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The name’s Davenport. I review games.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this biz, it’s that religion can be a touchy subject. Hell, I hear some RPG chatroom owners don’t even allow folks to talk about it.
<.<
>.>
Yeah… so, anyway, when my buddy Gabe showed up the other day, I braced myself for just that kinda conversation. Seems religion’s pretty much all Gabe wants to talk about.
I knew it was Gabe before I opened the door. See, Gabe’s got this thing about using this crazy trumpet of his to let folks know he’s shown up. So instead of a knock, I hear:
*Bwa-FOOOOOOOOOMP!!!*
Louie Armstrong he ain’t.
“Harken ye well, mortal!” he says when I let him in. “The End is nigh!”
Ah, so he was here on business. “The End?” I says. “Haven’t reviewed that one yet. Sounded good, but kinda depressing…”
“No, no, no! Do you not understand my words? Armageddon is at hand!”
“Oh. Sorry, already reviewed it.”
“The Rapture approaches!”
“Haven’t reviewed it.”
“The fate of Heaven and Earth hangs in the balance!”
“Reviewed it. (And thanks, but I don’t think my reviews got that much pull…)”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” he says. (Then he looks up at the ceiling and mutters a sheepish “Sorry!”)
Then he hands over the book he actually wants me to review. The Seventh Seal: Roleplaying Game of Prophetic Revelants, it says.
“Y’know, you coulda saved yourself some time by just doin’ that in the first place...” I says.
He rolls his eyes and goes flappin’ out the window.
Me? I just shrugged, popped open a cold one, and settled down to read.
Between you an’ me, Gabe really needs to learn to relax. The guy’s always rushin’ around like there’s no tomorrow.
Substance
Introduction
Roleplaying games have approached Christianity from a number of different angles over the years. Dragonraid proselytized via a Narnia-esque fantasy setting. WitchCraft/Armageddon and The Everlasting treat the faith as essentially correct, except that it shares The Truth with a whole slew of other beliefs. The End follows Christian doctrine up to a point, then throws in a shocking nihilistic twist. Kult gives Christianity a horrifying Gnostic spin, making the faith not just mistaken, but dangerous.
This chapter makes clear The Seventh Seal’s take on the subject. Simply put, aside from a few nuances, Christianity is correct, period. The Christian God is an objective reality, as is the Divine nature of Jesus Christ. Satan, the fallen angel once known as Lucifer, is just as real, and the Book of Revelation cryptically reveals the course of his coming final confrontation with both God and Man. It’s the lead-up to that confrontation that serves as the game’s focus.
Players take on the roles of Sentinels: humans chosen by God to battle Satan’s minions on Earth and taken under the wing (so to speak) of one of the Archangels, receiving that classic combination of great power and great responsibility.
Chapter One: Sinners and Saints
For players who really enjoy developing their characters’ backgrounds, the process of turning an ordinary mortal into a Sentinel should be ideal. The five-step process involves life-disrupting prophetic visions, a First Visitation from the human’s would-be patron Archangel and/or an intensification of the visions, a Compulsion to prove his worthiness by defeating a great evil using only his mundane resources, a Second Visitation in which the Archangel reveals the true history of Creation, and, finally, the Investment of the human with the status and angelic blessings of a Sentinel.Of course, in the very likely event that your game features more than one PC, a solo mini-adventure for each hero may try your players’ patience before the game has really begun.
Chapter Two: Signs & Portents
If a reader has any doubts about how seriously the game takes the Judeo-Christian basis for the setting, this chapter should clear them right up. Presented in the form of the meticulously transcribed words of a rogue demon that appears every 100 years to continue recounting the metaphysical history and likely future of humanity, the chapter reveals the demonic machinations behind the greatest empires in history. (Before you ask: no, Hitler wasn’t possessed, but he was welcomed into Hell as a hero.) However, the chapter also describes the Divine countermeasures, such as the Flood, the birth of Christ, and the creation of the Sentinels.And it’s at that last bit where the game really starts leaving the Biblical reservation. The setting assumes that as of the present day, five of the Seven Seals mentioned in the Book of Revelation have already been opened. Satan plans on opening the sixth with the birth of the Antichrist. Theoretically, he then wants to overrun Earth and get his big rematch with God. Regardless of what Satan may believe, God cannot be defeated. Unfortunately for humanity, however, the ascension of the Antichrist can leave God with no choice but to destroy the world once and for all.
Now, I’m not clear as to how the omnipotent God could be forced to “nuke the site from orbit,” but I do see the dramatic need to add a potential outcome other than “God wins and everything’s fine.”
And that’s where the Sentinels come in. God’s decided that it’s not enough to simply defeat the Infernal Legion – He wants to teach them a real lesson by having them defeated by humanity, the creation that He loves above all else but that the Legion holds in contempt.
(Of course, one could argue that having angels empower humans doesn’t exactly prove that humans can defeat the Legion on their own, but I’ll leave that debate to the Hunter: the Reckoning flamewars.)
Chapter Three: The Chosen
While I appreciate the symmetry of this arrangement, I can’t help but feel that the designers shoehorned in unnecessary Aspects in order to maintain it. Yes, the chapter does a good job of describing each Aspect, but names like “Logic” and “Reason” don’t exactly suggest an obvious difference. (For the record, “Logic” covers intelligence and “Reason” covers social interaction.)This chapter covers PC creation in the game, from their mundane abilities and skills to their supernatural powers.
Attributes
Fittingly, The Seventh Seal groups a character’s Aspects (attributes) into a “Trinity” of Body, Mind, and Spirit, like so:
Body: Agility, Attractiveness, Might, Vigor.Mind: Logic, Reason, Senses, Willpower.
Spirit: Aura, Faith, Inspiration, Soul.
In any case, all Aspects start with a score of 1. Players determine the distribution of points to increase these scores by prioritizing Body, Mind, and Spirit as Primary (8 points), Secondary (4 points), or Tertiary (3 points). A score of 2 is average, and no score may be higher than 5, so a completely even distribution will result in a character who’s just above average in all Primary Aspects, completely average in all Secondary Aspects, and completely average in all but one Tertiary Aspect.
Skills
The Seventh Seal handles the distribution of Proficiencies (skills) in a manner reminiscent to that of Call of Cthulhu. First, the player selects a Background – the profession the Sentinel pursued before joining the Army of God. Each Background includes five Proficiencies to which the player can assign a pool of 14 points, with each Proficiency starting at a score of 0 and having a maximum score of 10. The player subsequently adds his character’s Logic and Willpower to get a number of points that may be spent on any Proficiency, regardless of Background.
I like this method for several reasons. First of all, it simply makes sense that a character would be best at skills relating to his past profession. Second, it helps speed up a character creation process that’s long enough as it is, providing players with a framework for a general character concept. And third, the formula for determining bonus Proficiency points helps balance things out for characters going the mental and/or spiritual route rather than the combat monster route.
Celestial Orders
While the Background system puts me in mind of Call of Cthulhu, The Seventh Seal shares much more in common with White Wolf’s Storyteller system in general and the World of Darkness in particular, starting with its use of “splats” (stereotyped pseudo-classes taking the form of organizations within the setting). Generally speaking, such contrivances annoy me, but here the groupings based on the Sentinels’ Archangel patrons – the Celestial Orders – make sense.
The Celestial Orders are as follows, including their patron Archangel, general function in the group, Aspect bonus, and special Angelic Blessings:
| Patron Archangel |
Group Niche | Attribute Bonus |
Blessing (all once daily) |
| Michael | Leader | +1 Senses | Supernatural danger sense |
| Gabriel | Warrior | +1 Might | Give supernatural warning of danger |
| Raphael | Healer | +1 Vigor | Grant vision of hope |
| Uriel | Wizard | +1 Inspiration | Sense Martyr (good spirit) |
| Jeremiel | Prophet | +1 Willpower | Increased Prophetic Revelations |
| Raguel | Scholar | +1 Logic | Perform miraculous research with Logic roll |
| Suriel | Assassin | +1 Soul | Anoint weapon with own blood for extra damage to Tainted beings |
Divinities
I’ll go into more detail about Divinities – the supernatural powers of the Sentinels – below. For now, just know that players get two points to spend on them, and that one of those points must be spent on Celestial Divinities – the Divinities associated with the Sentinel’s Celestial Order. As a practical matter, this means that starting Sentinels are more Ghost Whisperer than Gandalf when it comes to metaphysical might. Fittingly, the magically-inclined Urielites are the exception to this rule due to their access to Rites (see below).
Insight and Grace
The Sentinel’s magic point analog is known as “Insight,” calculated by adding Vigor, Willpower, and Soul – a nice combination of Body, Mind, and Spirit – and used to power the Sentinel’s Divinities.
Grace, a measure of the Sentinel’s closeness to God, starts at a value equal to Faith. Players have the option of converting their points for Divinities into Grace points on a one-for-one basis.
Benefits and Detriments
The character creation system includes an optional advantage/disadvantage system (called “Benefits” and “Detriments,” respectively). While many of these are both mundane and not particularly significant, others are much more powerful and unique to the setting. Sentinels may have contacts within a cult or with actual traitorous Demons, for example, and may possess a blessed sword or a sly Succubus lover.
Chapter Four: State of Grace
Here, the game details the powers and abilities that set Sentinels apart from the rest of humanity.
Grace
Grace strikes me as an odd stat, both mechanically and thematically.
In a manner reminiscent of Basic Roleplaying’s Power attribute, Grace is a fixed score that provides the starting and maximum total of Grace Points. Sentinels spend these to re-roll dice in the manner of Drama/Fate/Hero Points. However, they also may have to spend Grace Points in conjunction with Insight to power certain powerful Divinities.
I’ve got no problem with that mechanically; however, insofar as Grace represents the Sentinel’s closeness to God, I don’t really understand how using Divine powers in the struggle against Satan’s forces would “expend” Grace in any manner.
What does make sense to me is Grace’s function as a limit on the level of Divinity a Sentinel can use. In other words, no matter the level of Divinity a character possesses, he won’t be able to make use of any level of that Divinity higher than his current Grace level. So, while I’m not entirely comfortable with the concept of “spending” Grace to power Divine gifts and to get out of trouble, I love the idea that Sentinels must have attained – and maintained – a certain degree of Grace in order to use those gifts in the first place. Adding to the thematic appropriateness of the mechanic is the fact that Grace can drop as the Sentinel commits sins, requiring repentance to raise it once more.
Grace serves two more important functions as well. First, Sentinels can use Grace to attempt to pierce the mundane facades – the Guises – of demons. And second, Sentinels can pit their Grace against an adversary’s Taint – the demonic counterpart to Grace – in an instantaneous Spiritual Conflict imperceptible to those not involved but with high stakes for the participants. The defeated character loses a point of Grace/Taint, which in and of itself isn’t crippling; however, if a Sentinel’s Grace is reduced to 0, the Sentinel falls into a “spiritual coma” and may be Tainted by his opponent, while a Demon losing its last point of Taint literally goes to straight to Hell for enslavement to its superiors.
Prophetic Visions
In many RPGs, GMs may struggle to get the group together and motivated. And even once the group’s on its way, there’s always the chance of players becoming so stumped by a mystery that the game grinds to a halt. The Seventh Seal provides a perfectly reasonable in-setting fix to these issues: the prophetic vision.
Sentinels each receive a single Prophetic Revelation at the beginning of each adventure, with additional Prophetic Revelations possible during the adventure at the GM’s discretion in a number based on a roll of Faith + Inspiration vs. a DR of 4. (Due to their Angelic Blessing, Jeremielites start with two Prophetic Revelations, one of which they may call upon at any time, and roll against a DR of 3 for further Revelations.) Ideally, these are meaningful enough to move the PCs in the right general direction while vague enough to leave some degree of mystery to solve. And if the PCs get stumped, additional visions can nudge them back on track without resorting to more drastic (and potentially grating) methods, such as the All-Knowing NPC.
Divinities
Divinities track pretty closely to vampiric Disciplines in the World of Darkness: powers coming in seven levels that must be purchased sequentially. Some are “Heavenly Divinities,” which may be purchased by a Sentinel of any Celestial Order; others are “Celestial Divinities,” available only to Sentinels of specific Orders.
As previously noted, starting Sentinels get only two points to spend on Divinities, one of which must be spent on their Celestial Divinities; hence, a starting Sentinel can have either one level of a Celestial Divinity and one level of a Heavenly Divinity or two levels of a Celestial Divinity.
Heavenly Divinities:
- Afflict: Plagues, from stinging swarms of insects to permanent (and, to the wicked, contagious) blindness.
- Elements: Control over Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, from resistance to exposure to conjuring full-blown (super)natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, firestorms, and tornadoes.
- Genesis: The power of creation, from light to immaculate conception.
- Hallow: Blessings and consecrations, from difficulty-reducing prayers to the creation of a permanent holy artifact.
- Illumine: Something like Divine psionics, from empathy to mystically locating a person, place, or thing anywhere in the material world.
- Omen: Gazing into the past and future, from recognizing supernatural signs and omens to stepping back in time in order to alter the course of events.
Celestial Divinities:
- Arcana: (Uriel) Divine magic, the antithesis of Sorcery; see below.
- Augur: (Raguel) Discovering the Truth, from weeding out lies in the mass media to immediately piercing the Guise and discovering the Bane of any Demon present.
- Compel: (Michael) Mastery over the will of others, from two-word suggestions to commands even the denizens of Hell must obey.
- Crossing: (Jeremiel) Power over the spirit realm, from seeing incorporeal beings to summoning souls awaiting redemption in Purgatory in the form of fearsome winged mummies.
- Fury: (Gabriel) Boosts to martial prowess, from higher Initiative to blows powered by white-hot Divine energy.
- Heal: (Raphael) Divine healing and restoration, from the removal of bruises to (if performed quickly enough) returning the dead to life.
- Shadow’s Path: (Suriel) Power over death, from pain resistance to instantly slaying every being of any sort, natural or supernatural, within a 7-meter radius.
Arcana is a special case, analogous to Thaumaturgy in Vampire: the Masquerade. Like the other Divinities, it includes seven sequential levels. Unlike the other Divinities, these levels don’t all define the available powers themselves so much as the way these powers – Rites, a.k.a. spells – may be used. Arcanists begin play with a number of Rites equal to their Occult score plus one and can never learn a number of Rites higher than their Insight score. At the first level of Arcana, the Arcanist casts Rites in classic spell-casting fashion, with gestures and invocations. In subsequent levels, the Arcanist first gains the ability to store Rites in progressively more long-lasting and easily-accessible ways, then to create mystical Circles that can boost Rite-casting and provide progressively more impressive levels of protection. These circles may be drawn one inside the other to combine their effects, giving the Arcanist’s abilities a very nice “authentic” occult visual.
Chapter Five: Guidelines
The basic system very closely resembles the original Storyteller system, albeit using six-sided rather than ten-sided dice.
For a “Simple Roll,” add an Aspect (attribute) to a Proficiency (skill) to get a pool of d6s. Each die is compared to the Difficulty Rating (DR) set by the GM, and each die that meets or exceeds the target number counts as a success – the greater the number of successes, the greater the degree of success. Target numbers may go as high as 8, but two sixes count as 7 and three sixes count as 8. A Proficiency of 4 earns a free Specialization, meaning that a 6 counts as an 8 for rolls on which the Specialization applies.
In an “Opposed Roll,” opponents each make the equivalent of a Simple Roll, with victory going to the one with the most successes. For an “Extended Roll,” the player makes one Simple Roll per a given time increment – a minute, an hour, etc. – and tries to accumulate a pre-set number of successes, likely with a time limit in play.
Combat
Not surprisingly, combat adds some additional complications.
All participants determine initiative with a roll of Agility + Senses. Attacks pit the attacker’s roll of Agility + [relevant combat skill] against a defender’s Agility + Evasion roll (free for every attack). Extra successes add to the pool of damage dice by way of a Precision Bonus chart. The defender makes a Resistance roll (Vigor + Armor) and subtracts the successes from the attacker’s damage dice, after which the attacker’s player finally rolls the remaining damage dice. Armor adds dice to the Resistance roll, and weapons do the same for the damage roll.
Bear in mind that we’re talking about a process that repeats for every attack, and that multiple attacks per round are common.
That’s just too much dice-rolling for my taste. However, since it’s pretty darn close to the mechanic of one of the most popular RPGs in history – i.e., Vampire: the Masquerade – I don’t really think that’s much of a black mark. (Then again, the mechanics in that game ended up revised precisely to avoid that amount of dice-rolling.)
Damage comes in three forms: in order of severity, Banal (unarmed attacks and blunt weapons used non-lethally), Lethal (most weapons, environmental hazards, animal attacks, etc.), and Incorporeal (supernatural damage). Players record all three forms of damage to their characters on a seven-step track using a slash, an X, or a filled-in box, respectively, with the more severe forms of damage pushing the lesser forms further down the track and incurring the related penalties. The more severe the damage type, the longer the healing time. I like this approach, because it manages to incorporate multiple forms and severities of damage onto a single scale and allows victims to be pummeled to death while keeping unarmed damage less dangerous overall.
General Hazards
Just in case Demons and their well-placed human lackeys don’t make life tough enough for the Sentinels, the book really goes all-out in statting up ways they may die in or out of combat. Electric shocks, explosions, falls, diseases, drugs, fires, and even tsunamis have efficient and deadly mechanics behind them. Diseases, in particular, are described in loving detail. Just imagine the fun of your PCs thinking they’ve survived a demonic scrap with only some minor cuts to show for it, only to discover later that they’ve contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a.k.a. the flesh-eating bacteria.
Mental Stress and Sanity
This being billed as a roleplaying game of “Biblical horror,” it should come as no surprise that the system includes a nod to the effects of fear. However, referring to the mechanic as dealing with “sanity” seems to overstate the matter. Essentially, Sentinels may need to make a Willpower roll with a DR based upon the severity of the shock, taking a -1D to -3D penalty for the remainder of the scene or until they successfully take an entire round to overcome their fear by rolling Faith + Praying/Meditation or Willpower + Concentration. What Sentinels do not do is flee in terror and subsequently forget the incident ever happened, which is the lot of most ordinary mortals in such circumstances – a good thing, in my book, since the PCs are Divinely-powered kickers of demon ass, not fragile Call of Cthulhu-style investigators. In fact, the rules make the entire fear mechanic optional in the event that the GM finds it a hindrance to the aforementioned ass-kicking.
Weapons, Vehicles, and Equipment
Since Divinities, while useful, don’t make Sentinels into superheroes or fireball-flinging wizards, they’ll still find mundane ordinance highly useful. Rather than provide an exhaustive list of modern and archaic weaponry, the chapter wisely chooses instead to stat up broad categories of weapons, giving examples of each: small to two-handed blades, small to large bludgeons, small to massive handguns, etc. Sentinels can trick out their firearms of choice with an assortment of accessories, such as laser sights, bipods, and silencers. Perhaps more importantly given the game’s default setting of a covert war against the Legion, every weapon comes with a concealability rating, and the chapter discusses the assorted international legal issues regarding gun ownership.
Vehicles and vehicle chases get a similar basic but robust treatment, with stats for everything from an off-road motorbike to a large private jet. However, the lack of armor values for these vehicles makes vehicular combat problematic, and the lack of 3-dimensional maneuvers will disappoint anyone looking forward to a demonic dogfight. (Also, taken literally, the rules hold that a canoe has a 1-in-6 chance of bursting into flames when destroyed. But if a given GM lacks the common sense to deal with this issue, his campaign’s probably got much bigger problems than exploding canoes.)
Chapter Six: Revelations
This serves as the requisite “GM’s Guide” chapter and begins with what are, indeed, very good guidelines for GMing this or any roleplaying game. The look at the various forms of horror and how they relate to The Seventh Seal should prove equally valuable, as should the descriptions of the status quo in various parts of the globe as of the game’s timeline.
As helpful as all that may be, the chapter truly shines in its look at the fundamental truths of the setting. While the game assumes that the Bible includes some omissions and distortions – many of them deliberate – Christianity ultimately has it right: Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for the sins of humanity, and a final confrontation between God and Satan will bring about the end of time.
Understandably, this gives the game a built-in metaplot, albeit one that’s very loose in the details. The chapter offers three eras along this metaplot in which to set your games: The Time of Uncertainty, during which the supernatural remains hidden from the world at large (and which is the default era for the game); the Time of Tribulation, just prior to the breaking of the Seventh Seal, when the Legion has gained control of almost all governmental and economic bodies and when the supernatural has become harder to deny; and the Time of the Sword, when the Antichrist rises to power, Demons and miracles are everywhere, and the final battle between good and evil is underway.
But more importantly, the truth behind the setting raises some theological questions likely to make many potential players uncomfortable – a fact that the game, to its credit, freely admits. To help minimize the issue, the chapter suggests three approaches to the matter of Salvation: the Broad View, in which all world religions strive toward core truths that are the Will of God and salvation through Christ, even if they don’t know Him by name; the Middle View, in which only members of the three Abrahamaic religions – Christianity, Judiasm, and Islam – have access to Salvation through their shared belief in a Messiah; and the Narrow View, in which Salvation comes only to those who willfully place their faith in Jesus Christ, period.
In all three cases, it’s important to note that the Christian God is the objective reality, as is Satan. I give the game credit for that approach as well, since any further watering down of the game’s fundamental principles would render it a different game altogether. Those gamers who cannot abide playing in a Christian setting should no more play this game than gamers who cannot abide playing in a universe of cosmic nihilism should play Call of Cthulhu.
Chapter Seven: We are Legion!
The Seventh Seal goes the extra mile to provide PCs with worthy Infernal antagonists – first by examining their motivations, which are a bit more complicated than evil for evil’s sake, then by detailing their varied and terrifying powers.
Infernal Essence
Infernal agents replace their Faith, Inspiration, and Aura Aspects with Avarice, Malice, and Darkness. Nice synchronicity, that. True Demons also replace Soul with Entity, since they have no souls at all.
They do, however, eat souls, which brings us to the topic of Taint, the Legion’s counterpart to Grace. Agents of the Legion may spend Taint points for a variety of effects, including re-rolls, self-healing, and aiding Sorcerers. But to my mind, the creepiest use by far involves tricking victims into accepting a point of Taint in the guise of a mundane “favor” – a point which grants an automatic success when used but which immediately cost the spender a point of Grace. Worse still, this allows the Demon behind this transfer, whether directly or indirectly through a human agent, to attempt to devour a point of the victim’s Soul score, permanently. Brrrr.
Guise
The idea of Demons walking among us disguised as humans is nothing new, but The Seventh Seal brings a particularly clever implementation of the concept to the table. Demons in the setting don’t walk around in their “True Forms” while on Earth for two reasons: first, doing so makes being diabolically sneaky rather problematic, and second, the use of demonic powers while in their True Form erodes their Entity scores until they reach a score of 0 and are banished back to Hell.
So, Demons take on a human form – a “Guise” – when on the mortal plane. However, just as the use of their powers in True Form destroys their Entity score, use of their powers while concealed reduces their Guise score, slowly revealing their demonic nature. This tracks almost perfectly with the typical “disguised demon” of TV and film, with their true natures coming forward as they cut loose with their powers to destroy the heroes once and for all.
Iniquities (Demonic Powers)
In order to keep the PCs off-guard – and to give GMs flexibility in monster creation – the chapter presents a list of demonic powers falling under six categories:
- Abhorrence: Powers to terrify the Demon’s opponents, whether by baleful howls, malicious gazes, projected nightmares, or just a general air of repugnance.
- Bellicosity: Changes to the demon’s form to arm them for battle, most of which should be quite familiar – wings, barbed tails, cloven hooves, cursed weapons (like, say, pitchforks), etc.
- Dominate: Subjugation of the victim’s will through assorted means, including the dreaded power of Possession.
- Evolution: Enhancements to the Demon’s form, such as superhuman strength, invisibility, regeneration, or even the power to split into multiple weaker versions of itself when damaged.
- Malformation: The diabolical equivalent of the Divinity Elements, this power lets the Demon literally play merry Hell with the natural world.
- Numinous: Purely mystical abilities, such as opening portals to Hell, draining life energy, and utilizing the ever-popular telekinesis.
Demons have substantially different limitations on their abilities than do their Sentinel adversaries. They don’t have to purchase powers in any sort of sequence or stick to any categories, nor do they have to spend any sort of “magic points”; however, each power has a cost in stolen Soul points to purchase and a cost to the Demon’s Guise (or Entity, if the Demon is in True Form) to use. Furthermore, a Demon’s Entity score represents the maximum number of Iniquities it can possess. I’m all in favor of the flexibility spiced with a bit of crunch the system provides. However, I’m not entirely clear how Guise costs affect the Entity scores of True Form demons when the Iniquities in question are actually part of the Demon’s True Form (horns, claws, etc.).
Sorcery
In The Seventh Seal, “Sorcery” refers to any and all supernatural manipulations not powered by the Divine. The setting divides Sorcery into five Paths, each with its own governing Proficiency of the same name: Alchemy, Demonolgy, Goety (Hermetic magic), Necromancy, and Witchcraft. All Sorcerous Rites (spells) cost points of “Ko’ach,” the power inherent in all things in Creation that Sorcerers can tap for their own selfish ends. In another fine thematic touch, a Sorcerer’s Ko’ach score depends not just upon his Aspects (who he is), but also upon his Occult score (what forbidden knowledge he’s learned). Furthermore, while Sorcerers who still have Spiritual Aspects start with Ko’ach equal to (Senses + Aura + Occult), Sorcerers with Infernal aspects start with Ko’ach of (Senses + (Darkness x 2) + Occult). In other words, turning fully to the “Dark Side” provides a significant power boost to the Damned. Rite descriptions include assorted flavorful focus items that can either boost the casting roll or reduce the Ko’ach cost.
Also in keeping with the theme of Sorcery as worldly occult knowledge, Sorcerers needn’t learn Rites in any particular order. In fact, Demons are perfectly happy to give Sorcerers access to magical “big guns.” Why not? Doing so equips enemies of Heaven’s soldiers while helping damn those wielding them.
Again, I should emphasize that last point for the sake of the easily-offended. In the world of The Seventh Seal, all practitioners of magic are getting their power from Demons, whether they know and believe that to be the case or not. That includes pagans like Wiccans, and even magicians who think they’re summoning Angels. (They are, but of the Fallen variety.)
And in case you were wondering: yup, Sentinels can learn Sorcery. Given the inevitable results of starting down such a path, however, that would be a very dumb thing to do.
Hierarchy Diabolicus (a.k.a. the Bestiary)
Honestly, I didn’t expect much of a monster list from The Seventh Seal – maybe because of its rather obvious World of Darkness inspirations and what I’ve always considered the rather anemic antagonist lists in those books.
Well, I’m happy to report such is not the case. The chapter looks at the hierarchy of Hell from the top down, from the mighty Fallen themselves and the gigantic Nephilim spawned from their dalliances with mortal women on down to humans Marked by Satan – the false prophets, the cultists, the Sorcerers, and, of course, the serial killers.
Along the way, the chapter details a plethora of demonic horrors of every description – some “traditional,” such as hags and succubi, some more Lovecraftian in appearance. Other monsters not so obviously demonic also find their way into the hierarchy – zombies, vampires, homunculi, and ghosts among these. There’s even an insectoid demonic race, the Scythians, that seem to fill the role of Infernal orcs.
Each listing for non-human creatures includes the Demon’s Bane, the one means by which the Demon may be permanently destroyed (as opposed to temporarily banished back to Hell) – the sort of thing requiring Sentinels to do their homework before charging into battle. Some of these are a little disturbing – those that require sex with the demon, for example – and some seem a little silly – the riddling game required to destroy a Shedu comes to mind. Would the Legions of Hell really be vulnerable only to the commission of a sin or to the playing of a game?
Also bear in mind that all of these creatures hide behind a Guise, so a horde of shambling zombies initially will look like a horde of shambling everyday people. That may result in more unintentional comedy than a game of this sort really needs.
Style
I’d have to classify the interior black-and-white artwork in this 8-1/2” x 11” hardback as above-average for an RPG; that is to say, it doesn’t blow me away, but it’s very detailed, attractive, and consistent throughout the book. The only fault I can find is the art’s frequent failure to evoke a mood of contemporary horror. The Sentinels mostly seem to wear clothing and carry weaponry more suited to a fantasy game – chainmail hoods are much in evidence, for example – and the Demons they’re fighting seldom seem more ominous than a typical D&D beastie. Still, the creature illustrations in the bestiary do manage to be genuinely creepy despite their presentation in a rather stark, background-free manner.The writing pulls few punches. While the authors clearly don’t set out to offend, neither do they apologize for the Christian basis of the setting – or for the places in which it strays from Christian orthodoxy, for that matter.
In a more general sense, the writing drips with a grim sense of urgency and impending (but not inevitable) doom while pulling off the considerable trick of both “humanizing” and demonizing the opposition. The opening fiction gives readers an unflinching gaze into the sort of havoc becoming a Sentinel can inflict on a person’s life, not to mention the depths of depravity to which the Legion can and will sink. (Note: it involves kids, and while it isn’t explicit, it’s about as implicit as you can get.)
In fact, if there’s any flaw in the writing, it’s the lack of anything resembling a sense of humor. Given the subject matter and the tone of the game, that’s probably appropriate, but it can make the reading feel a bit oppressive at times.
The layout worked well for me, fitting in large amounts of information while staying easy on the eyes and keeping topics visually distinct. The end of the book includes a glossary, and index, and a collection of useful charts for quick access. No errors stood out to me in the text.
Conclusion
Despite its date of publication, The Seventh Seal is very much a product of mid-90s game design in mechanical terms – specifically, Storyteller System–style game design. If that’s a deal-breaker for you, you probably won’t like this game as-is.
However, if you’re looking for something in the modern urban fantasy/horror area with a clear Good-vs.-Evil theme and an unapologetically Christian setting, The Seventh Seal may be just what you need. With plenty of room for both moral and physical conflicts but a complete lack of preachy evangelism, the game has all the makings of a memorable roleplaying showdown with the forces of Satan.
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