Sanctions: Ops & Admin

This post is about the Ops & Admin expansion for the Sanctions RPG from Purple Crayon Games. Liam Thompson is the creator behind these offerings, and he is a friend of mine. I bought both the core rulebook and expansion with my own money and was not given a free pdf or print copy for review; in short, I liked the description of the products and took a chance like any other paying customer.  I am listed in the "Thanks" portion of the Sanctions core rules, but I did not contribute other than bouncing general ideas back and forth.  Finally, this post is more about spreading the word rather than a full-blown review.

The Sanctions rulebook introduced the brutal biopunk world of the year 2086.  This is a world ravaged by warfare and climate change with refugee citizens living in walled Plexes to offer some sort of protection from the threats outside such as mutants. Honestly, life inside the Plexes is not much better due to increased crimes such as murder, inhumane experiments, and more.  Laws have been changed to allow the use of "Sanctioned Operators" to take on policing duties, perform search and rescue missions, and other tasks.

Ops & Admin expands on the world of Sanctions by focusing on the operators. This 136-page manual is presented as a guide for new operators.  There is new information on Plex threats, going solo, gear, transportation, gadgets, and more.  One of my favorite things in the book are the in-world ads and promos featured throughout the sections.  A great example of this is the ad for Blox which is very reminiscent of Soylent Green. Having these little extra tidbits of world information mixed in among the pages immerses the reader in the world of Sanctions. 

There are some things that make the Ops & Admin book stand out from the previously released core rulebook. The original book was black and white throughout the interior while Ops & Admin has a large amount of color illustrations and the addition of the brown background on the pages make the book more appealing to the eye.  You can tell that Liam is getting more proficient with the word processing software he is using as this book is a definite step up in the layout.  In addition, there is now a disclaimer at the beginning of the book.

Some may not agree with these disclaimers on role-playing books, but I have no issue with their inclusion.  Palladium Books has been doing it for years and it never bother me with their books. I much prefer a creator sticking to their original vision and including a disclaimer instead of watering down their book in the hopes of attracting a wider audience.  

There is more I could discuss but this post is just a way to point out a new product I bought.  If you want to break outside of the fantasy genre using a simple D6 dice pool system in a bleak future, then the world of Sanctions just might be for you.  Both manuals are truly affordable - Sanctions at $15.83 and Ops & Admin at $13.45 - so it is really easy on the wallet; especially in this time when role-playing books commonly go for $40 and more.  If you like pdf's that option is available as well.