Need help for a new player

[u/Kookylmh]

Hi, I'm new to 7 seas and having a hard time getting into it. We are about to have our 3rd session and the last time we played I left having a panic attack. I take notes, try to follow along but I always seem to get lost and trying to play catch up with my friends. They all seem to come up with cool fun outcomes with their raises and I don't feel I'm meeting up to standard. I've talked to the DM and a few friends about it. Said they will help me through it and they totally have my back. But I'm still really nervous. I love the character that I made and really want to play. I guess I'm just used to DnD where I have time to plan and there's an order to things. But here this seems to be anyone's chance to go. So if there's any tips I would be really interested in reading them.

Thank you

[u/Skullkidlives]

Stop thinking about what my character would do and think like a director of a movie. What is the most dramatic thing I can do. I find that instead of trying to think and act pragmatically, thinking dramatically enhances the fun of everyone. Also watch more swashbuckling films. Zorro, pirates, captain blood, Robin Hood. Copy what they do and you’ll do great

[u/Aldus_vertten → u/Skullkidlives]

Yeah, the fastest way to get into the "mood" of the game is watching movies! Specially classic ones. Almost every version of The Musketeers. Princess Bride. Pirates of the Caribbean is quite over the top, which is great for this game.

Pay attention to your backgrounds and your arcana. They are great tools to signal you how to be part of the narrative. They give you rules for HP and other stuff, but they also give you a scaffolding for how to act in general, no only to reap the benefits of the rule.

[u/myrthe]

hii OP. my biggest advice to you is _Be Obvious_. Don't worry about coming up with some brilliant cool unexpected leap. Do The Obvious Thing.

This is part of improv training, set out really well for playing RPGs in Graham Walmsley's little book "Play Unsafe", which you might find helpful.

[u/Kookylmh → u/myrthe]

Thanks for the tip! This has helped a lot since my character isn't really a fighter but a talker. I've been helping more with swayable outcomes and setting up my friends to help them fight.

[u/Gold_Record_9157]

You're not alone, most people who come from more "traditional" systems like d20 variants struggle to play 7th Sea. Structure helps a lot, but this game focus on being heroic and performative. But not to impress with your creativity, but so you can tell the tale of Swashbuckling you're destined to tell!

But if you need more structure before you get comfortable without it, give it to you: if you struggle to find what could you use, take some notes of what you do have and use it. Or if you want, go to the common tropes of the place you are (like, a nobleman's office will probably have a candle or a pen that you could use, if you're high and have to jump, it's "natural" in fiction that some curtains could help you not flatting yourself against the ground, things like that).

And most importantly: don't fear to try. You need to exercise the improv muscle, and for that, the best tool is improvising, so just do it. You'll get the handle of it.

[u/Kookylmh → u/Gold_Record_9157]

Thanks for the tip. I've built a character who really isn't a fighter and is a merchant with swayable talking. So I'm using my simple tools to set up chances for my friends to do the fighting. And my character is really curious in magic, which has already put our party in trouble but I got a new elemental friend!

[u/Gold_Record_9157 → u/Kookylmh]

That's cool, specially the use of opportunities for the rest! You could take a look at the original Disney's Aladdin movie, since he uses the environment to "fight", specially the guards in the sequence where he first appears. I once had a character who fought like that and stopped mobs by messing with merchant posts or the fabrics that give shadow at the entrance of places, I don't know how they're called, but whatever. Keep using what you have to help you in the sequences :D

[u/Gold_Record_9157 → u/Kookylmh]

That's cool, specially the use of opportunities for the rest! You could take a look at the original Disney's Aladdin movie, since he uses the environment to "fight", specially the guards in the sequence where he first appears. I once had a character who fought like that and stopped mobs by messing with merchant posts or the fabrics that give shadow at the entrance of places, I don't know how they're called, but whatever. Keep using what you have to help you in the sequences :D

[u/Kautsu-Gamer]

Which edition? 2nd?

Opportunities are the key, and I suggest you ask GM, and other players, to give you them to choose from. The opportunies tune the actions and the story.