Review of The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal book is 200 pages long, has a soft cover and is printed in black and white. The art is of varying quality, but most of it is fitting and gives the book a Timothy Bradstreet Vampire: the Masquerade days feel. The book starts with an easily accessible introduction to what the game is about. It is neither boring nor pretentious. This leads into the obligatory glossary of game jargon much like a White Wolf game. Fiction rolls through the book to better illustrate some of the metaphysical concepts in action rather than to prop up a mood. It is very helpful in trying to figure out how the esoteric powers should be presented in the game. The game has the requisite hip counterculture feel to it in the way a Vertigo or MAXX comic might. There are lots of useful examples after many of the mechanics. The game even gives completed characters that could be used as pregenerated character for quick start play.

System

First off if you do not like die pool games (like Storyteller or Shadowrun) then you probably won't find The Seventh Seal's system to your liking either. You will spend a lot of time in Seventh Seal throwing a handful of d6s and counting your successes. The Seventh Seal divides innate character abilities into three categories of Aspects. The three categories (called the Trinity) are Body, Mind and Spirit. Each Category as 4 Aspects for a totally of 12 Aspects. (The complete list of Aspects are: Agility, Attractiveness, Might, Vigor; Logic, Reason, Senses, Willpower; Aura, Faith, Inspiration, Soul.) Each aspect is rated on a scale from 1 to 7 with 2 being the human average. Each character chooses a background template. Each background gives the players five skills called Proficiencies and 14 points to distribute among them. Proficiencies max out at 7. Backgrounds also determine your starting equipment. If you do not like any of the listed Backgrounds the rules state that you and the GM should scrape out a new one to suit both of you. There are lots of different and useful Backgrounds for an urban spiritual war. (Some Background examples are: Ambulance Paramedic, Combat Journalist, Criminal Lawyer, Gang Member, Street Evangelist.) Characters also get additional Proficiencies based on the two Aspects of Logic + Willpower, which means all character are no longer equal and players might pad those scores even if it doesn't suit their concept. Further all starting Proficiencies cannot be higher than 5. Each player also chooses a Celestial Order for their character which gives an Aspect bonus, a Blessing and a Divinity. The Celestial Orders are like a mix between a Vampire clan and a D&D race. There are 4 Orders: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel. The Celestial Order of Michael are leaders. Gabrielites are warriors. Raphaelites are healers. Urielites are divine magicians. There is an optional merits and flaws section called Benefits and Detriments. The game's core mechanics are very familiar to die pool fans. The players roll a number six sided dice equal to Aspect + Proficiency in a dice pool. Every die equal to or above the Difficulty Rating (DR) is a success. The more successes the better the result.

Setting Specific Stuff

Players play mortals called Sentinels fighting the good fight for the guys upstairs during the book of Revelations happening on a street corner near you. The awakening of a Sentinel is called the Anointing and happens in increasing stages. Sentinels receive dreams called Prophetic Revelation that help them find the path. All adventures (called Prophesies) start with a Prophetic Revelation and then the GM (called the Prophet) secretly determines how many additional revelations are available to characters for the adventure with a roll of Faith + Inspiration (DR4). Prophetic Revelations are very useful for the GM to talk directly to characters, but also can be used to provide intentionally vague "information". A character can pray for specific help in holy places and use one of their prophetic visions. Sentinels tend to work together in small bands, which is very convenient for a role-playing game. Sentinels have a few gifts to fight those on the side of darkness, namely Grace and Divinities.

Grace is a measure of purity and also power. Grace is the character's spiritual fuel tank. The character's (permanent) Grace score is really just the cap on a character's Grace total. The one exception is Spiritual Conflicts, a mental combat between beings with Grace and being with Taint (the diabolic version of Grace), where the permanent score is always used. The temporary score is what makes the character special and fun to play. Grace is used to determine what Divinities you can use. (See Below.) Grace can be used to see through a demonic disguise. Grace can be spent to allow you to reroll results. (As in reroll ALL the dice.) Whenever using Divinities you use the character's temporary Grace total. So if a character just blew all their Grace on combat rerolls then that player must regain Grace to the level required by the Divinity before they can use that Divinity. While nobody is perfect, you are expected to behave in a Christian manner. Demons will try to weaken characters by leading them astray and cutting them off from those who grant Grace. The only way to regain Grace is basically through good works. The most ironic thing is the game encourages you to make three dimensional (or at least 2.5D) characters which are probably easy to lead astray and are not exactly the type of people you'll see in The Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints commercials.

Divinities are the supernatural powers Sentinels get to fight demons and tainted ones with. Divinities are fueled by Insight and have a minimum level of current Grace needed to use the Divinity. Some Divinities even cost Grace to use. Each Celestial Order has their own Divinity with 7 Echelons of increasing power level. Sentinels of Michael get a mind influencing power. Sentinels of Gabriel get a focused rage power. Sentinels of Raphael get a healing power. And the Divinity of Uriel called Arcana allows for the Sentinel to perform Theugy or holy magic in the forms of rites and spells. There are also Divinities that are not order specific and available to any Sentinel. They can affect the four elements, sanctify objects/places, use extrasensory perception and other non-person effecting things.

Overall

It is hard not to read Seventh Seal and not think of White Wolf's Storyteller system. For all it's mechanical similarities to a White Wolf game The Seventh Seal is very different in that there is no World of Darkness like "big picture" here. There is no half a book dedicated to a stylized setting. The setting material is often found near the mechanics for supernatural stuff. The Seventh Seal has reached a sweet spot between World of Darkness and Dungeons & Dragons. That place where you do have a setting, but are not presented with a novella to read and conform to that style. This of course could also be considered The Seventh Seal's weakness. Many people who enjoy similar White Wolf products like that overbearing setting which is missing here. Then again this is the first book and who knows if six books down the line if there won't be a smothering setting or metaplot by then. (The World of Darkness was rather vague in the original Vampire: the Masquerade.) If you are tired of playing monsters or are into end times games then you should check out The Seventh Seal.