Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies vs The Wildsea
Compare Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and The Wildsea side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies | The Wildsea | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Tag-Based, Fiction-First, Cinematic, Pirates, Ship-Based, Heroic | Exploration, Narrative, Ship-Based, Worldbuilding, Character-Driven, Collaborative, Fiction-First, Tag-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 and keep the best two, then add the Modifier of a relevant Forte, a descriptive Quality ranked from Poor (−2) to Master (+6), and compare the total to a Difficulty Rank's Target Number. Players narrate their own successes and failures, and may invoke Techniques to add dice or a flat +1 even after seeing the roll. Combat is resolved as a Duel, with each side splitting a 3d6 pool between attack and defense and the winning margin lowering the loser's Forte Ranks as damage. | Roll a d6 dice pool: 6 is a full success, 4–5 is a partial success, 1–3 is a failure. Doubles of any value trigger a Twist: something unexpected happens. Characters are defined by Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) with associated damage tracks. Progress clocks (tracks) are used universally for combat, crafting, healing, and journeys. Drives give characters personal goals that earn advancement. |
| Dice | 2d6 / 3d6 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Availability | Paid | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Evil Hat Productions | Mythworks (Felix Isaacs) |
| Year | 2009 | 2023 |
| Languages | English | English, Italian, French |
| Best For | Groups who want a swashbuckling campaign of sky-pirates and musketeers in an original floating-island world, are comfortable with a light narrative meta-currency, and want skyship battles that give four to six players distinct crew roles. | Groups who want exploration-driven campaigns in a wildly original setting: sailing chainsaw ships across living treetops with a diverse crew of humans, cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people. |
| Highlights | Players earn Style Dice by narrating their actions with flair and by leaning into their character's Foibles, then spend them to add dice, recover from damage, or assert new facts, tying mechanical advantage directly to dramatic play. Character abilities are broad descriptive Fortes such as "Colronan Musketeer" or "Sha-Ku Ruqrider," so a single Forte covers every related action at the table instead of a skill list while rooting the character in the setting. Before play the group sets explicit dials for firearm lethality, level of magic, and tone, letting the same setting run as cape-and-sword intrigue or deadly piracy. | Seven playable species including cactus-folk, spider hive-minds, and moth-people, track system unifies combat, crafting, healing, and journeys under one mechanic, Silver ENnie winner for Best Writing, character creation uses modular Aspects (gear, abilities, cultural traits) |
| Considerations | The Style Dice economy only drives play if the GM actively seeds and awards dice each session, and the genre-reward loop that powers the game stalls when it is left unmanaged. Starting koldun can take all seven Gifts cheaply and the magic stays deliberately open-ended, so it can overshadow other characters unless the GM sets the mysticism level beforehand. Skyship combat layers a multi-step crew sequence and a separate dice pool on top of personal combat, a sharp jump in table overhead from the otherwise light core. | Track-based resolution uses the same clock mechanic for all conflict types, d6 dice pool with doubles-as-Twist is the only resolution mechanic, equipment and aspect lists lack a comprehensive index, setting-specific: tied to the treetop-ocean world |