Sanction is a tabletop roleplaying game focused on somewhat extraordinary folk facing off against threats and meeting challenges in pursuit of a goal—seeking the defeat of a raging spirit, uncovering a government conspiracy, or finding the cause of a catastrophic jumpdrive failure stranding a ship in enemy space.
Adapting the game to a setting requires a little work by the Game Moderator— configuring a set of skill-focused tables to generate characters; defining any unique mechanics, like angelic favours, expendable gadgets, or uncanny good luck; and customising unpredictable but determined foes to stand between success and failure.
For all of this, Sanction offers a toolbox of advice and a range of off-the-shelf settings and adventures to use immediately.
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Writer of matters gaming and Tudor, father, reader of many books, collector of worthless knick-knacks. Not old enough to really grumble, but getting there.
This is a very interesting RPG toolkit. Coming in at just 60 digest size pages (and that includes a dozen pages dedicated to a sample game), it's one of the most concise games I've come across in a while.
The core mechanic is pretty simple, roll a die, succeed on 3+. Falter on a 1 or 2. Consequences for a Falter are stated up front, so the player knows the risks before rolling. What die you roll with depends on your character's abilities, and the situation.
As a toolkit, it's not necessarily a low prep system. The GM will need to create a number of tables before being able to run a game, and will need to continue to stat out adversaries when preparing adventures. Once prepared though, they look like they will help keep things running smoothly in play.
I am interested in getting this to the table, probably in the form of the Dee Sanction, the original game the Sanction system comes from, although I might try running the Agency sample game included in the book.