Sanctuary and Sentinel tells the story of a place of great power, those charged with protecting it, and the threats that seek to take the power for themselves - played out over two GMless games - both of which can be played solo or with a group. While each game can be played as a standalone game, they can also be played together one after another to tell the extended story of your Sanctuary and its guardians.
Both Sanctuary and Sentinel are GMless TTRPGs that can be played solo or collaboratively.
I worked closely with Meghan, to design all of the interior pages of the game. The style that ended becoming the 'iconic' style of the game, was found by accident in a deep dive on medieval woodcuts. Once the style was hooked, everything came together very quick. We sketched all the layouts, and let the sketches tell a story through the entire document. You can feel the descent of your own Sanctuary as you work your way through the game.
The game was successfully Kickstarted, and even met a stretch goal to deliver a custom journal featuring new artwork in the style of the games.
To solve the first two challenges, I spent a long time in the sketching phase. We knew that we wanted a hand-drawn feeling, and for it to follow similar (but not identical) stylings found in art nouveau, medieval woodcuts, and illuminated manuscripts. All of those styles are relatively complex, and so needed to be simplified a bit as to not be too distracting from the text of the game. The game afterall, was the main event. While sketching, I took in mind the idea that we wanted the background to tell its own story, for the art to evolve as the Sanctuary does while you are playing the game. So as the book goes on, the structures look more run down, more abandoned until all that's left is the lone Sentinel defending the remains of the beloved Sanctuary.
The Kickstarter went over as an incredible success, with all stretch goals being met well before the deadline. Both games were printed and shipped, and now live on as digital purchases available on Itch.io.
The outcome of Sentinel and Sanctuary resulted in a beautiful zine that uses art and style to cement the type of story that it wants to tell as you play the game. All of your choices are your own, but the story of a lone Sentinel and its crumbling Sanctuary is visible on every page.
I highly reccommend picking these up if you have the chance, the full PDF and printed copies really look beautiful in person.
