7th Sea

John Wick's swashbuckling TTRPG of musketeers, pirates, spies and sorcery in Théah, a fantasy 17th-century Europe. Second Edition (Chaosium) rolls d10 pools into Raises, so Heroes almost always succeed and the dice decide how much else they get done. Best for cinematic campaigns with players who like to describe their moves.

At-a-glance

Swashbuckling fantasy TTRPG • d10 pools grouped into Raises • five Traits, Backgrounds, Advantages, no classes • Stories drive advancement • 304-page Second Edition core from Chaosium • free quickstart

Genres:
Fantasy
Mechanics:
CampaignCharacter CustomizationClasslessNarrative-DrivenSkill-Based
Themes:
CinematicSocial Intrigue
Decision Tags:
Award-WinningOne-Shot FriendlyRules Medium
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7th Sea

7th Sea is a swashbuckling TTRPG for groups who want to play heroes in the mold of the Three Musketeers or a pirate film: big swordfights, court scheming, daring escapes and villains who deserve to lose. It suits tables that like to describe what their characters do and let the dice decide how much they get done.

It is a weaker fit if your group wants tactical combat, firm difficulty numbers or a GM who can lean on the rules to settle arguments. Second Edition hands a lot of judgment to the Game Master and the players, and tables that want the system to carry the scene often find it too loose.

What the game is

7th Sea is set in Théah, a fantasy version of 17th-century Europe with sorcery, secret societies, ruins of a vanished race and an ocean full of privateers. Each nation maps clearly to a real one: Avalon to England, Castille to Spain, Montaigne to France, Vodacce to the Italian city-states, Eisen to the German states, Ussura to Russia, and so on. Players make Heroes, and the default story is about doing the right thing when it costs something.

The current edition is the Second Edition, designed by John Wick with Mike Curry, Rob Justice, Mark Diaz Truman and Jesse Heinig, and now published by Chaosium. The Second Edition core book is 304 pages and covers the setting, hero creation, the rules, the Game Master section and six schools of sorcery.

Publication history and editions

Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) published the first edition in 1999, designed by John Wick, Jennifer Wick and Kevin Wilson. It used a roll-and-keep d10 system, won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game of 1999, and had a collectible card game alongside it. In 2004 AEG moved the line to the d20 System as Swashbuckling Adventures, and support faded after that.

In 2015 AEG transferred the rights to John Wick Presents, which ran a Kickstarter for Second Edition in early 2016; the core rulebook came out in June 2016. Second Edition replaced roll-and-keep with a new dice-pool system and also revised the map, the nations and the sorcery. John Wick Presents struggled to keep up with its publishing schedule, and in April 2019 Chaosium bought the line, including the Second Edition and Khitai Kickstarters.

In 2025 Chaosium announced that the French publisher Studio Agate would take over development, and Studio Agate funded a Third Edition on Kickstarter in March and April 2026. Press coverage says it will stay compatible with Second Edition books and moves the setting timeline forward ten years. Until it ships, Second Edition is the version you can buy and play.

What you need to play

Supplements and settings

Second Edition grew a large line. Nations of Théah volumes 1 and 2 go deeper on the core nations, Pirate Nations covers the seas and the Caribbean-style Midnight Archipelago, Heroes and Villains collects ready-made characters, and Secret Societies expands the factions from the core book. Later books leave Théah: Crescent Empire, The New World, Lands of Gold and Fire, and Land of 1,000 Nations each add a new region with its own nations. Khitai is a separate East Asian-inspired setting for the same rules, with its own core book and quickstart.

None of these are required. Most groups play a long campaign out of the core book alone, then pick up the nation book for wherever their story goes.

Community support

The 7th Sea Explorer's Society on DriveThruRPG lets fans publish their own Second Edition adventures and supplements, so there is a long tail of small community products alongside the official line. Chaosium also hosts free adventures and character sheets for online play.

Core rules and play structure

Most actions are Risks. The Game Master describes what is at stake, the Consequences that will happen if the Hero does nothing about them (a wound, a raised alarm, a lost letter), and any Opportunities on offer. The player describes an Approach, which sets the Trait and Skill, then rolls that many ten-sided dice. You add bonus dice for describing the action well and for using a Skill you have not used yet in the scene.

After rolling, you group dice into sets that add up to 10 or more. Each set is a Raise. One Raise achieves the goal, and each extra Raise can cancel a Consequence or grab an Opportunity. That means there is no target number. You almost always do what you set out to do, and the roll tells you how much you get done along the way and what it costs you.

Fights and chases run as Action Sequences, where whoever has the most Raises left acts next. Social scenes over hours or days run as Dramatic Sequences. Nameless guards come in Brute Squads with a single Strength rating, while a Villain has Strength plus Influence and runs schemes between sessions to raise that Influence if the Heroes ignore them.

Heroes and advancement

A Hero has five Traits (Brawn, Finesse, Resolve, Wits and Panache), a nation, two Backgrounds that grant Skills and a Quirk, Advantages, and an Arcana with a Virtue and a Hubris. There are no classes. A Castillian duelist and a Vodacce fate-witch are built from the same parts.

Advancement comes through Stories. Each player writes a personal goal with a number of steps, and when the last step is done the Hero gains the Skill rank or Advantage that the Story was about. It ties experience directly to what happens in play, and it asks players to tell the Game Master what they want their Hero's arc to be.

Signature mechanics

  • Raises instead of pass or fail. The question is how much you accomplish and what you let slide, which keeps scenes moving.
  • Hero Points and the Danger Pool. Players earn Hero Points from Quirks and from handing unused dice to the Game Master as Danger Points. Spending a Hero Point on another Hero's roll adds more dice than spending it on your own, which pushes the group to help each other.
  • Dueling styles. Members of the Duelist's Guild learn maneuvers for one-on-one fights, which zoom the combat rules in without changing them.
  • National sorcery. The core book has six schools tied to nations: Hexenwerk unguents in Eisen, the Glamour of the Knights of Avalon, Mother's Touch in Ussura, Porté blood-portals in Montaigne, Sanderis deals with devils in the Sarmatian Commonwealth, and Sorte fate-weaving in Vodacce. Sorcery runs mostly on Hero Points and story permission, and it can lead to Corruption.

What play feels like

A typical session moves between a ballroom, a rooftop chase and a fight on a ship's deck, and players describe each move with flourish because flair earns dice. Since success is nearly guaranteed, the tension comes from choices: do you spend your last Raise to stop the fire spreading or to grab the villain's letters? Experienced players often say the game feels like collaborative writing where the dice decide who gets the next paragraph.

Running the game

The Game Master builds each Risk by hand: the stakes, the Consequences and the Opportunities. Several reviewers note that this takes practice, and the book offers fewer ready-made scene templates than they wanted. Expect to improvise often, to judge which Trait and Skill fit an Approach, and to keep a Villain's schemes moving between sessions. Prep is moderate: a Villain, a few scenes and the players' Stories.

Campaign fit

The game shines in a campaign. Stories, Villain schemes and secret societies all need time to pay off. One-shots work well with the free quickstart and its pregenerated Heroes, but the advancement system will not do much in a single session.

Reception and awards

At the 2017 ENnie Awards the Second Edition core rulebook won Gold for Best Rules and Silver for Best Game and Product of the Year. The free Basic Rules won Gold for Best Free Product, Pirate Nations took Silver for Best Supplement, and the Map of Théah took Silver for Best Cartography. On DriveThruRPG the core PDF holds a 4.2 average from 195 ratings, most of them five stars, with a visible minority of low scores.

Opinion is split, and the split is about the rules more than the setting. Fans praise the speed, the heroic tone and how the system rewards description. Critics say it is a narrative indie game in a traditional-looking hardcover, that it gives the Game Master little to lean on, that there is no real passive defense, and that fights against strong Villains can drag. Many first edition players also missed roll-and-keep. Recurring r/rpg threads ask why the game gets so much criticism, and the answers usually come down to expectations: groups that wanted a crunchy swashbuckling simulator were disappointed, and groups that wanted a fast cinematic game were happy.

Where it is strongest

  • Swashbuckling and courtly intrigue in a setting built for it
  • Fast scenes where every roll moves the story forward
  • Advancement tied to each Hero's personal Story
  • A deep supplement line if you want to leave Europe-analog Théah

Where it can frustrate groups

  • Few hard rules for difficulty, defense or edge cases, so the Game Master has to make many calls
  • Sorcery sits outside the main dice system and can feel underdefined or overpowered
  • Villain fights, especially duels, can turn into long exchanges
  • The setting chapters are long, and nations lean on real-world stereotypes

Content notes

The default tone is heroic adventure. Some sorcery is grim: Hexenwerk uses parts of corpses, Sanderis means bargaining with devils, and Corruption can turn Heroes toward villainy. Talk about how dark the group wants to go with those elements.

Best starting path

Download the free quickstart and run Long Live the Prince! with the five pregenerated Heroes. If the group likes how Raises play, buy the Second Edition core rulebook and have each player write one Story during hero creation. Add Pirate Nations if the campaign goes to sea.

Research notes

Last checked November 12, 2026.