[This piece was originally written for another blog and published on 28th January 2021. Some aspects have been updated from the original, but most remains the same.]
If you're anything like me, you associate with a lot of people who own their own grimoires, spell books, and tomes of the macabre. Or maybe you don't but have always fancied having one mysterious, black book on your shelf to unsettle and intrigue the occasional visitor? In which case, Sigils in the Dark by Kurt Potts may be what helps you achieve your goal.
Anyone who's made one as part of a personal crafting project will tell you that making your own unsacred-text is a lot of fun and satisfying work, and Potts has done an excellent job of distilling the enjoyment and satisfaction of the process into a immersive and relaxing activity. Crafting the mysterious arcane symbols through both chance and design, sitting back and enjoying their unique geometry, and then scrawling in-character notes on how this latest spell will help you achieve your nefarious goals has never been more wholesome.
"A Secret; Overheard"
Sigils exists as both a journaling RPG and a GM supplement for when you want your warlock to have something physical to consult, or a dark artefact for your players to discover (remember actually playing with people in person? Sigh [Editor's Note: Covid Reference!]). I know some RPG players also suggested its use as a character building exercise. Journaling RPGs are immersive experiences that can reveal things from the tip of your pen about your character that you may have been previously unaware of.
"You have a need, a deep burning need that drives you. Is it love, regret, desire?"
For me, the joy of the game comes from the unique opportunity for story telling and it's relaxed pace. At the start of the process, Potts encourages the player to think a bit about their character and what exactly they want to achieve. There is a table of suggestions that you can choose from, roll for, or just make up your own. As you work on discovering the dark magic that will help bring you closer to your goal (or your doom, more on this later) the grimoire becomes a narrative of failed experiments, sacrifices, and cautious progress, all revealed through annotated sigils and spell circles that will gradually reveal the fate of the character whose book you hold at the end of the game.
"The darkness whispers, I can help you..."
For my first playthrough, I chose to become Mycroft Muir of the Western Coast whose deepest desire was but a simple Pepsi. Perhaps not what Potts had in mind when creating the game but I wanted to see how a story would develop of someone turning to extreme methods to achieve something so simple. Like using a machine gun to kill a fly, it did not disappoint as I watched the life of this hitherto unknown magic-user explode in a series of insane and drastic rituals with dire outcomes.
And what fate awaits your character? This depends entirely on how you imagine their resolve. Each spell is designed to require a "cost" to your character that is rolled for depending on the complexity of the spell circle you've created. These are rolled for randomly but as spells become more advanced, and the more you search for power, you start to roll larger or multiple die against the provided cost table giving you the chance of meeting a cost that your character just cannot bring themselves to fulfil. Of course, that depends on their personal qualms. The threat in the game is only limited by what you feel is appropriate.
"An Apple; Coveted"
I'll be honest, the rules, although condensed well into a short PDF booklet, took me a couple of goes to fully understand. However, it does quickly become apparent that, like all good RPGs, the rules are more like guidelines than do-or-die instructions. If you get something wrong at the start but don't realise until you've played a few pages, don't worry as it really doesn't change anything.
So how do you play?
The spells in Sigils are all constructed of pre-designed circles, connectors, and symbols that are listed in easy-to-read tables and Potts does a good job of leading you through the first couple of pages. Using a D20 you roll against a table of these symbols to decide which ones to use in your first spell, then you roll against another table to decipher their meanings. These meanings will stay connected to those particular symbols for the rest of the game, giving your character the opportunity to learn and be able to cast spells that are at least somewhat predictable.
Following the instructions you draw the sigils and annotate them. Then on the adjacent page you can name the spell, write a few notes on its effect, how it has helped you, and what costs you had to pay in order to perform it. There is a lot of fun to be had in looking at the combined meanings of all the weird shapes you have drawn and imagining the resultant chaos.
(My character, Mycroft, attempted to bring one of his deceased victims back to life in order to command them to retrieve him his beverage. However, due to the somewhat random nature of the spells he actually ended up constructing an automaton that was only marginally interested in what he had to say. He now shares his workshop with a distressingly wilful robot.)
Without giving too much away, this is almost all there is to it. The only limits are your time and how far your character is willing to go in order to achieve their goal. Also, as your own GM, you can decide what complications may stand in their way to prolong their journey.
"1 Eye; Given"
I highly recommend this game as a relaxation exercise. Progressing the story one page at a time as you feel like it offers the player an opportunity for 10 minutes of quiet drawing and imagination to take them out of the present moment. My personal favourite time to play is right after work. Carefully constructing the spells with a compass and pencil before going over them with a black brush-pen is almost a meditative experience. The use of a die to take most of the decisions out of your hands keeps the game from being too mentally taxing and injects a thrill of curiosity as you wonder how your character will respond to the outcome.
If you're using the game as I mentioned above, to create your very own grimoire to leave casually around in order to unsettle curious relatives, you'll finish the process with some very beautiful and enchanting images, with some very disturbing and worrying annotations.
My personal tips on how to make the most of the game is to invest in a suitable notebook (Moleskin is what Potts recommends in the instructions) and to feel free to adjust and change the pre-designed symbols to suit your own particular tastes. RPG rules should never stand in the way of a good time.
You can pick up a copy of Sigils in the Dark for $2.99 here.
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