The Dee Sanction Monad Edition: Elizabethan supernatural RPG

The Dee Sanction - Monad Edition

"Neither the circle without the line, nor the line without the point, can be artificially produced. It is, therefore, by virtue of the point and the Monad that all things commence to emerge in principle."

— John Dee, Theorem II

Check out the Updates for information on Late Pledges and Adding Extras.

Prepare to uncover secrets, confront the supernatural, and seek redemption. The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition awaits.

You face the threat of the supernatural as a traitor seeking redemption in the service of the Queen by working for Francis Walsingham, her spymaster, and Doctor John Dee, her confident alchemist, astrologer and court magician.

Somewhere between conscription and penance, you risk your life in the hope of making amends and buying back your freedom — a desperate alternative to languishing in gaol before facing the hangman's noose.

Help fund the writing, editing, illustration and printing of a new 180-page hardcover edition of The Dee Sanction, including six brand-new adventures, streamlined content, and captivating new art.

The Game

The Dee Sanction is a tabletop roleplaying game where you serve Queen and country in the second half of the 1500s. At this time, kingdoms and nation-states vie for power, the Church splinters under the pressure of reform, and creatures of folklore emerge through the Unravelled veil, seeking revenge upon those who imprisoned them.

The system focuses on simple mechanics. A player rolls against one of three Resources — measured by a dice value for Physical, Intellectual and Supernatural. An Agent always makes progress, but a result of 1 or 2 throws up complexity and potential harm. With a roll of 3 or higher, you overcome the challenge.

And challenge is the key. Even a lousy roll won't stop progress; it just means things might get more complicated. In failure, the story always moves forward, even if it might tilt toward potential disaster! Every character has their moment, and each new obstacle diverges the plot, for good or ill.

At heart, the game boils down to:

• Strange happenings attract the attention of Dee or the Agents;
• Happenings pose a threat to city, Crown or country;
• Agents investigate, uncovering as much information as they can about the danger;
• With the threat revealed, the Agents must find a means to weaken, ward, expel, imprison or destroy it while not putting their lives in peril;
• Report the outcome to Dee, hoping that you haven’t overlooked anything that could come back to haunt you!

The Goal

The core goal of the campaign is to fund the writing and editing of The Dee Sanction in a digitally printed hardcover, section-sewn book, cased in ruby buckram, with head and tail bands and ribbon markers. The book will be at least 180 pages and include:

• Updates to enhance the game system's simplicity and accessibility—from the 2021 release version—and improve accessibility in electronic form.
• Update and expand artwork by Evlyn Moreau, with additional art by Melissa Spandri (Reddraws), Symon Leech (Brambledown Designs), and James E. Shields (Jeshields).
• Six new adventures delving into the mystical and untamed heart of Elizabethan England and beyond.
• New material on the personalities, factions, and tools of arch defence arrayed about the Dee Sanction—such as the Office of Revels, the School of Night, and Walsingham's spy network—plus secrets of folkloric entities like the Wild Hunt, the Green Man, the Hollow Men and other Fae threats.
• Expanded material on resources, personnel, specialised branches and lore of The Dee Sanction, including updated Tradecraft guidance and examples.

The Changes

The Monad Edition will provide a barrel load of brand-new adventures, plentiful hooks and tables for generating encounters or whole missions, and a greater depth of detail to the world setting. The existing softcover edition of The Dee Sanction will remain a functional and usable reference. It will be the only place to find the adventure Lost in Translation, which takes place during John Dee's travels around Europe in the 1580s.

The game's rules will remain fully compatible with all previous releases and material — the Sanction ruleset at the heart of the game isn’t changing — but the book's overall presentation, explanation, and execution will receive a measure of clarity and detail not present in the current edition.

Alongside the adventures, new material will include expanded information on the personalities, factions, artefacts, places, rivalries, and power struggles key to the setting. The Dee Sanction builds upon historical figures and events, so you can continue to find inspiration and information in books, museums, TV, cinema, and real-world locations. The Monad Edition will delve deeper into the elements you won't find on record, the in-world twists and changes that make the setting shine.

The Adventures

The Monad Edition will include six brand-new adventures. The Dee Sanction uses a compact format for missions. It presents a hook, deep background, key locations, and focal elements that make it possible to run something quickly or develop a plot with longer potential and possibilities for a campaign. Adventures usually run to about 3,000 words, with a scattering of maps, handouts and stat blocks for key opponents as appropriate.

The Dee Sanction: Adventures presented six adventures in this format. The Monad Edition will give you six more, each focusing on Fae antagonists or the supernatural. The campaign's stretch goals introduce guest writers to help take the load off of me as the sole writer of the book — a welcome relief that will allow me to focus on a single adventure and Dee Sanction's core rules and background.

The guest writers are:

☿ Stephen Dosman is an aerospace engineer with an RPG-Content-Creation problem. He produced The Dee Sanction mini-campaign, The Witches of Wenlock Liberty, and numerous other scenarios and campaigns for various systems. He resides in Cambridge, UK, with his RPG-sceptic wife and a solitary struggling houseplant.

☿ Richard August has a history with The Dee Sanction as the writer of The Harrowing of Harlow Hall. He is an ENnie award-winning game designer and writer from Manchester, England, with many strings to his bow. Richard currently lives in Ireland, where he spends much of his spare time growling at badgers.

☿ Steve Dempsey is a freelance writer who wrote Fearful Symmetries for Trail of Cthulhu and contributed to A Folklore Bestiary from The Merry Mushmen, Magpie Games' Urban Shadows and Cthulhu Britannica: London. He lives with ENnie award-winning wife Paula and is in fear of tottering piles of books.

☿ Jason Durall is a full-time ENnie award-winning writer and game designer living in Berlin, Germany. His writing credits include Basic Roleplaying, RuneQuest, and Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of.

☿ Shanna Germain is a writer, game designer, and mocha aficionado. She is the author of various award-winning games and books, including Predation, No Thank You, Evil!, As Kinky as You Wanna Be, The Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game, We are All Mad Here, and The Poison Eater.

Actual Play

A quick search online will reveal an array of Actual Play videos and podcasts in various languages, telling varied tales of the agents of Dee.

My first Actual Play of Lost in Translation, from the original Core Rules book — with guest writer Steve Dempsey, top left.

The Apocalypse Players participate in the first of a 2-part Halloween special.

This is the first chapter in a string of adventures run by Alun Rees on The Gauntlet.

As part of the podcast Orlanth Rex's Gaming Vexes, you can listen to an interview with me about the genesis of The Dee Sanction and an actual play (starting at 32m 46s) of Ex Libris.

The Pledges

The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition campaign has four general pledge levels, plus an option for bonafide retailers with stores.

You get the printed hardcover book and the PDF of The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition at every level.

☿ Only the Book: We offer this separately for simplicity. When the book is ready, you'll confirm your address and pay postage, and we'll send it to you. That's it—done.

No add-ons. Choose one of the other pledge levels if you want anything more than the book. This will be the Late Pledge level after the campaign is completed.

♟ The Book and More: You get the book and the PDF, plus you can select add-ons and extras as part of the campaign—see the Add-ons section.

♞ The Agent: You get a (optionally) signed copy of The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition. In addition to a menu of Add-ons to choose from, you will receive -

• a folding neoprene dice tray featuring Dee's Angels by Evlyn Moreau
• a string-tied All Rolled Up game roll featuring the brand new depiction of Dee's Court Experiment, rendered by Melissa Spandri
• a Sigillum Dei coin, used to Take A Chance in the game and a representation of your most trusted tool as an Agent—the Black Amulet

♛ The Handler: You get a (optionally) signed copy of The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition. In addition to a menu of Add-ons to choose from, you will receive -

• a folding neoprene dice tray featuring Dee's Angels by Evlyn Moreau
• a limited edition buckle-secured All Rolled Up game roll featuring the brand new depiction of Dee's Court Experiment, rendered by Melissa Spandri. This version of the game roll will only be available as part of this campaign.
• a Sigillum Dei coin, used to Take A Chance in the game and a representation of your most trusted tool as an Agent—the Black Amulet
• a Monad-decorated neoprene coaster upon which you can settle the Coin or use it for setting down your beverage of choice
• a Monad-decorated bucket dice bag
• a set of matte red dice with black numerals to bless your dice bag with fair fortune (fair fortune is not guaranteed; your luck may wax and wane)

Shipping for all pledge levels is paid after the project closes—add nothing extra now. 

Extras in The Agent and The Handler pledge levels are offered at a reduced rate compared to selecting the same items from The Add-ons.

The Retailer: If you have a physical store (which we will seek proof of), you can support the project at The Retailer level. This level includes five hardcover copies of The Dee Sanction: Monad Edition and allows you to expand your purchase as part of the fulfilment process. The release date for retailer backers will be earlier than the general retail release through distribution.

PDF-only Level: While the campaign goal is to create a physical book, we acknowledge that there are many reasons why you might want a digital-only reward. To learn more about The Dee Sanction without committing to a pledge, you can buy and download the PDF from DriveThruRPG at 50% regular price for the campaign duration. You can learn more about the game at thedeesanction.com or by joining the Just Crunch Games Discord—see The Community below. If, after that, you're committed to supporting the new project digitally, Only the PDF level is there for you.

Stretch Goals

Our fully funded project goal will pay for the writing, editing, layout, illustrating, and printing of a 180-page hardcover Monad Edition of The Dee Sanction, featuring six adventures, expanded detail, and new art.

Our stretch goals primarily seek to balance the author's workload by assigning creative responsibility to a guest writer for each adventure.

If we achieve the goal of covering adventures with the creative hands of our guest writers, our attention will turn to expanding the world of The Dee Sanction with new maps and digital adventures.

• £10,000 - FUNDED! - a full-funded 180-page hard cover print book 
• £13,000 - FUNDED! - guest writer, Stephen Dosman 
• £16,000 - FUNDED! - guest writer, Richard August 
• £19,000 - FUNDED! - guest writer, Steve Dempsey 
• £22,000 - guest writer, Jason Durall 
• £25,000 - guest writer, Shanna Germain 
• £30,000 - fund map of west London, a sequel to The Ossulstone Hundred
• £33,000 - new digital adventure 
• £36,000 - new digital adventure
• £41,000 - fund map of Manchester
• £50,000 - extend the book to 200 pages

The Add-ons

When you select a pledge level with physical rewards, you will be presented with the add-ons* from which you can choose.

You can add copies of softbacks and merchandise from The Dee Sanction range. All existing published material remains compatible with the Monad Edition.

You can add copies of Sanction and softcover Genre Setups compatible with The Dee Sanction system to your pledge.

In addition, you can add core books from Paul Baldowski's Cthulhu Hack range. Please note that this game is not compatible with the Sanction game system.

All add-ons will ship along with the rest of your physical rewards. You will incur additional shipping for additional items, charged at the actual rates for your location, paid in the pledge manager at All Rolled Up at the time of fulfilment.

* All add-ons are available at a discounted rate from the regular recommended retail price (RRP). Items will also be available as additions in the pledge manager after the campaign ends and fulfilment begins but at normal RRP rather than the add-on price.

The Fulfilment

We will calculate the shipping costs after the Kickstarter campaign ends, considering the actual expenses for shipping your specific pledge and any add-ons you choose. 

All Rolled Up will manage, process and handle all fulfilment activities.

General Shipping: Once the campaign ends, you will be asked to pay for shipping through All Rolled Up's Pledge Manager on the All Rolled Up website. This method allows us to be fair to all our backers, as shipping costs inevitably vary for each pledge. Kickstarter does not have a pledge management system, so we developed our own and successfully fulfilled seven campaigns with it.

Pledge Management: The All Rolled Up pledge manager will fulfil all physical or electronic products. As a backer, you can choose your add-ons and update your address details before shipping through the account dashboard on the All Rolled Up website.

EU Shipping: We're offering Postal Delivered Duties Paid (PDDP) as part of our International service. This service takes care of customs duties for parcels sent to certain EU member states, which are up to £135 in value. This means Kickstarter customers will not be charged duty or charges for orders up to that value. You don't have to take any further action. If you live in an applicable EU country, the PDDP will be handled as part of fulfilment.

PDDP covers Germany, France, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Malta, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg (up to 150 euros), and Norway. By the time we complete the campaign fulfilment, Sweden may be added to this list.

The Team

All Rolled Up publishes The Dee Sanction and will do so again for the Monad Edition.

☿ Paul Baldowski is a freelance game designer and a reluctant business analyst based in Manchester. He has worked on Symbaroum, Paranoia, Rivers of London, Liminal, Trophy, Night's Black Agents, and Maelstrom. Independently, he has been publishing since 2016, with the award-winning and ENnie-nominated Cthulhu Hack. He's an enthusiastic collector of books and cats.

☿ Evlyn Moreau is an illustrator and game designer living in Montreal. She loves to feed sparrows and draw all kinds of strange critters. She illustrated many roleplaying games, like Marchebranche, Longshot City and Skyrealm. She also publishes zines of her own, like Where the Wheat Grows Tall, Goblin Mail and Doodle Land.

☿ Melissa Spandri is a freelance illustrator, concept artist and comics artist based in Italy. She has worked for Ravensburger, Nord Games, Cmon, Fria Ligan, Fantasy Flight Games and Kobold Press. She makes no excuses for her love of tea, chocolate, cooking and martial arts.

☿ Symon Leech is a freelance illustrator and printmaker and one-half of Brambledown Designs. He works in linocut, vinyl and watercolour. He has worked with Topps trading cards, independent table-top role-playing game writers and, most recently, on the Cthulhu by Gaslight: Investigators' Guide for Chaosium.

☿ James E. Shields is a freelance artist. His commissioned work extends across the roleplaying game community, including EN World, Mudpuppy Games, Necrotic Gnome, Steve Jackson Games, StoryWeaver Games, and many others.

☿ Tim Gray is a writer, RPG creator and freelance editor based in Nottingham. He's the author of Jaws of the Six Serpents and Albion. He has performed editing duties for WFRP 4e, Liminal, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and Out of the Ashes.

☿ Fil Baldowski is the Australian-born ENnie award-winning founder of All Rolled Up. Her multi-award-winning products grace the tabletops of gamers worldwide. Notably, the All Rolled Up—a game roll crafted by her hands since they launched in 2013—and folding neoprene dice trays have become a staple of gaming folk everywhere. All Rolled Up has a physical store in Stockport, near Manchester.

When we achieve our initial stretch goals, the team will expand to include many exciting and talented writers to pen new adventures, including Steve Dosman, Richard August, Steve Dempsey, Jason Durall, and Shanna Germain.

There's an active Dee Sanction community — and other Just Crunch games — on Discord.

In addition, you will find regular updates and posts on BlueSky and Mastodon.

► Just Crunch Games Discord – https://discord.gg/ykeWeXJKPG

► Paul Baldowski on BlueSky – https://bsky.app/profile/paulbaldowski.bsky.social

► Paul Baldowski on Mastodon – https://dice.camp/@PaulBaldowski