Back to the Drawing Board: By Savvy and Steel!

As you can see, the piratical project is kind of sort of a little teensy bit stalled...but since I have a semipermanent jones for swashbuckling, it's difficult for me to stay in withdrawal.  At the moment, thanks to the 7th Sea Second Edition kickstarter, I have all the first edition PDFs on my hard drive which of course puts me in mind of By Savvy and Steel!  Being, as I am, more of a musketeer than a pirate at heart, it's time to grab Ed's answer to Dumas and go to town.  So, at the risk of copypasta out of the rules, here's how I build my new alter ego.

Your character is a Star...always a Star, unless you're playing a one-off skirmish game instead.  This gives a few automatic abilities, which basically boil down to their having a bit of script immunity and more free will in the face of stress (ie for some Reaction Tests).  These are:

• Star Power
• Larger Than Life
• Cheating Death
• Free Will

Choose his Reputation.  This ranges from a maximum of 6 to a minimum of 2, depending on your Age.  Reputation is a combination of many factors and basically represents how good your character is in a fight.  As per suggestion, Our Hero starts with a Reputation of 5...he's been in a few fights and exudes confidence and charisma.  

Determine his Birthright.  Rolled 2d6 and got a 7, which means he's a Commoner and specifically a Farmboy.  This is about as low as it goes (but only because Beggar isn't on the Birthright table).

Determine starting Fame.  This is depressingly dependent on your family, and just as in real life, you can't choose your parents.  So more dice hit the table, and Wesley here is one of three children born to his rustic sire, but he's not the eldest...and as the luck of the dice gods would have it, he's from the wrong side of Dad's marriage.  None of this helps very much: Fame starts at 0 (but see below) and he gets a single Level 1 Favor (explained later).

Determine Social Standing.  Like Fame, this depends on what your parents do for a living.  As a Farmer, it's a 1.  Bottom of the ladder.  Nowhere to go but up.

Determine Age.  Simple formula of 19 plus 1/2d6 results in a...20.  Just old enough to get into a hell of a lot of trouble.

Choose his Nationality.  And he's an Edensteinian (Edensteiner?).  He's local.

Determine his Attributes.

He gets two of these, since he's a Star...one rolled, one chosen.  The roll is 6,4 for Resilient!  (Once during each Encounter the character will treat its first Out of the Fight result as a Stunned result instead. Counts a +1d6 on the Wounded Table.  For choice, I give him Resolute (never count less than 1 success on the Dueling and Taking Control Tables).

Choose his Class.  Military makes sense for him: he's otherwise a garden variety Commoner, but somehow I don't see this kid wanting to stay on the farm.  This gives him the Fast Loader attribute and boosts his Fame to 11 and his Social Standing to 3.  He's also still in the service until he turns 24 and thus has a slightly different set of encounter rules.  For example, if his regiment is called to active duty, he won't be 'adventuring' until after they stand down again, one to three months later.  What happens in the meantime is abstracted.

Get your Weapons.  Ideally, you have a miniature in front of you (I don't), and how that figure is armed determines your loadout.  He's a Soldier now, so he gets a musket (sans bayonet) and I'm going to play merry hell with historical accuracy and give him a sword, too.

Choose your Items.  This is actually one of the parts of the rules that sort of fell down: fortunately, I have a Bottle of Rum, so I know that the usual standard loadout is two Items per point of Rep...and that as per usual, anything can be an item (so long as it does not break the rules of the game).  So yes, he could have a mansion and a yacht, but not a magic sword and a flying carpet.  This ain't Legends of Araby.  In any case, I don't feel like detailing these just yet.

Recruit your Group.  Another legacy bit of text, because in other games from THW you might start off with a few chums.  In BSS, though, you start his career all by your lonesome and recruit Grunts in play through the Carousing encounter.  However, if playing a one-off or a skirmish game, this is indeed when this would be done.

Consult the Campaign Map and decide in which specific Area you want to begin your career.

We'll put his Regiment in the Southern Mountains, smack dab between Bayern and France.  Given that the 30 Years' War is currently in full swing over in the HRE, this ought to be at least somewhat entertaining.

The game starts in January 1625.

Oh, one last detail.  I forgot about this until the very end (can't you tell?) so I snagged a name off of this site (fantasynamegenerators.com).  Since my piratical lass is theoretically Dutch, so is her cousin.

Marthijn Pusters 

Rep 5 Star
Military (Fast Reload)

Resilient

Resolute

Out of respect to a certain former co-worker and department supervisor, Marty is assigned to the 4th Royal  Regt, of  Foot commanded by Colonel H. A. Nachtrieb and answering to a Lt. Strucker.  (I never got around to painting those Grenzers, but I can't imagine Han would be unhappy about a promotion!)

And there we have it!  Ready to rock.