Why release a new edition?

The Dee Sanction was released in early 2021, following successful crowd-funding in 2020 and a long development period from 2014. The game focuses on intrigue, subterfuge, and occult horror rooted in Renaissance superstition and beliefs. At heart, The Dee Sanction‘s setting hardly messes with history, making the world easily accessible to anyone interested in the period — whether from books, movies, TV series, or lessons at school.

The Dee Sanction is not a long or a detailed book, the answer to any pointed question about either the rules or the setting is always ‘work it out for yourselves’ and this is, to my mind, absolutely the foundation of any productive social contract.

— Moreau Vazh, Taskerland review

The original 68-page edition provides everything you need in a rules-light game designed for the setting. As a gamer, I appreciate a game that offers sufficient structure to provide a framework for play and a little more, meaning I can run sessions without getting bogged down. It’s “a beautifully presented book with evocative artwork, honed to terse perfection” (Dom, Delta-Pavonis), but I think there’s always room for a little more clarity.

The updated edition of The Dee Sanction — the Monad Edition — will seek to enhance the game, refine its rules, expand its content, and broaden its appeal. These updates make The Dee Sanction more comprehensive, accessible, and engaging, creating new opportunities for players to explore the dark and mysterious world of Elizabethan espionage and occult adventure and offering the Game Moderator tools and guidance to unfurl the potentials of the settings.

1. Expanded Historical and Setting Content

The Monad Edition delves deeper into the rich historical and supernatural background of Elizabethan England, providing more resources, lore and promising fresh scenarios. Additional details about John Dee’s network, the tools of arch defence, and personalities seek to enhance immersion, giving players more context with which to interact. Expanding on the supernatural and occult lore specific to the time period enriches the game’s atmosphere and historical depth.

2. Enhanced Mechanics and Accessibility

While The Dee Sanction uses a streamlined ruleset for quick play, the updated edition refines those mechanics to make gameplay smoother and more accessible. It also looks to bring the system in line with Sanction, released earlier this year. Sanction is a generic system with plug-and-play Genre Setups, and, in a way, The Dee Sanction was the first of these. After several years of play and tinkering the system has developed and changed in small ways that warrant some tweaks.

This will include clarifying specific rules, balancing character abilities, and introducing a clearer approach for handling challenges and resolving tradecraft, to handle the complexities of espionage and supernatural investigation. Additionally, the Monad edition will add new options, simplify language, and edit for clarity and optimal accessibility making it more inclusive.

3. Additional Scenarios and Campaigns

The Monad edition will include new missions, storylines, and campaign ideas, offering more replayability and storytelling options. While the original game provides a great starting point, an expanded selection of pre-made scenarios and a plethora of story hooks should help Game Moderators (GMs) run sessions with minimise prep time. The game will also offer GMs and players a wider variety of threats, non-player personalities, and moral challenges, further enhancing the game’s historical and supernatural intrigue.

More information on the 2025 Kickstarter campaign to follow. Subscribe to the blog and follow me on BlueSky and Discord.