you have the five Sorcerous Powers, each more expensive because they let you do more than a single Vagary in TROS can.

You'd probably build a Sorcery Pool out of an inborn talent (Half-Blooded = 3 dice, Full-Blooded = 6?) and Sorcerous Arts, bought like Weapon Proficiencies and raised with experience.  Calculate CTNs based on the existing TROS scheme.  Aging Rolls... I don't know what 7th Sea sorcery costs its users to wield, so here you're on your own to figure out what they're struggling to resist.  (Fatigue?  Bad Karma?  Wild Magic?)

If you're using TROS character creation, Half-Blooded sorcerers should be Priority B and Full-Blooded or Double-Blooded (player's choice) Priority A.

[Fentible]

Hi,

   Thanks very much! I was half-expecting no replies at all.

Well, the Apprentice, Journeyman and Master grades on 7th Sea magic match TROS's Novice, Apprentice and Master quite neatly...  Perhaps instead of Vagaries you have the five Sorcerous Powers, each more expensive because they let you do more than a single Vagary in TROS can.

   That's a good point. I can't believe I hadn't already seen the parallel there. Five vagaries, needing 4 at apprentice to use the second tier abilities and all at master to use the third tier.

You'd probably build a Sorcery Pool out of an inborn talent (Half-Blooded = 3 dice, Full-Blooded = 6?) and Sorcerous Arts, bought like Weapon Proficiencies and raised with experience.  Calculate CTNs based on the existing TROS scheme.

   Good thinking but doesn't that penalise people a lot for being half-blooded? It's probably already enough that if I port over the system pretty straight they can't have access to anything above the first tier of knacks! It was something of a flaw, in my experience, in the 7th sea system that being half-blooded was almost a waste of character points (for glamour magic anyway, the type my character used and therefore the type with which I am most familiar).

Aging Rolls... I don't know what 7th Sea sorcery costs its users to wield, so here you're on your own to figure out what they're struggling to resist.  (Fatigue?  Bad Karma?  Wild Magic?)

   Well, off the top of my head:

   Glamour: Drama Dice and, once one had enough reputation, glamour dice (special glamour mage only dice which were better than normal reputation dice in that they were essentially extra drama dice). Could limit use of glamour by demanding the expenditure of luck and/or other spiritual attributes I suppose.
   Pyeryem: Drama Dice as well.
   Sorte: This cost you a kind of magical backlash sort of whoopin' if you overstretched yourself. Potentially dangerous in the high-damage world of TROS.
   El Fuego Adentro: Some knacks cost drama dice (I suppose luck points) and some cost flesh wounds which, I suppose, could be represented by health rolls against an increasing target number to avoid taking a wound.

   Laerdom, porte: Nothing much.

If you're using TROS character creation, Half-Blooded sorcerers should be Priority B and Full-Blooded or Double-Blooded (player's choice) Priority A.

   I don't have any quibble with that.

   I'm not too worried about balance with most of the magic, partially because I think that slavish adherence to game balance is a good way to kill storytelling but mostly because the majority of 7th sea magic is understated. However there are two things I'm concerned about:
   It seems to go against the nature of TROS for healing to be as easily available as, say, glamour magic makes it. A glamour mage in 7th sea tooled up for survival could be nigh-on invincible, even compared to his vastly tough comrades, this could be even more detrimental in TROS, where everyone is more fragile!
   Seperately there's Dracheneisen, the sorcerous heritage of Eisen (Germany). It's a super-tough metal that makes better weaponry (this I can live with) and better armour than normal steel. Does plate really need to be any better? Even a one point increase in armour value could make an armoured knight nigh on invincible, I think. Any idea on how to handle this anybody? Simply making it lighter or similar throws the feel a little.

   I know I've gone on but, hell, someone out there might be interested.

   Thanks again Stephen.

Bye,

Dave

[Lance D. Allen]

Perhaps make it so that cut or puncture damage be pushed over to the blunt tables, and lower the damage level of blunt damage by 1. This would reflect armor which does not tear or dent as much as standard armor, so blades and points wouldn't penetrate well at all, and it's shock absorption is better, therefore reducing the impact of blunt weapons.

Just an idea.