First Impressions - The Dee Sanction (Core Rules)

The softcover version of the rules.

TL;DR The Dee Sanction is a beautifully presented book with evocative artwork, honed to terse perfection, with a light but effective game engine and just enough setting to start your own game quickly. It's refreshingly different in tone from most games that I've seen before, and I look forward to running or playing it. I hope to see some more adventures for the game, perhaps covering the intrigues in England itself. Recommended. 

The Dee Sanction - Adventures in Covert Enochian Intelligence - is a game about the practice of magic to defend England against threats both foreign and domestic. The characters are Agents of Dee, working for John Dee and Francis Walsingham, offered a devil's bargain to serve or die for treason. They find themselves in this predicament because they have been found in breach of the 1563 Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcraft, which made the use of magick to kill a capital offence after an attempt on the Queen's life by Catholic plotters. It also made an offence of using magick to consort with evil spirits, provoke love, seek buried treasure or maim others. 

In 1564 the Queen was persuaded to pass an amendment to Act - The Dee Sanction - which permitted the use of magick in defence or for the benefit of the realm. The Sanction is overseen by the Queen's Spymaster, Walsingham, and her astrologer, alchemist and companion, Doctor Dee. Players take on the role of Agents, persons who have had a stay of execution under the Act provided they work for the state in its defence. They remain condemned, and the game gives no view on the state of their immortal souls.

There is much for the Agents to do; the barriers against the supernatural, long bolstered by the blind faith of generations directed by the Catholic Church, are faltering. The rising conflict between Catholic and Protestant initiated by Henry VIII's severing of ties with Rome has led to the re-emergence of bugs and the Fae, accelerated by the dark and terrible acts that the two sides have taken against each other.

The delightful hardcover version which I backed.

The rules are presented in an A5 format; I have the delightful hardcover version which comes with a ribbon, high-quality paper and a very evocative feel. There is also a softcover version which will become the standard version available once the hardcover sells out. Illustrations are all black-and-white and nicely evocative, produced by Evlyn Moreau so there's a good consistency to the style. They look like period woodcuts. 

This book is beautifully honed, perhaps to the point of being terse, and packs a huge amount of content into the text. My natural style is to skim read, which meant I had to return to sections and cross-reference within the book, but I never failed to find what I was looking for. Keywords and phrases are highlighted in bold, and there is a glossary of terms at the end which is very useful.

History is addressed with a short timeline of John Dee, and background on Walsingham and belief in magic. Two pages give an overview of the periods, and there's a section on enemies of the Queen (temporal and supernatural). There are several pages discussing the Tudor Age and how it can be tailored to what a group demands. Overall, the book stresses that it isn't about pedantry or historical purism; rather, it's about getting a feel for the period ("based on true events"), taking the flavour but not the details. I approve of this approach, as historical games always run the risk that fun will be sucked out of them by the need for perfect realism. There's enough detail to get you away and - for everything else - there's Wikipedia.

The principles of the game are described as "We Don't Need Another Hero", as Agents are:

• Vulnerable
• Expendable
• Amateurs
• Only slightly versed in the supernatural
• Criminals
• Marked for Death
• Conflicted
• Mostly in the Dark
• and Scapegoats if it all goes wrong.

Agents are definitely at a disadvantage, but adversity builds character. Of course, if they die, character generation is swift and effective.

Agents have three resources - Intellectuall, Physicall and Supernaturall. They get six dice steps to assign to these; each step is a jump between a dice size starting at D4 and ending at D12. An average Agent would have D6 in each resource, whereas one that had focussed on a specific area could have D10 in one resource and D4 in the other two. Resources are the core of the game's resolution engine, but more of that later.

Agents create a backstory by rolling or drawing cards for an Occupation, a damning Association and a focus for their Enlightenment. They also have a random Favour of the Angels, which is a minor magickal power. The Backstory will bring together 8 possible abilities; characters get to chose 3 of these. These step-up the resource dice that's being used in the event that they are applicable. 

Characters start with a single fortune token, which can be spent to re-roll any single dice throw; they can gain more if the GM feels that have performed well.

Let's try this out. I draw the following cards - 7 Hearts, 3 Diamonds, 9 Spades - from a deck with the Royalty removed.

• 9 Spades means I was a Messenger (abilities Rumour, Orienteering, Traversing)
• 7 Hearts means I was a member of the Compagnonnage, a society dedicated to unseating the Guilds and bringing about a new order in society (abilities Handcrafting, Devices, Bargaining)
• 3 Diamonds means I understand the Liber Salomonis - the Wisdom of King Solomon (abilities Detect Lies, Purification)

I choose Rumour, Bargaining and Detect Lies as my Abilities as I think my character will be a talker. 

I draw the Ace of Diamonds as my Favour - this is Scent (Curious, Unexpected, Confusing or Freshen).

Once per day I can draw on this; for a moment it makes me consider swapping Detect Lies for Purification.

Agents also have Hits (the harm that you can take) and Unravelling (effectively a measure of your capability to deal with fear and the unnatural). Hits are a number of points, and unravelling has a dice rating like the resources. 

There are a set of random tables to help you finish off the character if you feel that you need them; appearance, clothes, mannerisms, home town and possessions.

Finally, each group of Agents can draw on their combined resources to give them strength in an area of tradecraft. There are six areas available to the group - access, conspiracy, kit, magic, system and vigilance - and they get to chose which one they want for the adventure they're on when they get the mission briefing at the start of the game. Tradecraft can be used as if it is an ability to boost a resource roll. It can also be burned to overcome a Mark. Marks are specific challenges that an opponent may have that need to be overcome to prevail against it. For example, you may need a specific magic item or a way to get to the place a ritual occurs. Depleting your tradecraft allows you to overcome this challenge. If the scenario doesn't provide them with the means to achieve this without the use of tradecraft it may mean that you have to carry out several missions to overcome the threat. Threats can have multiple Marks, and they are recorded using the initial letters of the related tradecraft; for example (ACM) would mean that a means of Access is needed, that some form of conspiracy needs to be engaged, and then magick used to defeat the threat.

The core mechanic of the game is rolling your resource die to overcome a challenge. If you roll a 1 or 2, you falter and suffer some form of consequence. This could be a Hit and/or a Consequence (for example you could take a hit and a broken arm consequence). If you have some form of advantage, the challenge will have the resource dice increased by one step (removing the chance of faltering) to a maximum of a d12; disadvantage works the other way. If your dice is reduced below a d4, you suffer a call to fail where you can back out or automatically take the consequences and only achieve something minor. The example given in the rules is if you are staying in a fight to protect a fellow Agent.

Initiative in combat is determined by 'taking a chance'. This is a fifty-fifty roll; it can be done as a group or individually. If you falter, you go after the enemies, if you succeed you go first. It is re-rolled every moment (turn). Combat is resolved as a challenge; enemies use a Hit Resolution table to inflict damage if you falter on your attack, or you falter when defending. Armour will protect against hits; you roll the armour dice and on a 1 or 2 it absorbs the hits. If you end up on 0 hits, you are dying. You take a chance each moment until someone helps you to stabilise you. If you aren't stabilised and falter three times, you die. Once established, you roll on the out of action table, which gives you a consequence. You really need to rest and recuperate as soon as possible, as any falter marks taken when dying remain until you do so. If you take damage again, the existing falters count. 

The Unravelling mechanic is explained in some detail, which you'd expect in a game that focuses on protecting England from the supernatural. When faced with an inhuman horror or the supernatural, your Agent will roll their Unravelling Die. If they falter, it drops a step and then you roll (or draw cards) to see the impact on your humours. You get an immediate effect and then a longer-term effect that will last until you get a decent rest. The table for this really fits with the period (your phlegm, black bile, yellow bile or blood can all be affected).

There's a short section describing the tools that Agents have at their disposal to defend the Queen, such as the Black Seal, the Hieroglyphic Monad and access to the Stone Houses, and the mysterious Mr Garland. Garland is a disembodied spirit used to brief Agents in the field. This is followed by a short section that describes the enemies of the Queen, both temporal (the Catholic Church; Mary, Queen of Scots; the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish) and magickal (the Fae of the Great Wood and rival organisations such as the School of Night), in enough detail to use them in a broad-brush way.

The GM Tools section focuses upon guidance and advice on resolving reactions, consequences and hazards such as falling, burning or disease. There's sound advice on how to run the game and also a good list of references if you want more information. There's also advice on how to convert creatures from D&D style games. 

An introductory adventure is presented - "Lost in Translation" - set overseas in Poland during one of Dee's Tours of Europe. The Agents are dispatched to retrieve a relic to allow Dee to impress King Stefan of Poland and perhaps gain him as an ally for England. Naturally, there are complications. It's a good adventure, very much presented as a situational sandbox to explore, and it showcases the darkness that the Agents are there to protect against.

The book rounds out with appendices with names, possessions and mannerisms, and a short - but long enough - bestiary which includes human opponents and more supernatural.

So there you have it; the Dee Sanction. Beautifully presented (especially the hardcover) with evocative artwork, honed to terse perfection with a uniquely light but effective game engine, with just enough setting to start your own game quickly. It's refreshingly different in tone from most games that I've seen, and I look forward to running or playing it. I hope to see some more adventures for the game, perhaps covering the intrigues in England itself. Recommended. 

18 April 2021