The Spark

I have absolutely no recollection of what spark led to the development of this adventure, other than some pretty ordinary tropes associated with witchcraft. The adventure has a timeline in the background, which the bad guys aspire to keep—that’s always been true. The player characters have the opportunity to interfere with this timeline if they can. The timeline may be the only bit that has existed from start to finish, though minor changes happened in the last cycle.

As a concept, for me, a timeline works well as the basis for running a game, especially when you plan to improvise up from simple details. That’s always been a handy approach for me. I like to have a set of events, personalities and locations, along with endgame outcomes and goals that should never resolve if the PCs have anything to do with it.

Pacing

In a much earlier article, I referenced the possibility of using a countdown mechanic. However, I think it could be simpler to use a calendar and clarify that if you travel around London looking for vague clues, you can expect to spend a morning or afternoon doing just that.

It compares well with my current GMing of the Delta Green campaign Impossible Landscapes; to acquire some clues, you must invest a swathe of game time in the search. The outcome will be one piece of information. In that time, you will have sorted through ninety-nine pieces of dross to find that one thing. If you want a clue, your agents will need to work for it—what do you want to do?

That research approach also needs clarity on the who and the where, when, and why. For example, do you assign more than one Agent to a search of the docks? Is there any particular street or establishment that you include—or, indeed, anywhere that you exclude? Does the search occur at night when the neighbourhood clientele will be notably different to early morning or mid-afternoon?

Adventure Time

I’m enjoying the process of making the focus and approach of each adventure for The Dee Sanction a little different.

While Ex Libris has a linear path and a map, Window of the Soul had a map with events and no clear direction. Gong Scourer has a hidden course (the timeline) with a web of potential information sources that might be accessible depending on the who, where and when of activity. And, of course, Lost in Translation (in the Core Book) was a mystery site/escape room.

This has also always been true. We’ll see whether I translate other old playtest adventures into new published mysteries and investigations.

Release

This third stretch goal adventure, The Gong Scourer’s Baby, has been released to Kickstarter backers of The Dee Sanction.

It will release to Dweller and higher tier Patreon supporters in a week.

It will release to the public in a couple of weeks through the DriveThruRPG website.

Once all five stretch goal adventures have been gathered together, we’ll see release as a single volume (PDF) on All Rolled Up.

At this point in the campaign — when we hit £14,000, everyone with access to stretch goals will have a 66-page core book to look forward to with an expanded, illustrated Bestiary, supported by four digital adventures, twenty mini Tudor characters, a digital map of the Ossulstone Hundred, and a digital Sanction Journal.

Over the remaining 18 days, we’re conscious that the same level of new pledges won’t continue — which is some measure of relief, as we’re going to run out of Stretch Goal ideas! — but we plan to update you on elements of the system, a little of the lore, and ponder possible Add Ons.

Whatever you do, don’t stop reaching out to people you know who might be interested in getting involved. The Dee Sanction is a niche game, but we’re happy to see that historical, supernatural niche blown wide open to as many people as possible. Remember to tag your posts #DeeSanctionRecruiting so we can network our efforts — the future of Queen and country depends on it.

And, as some measure of thanks, here’s a desktop image to adorn your PC or tablet (it might challenge a phone… we’ll look into it!)

Keep a watch for more updates and Stretch Goals achieved on The Dee Sanction Kickstarter.

This Kickstarter is the culmination of weeks of effort getting the building blocks of production, publicity and pledges in order. It is also the satisfying conclusion to seven years of tinkering with the setting, background concepts and, most recently, settling on the crunch framework of the game mechanics.

The core of the Kickstarter is the book, available in PDF (the Page), softcover (the Gentlefolk) and a cloth-bound hardcover version with a foil-blocked sigil of the Black Seal on the front (the Courtier).

For those who want a little bit more, there’s the Agent of Dee (limited to 75 backers), which offers a Kickstarter Exclusive All Rolled Up game roll with a metal buckle. The versatile, compact hobby wrap can hold more than 100 polyhedral dice, plus up to 10 pens and pencils, as well as index cards or a small notepad. It will feature a badge and, as I say, a metal buckle closure — something that generally only appears on the high-end oilskin Adventurer series All Rolled Ups.

The campaign will fund a 60-page black-and-white illustrated compact book (A5, 148 x 210mm/5.8 x 8.3 inches), 95% written at the time the Kickstarter starts and tested over several years.

If we hit the £3,000 goal for the Kickstarter, we’ll add more art, more content and enhance the range of initial digital material available to support the game.

Beyond the base Goal of £3,000, stretch goals will add:

•  More Art (£4,000) – We will add two additional full-page commission pieces by the talented Evlyn Moreau to the Core Book.
•  PDF Adventures #1 through 4 (various) – Over the course of playtesting the game, many adventures have been run, taking the Dee Sanction from the heart of the Ossulstone Hundred in the shadow of the Tower to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the wilds of eastern Europe.
•  Longer Bestiary (£6,000) – The Core Book contains a two-page bestiary. At this stage, we will expand that count to four-pages in total.
•  Tudor Mini Guild (£8,000) – We will commission Evlyn to create twenty mini character portraits in the style of her Fabulous Mini Guild. All backers of virtual or physical product will receive a copy of the PDF version to print out or use online as tokens.
•  Ossulstone Map (£10,000) – First glimpsed at Dragonmeet in 2019, the part of London at the heart of many Dee Sanction investigations is that which lies in the shadow of the Tower of London. A work-in-progress, at this level all backers of virtual or physical product will receive a copy of the PDF version to print out or use online.
•  Sanction Journal (£11,000) – The Dee Sanction encourages a play style that weaves tales across different dates, places and characters. Rather than restrict character information to just a sheet, a Sanction Journal – also known as a Book of Days – provides copies of the character sheet interspersed with a mix of gridded, lined, and dotted paper. All backers of virtual or physical product will receive a copy of the PDF version to print and use.

If we hit the high end, we have more stretch goals in mind, but those will have to wait!

The Actual Play content on the page features both the adventure from the core book — Lost in Translation — and one of the stretch goal adventures — Ex Libris (in somewhat shortened form).

All being well, there are busy months ahead, with the final polish to apply on the core book, artwork to wrangle, and (hopefully) adventures to write. Head over to the Kickstarter shortly and pledge your support to the Queen and The Dee Sanction.