You voted for that award, loyal followers and those fresh in their discovery of the game, and it feels all the sweeter for the achievement. I appreciate it.

You can acquire the softcover edition or PDF of Dee Sanction: Adventures from All Rolled Up. You can also acquire the individual adventures in PDF format from DriveThruRPG.

Better yet, The Dee Sanction has received a number of solid reviews — both for the Core Rules and the Adventures — in the past few weeks, both in first impressions and unboxings, and more indepth analysis. Not only that, but a lot of games have been popping up at conventions, which always bodes well for interest in the game as more than just a shelf filler!

Thanks to everyone who created these reviews — follow the links to the source sites for full information and more great content from these gamers.

Yet Another Unprofessional Unboxing

Bud’s RPG Review

Geek Native

Signals from Delta Pavonis

Adventures

Adventures features six investigations — both in London and across the countryside of Tudor England. The adventure is available in All Rolled Up’s web store now in both print and PDF, and will see face-to-face release at Dragonmeet.

Ex Libris — Written by Paul Baldowski, Illustrated by Evlyn Moreau, Cartography by Paul Baldowski

In 1593, the Agents of Dee set out to Deptford in search of a lost remnant from the sacking of Mortlake, Dee’s home. The paper trail indicates the owner of a home in Deptford village received an annotated copy of The Book of Dead Names, and Dee wants it back.

The problem? He isn’t the only one who wants it.

Window of the Soul — Writing, Illustration and Cartography by Paul Baldowski

While there’s nothing like Southwark for an evening of entertainments in the drinking holes, brothels and bear-baiting pits, the Agents of Dee find their evening interrupted by a brawl in the street that takes a disturbing turn.

There’s more afoot than drunken revelry, it would seem, but can the Agents uncover the threat before it escalates beyond their control.

The Gong Scourer’s Baby — Written by Paul Baldowski, Cartography by Dyson Logos

The Queen has taken ill and departed London, along with Dee, on the advice of her close counsel. Before he departs, Dee requests that the Agents investigate a miracle baby, born to a Gong Scourer in Southwark. While the babe might be a hoax, the trail leads into a darker place and an unholy plot.

The Monk’s Cowl — Written by Paul Baldowski

Henry Denny, the leaseholder of Waltham manor, sends word of a monstrous threat harrowing travellers passing through Waltham Forest. John Dee sends the Agents to the market town of Waltham Abbey to investigate. As one of the favoured hunting grounds of the Queen, the Agents must resolve the matter with haste—who would dare to disappoint Her Majesty?

The Harrowing of Harlow Hall — Written by Richard August, Cartography by Paul Baldowski

“A former agent hath shewn himself to be in league with ruinous powers. Investigate and deal with him, as thou deem most fit.” Doctor Dee sends the Agents to investigate the grounds and owner of Harlow Hall.

In Fertile Soil — Written by Paul Baldowski

Charged with investigating a potential target for recruitment into the Sanction, the Agents travel to the tiny village of Soulgrave where a woman stands accused of killing a newborn through an act of witchcraft. But did she? The Agents must determine the truth of the matter even as the villagers gather kindling and sticks for the pyre…

The book includes a range of maps and hand-outs, as well as a short section on using the adventures as the basis of a campaign.

Abaddon’s Puppet

Which, as it happens, is something that this third-party licenced adventure — Abaddon’s Puppet — does, too. Written by Steve Hatherley, the adventure outlines a heinous plot that can become part of a campaign and include some of the existing investigations. Steve has written about his process with running The Dee Sanction on his blog.

In February 1587, Elizabeth I had Mary Queen of Scots executed, an event that eventually led to the attempted Spanish invasion of Britain in 1588. Before that, however, King Philip of Spain plotted to have Elizabeth overthrown in favour of her Catholic cousin.

This is one of those plots.

If you have already picked up Adventures or the individual investigations available on DriveThruRPG, you will appreciate the terse guidance of this adventure. Distilled into timeline, clues, personalities and locations, it’s a concise frame for adventure.

Available on itch, now.

The Bundle includes ELEVEN investigations of cosmic horror — and 10% of your payment (after gateway fees) will be donated to Beechwood Cancer Care, which offers specialist support for those living with a life-limiting illness.

As someone who might have picked up The Dee Sanction or backed one of the Kickstarters, this is your opportunity to get pretty much everything for THE OTHER GAME at a bargain price. If you opt for the threshold price or higher to access the bonus collection you will have NINE whole adventures plus a copy of The Dee Sanction.

Writing The Cthulhu Hack for the last five years provided some essential lessons in style, content and mechanics that fed into the release of the Core Book for Dee. Investigators have the same opportunity for discovery and fatality as Agents of Dee with a skew into cosmic horror. Many of the adventures feature the same kind of shades of grey decision making, that tests the morals and the mettle of the characters.

STARTER COLLECTION (US$5.95 – retail value $25)

• The Cthulhu Hack Core Book (retail price $7.50)
• Gamemaster’s Reference ($1)
• Nocturnal Rites Quickstart + character sheet
• The Dark Brood ($5)
• Forgotten Duty ($5)
• 3 Cthulhu Hack mini-sourcebooks (total retail $7.50) — which includes From Unformed Realms ($5), Rhan-Tegoth ($1.50), Strange Materials ($1)

BONUS COLLECTION(threshold starts at $14.95 – additional retail value $52.50)

• The Dee Sanction Core Rules ($9.50)
• NINE Cthulhu Hack investigations in five books (total retail $43) — Haunter of the Dark, Mother’s Love, Three Faces of the Wendigo, Thro’ Centuries Fixed, Valkyrie Nine

That’s a total retail value of $77.50 including more than a dozen adventures plus two fast and flavoursome tabletop role-playing games.

Check out the Bundle of Holding soon—the offer ends on 21st October

In addition, you can get the first three adventures, supernatural supplement The Sight, character journal The Book of Days, and the bestiary expansion The Leaf Ire all at a similar discounted price in this limited time offer.

Coincidentally, the September Historical Settings Sale ends about the same time as the current Kickstarter for The Dee Sanction: Adventures print edition!

If you haven’t got in on the crowdfunding yet, Adventures gathers all five current adventures plus a stretch goal sixth—In Fertile Soil—into a perfect-bound format with brand new art from Evlyn Moreau. For £8 plus shipping, you get a 48-page print copy.

Or, if you time it right, at 2PM on Sunday (September 12) we will release the last ten Distinguished Agents—offering you the last hardcover Core Rules from the original Kickstarter AND the print edition of Adventures for £25 plus shipping.

So, you have about five days left to grab one, the other, or both!

Simple mechanics and fast character generation combine to provide a great way to have quick pick up games or an ongoing campaign. If you seek some of that supernatural action with a table of friends, then you’ll want some adventures to get you going.

The Dee Sanction: Adventures gathers five such tales of horror and shadow, with contrasting themes and backdrops, pitting your expendable Agents against book thieves, traitors, elder magic, assassins and forces not of this earth.

The Dee Sanction: Adventures Kickstarter launches at 14:00 BST 1st September to fund a 36-page print book with maps, illustrations, and handouts.

With your support, stretch goals can add more illustrations, colour printing, additional adventures, and the possibility of more — like guidance on linking the adventures, extra adversaries, and additional adventure seeds to take you beyond the end of the current adventures.

Why are we doing this?

Well, over the last four months, since the release of the Core Rules, we’ve seen a lot of activity and interest in the community. We want to see more of that and making it possible for fans to create their own content has worked for many other games over the years.

The freedom for fans to create content doesn’t mean that we’ll stop doing it—expect official adventures and supplements for The Dee Sanction to continue. However, as most of the writing falls to a single individual and there are only so many hours in the day, it makes sense to avoid constraining wider creativity.

So, whether you want to create adventures, expand options, or provide some homebrew mechanic that’s worked in your games, this is the way to do it.

• Check through the rules to make sure the content of your offering contains only those elements allowed. You can’t copy/paste from official material or use any artwork, nor can you translate it into another language. The material is intellectual property, and its use requires explicit permission from the copyright holder.
• Read the explanation of the permissions offered and labelling required.
• Ensure that you include the noted text about copyright and publication under Third Party Licence.
• Add the “Compatible with The Dee Sanction” logo if you want (it’s available in PNG and PDF format; invert the colour if you want it to show up on a dark background).
• You can’t claim that what you’re creating is official.
• And keep in mind prohibited content—don’t even go there. On top of that, if you include any material likely to trigger, call out the need for a GM to consider Sensitive Issues (Core, pg 46) and have tools in place.

(that’s just a quick overview — read the full Third Party Licence to ensure you have everything covered)

We’re looking forward to seeing what the community creates. For us, the landscape of the Elizabethan world is fascinating with huge untapped potential. So please show us what you got!

In some small part, the map of the Ossulstone Hundred aligns with the same concept. Wards and streets, stores and alehouses, traders and warehouses… Such details fall to the need of the Table and the story’s progression. Perhaps I took something from Free League’s Forbidden Lands and the notion of a map to be annotated. If the GM or I spend our time delineating every home and storefront across the map, what’s left for Player engagement?

Like Ex Libris or Lost in Translation‘s villains, I think The Dee Sanction benefits from focusing progress and plot on difficult decisions and desperate solutions. That’s not to say that the Agents always lose or that every ending becomes mired in shades of grey. But everything is not set in stone, and situations can arise that embrace the loose threads of the past, allowing the Table to create the fabric of their Elizabethan world together.

Remember the guiding principles on page 6, What It Isn’t About… fabricate rather than procrastinate. The Table should never freeze with the paralysis of concern that events might not perfectly match the canon of history. The story should be about what you want it to be about. Agents should engage in the sort of missions and adventures that entertain everyone. It demands that the Table works together, and the GM might need a little more time and a bit of leeway when it comes to a retcon or two. Or at least the opportunity to correct a bit of history if the session’s excitement means creating an unintentional dead-end in events.

This is where Journals matter and the concept of playing characters beyond a simple core. Suppose Players handle the history and take notes on events, people and places. In that case, the GM can focus more on fleshing out events, weaving old threads into the fabric of the whole, and creating a satisfying world.

Clearly the moment grabbed me, as 5,000 words just flowed out over the weekend, with some measure of relief.

To be transparent, the adventure spins off of material from an existing D&D adventure – so, this is not something I’ve created from nothing. However, as well as writing the adventure up from scratch—word-for-word brand new material—I’ve also sought and gained permission from the author to publish it with credit for the original.

It will form part of the ashcan release of the game, as the playtest adventures I’m keen to write up all effectively communicate the themes and atmosphere I want from the game. I fully expect a polished final adventure will also appear once the full version of the game sees release.