Sanction (Gamma Release)

I’ve been looking forward to taking a peek at this since backing the kickstarter last year. Paul Baldowski is  a very good games designer, with The Cthulhu Hack and Dee Sanction being notable successes. This game builds on both of those with a simple set of rules that are designed to be easily hackable into different settings. 

In this gamma release of the core rules, the main example is of a dungeon crawling setting called ‘With Guile, Incantation and Faith’ that takes the idea that the players are the cleanup crew who go through the dungeons after the mighty heroes have been through slaughtering everything. They make sure all of the traps are disarmed, the treasure safely collected and any straggling monsters dealt with. 

The gameplay loop is for the characters to face challenges which are resolved by calling on their resources - in this example Physical, Mental and Willpower - represented by different dice sizes. You will always succeed in a challenge, to a greater or lesser extent but a roll of 1 or 2 will mean that you falter with a consequence. Too many consequences and you might find yourself out of action. Challenges can easily be stepped up or down to adjust the difficulty simply by using different dice. 

Flavour in the game is given by life paths that give background, abilities and motivations, allowing colourful characters to be quickly created with lots of role playing hooks.

The rules then show how the game can be hacked to different settings, with a final example called The Agency - a game of second rate spies working in crummy offices on the jobs no one else can be bothered with. It draws on the Slough House novels of Mick Herron and the down at heel George Smilie archetypes of John Le Carre, where the drink of choice is a cup of tea in a greasy spoon cafe rather than martinis at the casino. Lots of potential here, I think, and this is definitely a setting I want to play in.

There are more settings to come, and a physical release of the books too, which I am looking forward to judging by the high standards of other releases so far. 

Definitely one to keep an eye on, if you didn’t already back the kick starter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/allrolledup/sanction-a-tabletop-roleplaying-game-of-challenges-and-hacks/description