The Other OSR: Ship of Fools

The year is 1395. The Hundred Years War has long been over, but neither Europe, or indeed, Christendom is stable. The Crusades continue in the Levant to the great cost of Europe’s great kingdoms. Outbreaks of the Black Death are all too frequent. The peasantry and the labouring classes bristle against the continued abuse of privilege and ill-treatment they suffer at the hands of both government and nobility, resulting in civil unrest and uprisings. Trade and production are held in the vice-like grip of mercantile and craft guilds, limiting scope for growth, enrichment, and improvement. And the Papacy is itself riven in two. In the past, unrest in the Holy See and Rome forced the Pope to flee to the French city of Avignon. Now there are two members of the church claiming to be the Bishop of Rome and thus head of the church. Pope Boniface IX sits in Rome, whilst Benedict XIII sits in Avignon. Which of the incumbents has the right to call himself the Holy Father? Which of the incumbents is ready to accept the other as the rightful Pope? Which of the incumbents is willing to resign, so that a new Pope can be elected and so reunite the church? It does not matter, for now Pope Benedict XIII fears the influence of the other Pope and outside influences, undermining his authority and that of the faithful. In the city of Avignon, made grand by his beneficence and that of his predecessors, all legitimate Popes, the paranoia of Pope Benedict XIII runs deep. The security and integrity of the Papal Court must be maintained in the face of continuing subversion, greedy priests, proud kings, angry mercenaries, lazy clerks, not said the neuroticism of the Pope, and so Papal Investigators must be deployed.

This is the set-up for Ship of Fools, a ‘Genre Set-Up’ for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is setting in which the Player Characters are members of the Office of Papal Investigation charged with finding peaceful—or at least the least disruptive—solutions to the issues that the Avignon papacy faces, ensuring the safety of the Pope, and enforcing the pronouncements and decrees made by Pope Benedict XIII. The setting is based upon historical research, its bibliography referencing The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and Ars Magica by Jonathan Tweet, let alone books on the Avignon Papacy and the Medieval world. In tone it suggests the setting is Father Ted meets Kafka’s The Trial, but add to that the roleplaying game Paranoia and the animated Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. The degree of research shows succinctly in the first few pages, which in turn describe the world of Avignon, the papal palace, the ladder of stations—from Pope all the way down to the Monk and the layman—in the Catholic Church, and its world in turmoil.

A Papal Investigator in Ship of Fools has three Resources, here called Influence, Eminence, and Passion, the equivalent of Charisma, Reputation, and Willpower (or faith). These are not necessarily physical abilities, although there is nothing to stop a Papal Investigator from applying them to physical situation, but rather ways in which a Papal Investigator can apply his standing and belief in his standing in the church—that belief being his own and that of the NPCs around him. He also has three Abilities, one for each of his three Lifepaths. One Lifepath is his Curia Role, what was his original assignment within the Avignon court before being appointed to the Office of Papal Investigations; one is from his Secret Order which gives him secret purpose; and one from his Papal Duties, the training that marks him as a Papal Investigator. There are eight orders of the Curia, which together run the church. For example, the Camera Apostolica, whose lawyers extract taxes, whilst their most devout examine and catalogue relics for signs of their divinity; the Hospitallers protect the church, but their lack of faith is  doubted by the Inquisition; and the Transitus maintains the Papacy’s means and lines of communication across Europe, leading to rivalry with the Supportare, which maintains the infrastructure of the Papacy and Avignon. The other Curia include the Chancery, Dominican Order, Roman Inquisition, Apostolic Penitentiary, and the Supportare. The Secret Orders consist of the Adminsitratum, Anarcho-Syndicalists, Black Friars, Clementines, Committee, Free Spirits, Gardeners, Knights of the Holy Ghost, Metéora, Mumblers, and Occamites, whilst the Papal Duties include Barber Surgeon, Cellarer, Lector, Sacrist, Almoner, Financial Steward, and Liturgist.

In addition to two devices and pieces of equipage, the Papal Investigator has Corruption. This is a measure of his lack of Piety. It begins play at one and can go as high as ten. When his player fails a Challenge, that is, rolling one or two on a Challenge, the Papal Investigator suffers doubts and his piety is tested, requiring a roll higher than his current Corruption score. Calling upon a relic for its divine power or making a confession—as every Papal Investigator must do at the end of a Calling—also requires a similar test. If failed, the Papal Investigator gives into a sin or Folly, such as pride, sloth, deceit, or petulance. One point of Corruption and its associated Folly can be expunged between adventures, but a Papal Investigator can also beg an indulgence of another Papal Investigator (though if this fails, both suffer more Corruption) or pay a penance to remove more.

Although the Camera Apostolica controls the vast archive of holy relics held by the papacy and access to them, each Papal Investigator has his own that he can pray on and draw inspiration from. He may even find more in play, though not all of them may be ‘holy’. A Papal Investigator’s Relic is supplied by his Secret Order. Each Relic grants a particular power, but the Game Moderator is encouraged to create and fully develop Relics to make them interesting and unique. Several sample Relics, all nicely detailed, are provided. (The Game Moderator might want to look at Burgs & Bailiffs: Trinity – The Poor Pilgrim’s Almanack for more information on Relics.)

Catalina the Benignant

Origins: Toledo

Influence D8 Eminence D4 Passion D6

Curia Role: Chancery

Secret Order: Clementines

Papal Duties: Barber Surgeon

Abilities: Ciphers, Dance, Craft (Tailor)

Pressure Track: 0

Equipment: Vial, Medicinal Cordial, Scribe’s Kit

Hits: 3

Corruption: 1

Relic: Candle of St. Thomas (Extinguish: Fervour)

An adventure or assignment in Ship of Fools is known as a ‘Calling’. There is a little discussion on what a ‘Calling’ is, as well as an example as a suggested opening. At the start of a Calling, one Papal Investigator is appointed the leader, or Prior. He has two Fortune which can be sued on anyone’s roll, but at the end of the Calling, his player assesses the other Papal Investigators and rates them. The Game Moderator then tests their Corruption on this basis. This adds a tense and slightly adversarial element to play, the feeling that the Papal Investigators are constantly being monitored. To balance this, the Papal Investigators can take turns being the Prior.

Rounding out Ship of Fools is a set of short, sample Calling hooks and five sample pre-generated Papal Investigators, some enemies, and a complete Calling. This is ‘The Relic, The Ruse, and The Ridiculous’ in which the Papal Investigators are tasked with locating a missing relic. It is an entertaining affair which can be played through in a single session, perhaps two. The final pages discuss what might happen in the future of the twin Papacy.

Physically, Ship of Fools is well presented, but lightly illustrated with nicely period artwork. The supplement is a pleasing read.

Ship of Fools is a thoroughly engaging and enticing setting. The idea of playing papal investigators in a world of apostolic bureaucracy, religious dogma, and papal perturbation is a delight. This setting definitely deserves more content and even a campaign, but in the meantime, Ship of Fools is a very good introduction to a world of papal paranoia and sacred shambles.

The Other OSR: Lost in the Fold

All you know is Here. There is no need to know of anywhere that is not Here. Where is Here? You know nobody who knows. It is your Home. It is your community. It gives you a function. It gives you opportunities for recreation. It gives you the chance to contribute to the Community. Everything you need and everything anyone needs, flows through The Chain. You know it works. Its pipes run everywhere and wheeze and pop and whistle and clang, but always deliver what you need when you need it. When the Community needs it. Starting every day with a morning clothing bullet to make sure everyone is dressed in fresh apparel. All of which is overseen by The Authority, the municipal administration which ensures that The Chain continues to operate, to ensure everyone is assigned to the right sleeping quarters, given the correct amount of recreation time, they contribute to the Community, and they keep a record that they do. Yet… There is the Threshold. It might be the edge or the end of Here, but nobody knows. Or at least nobody is saying. And definitely, nobody who has gone beyond the Threshold, whether deliberately or be accident, has returned to tell anyone what the Threshold is or what lies on the other side.

This is what anyone knows—including the Player Characters—of the Here, a habitat occupied by humanity, surviving on limited resources, and living on borrowed and definitely bureaucratic time. What the habitat of the Here is, is unknown. It could be a bunker, buried underground after a nuclear apocalypse, a space station orbiting Jupiter, a long-term social experiment, or at the end of the universe. Wherever and whatever it is, the scarcity of resources means that if anything went wrong, the Here would no longer be viable. It could collapse. It could be shut down. Either way, it would be ‘Lost in the Fold’, in a bureaucratic reshuffle as its last resources are reassigned.

This is the set-up for the Lost in the Fold. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is a ‘Genre Set-Up’ for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks, which describes itself as a set of “Universal Rules for Challenge-driven Games”. It is a separate ‘Genre Set-Up’ to the two given in the core rulebook—as expanded in .GIF and For A Rainy Day—one inspired by the Post Apocalyptic dystopian Science Fiction of The Silo and Brazil, Yokohama Station and The Trial. It is a roleplaying setting of Science Fiction horror, for there is constant threat of the Habitat in which the Player Characters make their Home or themselves being ‘Lost in the Fold’ or the Player Characters being exposed to the Threshold or perhaps what might be lurking within the Threshold. Lost in the Fold includes some discussion as to that the Habitat might be, but does not decide on any one. What it does do though, is provide the means for the Player Characters to explore the Here and undertake assignments for The Authority as there are issues with The Chain and the Threshold.

A Player Character in Lost in the Fold has three Resources, here called Grit, Rote, and Wile, the equivalent of Physical, Mental, and Willpower, but here also representing the ability of a Player Character to persuade others that he is capable or knowledgeable, rather than necessarily actually being so. He also has a past, represented by a Lifepath. In Sanction, this is a Past, a Diversion, and an Influence. In Lost in the Fold, it is Communal Purpose, representing a Player Character’s place and responsibilities, a Troubling Keepsake which is his unhealthy interest secreted away instead of being returned to The Chain for recycling, and a Downtime Distraction, which is what the Player Character does to reduce stress and contribute towards the sense of community. He also has two items of gear, some base Hits, and a Pressure Track.

Renton
Physical D4 Mental D8 Willpower D6
Communal Purpose: Civil Assistant
Troubling Keepsake: Fencing
Downtime Distraction: Mediating
Abilities: Accounting, Commence, Negotiation
Pressure Track: 0
Equipment: Glow Tube, Stanly Knife
Hits: 3

One key aspect of a Player Character is the degree which he is under Pressure. It is not danger as such, but how a Player Character feels when under the scrutiny of the company he keeps and the situation that he finds himself in. It begins at zero, but when first affected, is set to a twelve-sided die. It increases whenever a non-Pressure check results in Falter or directly due to the nature of a situation, and each time it does, the die size decreases, from a twelve-sided die to a ten-sided, from a ten-sided to an eight-sided, and so on. This step down in pressure die size occurs automatically in these situations rather than a player rolling for it as if Pressure were being treated as a Resource. When something occurs that is so traumatic, such as seeing an unnatural death or an inexplicable situation, a Player Character’s Pressure is Triggered. This requires a Pressure check and when a Player Character rolls a one or two on this roll, a Falter, he will Fold. This does not mean that he disappears, but rather that he shifts in terms of his personality. For example, he may suddenly gain a sense of being Persecuted, be Belligerent, or Rash. These are only temporary, but the lower the Pressure Die, the more often he is affected. Through rest and recreation, a Player Character can improve or increase his Pressure Die.

In terms of running Lost in the Fold, the Game Moderator can use the Mission Triggers table to create assignments, such as ‘Understand/Collect’, ‘Restricted/Uncontrolled’, and ‘Damage/Safety’. In leaving the Habitat she is advised to listen to her players and take cues from their conjecture as to its nature. She is also given advice, including safety advice, on how to create Nightmares, the things that might in the Threshold or even invade the pipes of The Chain. Four sample Nightmares are included for play beyond the scenario given in the book. This is ‘Chain Reaction’. It opens with a problem. The expected and usual Chain Drop and daily arrival of the Clothing Bullet did not take place today or the day before. Dressed in what they can scavenge or have previously hidden away despite it not being socially acceptable, the Player Characters are assigned to investigate. This sends the Player Characters into an industrial space, a space in between, which could be the Threshold, the space between the walls, or even another Habitat, another Here. The scenario does not make this clear, and intentionally so. It is an exploration scenario, with the Player Characters interacting with each other and with the space they discover rather anyone else.

‘Chain Reaction’ is also self-contained in that it only shows the Player Characters on an assignment which takes them out of the Habitat, or at least, their Here. Consequently, there is insufficient contrast between this and what their life is like in the Here. So no interaction with The Authority or with the Community. The scenario is unbalanced and the Game Moderator might want to address this before she runs it.

Physically, Lost in the Fold is short and simple. The layout is clean and tidy, everything is easy to grasp, and it is very lightly illustrated.

Lost in the Fold has the feeling of Paranoia, but without its budget or all of its satire, and with the sensibility of sixties and seventies Science Fiction shot on a budget in industrial zones. It also has the feeling of promise and of having interesting ideas, but which it also does not have the budget to fully realise them. Although a short book, there are some interesting ideas in Lost in the Fold, but the low page count and a scenario that emphasises what lies beyond the experience of the Player Characters, means that those ideas remain unexplored. Lost in the Fold is an interesting ‘Genre Set-Up’ with some intriguing ideas, but no more than that, leaving the Game Moderator wishing that it had gone further in exploring its set-up.

The Other OSR: For A Rainy Day

Stefan Meunch is dead. Died three days ago, between weekly visits. Part of the local catalogue round of check-ins for useless and washed-up old spies with nowhere to go and no future beyond a meagre pension, the bottle, and having lived out their usefulness, such as it was, getting by without bringing themselves to anyone’s attention. Only this time he has. The Factory went in and cleaned up as normal, confirmed the death was a heart attack, and was all ready to close the file when an analyst discovered that Stefan Meunch, a retired ex-spy, eighty-five years old, living on a not an entirely unreasonable state pension in a flat over an empty shop in a town in the West Midlands, had quarter of a millions pounds squirrelled away in off-shore accounts. How the hell did he get away with it, where did he get the money from, and who was paying him? More importantly, how did the fuck-ups whose job it was to do the weekly run of the catalogue of hand-me-downs like Stefan Meunch miss the fact that he managed to save quarter of a million pounds?

This is the set-up for the scenario, For A Rainy Day. Published by Just Crunch Games, this is a scenario for Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks, which describes itself as a set of “Universal Rules for Challenge-driven Games”. Specifically, For A Rainy Day is a scenario for the second Genre Set-Up in Sanction. This is ‘Agency: Outlet Work’, an espionage setting inspired by the grim, grimy, and pathetic espionage of the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron with dash of John Le Carré. The Player Characters are ex-agents, failures and fuck-ups, washed out of active service, but not out of the service. Reassigned to small towns and cities like Wolverhampton or Grimsby, the Agents do data processing, combing through reports and archives, and so on, before sorting it and sending it back to head office, with no explanations as to why or what the information is for. It is make-work, a window job, and that is all that the Agent will have until he retires. Yet the Agent hopes, and worse, he cannot help but want to apply his tradecraft. Part of the work involves the catalogue run. Just one more part of their tedious day in their tedious week in their tedious no-career between now and retirement. Probably a bit like Stefan Meunch, but without the quarter of a million. It’s their fuck-up and they have to find out what Stefan Meunch did to make them look like even more of a bunch of fuck ups, and how he got away with it.

‘Agency: Outlet Work’ is one of the best things in the Sanction rulebook—more so if you are a fan of the Slow Horses series—and For A Rainy Day is an introductory scenario for it. Just as ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ is inspired by the Slow Horses series, it should be noted that For A Rainy Day is inspired by a pair novellas that run parallel to the main novels in the series—The Drop and The List. Although a player may be familiar with the series and with both novellas, For A Rainy Day is only inspired by their set-ups, rather than the whole of their plots. In fact, For A Rainy Day is not a scenario in the traditional roleplaying sense, an adventure with a plot that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Rather, it has a beginning—a very good beginning with the Player Characters being given a bollocking for their failure and their players a chance to introduce their characters and their very ordinary lives, and a middle, where all of the investigation takes places, with its grubby scrutiny and possible future for the Player Characters. The end is very much down to the players and what their characters think is going on. For A Rainy Day does tell you what is going on, but the players and their characters may get other ideas… Which is fine, since they are fuck-ups…

For A Rainy Day is heavy on investigation and tradecraft, though there are opportunities for violence too—though only for the Game Master, who is accorded good advice on running the scenario. This includes running it as an episode of a television series, using the provided table of prompts when appropriate, such as when a scene drags or is going nowhere, and reacting to the Player Characters and their actions as it is primarily a player-driven scenario. In addition, five pre-generated Agents, one for each of the standard Lifepath archetypes in ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ are provided for quick set-up and use with the scenario.

Physically, For A Rainy Day is short and simple. The layout is clean and tidy, everything is easy to grasp, and the artwork has a suitably drab, drizzled upon kind of feel.

For A Rainy Day can be used in conjunction with the espionage-themed roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice, but of course, Sanction suits the desperate, down-at-heel grottiness of both ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ and For A Rainy Day. The good news is that For A Rainy Day is the first in a series and it will get sequels, which is probably the most that the Player Character fuck-ups deserve. In the meantime, For A Rainy Day is a delightfully seedy introduction to the wretched world of ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ and its no-hopers.

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.

The Other OSR: Sanction

Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks describes itself as a set of “Universal Rules for Challenge-driven Games.” If that sounds pretentious, then what it really is a roleplaying game with a set of mechanics that are designed for simplicity and flexibility in play, the intention being that they do not intrude unnecessarily and that rolls are only made when there is a chance of a Player Character failing and suffering consequences. That is the ‘Challenges’ aspect of the subtitle. The ‘Hacks’ are adventures and Genre Set-Ups that influence the way in which Sanction is played, but not the how. Published by Just Crunch Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Sanction is derived from three roleplaying games. The first is The Black Hack, an Old School Renaissance roleplaying designed for Dungeons & Dragons-style play, whilst the second is Cthulhu Hack, the roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror. Both would lead to the third, The Dee Sanction, the roleplaying game of ‘Covert Enochian Intelligence’, which like Cthulhu Hack, is published by Just Crunch Games. Sanction includes the full rules and two Genre Set-Ups, one of which is very, very good.

Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks begins with an explanation of its mechanics. A Player Character has three Resources rather than attributes or traits. The default are Physical, Mental, and Willpower, but will vary according to the Genre Set-Up. Each Resource is represented by a die type, ranging from ‘D4’ to ‘D12’, but ‘D4’, ‘D6’, and ‘D8’ being the most typical. If a Player Character is faced with a Challenge where the outcome is unknown, his player rolls the appropriate Resource. The Game Moderator decides the terms and goal of the Challenge, what happens if the Player Character succeeds and the Consequences if he fails, and if the Resource can have a ‘Step Up’ or ‘Step Down’, and thus be changed to a higher or lower die size depending upon the circumstances. The player rolls the die and if he rolls three or more, his character succeeds. However, if he rolls one or two, the Challenge Falters and the character suffers the stated Consequences. (Throughout the rules, options are given for using cards from an ordinary deck of playing cards instead of dice.)

A Player Character can also have an Ability which applies to a Challenge. This Ability can be a skill, a knowledge, or a power, depending upon the Genre Set-Up. The Game Moderator can decide that the Ability simply lets the Player Character undertake the task without the need to roll or that it provides him with an edge in the situation which will be represented by a ‘Step Up’. Alternatively, an Ability lets the Player Character undertake the task because it is so specialised. For example, the ‘Concealment’ Ability might simply let the Player Character hide in the undergrowth surrounding a castle or give him a ‘Step Up’ if there are guards on patrol. Whereas, a Player Character with the ‘Cantrips’ can cast minor magical spells that he would otherwise be unable to.

If a ‘Step Down’ decreases the die size to below a ‘D4’, the Game Moderator may still allow the Player Character to act. This is known as a ‘Call to Fail’ and the Player Character will suffer severe Consequences. In general, this option is for the Player Character who wants to cause a distraction.

The most obvious type of Consequence is the Hit. This might be due to a fall, poison, or being hit in combat, but Sanction is not a roleplaying game that emphasises combat. Morse so given that a Player Character only has three Hits before being severely injured or dead. Instead, Consequences can take the form of delays, susceptibilities, breakages, or losses. Their aim is to present interesting narrative outcomes and to test the Player Characters in ways other than being slashed with a sword.

Character creation involves first assigning dice steps to the three Resources. The base for each is a ‘D4’, and once the dice steps have been applied, all three will be at ‘D6’ or one at ‘D4’, one at ‘D6’, and one at ‘D8’. The next step is to take the Player Character through a Lifepath. This consists of three steps. In the default setting, this is a Past, a Diversion, and an Influence. The Past is typically an occupation, the Diversion is why the Player Character is in his current predicament, and Influence is an aspiration. Each of these provides an Ability. The Player Character also receives some equipment. Many items have a Supply Die which, like a Resource, ranges in value from ‘D4’ to ‘D12’. When a Player Character uses any items with a Supply Die, the die is rolled. If a one is rolled, the Supply Die is stepped down to the next die size until this happens on a ‘D4’ and the items are exhausted. A Player Character’s Past, Diversion, and Influence can either be rolled for or the player selects them.

Geoffren is a failed petty wizard. His bursary ran out and he turned to petty theft in order to fund his further studies. It turned out that he was as bad at that as he was at handling his money. His tutors bailed him out in order to prevent any embarrassment to the academy. Now he owes them. He has joined one of the Lesser Orders of the Grand Guild, a minor adventurer assigned to clean-up teams working through dungeons already battled through by mighty Warriors. He notes down everything that his team discovers and recovers and reports back to his true masters in between assignments.

Geoffren
Physical D4 Mental D8 Willpower D6
Past: Scholar
Diversion: Petty Crime
Influence: Sage
Abilities: Blather, Burglary, Folklore
Equipment: Journal
Hits: 3

Sanction is a player-facing roleplaying game. This means that the player always rolls whilst the Game Moderator never does. Nowhere does this show more than in combat or facing Threats. Here the player rolls for his character to attack a Threat and also rolls to avoid being attacked by a Threat. When facing Threats in Sanction, it extends to the order of play as well. Thus, whilst the Game Moderator states the goals for the Threats first and the players states their second, the players resolve their characters’ actions first and then the Game Moderator does for the Threats. Combat is fought out in Moments, each lasting a few seconds, during which time a Player Character can typically attack or act once and react once. A Player Character will typically inflict one Hit with a successful attack, whereas an NPC has its own damage table. The results are determined randomly and can be to move to a more advantageous position, inflict bruises or leave him bloody, or do one Hit. With doing a Hit being only one of the four options, this again emphasises the narrative Consequences of the rules rather than simply doing mechanical damage. This is the most basic range of damage, meant to represent an ordinary person. Sanction includes a range of Threats, each with its own range of damaging Consequences. For example, the Damage options for the Giant Spider consist of ‘Move’ which imposes a ‘Step Down’ on attacks against it; ‘Catch & Throw’ triggers a physical Challenge which inflicts the Restrained condition on a success, but Restrained and a Hit on a failure; ‘Impale’ for one Hit; and ‘Poison’ which inflicts a Hit, causes Bleeding, and injects venom.

For the Game Moderator, there is advice on creating encounters, supported by sample creatures and Threats, and on resolving hazards. The ‘Hacker’s Toolbox’ offers a guide to using the various parts of character creation to enforce and foster the flavour and feel of a Genre Set-up in Sanction as well as adding unique elements. This is further supported by advice on creating Threats suitable for the Genre Set-Up. Given the size of Sanction, it should be no surprise that the ‘Hacker’s Toolbox’ is short, but it is succinct, helpful, and to the point.

The Game Moderator is supported with not one, but two Genre Set-Ups. ‘With Guile, Incantation, & Faith’, or ‘.GIF’, is the default, threaded throughout the pages of Sanction as an example. In ‘.GIF’, the Player Characters are second rate adventurers, investigating and clearing out dungeons on behalf of the Grand Guild. A mighty Warrior on a euphoric ‘Weird Out’ has already been through the dungeon and done the hard job of slaughtering the major—and most of the minor—Threats. Now it is the job of the members of the Lesser Orders to investigate and clean up. Having failed to become a true Adventurer like the Warrior, the Player Characters have become blue collar dungeoneers, collecting treasure, recording details, mapping out the complexes, and so on, all while wondering where it went wrong for them. Inspired by B1, In Search of the Unknown for Basic Dungeons & Dragons, the ultimate abandoned-clean-up dungeon, ‘.GIF’ does two things. First is to give characters who would otherwise have been the role of the hireling in traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying games a greater role and agency of their own, whilst the second is to provide a means to play just about any dungeon all over again, ideally after the players’ actual adventurers have battled their way through it.

The second Genre Set-Up comes at the end of the book, complete rather than threaded through the book. ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ shifts Sanction from the fantasy genre of ‘.GIF’ to the espionage genre. Not though the action espionage of the superspy James Bond, but the grim, grimy, and pathetic espionage of the Slow Horses series by Mick Herron with dash of John Le Carré. The Player Characters are ex-agents, failures and fuck-ups, washed out of active service, but not out of the service. Exactly why is something that will have to be worked out between the player and the Game Moderator during Agent creation. Reassigned to small towns and cities like Wolverhampton or Grimsby, the Agents do data processing, combing through reports and archives, and so on, before sorting it and sending it back to head office, with no explanations as to why or what the information is for. It is make-work, a window job, and that is all that the Agent will have until he retires. Yet the agent hopes, and worse, he cannot help but want to apply his tradecraft.

‘Agency: Outlet Work’ changes its Resources to Network, Cover, and Tradecraft. It has its own Lifepath table and it adds Espionage Specialties, Bonds, and a Burn Track. Bonds are connections to NPCs who might help the Agent, whilst the Burn Track measures his stress. Rolling a one or two on a Resource when undertaking a Challenge in public or dealing with an actual intelligence asset, calling in a favour, or resorting to an act of violence, will increase an Agent’s Burn Track. As it increases, there will be Consequences, which get worse and worse, until the Agent washes out completely, is killed, or arrested. What is noticeable here is how bad violence and fights are in ‘Agency: Outlet Work’. There is not a fight-related Resource and fights are so stressful that in the long term, the Consequences are career or life ending, taking into account the fact that the Agents of ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ have no career. There is advice for the Game Moderator and a table of prompts, but no scenario. Admittedly there is no scenario for ‘.GIF’, but you really wish that there were for ‘Agency: Outlet Work’. (Fortunately, there is one available, For A Rainy Day.) ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ is deliciously pathetic and rife with roleplaying possibilities.

Physically, Sanction is a well presented, tidy book. The artwork is decent and the book is easy to read.

Although its heritage lies in the Old School Renaissance, Sanction is not part of it, but more tangentially adjacent to it, having adopted a more narrative approach in terms of its mechanics and storytelling. The simplicity of the mechanics make it very easy to learn and play, and they also make it easy to adjust to other Genre Set-Ups. Perhaps a third Genre Set-Up might have been included in Sanction to showcase its flexibility more fully, but there can be no doubt that ‘Agency: Outlet Work’ not only does that, but is also worth the price of admission alone. It would also be good to see other Genre Set-Ups, perhaps as an anthology from a variety of authors, showing off Sanction in other genres. Overall, Sanction: A Tabletop Roleplaying Game of Challenges & Hacks is an impressive design, providing simple, but not simplistic, mechanics that encourage roleplaying and storytelling whilst also being flexible enough to adapt to different genres and settings.