The Other OSR: .GIF

The Shattered Dominion stands broken by war and the passing of the Last Gods. Only the Warriors of the Grand Guild are now touched by the dwindling spark of their fleeing divinity, imbuing a rage that sees them smash and savage their way through the underground complexes of ancient races or the up towers of overly ambitious wizards, wiping out all before them and looting great relics, but always missing much and leaving a rather big mess in their wake. Thus, they are always followed by members of the Lesser Orders. Chaplains, cut off from their gods and in search of new purpose. Rogues, avoiding a life of crime that might be deadlier than disarming traps and uncovering secrets in a dungeon. Scholars, bereft of magic also, whose sage-like knowledge and ability to keep records might be useful. Their job, perhaps with the addition of the hired help, is to follow the Warrior into the dungeon and there clean up in his wake, map everywhere, record every detail, pick up on anything that the Warrior might have missed, and report back. Their duty is not to fight, especially since the Warrior should technically have dealt with everything, and more importantly, sending a fighting man to clean up after a great Warrior would be exceptionally rude. That though does not mean that they will not have to fight, since the Warrior likes to be direct and straightforward—quite literally in some cases—when dealing with a dungeon.

This is the set-up for With Guile, Incantation and Faith, a ‘Genre Set-Up’ for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is in fact, an expansion to a Genre Set-Up, also called ‘With Guile, Incantation and Faith’, one of the two given in Sanction. Of the two, it was most familiar and consequently, not quite as interesting, whereas the other was far more intriguing. That said, With Guile, Incantation and Faith—or .GIF as it is annoyingly abbreviated—does do something interesting with Dungeons & Dragons-style play. This is to make any dungeon replayable again. Not by simply restarting afresh, but by starting after a party of Player Characters—or in this case, a mighty Warrior—has worked their way through the dungeon, leaving a trail of broken bodies, traps, puzzles, and treasures behind him as well as a myriad number of rooms and locations unattended. It can be a dungeon that the players might even have played through previously or it can be one that the Game Master creates or adapts herself. Whatever the source of the dungeon, when the members of the Lesser Orders work their way through it, it is in the aftermath.

The expansion in With Guile, Incantation and Faith sees the setting developed further—if only a relatively little—and more details given to the Lesser Orders. That is, the Rogue, the Scholar, the Chaplain, and the Hireling. To this are added extra Abilities, the means of the Lesser Orders members’ survival. These include Boating, Disguise, Excavation, Anatomy, Brewing, Passage & Pathway (the dungeoneering equivalent of traffic analysis), Astrology, Gambling, Signs, and more. These are intended not necessarily as options available during character generation, but rather Abilities that can selected once a Player Character has some experience working as member of the Lesser Orders. Two suggestions—Dungeon Designer and Fate the Stars Foretold—are mentioned, but left undeveloped. The two new Specialities are more obvious and easier to use. The Druid worships the Force of Nature, which might be the only Old God that remains, and has access to Animal Lore, Animal Whispering, and Trapping, whilst the Ranger is a guide and trapper who has access to Hunting, Orienteering, and Passage & Pathway.

Cantrips are treated in a very basic fashion in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks as just simple, single words that are left for the players and the Game Master to develop. In the world of Shattered Dominion, cantrips are remnants of spells that when have disappointing limited effects. With Guile, Incantation and Faith, each of the single words in the core rules are developed to set the boundaries of what each can do. The descriptions are not written in stone, a player allowed to develop his own interpretation or use of the cantrip, though what is written in stone is that any suggested use of a cantrip which feels or sounds like a fully fledged spell should not be allowed.

Although the set-up and running of With Guile, Incantation and Faith and what the Player Characters do is predicated on the actions of the Warrior, the Warrior remains a nebulous, offscreen presence, but one that is nevertheless constantly felt by the Player Characters. In mechanical terms he becomes a timing mechanism marked by alternating periods of progress and sleep, the latter also marked by a sudden silence after all of the crashing, banging, and wails cut off mid-scream. Then with a yawn and stretch, the Warrior is off again, either to leave the dungeon all together—good for a single session or a convention game—or ready to continue smashing his way through the dungeon.

Random tables are given to track the Warrior’s way through a dungeon with the Player Characters following on behind, and these can be used in a couple of ways, depending on the degree of preparation that the Game Master wants to do. The tables can be used to direct the movement of the Warrior with relatively little regard for the consequences upon the wider environment in a low preparation game, whereas in a high preparation game, the Game Master can use them in combination with asking what effect the Warrior has on the wider dungeon. This will include the obvious scattering of corpses, but to that can be added rescuers, reinforcements, looters, wanderers, vermin, and more. The Warrior’s progress can also cause instability in a dungeon, either break traps or ignore them, likely ignore puzzles, and so on. A handful of monsters are be added, but together with those given in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks still does not feel enough. Perhaps there is scope for a bestiary of broken and unbroken dungeon monsters, both scarred and unscarred, for With Guile, Incantation and Faith?

With Guile, Incantation and Faith ends with a ‘Sample Dungeon’. It feels more like a manor house than a dungeon, one which the Warrior has run straight through rather entering rooms to the left or right. However, the path can be altered with a few rolls on the random tables to provide some deviation and add more chaos and destruction. Overall, it is short, but detailed and should provide single session’s worth of clear up and accounting in the Warrior’s wake.

Physically, With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a slim, little book, cleanly laid out and easy to read. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is good. The cartography is plain.

With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a clever, even witty twist upon classic Dungeons & Dragons-style play, and this supplement nicely expands upon the information first given in Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. However, it does feel as if there could be more—more monsters, more background, and more adventure sites—but nevertheless, With Guile, Incantation and Faith is a decent further exploration of a world of lost gods, missing magics, and damaged dungeons.