Tuesday 27 October 2015

7TV Second Edition.

I've had a little bit of involvement with the second edition of the 7TV ruleset by Crooked Dice mainly did a bit of beta testing for it earlier in the year played some solo games and co opted my good friend Pulp Citizen into a couple of games. The most recent one being last Tuesday.

The Beta rules are available free to playtest still though I think an update is due as they are starting to finalize and lock down everything ready to go into production with. The rules themselves are a printer friendly version but include everything you need to play the game with the exception of miniatures and dice :P

Free Beta Rules

The new game engine is more slicker and the characters all have there own playing cards which you can sleeve (mine are obviously printed myself) the cards have all the information you need to use them including the ratings (points cost) of the star or extras. Building up casts for games is a breeze now just pick a ratings total and then pick your cards and numbers. 

Theres a lot less statuses now and it makes the game run smoother and faster because of it. Combat is all based on a strike roll vs a target defense stat. Both sides roll a d6 adding the defense then the attacker rolls a d6 adding the strike score and needs to equal or better that target roll to score a hit (or whatever the weapon does).

The game itself has a countdown deck rather than a set number of turns. Each Countdown/Finale card has a random event on sometimes a benefit and sometimes a negative. Typically on a 4x4 table you have 10 Countdown and 5 finale cards randomly selected from a deck. The finale cards at the bottom and the countdown on top. Each player as there turn comes about draws a card or if they choose to selects two cards but this makes the game end quicker.

Gadgets still play a part in the game and each side gets a random selection chosen from the deck at the start of the game.  They include pen guns, sleeping gas jet packs to name a few lol!

Players now use plot points this is generated by the total number of models in there cast divided by 2 rounded up and Stars and Co Stars add an extra point per character. These are then used to activate your characters increase numbers of dice rolls add bonuses, use gadgets play events etc. There are new leadership ability's and your extra's can be formed into units so that if there in close proximity you can activate a squad for half the number you would normally need. This is a great mechanic and adds a tactical edge as you deploy and move your casts across the table. You also have a pool that you can build up from turn to turn so saving precious points for when you really need them.

Winners are resolved by victory points for capturing objectives, injuring/removing Stars/Co-Stars from play and victory conditions dictated by the scenario's your playing. Each Scenario also a Directors cut involving a Maguffin counter (story telling device thanks for letting me know what it was Pulp Citizen).

The game we played the other night was around 40 ratings played on a 3x3 (roughly) table with my new industrial terrain.


The Heroic cast and the Attackers in the scenario we played.
Flamboyant Agent
Dependable Deputy
Angel of Justice
Marksmen
Army Soldier Squad with Corporal (5)
Marksman
Army Dog Handler and 2 Attack Dogs


The Villainous cast and the Defenders.
Evil Mastermind
Mad Scientist
Double Agent
Metalnaut
Failed Experiment
Minion Squad with Commander (7)

The scenario we rolled up randomly was 'The Hit' and Pulp Citizen as the Villainous cast chose to defend. As the Defender the Villains gain a VIP extra who they had to defend and I as the Attacker had to take down the VIP.

The game ran quite smoothly and we only had to refer to the book a few times and things were quickly resolved. The game lasted around 2 1/2 hrs and was a bundle of laughs. Final score was 8 victory points to 5. Pulp Citizen's Mad Scientist managed to annihilate my Flamboyant agent and disable and later take out my Angel of Justice (Capture bubble) as well as capturing 3 out of the 5 objectives. There was some great cinematic moments with the mad scientists timely use of a jetpack, climbing suckers and capture bubble gadget cards.

I managed to axe (break) the Villainous cast by shooting all of his minions despite several returning to the table with the Evil Masterminds endless minion star quality.  I literally nailed the VIP on the final turn burning through all my spare plot points to boost my soldiers rifle shots netting me some vital victory points in the final turn though that was cut and dry as the Evil Mastermind used a medical kit to negate the first hit!

I need more weird stuff especially for the Heroic Casts I've dug out some scientists and inventors to paint up for them. Expect to see plenty of 7TV Spy Fi themed stuff in the coming months as I have been bitten by the bug at the moment :)

7TV Second Edition is now up for pre order from the Crooked Dice Webstore its planned release date is early January sooner if possible. At the moment the pre order has a 20% discount on the boxed game as well as upto 50% off some themed starter casts for it which include a number of figures that aren't released as yet but planned for later in 2016.

The Preorder is open until 29th November 2015.

I've got the pre order of the boxed game in and I ordered some extra counters to play bigger games. I can't wait until January as usual from Crooked Dice it will have high production values and the books will be full of awesome photos and fluff.


You get all you need in the starter set, rules, character cards and counters and dice all you need is figures for the theme of your choice :)

 The Starter casts that won't be available at this price after the pre order.
Love the Police Sergeant in this set. The 3 Coppers are £9 normally!

Love this whole set I need to find some cash for this one.
 Awesome Action hero figure as well as ninjas :D
 I can't wait for the release of this set such awesomely cool soldier minis.
 Love the mad science  cast such a fun one to run on the table as well.
Who doesn't need more minons!!

28 comments:

  1. They do sound good and the castings are excellent!

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    1. The new Ernst sculpts are fantastic painting up the Heroic Archetypes at the moment there cracking!

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  2. Looking forward to January myself, Simon. For this very reason. I've still a lot of love for the 1st Edition mind :-)

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    1. I love its theme just couldn't get my head around the rules. Second is so much easier to get into.

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  3. I passed on the 1st edition but I'm very tempted by these new rules.

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    1. I am really hoping for a 7ombietv expansion for it as these rules are really dam good and I have high hopes for a Z version :)

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  4. Those new sculpts look awesome! I will need to start saving my pocket money.

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    1. Sadly I will have to wait until they come out next year as part of a normal release as I have a lot of the figures already.

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  5. I still like the 1st edition. The problem comes that certain players (Including me) tried to power play it (in my case as a response to other players). And speaking with Karl from CD he has said it was an issue, but that he hopes it is resolved now. I shall wait and see. I can see ways around the problem, and that is to have a GM make everyone's cast list and supply the scenario as well. A lot of work on one person, but It could work that way.

    The figures do look nice and maybe they on their own will be enough to entice me back. As some of the terrain I really do want to build!

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    1. A lot of things that were mentioned was the pre game setup involved a lot of work plus also the people who OP there casts. It's far more balanced now

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  6. I'm looking forward to 2nd edition very much indeed, so it's good to hear news from outside the company itself.

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  7. Great to hear you had fun! The most important part of gaming. Those new sculpts look lovely dude!

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  8. Do you think that the lack of customisation takes away from personality of your casts? I like 7TV for the ability to do absolutely anything with it, but I'm wary that the streamlining of 2nd might lose this aspect. What's your opinion?

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    1. You still can do anything they have just made it easier to just pick up and play the game and cut out the pre game setup as everything you need is on the cards. There are still some options to tailor your character.

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    2. That's good to hear. Thanks.

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  9. I'm seriously tempted...but 7th Voyage was my favourite of the 1st Ed rules and I understand they have no plans to update them so I've been managing to resist the temptation so far.

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    1. I'm sure something will probably come out eventually. But I imagine a lot of stuff they have minis for already will need updating first.

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  10. I've been very interested in 7tv, and the crooked dice sets have been on my wish list for quite some time. Of course, so have bolt action, blackpowder, batman, and scads of others.
    I need to win the lottery and gain an elixir of immortality! ;)

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    1. Ha your not the only one! Its always been a favourite of mine though I never got round to playing 1st much tbh but the genre I love and I have tons of painted figures for it so its a no brainer for me really.

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  11. All the aars I read using 7TV have sounded great and this new edition seems to have enhanced it -great stuff.

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    1. Its really been streamlined and made easier to pickup plus all you will need is figures/terrain and the boxed game in order to play it.

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  12. These new sculpts look awesome. Damn my hole in the wallet!!!

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  13. Cool. The "occult cast" might find its way onto my lead-pile at some point.

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    1. Yeah me to. Its not something i've bothered with really in my games but playing with some of the weirder stuff the other night has me hankering for more so expect robots and some supernatural stuff appearing.

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