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In Short

Fans of World of Darkness and other modern horror games may find a lot to love here. The system is simple, reminiscent of the popular Storyteller system White Wolf used in the 1990s, but with d6s. Essentially, it’s a d6 dicepool based system where the GM sets a difficult number and any die that comes up that number or higher is treated as a success. Unfortunately, while the system is simple enough it may be a little boring for some folk.

Note: This is the Revised version of Seventh Seal, which includes the original game as well as material from the Sentinel’s Bible, a book with additional player-oriented material.

The Physical Thing

The problem here is the price, for $40 other companies offer full color products twice the size of The Seventh Seal. While the index and reprinted tables are a nice addition, they also take up quite a bit of space at the end. If you’re not concerned about the price/value of RPGs you purchase, consider the Style rating 1 point higher.

The Ideas

Over time the demons swelled and began their work on Earth once more. In incorporeal form they tempted and deceived, promised and gave in an attempt to remake the world of sin they had enjoyed once before. This time, however, God knew what must be done. He sent his Son to die for the sins of all people, thereby making it easier than ever for mortals to gain entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Through the prophecies, churches, saints, and miracles that followed, God continued to show humanity His glory. The demons fought on, splintering faith and forcing humans to bicker and argue when there was no need. They forged weapons of great power and encouraged debased and sinful lifestyles. Their task had grown much more difficult, but they were tenacious.

Tonight, Sentinels have been chosen by God – or at least by one of His greatest Angels – to fight against the demons and their servants that continue to plague humanity. Satan has begun work on his master plan, to unleash the Antichrist on the world, and if such a powerful servant of evil isn’t here yet he will be soon. Earth may only have decades of life left before the Seventh Seal is breached and the gateways to Hell open across Earth. The only thing standing between the minions of Hell and the good people of Earth are the Sentinels.

Under the Cover

Chapter One Sinners and Saints 16 pages.

This chapter kicks off with a discussion of the Anointing, which is the process through which a Sentinel gains their abilities and new purpose in life. This is a five stage process, and a fantastic opportunity for a Game Moderator (called the Prophet) to run a prelude adventure if they’re so inclined. The first stage is the Visions phase, where strange and prophetic visions are sent to the character. These visions often interfere with the characters life, and hopefully foreshadow some sort of major problem. The second stage is the First Visitation, where the character is brought into the presence of an Angel and/or his visions intensify. Compulsion is the third stage. At this point the Sentinel-to-be receives a vision of a great evil, and feels a strong urge to confront it. With nothing but guile and natural ability, the character must confront and defeat this evil.

Should she be successful, the fourth stage, the Second Visitation, involves a direct visitation by an Archangel who patiently explains everything to the character – from the moment of Creation up to the present. The fifth and final stage, the Investment, involves the Sentinel accepting her charge as a warrior of God and gaining divine Blessings from her Archangel.

This chapter also lays out some of the game basics. The characters, Sentinels, are invested with holy power by Archangels. Sometimes they gain insight from Martyrs, the restless spirits of those murdered for believing in Jesus Christ and who chose to remain on Earth and help in the fight against Satan. Against them are the Fallen Angels led by Satan, the Nephilim (children of Fallen Angels and humans), and lesser demons.

Chapter Two Signs & Portents 16 pages.

This is the complete setting history, similar to what I described above in The Ideas. Since The Seventh Seal follows our own history in all the obvious ways, this chapter focuses on the Biblical history of the world. From the first stirrings of rebellion among the Fallen Angels to the present day and beyond, this is one of the best parts of the whole product. The setting is flavorful and exciting – in a mysterious Biblical horror sort of way. Major prophecies, called the Seven Seals, are in many ways the focus of a game.

The game defaults to around the time of the breaking of the Fifth Seal, basically our world today. The Sixth Seal is broken when the Antichrist ascends to power, and the shadow war between God and Satan begins moving into the open. By the time the Seventh Seal has broken the war is completely in the open, with demons having gained direct access to Earth and a full on apocalypse raging across the planet. Depending on a Prophet’s preferences, that’s a lot of great storytelling options. From subtle investigations of prophecy to rag tag survivors fighting in the last days of existence, the setting is well written for variety and for escalation of events.

Chapter Three The Chosen 28 pages.

This is the character creation chapter, and the book does a great job by starting off with images of the character sheet and explanations of every entry. The primary stats are 12 Aspects grouped into the Trinity. Many rolls in the game involve Aspect + Aspect, though some involve Aspect + Proficiency (see more on the rules below).

Body: Agility, Attractiveness, Might, Vigor.

Mind: Logic, Reason, Senses, Willpower.

Spirit: Aura, Faith, Inspiration, Soul.

Players start out by prioritizing Body, Mind, and Spirit. All Aspects start at a base value of 1, and can be raised no higher than 5. 8 points are distributed to the Primary Trinity, 4 to the Secondary Trinity, and 3 to the Tertiary Trinity.

Example: I’m creating John Smith, a former confidence man who found God after his Anointing and now uses his social grace to breach dens of sin forbidden to many other characters. I decide to prioritize Mind/Body/Spirit. For Mind I devote 3 each to Reason (the Mind social Aspect) and Senses. Logic and Willpower each get one point. 1 dot is Weak, 2 is Average, and 5 is Gifted in this game so I’m shooting for a balanced character. All four Body Aspects get 1 point each. Aura (charisma/empathy) gets 2 points while Inspiration (creativity) gets the last.

The problem with Aspects here, as you may surmise from their names, is that it’s hard to differentiate some of them. 12 Aspects is too many for my taste, and no Aspect has even a full sentence of description. Since most rolls are just a matter of whatever the Prophet thinks is most appropriate, lobbying for specific rolls or confusion over what a given Aspect really means could be a problem.

Next, a player chooses from one of about five pages of Backgrounds. A Background has five Proficiencies associated with it, and a player has 14 points to spend among those Proficiencies (which can range from 1 to 10 in value). Unlike Aspects, Proficiencies do not start out with 1 dot and must be purchased from zero. The book presents a broad range of Backgrounds, and it seems likely that any character could be easily built with them.

Example: Con Artist is a perfect Background choice for John Smith. As with other Backgrounds, it starts John out with some basic gear – in this case, fake IDs, a minor criminal contact, and fake credit information. I can choose to spend my 14 points among Conspiracy, Fast-Talk, Human Perception, Negotiation, and Persuasion. I want John to have a lot of options, so I place 3 points in every Proficiency except Conspiracy – John tends to work alone. Proficiencies that start at 4 or higher get a free Specialization, a powerful boost in this game, but John wont have any starting out.

The Bonus Proficiencies step occurs next. The player has Logic + Willpower points that may be spent on any Proficiency.

Example: John has a 2 Logic and a 2 Willpower, for a total of 4 bonus Proficiency points. Business, Seduction, Street Smarts, and Vehicles (Automobiles) are all added at 1 dot each.

The next step is to choose a Celestial Order for the character. Each of the seven Orders grants a special power, an Order specific Prophetic Revelation (line of special abilities), and a bonus Aspect. The seven Celestial Orders are:

The Celestial Order of Michael - is the Order of courageous and valorous leaders. They gain +1 Senses and can supernaturally sense danger one per day.

The Celestial Order of Gabriel - is the Order of calculating warriors who are patient but committed to the application of violence against Heaven’s foes. They gain +1 Might and may give someone else a supernatural warning of danger once per day.

The Celestial Order of Raphael - is focused on healing and caring for others. They gain +1 Vigor and can grant a vision of hope and future potential to a person once per day. As with some other Blessings, this one doesn’t use mechanics and the effect is left entirely up to the Prophet.

The Celestial Order of Uriel - is focused on Theurgy and strange knowledge, effectively taking on the role of spellcasters. They gain +1 Inspiration and may try to sense the presence of a Martyr (good spirit) once per day.

The Celestial Order of Jeremiel - is the Order of hope filled wanderers. They gain +1 Willpower and tend to start Prophecies (story arcs) with more Prophetic Revelations (visions).

The Celestial Order of Raguel - is the Order of crusading scholars who use their keen minds in the war against Satan. They gain +1 Logic and can conduct research once per day. The Blessing is poorly written, it suggests they can draw information from out of thin air but it takes hours of research and a Logic roll. It seems odd to not use a Proficiency with this blessing.

The Celestial Order of Suriel - are a strange sort of death dealing reapers – grim and remorseless assassins. They gain +1 Soul and may (once per day) anoint their weapon with their own blood, giving it a powerful damage bonus against people with Taint (evil humans mostly) until they take a life.

Example: I choose the Order of Jeremiel for John, as a wanderer who gets even more visions seems particularly cool for this character. John gets +1 Willpower, and he gains access to a special Prophetic Revelation called Crossing.

Now I can buy Divinities for John. Divinities are special powers, purchased sequentially, that come in groups of seven. Divinities are split up among Heavenly Divinities and Celestial Divinities. A Sentinel may learn any Heavenly Divinity, but may only learn the Celestial Divinity that belongs to their Order.

Example: I choose to put two points in the “Illumine: The Eyes of God” Heavenly Divinity. It lets John Empathize better with others, and to enhance his senses. When he can later buy the third Echelon (rank) he’ll be able to speak any language as well. Definitely cool abilities for a man out to con the Devil’s servants.

Next, a player calculates Insight, the ability to channel divine energy which is central to channeling the Divinities. Insight equals Vigor + Willpower + Soul. One last derived value must also be calculated. Grace is a measure of a character’s closeness to God. It starts out equal to the character’s Faith, but can change during play.

Finally, there’s an optional Benefits and Detriments system tacked on. A character may get points from Detriments to spend on Benefits, but the points can’t be spent on anything else. There are about nine pages of them listed, though some seem a little on the useless side. A character can have no more than 6 points of Benefits.

Example: I decide that John couldn’t quite be the good guy, at least not the first time, and he played his Angel for a sap in order to pursue a personal vendetta. I buy Traitor, a 4 point Detriment that makes it tough to gain the trust of other Sentinels. With those five points I buy Jaded, which gives the character +1 die against fear, and Cool, which gives the character +1 die on Initiative.

Here’s the final character: John Smith, Sentinel of the Order of Jeremiel. Benefits: Cool, Jaded. Detriments: Traitor. Agility 2, Attractiveness 2, Might 2, Vigor 2. Logic 2, Reason 4, Senses 4, Willpower 2 Aura 3, Faith 1, Inspiration 2, Soul 1 Proficiencies: Conspiracy 2, Fast-Talk 3, Human Perception 3, Negotiation 3, Persuasion 3, Business 1, Seduction 1, Street Smarts 1, and Vehicles 1. Divinities: Illumine: The Eyes of God Heavenly 2 Insight: 5, Grace: 1.

Chapter Four State of Grace 44 pages.

This chapter details the powers and divine abilities of Sentinels. It starts off with a discussion of Grace. Grace is a permanent stat that also has a fluctuating pool of Grace Points. Grace Points are spent to activate Divinities and re-roll die rolls. Additionally, Grace determines how powerful of a Divinity a character may use. My example character, John, only has a Grace of 1 and wont be able to use his second level of Illumine until he obtains a Grace of 2. You could call Grace the “power stat” of this game. Fans of the Storyteller system will understand it as a mix of a power stat and Willpower. Grace may also be used to penetrate Guise – the illusion that cloaks demons and their servants from detection. Grace can be gained or lost through repentance and sin.

Grace is also used in Spiritual Conflict, a special type of mental battle a Sentinel and Tainted or Demon can enter into. The Sentinel and Demon take turns rolling their Grace or Taint, having successes temporarily subtract from their opponents stat. First one to zero loses. The odd thing is that even though the stat is sort of being drained or damaged, the full dice pool is still rolled for each roll. I think the Spirit Conflict is an example of the needlessly complex mechanics this product uses at times. The extra steps add nothing but extra die rolls.

Prophetic visions are a major part of the game, offering Sentinels guidance during an adventure. Characters get different numbers of visions based on their Faith, Inspiration, and other factors. While I don’t like the randomness of the visions, I do like the idea of using Prophetic Revelation to guide the adventure and provide players with clues when they get stumped during a mystery.

The next thirty two pages of the product detail Divinities, the special powers granted to Sentinels by their patron Angel. Each set of powers comes in a seven power sequence, and the player must purchase them in order. The powers perform a variety of effects, from elemental control to revelations to healing and even combat boosts. However, the powers also tend to have an extreme disparity in usefulness at times. Many of the powers are just far more useful than others, and several Divinities accomplish almost the same function. My favorite Divinity, at its highest level, allows a character to summon spirits from Purgatory who will fight against the minions of Satan in order to be granted entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Neat stuff.

Chapter Five Guidelines 26 pages.

This is the rules section of the book, and the core rules are easy to grasp. For those familiar with Storyteller, this system is extremely similar except is uses d6s instead of d10s. Here’s how it works:

All dice in the game are d6. Typically, a character will be attempting to do something and will add two values together (just one if the other value is lacking, such as a nonexistent skill) and roll that many dice again a Difficulty Rating chosen by the Prophet. The number of successes gained determines the Degree of Success – from Minimal to Unearthly.

Example: John Smith wants to find a good place to hide out in the slums. The Prophet calls for a Logic + Street Smarts check. John has a total of 3, so the player rolls 3d6. The Prophet decides the DR for this task is 4 – average. The dice come up 2, 4, 5 – 2 successes. According to the Degree of Success chart that’s a Fair success – John manages to find a place to hide out for now, but it wont serve him for long.

That’s an example of a Simple Roll. An Opposed Roll involves two characters each rolling against a DR, with the character with the greatest number of results succeeding by the margin. An Extended Roll involves a character rolling once per time increment (once per hour for research, perhaps) until the character gains a certain number of successes. That’s it, simple huh? There’s just one thing that makes it a bit more complicated. Difficulty Ratings can go up to 8. Two 6s count as a 7, three 6s count as an 8.

The chapter goes on to include a full list of Proficiencies. A Proficiency at 4 or higher has a free Specialization. Specializations treat 6s as 8s, effectively, and make it easier for the character to succeed at high difficulty tasks. There are over 40 Proficiencies, some of which seem redundant. It’s a little too specific for my tastes, especially given the extremely small number of character build points, but fans of really focused characters will likely enjoy it.

Combat is a little more involved. Combat is cyclical – initiative is rolled, everyone acts in that order, then the whole process repeats. To resolve an attack the attack is rolled (Agility + relevant Proficiency), the target gets a free defense (Agility + Evasion), spill over successes add a Precision Bonus to damage (consult a chart), a Resistance roll (Vigor + Armor) is then made and any success are subtracted from the total number of damage dice, THEN the damage dice are rolled. This process is repeated for every attack, with many characters taking multiple attacks.

Attack > Defense > Precision > Resistance > Roll Damage.

Damage comes in three varieties – Banal, Lethal, and Incorporeal. As damage is suffered, the least nasty of the three is pushed down the health level boxes. All told, a character has seven boxes and as they fill up the character begins to suffer dice pool penalties to all tasks. Once an eighth level of damage is suffered, the character dies. Weapons add to the damage roll, Armor adds to the Resistance roll.

A variety of rules covering poison, disease, explosions, exposure to electricity, vehicles (Agility + Vehicles + Handling vs a DR), and even a simple equipment list are all provided as well.

Chapter Six Revelations 22 pages.

This chapter begins with some fairly standard GM advice, such as how to help players visualize an NPC and how to run a session. It then moves into Religion and Truth, which talks about the religious game assumptions and how to tweak those assumptions to make your group comfortable with the religious views of the game and/or to alter the religious aspects of the game to make it reflect a certain type of Christianity.

The chapter then goes on to discuss the elements of a horror game, sinister events occurring the world over, and the nomadic lives Sentinels must live. Prophecy plot hooks, eras of play, and inspirational resources round out this chapter.

Chapter Seven We Are Legion! 36 pages.

The chapter begins by providing rules for a human or Sentinel to be tainted by the Infernal. Supernatural temptation is always a risk for a Sentinel, and it’s possible that those who waiver will find themselves serving sinister masters. Rules for demonic soul consumption are also provided, another supernatural thread many Sentinels must face.

Several pages of demon abilities, such as forked tongues and claws, are introduced next. They correspond to the abilities of example demons at the end of this chapter, and are also present for Prophets who wish to tweak existing demons or build their own. Sorcery, downright evil black magic that no good person could practice for long, is also presented. The downside to Sorcery is that few spells are provided, and those spells tend to be very focused in their application.

The chapter wraps up with a discussion of the Hierarchy of Hell, different types of demons, and a moderate variety of pre-stated demons. Many demons are extremely difficult for a mortal – even a whole group of Sentinels – to slay. However, all demons have a Bane – one special thing that can banish them back to Hell or otherwise harm them. Many The Seventh Seal sessions may be focused around investigating a demon’s Bane and questing for the one person or object that can defeat such a powerful foe.

My Take

The game system is easy to learn and use, amounting to a small to large handful of d6s tossed against a target number. Straight forward, linear lists of powers, a simple advantage/disadvantage list, and niche protecting Orders for characters to join all exhibit tried and true game design ideas that have a proven history of success.

On the downside, the game system may be too dated for some folk. It feels too derivative of the old Storyteller system for me, and I don’t care for making four die rolls to resolve a single attack. Many of the special powers are bland, the advantage/disadvantage system isn’t as closely tied to the system as it perhaps should be, very few sorcery spells are presented, and many of the rules involving demons are unnecessarily cumbersome.

Nevertheless, The Seventh Seal presents an excellent Biblical horror setting for folk who want to play downright good (but flawed) characters struggling against the overpowering presence of evil in the world and giving it their all to set things right.

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