7th Sea Swordmaster.pdf

an essay in one part

written by Kracken Jack

Simply put, Aldana focuses on perfection of

form and technique. It is proof that you can be-

come a great fighter by focusing on mechanics.

This much practice gives you a great deal of

control over when you go, and the rest of the

fight. The song is what drives you, carries you

through the fight, but the song can adapt as

needed. Good swordsmen not only have multi-

ple songs, they can also learn new ones and

change the old. This, combined with a focus on

perfection, lead to the "trance" this school is fa-

mous for. The advantage mechanical perfection

gives you turns into a pool of extra drama

dice each round, essentially. Use these freely.

on just about any fight. After all, it's just a mat-

ter of closing out the rest of the world. The rest

may not translate as well to heavy weapons,

though. It's possible to integrate Aldana's style

of movement with heavy weapons, pole arms,

or hand to hand combat, but it may be difficult.

Sabre is at heart a cavalry weapon. Its slightly

curved, forward weighted blade is designed to

split an opponent open from above while you

ride away on your horse. These origins are ap-

parent when sabre is used on foot, too. Ber-

noulli exemplifies this. One hand is free so you

can use reins, so you might as well punch with it

if you find an opening. The fleshe was designed

to charge forward and split your opponent as

quickly as possible, simulating horse's charge.

And with those wide sweeps of the blade, you

can keep your opponents back enough to keep

your breath. Corps-a-corps will usually

be either a shoulder check or a nice punch, and

lunge can be either with tip or a nice cut.

Excellence on defence, excellence on rhythm,

and excellence on attack make for a wonderful

combination. Tag your opponent a few times,

put in a feint if you have the opening or your

opponent likes to parry (using those nice extra

dice to help it hit), and riposte if they attack

you. Hold at least one action at all times, more

if you want, to take advantage of riposte's

power. Save up those tagging dice, and hit hard,

using any unspent Focus Dice, with your last

action. Some schools will parry better than you

do, some will attack better, but none have the

balance you do.

This means the school isn't too terribly defen-

sive, though. About the only edge the school

has is the little breathing room the apprentice

technique gives (as much as +3 is breathing

room.). That's OK; you don't need it. Corps-a-

corps them if you wish, but whatever you do to

make an opening, Then take it. There's abso-

lutely nothing wrong with spending all your ac-

tions to charge the poor fool and run him

through; save one if you're worried about parry-

ing. Don't be afraid to use that free re-roll ei-

Compatibility:

Well learned technique carries over everywhere,

and the song can be adapted to meet a variety of

influences. You can use what you learned from

Aldana any time you use a rapier, and the focus

ther; this school works by getting that big hit.

Call a couple raises, spend a couple actions, and

attack. If you miss, re-roll it and spend more

drama dice.

knives about your person in easily accessible

places. Then, by turning the action of drawing

into the beginning of the throw, speed is in-

creased to incredible degrees. With enough

practice a student of this school even gets to the

point that conscious effort is not needed to aim;

the eyes identify the target and the hand takes

care of directing the knife's flight.

Compatibility:

A sabre is heavier than a rapier, true, but it's

possible to use them in similar manners, espe-

cially if you have a nice GM. Any move you can

do with a rapier can be replicated with a sabre,

so all the knacks can be integrated into this

school (although you'll need to find another

weapon to do double parry or whirl.), but not

all techniques will. A fleshe can be done with a

rapier or heavy weapon, and the practice that

lets you replace an attack (re-roll one per

round) will also translate to a fencing weapon.

But the apprentice technique relies on a sabre's

edge.

Because of the nature of throwing knives, how-

ever, and since most of the students are ladies

unprepared for a drawn out fight, the school is

rarely lethal. Instead, the goal is to slow your

opponent down by Pinning clothing to whatever

is convenient. If other people or objects are be-

tween you and your target, make the opening.

Why bother throwing knives at a target when

you can bounce the knife off three walls before

hitting your target? Or add some distance to

your throw, and surprise the heck out of your

target, by throwing in a high arc which comes

down directly on their head. Regardless, re-

member your goal; throw as many knives as you

need to incapacitate your opponent as quickly

as possible, and then maybe one more while

they're immobilised just to teach the fool not to

mess with you.

Re-write:

As written, I don't like this school. The knacks

combine well, but I don't like the first two tech-

niques. Apprentice is just about worthless; I

mean you only get +3 to your TN at Master,

and people very rarely miss by 3 or less. Unless

they're out of DD or something. So I propose

the following: make the Fleshe part of the ap-

prentice technique (it's about as powerful as the

Leegstra apprentice after all).

Compatibility:

The nice thing about this school is that it fo-

cuses specifically on one particular act: throw-

ing knives. Usually this means throwing knives,

but (especially with the system's easy-going

weapon classification system) a parrying dagger

works just as well. Of course, a throwing knife

can also be used to parry.

Of course, some people might feel that Lunge 6

is too weak by itself. In that case, leave every-

thing as is, but apply the Apprentice benefit to

damage as well as TN to be hit. Rationale for

this is the same as the TN bonus; the wide,

sweeping swings add power to your hits.

As a result, this school can be used any time you

have a knife on your person. The necessity of

throwing the knife may effect how you fight af-

terwards, but that shouldn't be a problem. What

student of Cappuntina would carry only one

knife?

This "school" has one purpose and one purpose

only: to put as many pieces of flying steel be-

tween you and your attacker as possible in the

shortest amount of time. Hide a number of

You may think you are tough. You may even

have convinced other people you are tough. But

when was the last time you ran out early in the

morning to hug a tree for an hour? In the rain?

In the snow? In the sun? If you do not remem-

ber, then you are not as tough as you think.

Pressure is a wonderful thing; apply enough and

you can turn coal into diamonds. Imagine what

you could do to that poor fool opposing you?

Just grab them and squeeze. And squeeze, and

squeeze.It's worked for snakes for millennia.

This school really has very little strategy to it

and doesn't need it either. If they have a

weapon, take it away. Once you have, grab

them. Then squeeze. If they hit you, squeeze

harder. After all, you practice on trees. Flesh is

much softer.

them to the ground and kick them a few times

while they're getting up. Hit them very hard.

Sink in an uppercut or a few jabs, grapple them,

and quietly pound them into submission while

they're trying to deal with your bear hug. If they

wiggle free, don't worry. Just duck under their

attacks and cut loose.

Compatibility:

The nice thing about Finnegan is that its teach-

ings are universally useful. Granted, you may

not be throwing many punches while using a

sword, but the toughening training still applies

no matter what you're using. And the ability to

use drunkenness to your advantage can, with

just a little practice, be applied to weapons as

well. But any time you take a swing at someone,

no matter what other teachings you use, your

Finnegan training will help you.

Not just the world's greatest boxing school, but

the world's greatest DRUNKEN boxing school!

Once again the Inish have surpassed us all. This

school is, quite simply, designed to make a

boxer who hits very hard, takes a lot of punish-

ment, and likes a good drink. A series of little

tricks and proper form help the Finnegan stu-

dent hit very hard, and years of practice getting

hit by these people as a learning method helps

condition him to take beatings that would wipe

out most people without dropping their beer. As

for the drinking, there are certain ways people

sway and stagger when they've had a few to

drink. Most people don't expect such seemingly

random movement to turn into a sudden, vis-

cous attack, meaning you can use it to your ad-

vantage.

Accuracy is for puny fighters who barely use

swords bigger than their.pinkies. A good

fighter, one properly trained in the highlands,

knows that the way to win a fight is to swing as

hard as you can as often as you can. After all,

it's not at all hard to hit a man-sized object with

a 4 foot sword (at least, at the smaller end of

things). So don't worry 'bout that "honourable"

stuff those weak "fencers" use. The way to

show your opponent honour in a fight is cut him

down quickly and drink a pint or several to his

memory. Hit fast, hit hard, and don't worry

about "aim" and "delicacy".

This school is a simple one; light on the strat-

egy. All the techniques are based around inflict-

ing extra damage (5k3 by Master), or swapping

dice for more damage. The knacks combine

nicely to a similar end. While it seems mildly in-

comprehensible to hold a 5 foot sword in such a

way as to hit with the pommel, you can do ex-

actly that. The combo of Pommel Strike/Lunge

is a beautiful one; especially with a 5k3 blade.

Sadly, most people in this civilised age feel the

need to go into a fight fully armed. There exists

a simple solution to this: disarm them. Wait for

them to attack, duck under, bob forward, and

twist the weapon from their grasp. Then knock

Likewise, Pommel Strike/Beat against people

who like to parry or use Riposte. Granted this

means you need to be able to hit with the Pom-

mel Strike, but still.

means the only weapon will be tied up. Fortu-

nately it has Corps-a-Corps and various pirate

tricks involving off-hand weapons to fill those

holes.

The Journeyman technique raises some interest-

ing questions: on a Pommel Strike/Lunge com-

bination, is it better to call lots of raises for

damage, or to sacrifice attack dice for damage

dice, and make fewer raises? Well, adding 1k0

to a roll results in slightly less than +5 on aver-

age. You're basically making the trade for cer-

tainty rather than chance. Besides; assuming you

roll 9k4 at this point, you can safely hit 25 with

only 4k4. This gives you 4 raises, 2 dice from

Lunge, and 5 from the technique for

(assuming Master here) 10k9 before adding

Brawn. And you can do that as often as you

like.

The key to this school is to carefully pick pirate

tricks that compliment your techniques and

abilities; this makes up for otherwise weak tech-

niques. For instance, "use balance instead of

Parry" is, by itself, completely useless. But com-

bined with tricks that give you extra dice on

Balance rolls, it becomes more useful. Of

course, you also become susceptible to tricks

which give your opponents bonuses against

people using balance, so beware. Decide how

you want to fight, and where, and pick the right

tricks. Then bind your opponent, and smash

them silly before they get free.

Compatibility:

These techniques are mainly designed to be used

under specific circumstances (on ship, swinging

down, attacking with a beer mug, etc.), but as

long as you meet those conditions, you should

be able to use the techniques and tricks at any

time. And, of course, fear effects are pretty con-

stant. The bigger issue is that most pirates

probably won't learn a more formal school, and

most "landlocked" swordsmen wouldn't stoop

to learning a school that's so undignified. Most.

Usually.

Compatibility:

Spiritually, this has a bit of trouble with some of

the other heavy weapon schools. It's much

faster and more chaotic than Leegstra, and lacks

the structured, methodical style of Eisenfaust.

But beyond those small philosophical difficulties

it could work. Mechanically (referring to both

game and real life) this school works almost

perfectly with Leegstra, but why you need more

damage I don't know. Except for stacking the

Master abilities, it's almost not worth it. And

Eisenfaust is about waiting for opportunities;

once those arise, there's no reason you can't hit

such to make a Highlander proud!

The widely acknowledged Pirate School,

Rogers isn't so much about excellent fighting as

it is about tricks. Co-ordination comes with time

and practice, but that's mainly a bonus. This

style, though, is mainly useful on ships (and

similar surfaces like moving carriages). Unlike

most schools, this uses Bind (Fencing), which

A good example of Soldano can be seen in "The

Mask of Zorro" when Banderas takes on a bar-

racks full of soldiers. The Soldano master does

not stand still for long, rather he is everywhere

at once, cutting, lunging, dodging, and then

stepping away and getting ready for the next

round. This is not a school which, like Leegstra

or Eisenfaust, spends its time sitting around and

waiting. And this is where it gets its power.

Quite frequently, a mediocre fighter can over-

whelm a superior one through sheer wildness.

Of course, it's quite likely s/he'll get a sword

through the ribs for the attempt, but it will be

one of those cases where both fighters fall. Be-

yond that, while most fighters know how to deal

with one sword or even a sword and short dag-

ger, very few are used to dealing with two full

length killing swords. Soldano teaches such a

rush of energy, such a flurry and onslaught that

even very competent swordsmen frequently

don't know how to deal with it. If a group at-

tacks you, go into a Whirl, cutting and thrusting

and dodging at all angles, and watch them all

fall (our Soldano Journeyman was taking out

entire brute squads in one action. By master he

was calling extra raises just to make life inter-

esting.) Of course, if someone does rush you

like this, they leave little openings because

they're not being careful and clean in technique.

Beware these little holes.

can easily picture someone of this school using

one sword to bind and the other to attack, or ri-

posting into a lunge, or disarming his opponent

and *then* making the intimidation check.

As for other schools, this style would fit with

any school that isn't specifically calm and calcu-

lating. Any of the one-sword styles could be

done with a second sword in hand, allowing you

to blend them with this. Basically, Soldano's

philosophy is to overwhelm the opponent with

sheer aggression, convincing them they are

about to die. Very few schools would have a

problem with this. The apprentice and journey-

man technique would probably only apply when

you are able to fight with this kind of wild

abandon, but the master technique should really

kick in whenever you go through a whole group

of people.

By Master in this school you'll have a whole pile

of drama dice. Whatever you normally start

with and whatever you earn, you start each fight

with 3 extra DD. Plus, if you're going against a

villain, you'll start stealing his in large amounts.

If they attack you, use Double Parry. Use Tag-

ging a couple of times a round. With at least

one action a round, attack; call raises for dam-

age; then hit, spending a couple of these DD if

you need to; then, especially if you rolled lots of

damage or he hasn't taken any dramatic wounds

yet, spend more DD to reduce the threshold for

extra DW. At worst you'll force your opponent

to spend dice on the wound check; at best you'll

do enough damage to cripple the bastard in one

shot.

Quite possibly the sneakiest school yet known

to Theah, this school relies more on outsmarting

and tricking your opponent than out-fighting

them. This style will frequently be used at very

close range, probably even with your blade in

contact with your opponent's. This allows you

to clearly communicate your invitations, and to

stop-thrust with a quick extension as soon as

you feel movement. Use repartee actions, use

feints and stop-thrust, use whatever you need.

Convince your opponent the time is right to at-

tack, then hit him. If you scare your opponent

enough that he refuses to attack, hit him in such

a way that he can't parry.

Compatibility:

Whirl is almost impossible to do with only one

sword, as is Double Parry. A kind and generous

GM might, might, let you replicate the effects

with a knife or improvised weapon. But it

would still be difficult. Baring weapon-specific

issues, I can't think of any swordsman knacks

that wouldn't integrate nicely into the school. I

More so than with most schools, it's a good idea

to hold actions when using this style. Double

Parry or Riposte can be used off an interrupt ac-

tion if needed, but Stop-Thrust can only work

with held or current actions. While Stop-Thrust

is a very powerful knack, it only works at full

effectiveness if you inflict a dramatic wound.

Therefore, it's usually wise to hold off on using

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