What The Heck Is The Seven Part Pact?

Steve Jackson Games seems to be blowing up Kickstarter with its magnum opus, 7 Part Pact. TLDR, they got the designers of the incredibly charming RPG Wanderhome to create an RPG about being 7 competing wizards.

As an OG gamer, I am not sure what I am looking at here.

THE EVOLUTION OF GAME PRODUCTS

When I started gaming in the 80's, RPGS (they weren't called TRPGs yet) were a book out of which you played a game. Anything else had to come out of your imagination. If you were fancy, your book came in a box, or had a large fold out map, or cardboard standees. Art was atmospheric at best and amateurish at worst.

Then came the supplements in the 90's, ironically largely pushed by Steve Jackson for his GURPS game.

Life whisked me away from gaming in the early 2000's, but when I peeked back at the hobby at decade's end, art had become very professional, and although the corebook (a new term) was still there, more and more you needed some splat book, gazeteer, module, or other extended material to feel you were fully playing the game. And the game itself had become bloated, with extra rules for character creation, page long monster or character descriptions, and whole chapters of iffy fiction, among other things.

At the same time, gaming licenses had made it difficult to get older games, and most people's favorite game had gone through various editions of decreasing quality. It was no wonder the OSR and its back to basics rulesets like Swords & Wizardry came into vogue, and the indie game jam scene at itch.io and elsewhere burgeoned.

In the 2010's Kickstarter hit the scene and slowly began blowing open the limits on the game industry. When 7th Sea became a million seller in 2016, there was no turning back. For a decade we have had our choice of game size (small zine to massive corebook), genre, and playstyle. Indie creators have slowly stepped away from traditional printing and distribution models, and even Old Faithful (Chaosium) is riding the Kickstarter / Backerkit wave.

7 Part Pact seems to be pushing things to the next level.

TTRPG? BOARDGAME?

Looking at the promotional material, I cannot tell what I am seeing. 7 Part Pact comes with 7 'asymmetric Domain board games', whatever that means, 7 Wizard Codices (player manuals?), and tons of meeples and other gewgaws.

This is no surprise considering the enormous growth of the boardgame industry the past 20 years, as well the proliferation of battlemats, dice trays, recipe books and other (to me) superfluous items for TRPGs. Or TTRPGs as they say in Japan.

So I would say it is a roleplaying boardgame, and looks like Talisman on steroids to me, or else a boardgame version of the old Chaos War PC game.

A couple of other things have me scratching my head...

7 GAMES IN ONE

The materials mention that 7PP is '7 games in one.' I have no idea how that works, but I admire the gumption. In a traditional RPG, it is hard enough to get one player to stop grandstanding, so it will be interesting to see how 7PP lets up to 7 wizards fulfill their destiny. SJG is one of the OG games companies, so good on them for reaching out to younger designers.

AN EXPERIENCE 

Although I am guardedly optimistic, I think the game, if it works as touted in its ads, should be quite the experience. I know my old circle of foreigner fathers who I gamed with in Japan could really sink their teeth into a game like this, with boardgame and roleplaying game elements wrapped in a juicy tale of competing wizards.

(I miss you chaps!)

At the same time, the gamers I know either do a 4 hour session once a month at a game store, and often pay to do it. Or they play with friends and ignore the rulebook. So I am not sure if all but a select few modern audiences can give this game the attention it deserves.

But it inspires me to make Giri-Ninjo a similarly epic experience.

A COLLECTOR'S MASTERPIECE?

One last thing. This advert also caught my eye:

This isn't just an RPG. It's a collector's masterpiece.

Inside the box you'll find:

Seven Wizard Codices

Seven asymmetric Domain board games

A massive Grimoire

The Orrery

Custom cards

21 engraved alchemical dice

Hundreds of premium components

Upgrade to the Kickstarter-exclusive Arcane Boxed Set for hardcover codices, a faux leather Grimoire, wooden components, premium finishes, and more.

Pledge now on Kickstarter!

I've posted previously about the plethora of IMMENSE shelfies posted by gamers of my vintage, hundreds if not thousands of gamebooks sitting, largely unplayed and unread, on shelves. So I am a bit torn by this excessive materialism of the game.

WHO IS IT FOR?

So ultimately who is 7PP for?

Fantasy roleplayers who want to delve into the story of their character? CHECK

Boardgamers? CHECK

Book collectors / Kickstart addicts? CHECK

Traditional gamers? DUNNO. I'll have to look at some playtest materials or vids.

MESSAGE TO STEVE JACKSON

Thanks for the literal decades of gaming your products have given me, good on you for finding a young designer to push the envelope, and best of luck with the 7 Part Pact!