When the 7th Sea collectible card game released in the late 90’s, one of its most defining features was its commitment to a player-driven storyline the gave its community the agency to shape the future of the setting while swashbuckling and spell-casting in ship-to-ship conflicts.
While those ships have weighed anchor, and 7th Sea’s larger-than-life heroes, villains, and scoundrels are now fighting throughout the streets and back alleys of Five Sails rather than the deck of a ship, our desire to continue the community’s role as the primary movers of our living story is just as fervent as it was for the AEG team during the days of old.
We believe that every player should have the opportunity to impact the story at Gen Con 2023. To that end, we have designed a special three act structure within the first ever world championship festival, taking place between rounds three, four, and five on Saturday.
This three act story, facilitated by our Creative Director and Story Lead, Carmel Rechnitzer, is called An Eye for an Eye. Round three will feature act one, round four will feature act two, and the final round, round five, will feature act three. During each act, players will put a special double-sided card into play that will provide a story introduction, any in-game effects, and unique story results to report to the tournament organizers that will influence the next steps the living story takes.
Today, we’ll share Act One: Kaspar’s Occupation. Those of you following the fiction over at our chanteys page will be familiar with Kaspar’s brazen and unapologetic occupation of Five Sails’ seat of government in response to the theft of The Crystal Eye. During setup, players will read the Chantey side of Kaspar’s Occupation aloud, then follow any remaining instructions.
“Chantey” is a new card type that our community will see almost exclusively at special events. Chantey cards are cards that help tell a story, and will most often feature a story introduction, followed by setup instructions.
Being that Kaspar’s Occupation centers on the forums, it’s no surprise that this card is placed there. Then, the card flips over to its “Event” side.
The opposite side of this card is an event, a type of card seen only in city decks so far. While this card may have a different layout from the typical event card, it will behave exactly the same as any other event card does.
Keep in mind that one of this event’s passive abilities states that it cannot be discarded, so it will not be removed from the city at the end of a day like an event typically would have been. Instead, this event will be in play for the entire game!
To represent Kaspar’s iron grip over the forums, this event makes taking control the forums a bit more challenging, as well as impeding pressures at the location in general
Once you take control of the forums, you’ll place one of your faction tokens on the event card so that both you and your opponent can keep track of which player last controlled the location. Then, if you were the last player to control the forums at the end of the game, you’ll report that your faction broke Kaspar’s occupation. Unless, of course, you’re playing Eisen. In which case, your efforts ensure Kaspar’s continued dominance.
Our tournament team will collect these results, which will then have a direct influence over the events of the post-Gen Con story evolution. Do you think that Eisen players will prevail, and Kaspar will persist in his unabashed invasion? Or will another faction wrestle control away from the down-and-out general and usurp him?
In the next weeks leading up to Gen Con, visit us here to see the reveal of the act two and act three cards so you can plan for what’s to come!