Today we are pleased to offer you our review of Sigmata. First of all, I would like to thank MS Edizioni for sending us a digital copy of this revolutionary cyber TTRPG written by Chad Walker. Before even starting this review, a necessary premise. As the subtitle suggests, Sigmata – This Signal Kills Fascists is a highly political game. This aspect will emerge strongly during the review, but it should still be anticipated. Because anti-fascism is not a question of colors or flags.
Political faith is an undeniable right that is expressed within the spectrum of democracy. Fascism is not a political movement: it is a system of centralization of power that denies the rights that democracy guarantees to all. To minorities in an obvious way and to majorities in a subtle way. And here is the second premise.
By fascism we do not mean (only) the specific Italian regime of the sadly well-known twenty years. The term refers to any political movement that shares a number of characteristics: nationalism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, populism and the construction of an enemy, internal or external. Fascism is not linked to right-wing or left-wing policies, and historically it has been seen to espouse any color (although it’s undeniably more at ease with conservative parties).
Anyone interested in purchasing Sigmata can find it on MS Edizioni online store at a cost of 39.90 euros, physical copy with PDF included. The digital version alone costs about half as much, 19.90 euros. Remember that you can get a 10% discount on every MS Edizioni product with our discount code NoDiceUnrolled10.
Aesthetics Review of Sigmata: Art, Not Just Images
The volume has 346 pages, in color and laid out in a single column. A choice that adapts well to the format of the volume, 15 x 23 centimetres. A particular choice, usually typical for photo albums, which however creates an excellent compromise between ease of transport and ease of consultation. The paper version is hardback and rather solid, designed to face the battles that players usually face even before sitting at the table.
The layout is clear, the illustrations are not many but they have a comic style that emphasizes the expressions and drama of the scene. Some dividing pages are designed to recall the style of old clandestine propaganda posters and flyers, a notable touch of style.
Some paragraphs and chapters end with quotes from illustrious personalities for their political, artistic or more generally social role in our society. Martin Luther King, Sigmund Freud, Mikhail Bakunin. And again Dead Kennedys, Noam Chomsky, Albert Camus and several others. Every single quote is not left at random, obviously, but is full of meaning. Each of them offers inspiration for thought that enriches the volume much more than several pages of text could have done.
Sigmata: Review of a Cyberrevolutionary TTRPG
The publisher calls this game cyberpunk, and indeed Sigmata fully falls within the stylistic features of the genre. This game allows you to stage the stories of characters who oppose an oppressive regime and which uses futuristic technologies to keep the population under control.
However, the author gives a definition that is not in contrast, but more specific: cyberrevolutionary. It doesn’t give a particular explanation, it doesn’t claim to create a new genre. In fact it doesn’t create a cyberrevolutionary trend or anything else. It is simply a neologism for the world of roleplaying games that immediately sends a very powerful message. Your character is not a “punk”, they are not a reject of society. Not a random one.
The player characters are Receivers. They are the spearhead of the Resistance, the organized group that tries to oppose the Regime. The Receivers are the United States’ greatest hope for liberation from oppression.
A Little Bit of Uchronia
The setting of Sigmata matches the real world until 1954. In the game world in that year, Senator Joseph McCarthy is not condemned for his ignoble witch hunt against America’s supposed enemies, but in 1960 he even reached the White House. A disastrous presidential mandate, but one that laid the foundations for what was then defined as the Regime.
Rather than consolidate internal consensus with targeted policies, conservatives become reactionary; or they come out into the open as such. Their political commitment focuses almost exclusively on creation of an enemy on the home front, in order to channel the electorate’s attention against it. Difference becomes synonymous with dissidence. Homosexuals, immigrants, communists (in the broad derogatory nuance that American culture attaches to the vast range between those who protect the welfare state and anarchists): anyone who is different is a potential attacker of the cultural integrity of America.
Review of Sigmata’s Lore
The game is set in the 1980s. Digital technology is therefore in its infancy, albeit with some cyberpunk license. Most communications, even remote ones, need physical support. This is a fundamental element of the game in the transmission of the Signal.
In the United States the Regime has won and controls everything: institutions, education, communication, law enforcement. These last, the Freedom Fists are the fusion of the army and the police forces. An idea that required an ad hoc constitutional change, since the US military could not act against American citizens. Their masked faces crush dissent with the iron fist of the homeland of freedom, as well as with its most cutting-edge weapons.
The Regime’s real victory, however, is not in having control of the United States. Fascism won when it convinced the average citizen to accept the protection of the spirit of “true America”, or at least to turn our faces the other way. The Regime has won the soul of the United States.
The Resistance
Fortunately, this is not the case for everyone. In fact there is still a segment of the population that hesitates, perhaps closes its eyes, but has not sold its soul to the devil. There are small areas where the Regime is unable to penetrate the resistance of the citizens, to the point of having to declare them areas to avoid even for the Freedom Fists. There are some who simply say no.
The birth of the Resistance has been mythologized and exploited, its every gesture transformed into a television show to be turned against it. Yet it doesn’t give up. Men and women who put everything at risk, and not necessarily life as the most precious thing to lose, in the name of freedom. The Resistance, unlike the regime, must respect many more rules. It must not become like its enemy, it must maintain integrity. Its goal is not to crush the opponent, but to mobilize internal and external allies. The Resistance must not liberate America, but save it.
Review of Sigmata: the Factions
The population’s discontent is concentrated around four different factions.
- The Old Men, all those who left the armed forces because they were betrayed by a regime that sent them to the front to fight in the name of a freedom that it then denied. They represent the most organized and tactically effective faction, and the most likely to redeem the Freedom Fists. On the other hand, the ease with which they resort to violence and extreme solutions is a significant problem for the Resistance.
- The Faith, a heterogeneous conglomerate of all religious confessions that have been marginalized by the Regime. All the cults that did not submit to tele-evangelism have merged into the Faith, providing the Resistance with its most motivated men. The problem is that this motivation too often leads to extremist radicalization that the Resistance itself tries to avoid.
- The Party, a Marxist-inspired group that approached the Resistance in the name of defending workers’ rights. Among McCarthy’s main targets from the beginning of his political career, communists, socialists, trade unionists and anyone close to left-wing ideas is completely unacceptable for the Regime. The Party’s main contribution to the Resistance is its contact with foreign powers, especially the Soviet Union; cross and delight, given that it is also what most threatens the independence of the American insurrection.
- In the end, the Makers they are one of the many secrets of the Resistance, but certainly one of the best kept. The Regime is fascist in nature, and as such gathers the demands of the reactionary right, but not the liberal one. A small but influential group of entrepreneurs ready to finance the revolution with otherwise inaccessible resources. However, this is done by always having their backs covered and acting exclusively out of self-interest.
Repeat the Signal
This Signal Fights Fascism. Repeat the Signal
The Resistance does everything it can to carry on the revolution, but the forces of the Regime are overwhelming; any conventional battle has no hope of success. The goal of the Resistance is to convert as many Americans as possible to its cause while attracting all the help possible from abroad, but at every step the risk of being overwhelmed is simply incalculable.
Yet to date the Regime has not managed to triumph, not completely. This is because the Signal is there. The Resistance seeks to temporarily gain control of every station or radio link, and is willing to sacrifice its men to transmit this numerical sequence of unknown origin. To the point that its motto has become “This Signal Fights Fascism. Repeat the signal”. Words that have taken on a double meaning. In a figurative sense, each member of the Resistance must become a spokesperson for their values, embody the signal and repeat it, spread it to others. But in the literal sense, they must send the Signal. Why?
Character Review of Sigmata: the Receivers
It is not known exactly what the existence of the Receivers is due to, only that it is some experiment of the Regime that got out of its control. An attempt to create new weapons that backfired. When a Receiver picks up the Signal for the first time, their body changes radically and definitively. Their very tissues transform, making them look more like a cyborg than a human being; giving them a body capable of performing extraordinary feats and accessing unparalleled powers.
A Receiver becomes the ace in the hole of the Resistance, because alone their are able to completely reverse the fate of the American Insurrection. The Freedom Fists are no longer a problem, nor are the Regime’s spy agencies. As long as the Signal is transmitted, the Receiver embodies all of America’s hopes. As long as the Signal is transmitted. When the Regime manages to suppress it (and it always succeeds, it’s just a matter of understanding whether the time available to the Resistance will be short or very short), the Receiver loses most of their powers. They remain stronger than a normal individual, stronger than a Freedom Fist. But if deprived of the Signal in the midst of the action, they will have no choice but to succumb.
Character Creation
Players are asked to take on the role of a Receiver, one of the very rare individuals in whom the Resistance places its hopes. Character creation is pretty simple. When compiling the Dossier (the character sheet) it is necessary to distribute points among their Processing Units. It’s about four distinct approaches: Aggression, Cunning, Judgment and Value. Each Processing Unit takes on a specific function depending on the scene being played.
Sigmata in fact includes free play scenes, which do not follow particularly rigid rules, and three types of structured scenes: Combat, Elusion and Intrigue. Depending on the type of scene you are going to play, the Processing Unit will perform a different function and have different effects. What does not change is the Data Processing phase, i.e. the composition of the shot.
Review of the Game Mechanics of Sigmata
Data Processing allows you to roll a number of d10s equal to the value of the Tactic chosen by the player (i.e. their Processing Unit applied to the type of scene, with any bonuses); if the pool thus composed is less than five, roll as many d6s (called buffer dice) as are enough to reach that number. Any roll of 6 or higher is a success; the number of successes indicates whether the action was successful, how well and whether it involves negative consequences. If successful, the player has narrative authority over the outcome of their Receiver’s action. Otherwise it passes into the hands of the Game Master, who narrates the consequences of the action.
The game system itself is simple. There are obviously further methods to customize the Receiver, with weapons and with Blade, real accessories for their cybernetic body. Their experiences, their contacts, their past are all part of the Dossier; but the Subroutines, the powers capable of turning the tide of the American Insurrection, are obviously the most interesting and characterizing element.
Review of the Scenes Structure of Sigmata
Sigmata it is a game from 2017, and its mechanics fully reflect the games from that period, one of the freshest waves in the current panorama of roleplaying games. In addition to managing free time and structured scenes, the Game Master has a large section that guides them step by step in building the missions that the Receivers will have to face.
The management of the long-term repercussions of the characters’ actions is also a daughter of this generation of games. Specifically, it concerns the effect missions have on the four main Resistance factions, the local population, the Resistance members in general, and the international community. This will influence both the gaming possibilities and, above all, the power and duration of the Signal. And as mentioned, a receiver does not want to be left without a signal.
Review of Small Smudges in Sigmata
If there is a criticism to be made about the Sigmata game system is that, although starting from extremely simple mechanics, it becomes particularly complex and difficult to master. It is partly due to the fact that the game does not want to limit the experience to the Receivers’ missions; although most of the scenes are played, they are purely instrumental in determining the progress of the American Insurrection. This obviously requires a series of criteria to manage that complicate the game, but it is a more than acceptable exchange rate for the experience proposed by the author. However, more work could have been done on the structured scenes. It would have been helpful even just in terms of visual impact of the Receiver’s Dossier to harmonize Combat, Elusion and Intrigue.
The three types of structured scene work in fact on a specific version of the “clocks”: a way of taking into account the progress made in achieving a goal or how tangible a threat is becoming. Each scene offers a completely different type of “clock”. Of course we are talking about something that does not affect the value of the game, but with a little more work it would have been relatively simple to offer a more uniform structure that streamlined the duties of the Game Master, who already has a large workload.
Security Tools
It’s our fight, but it’s my life
Sigmata it is in fact a game based on highly sensitive issues. An overview of the most popular security tools is offered, in particular the X-card. Above all, Walker refers to a key phrase of dissident movements: “it’s our fight, but it’s my life”. An ally, an activist participating in a civil rights struggle, can withdraw whenever they want. Those who fight for their rights do not have this privilege.
Sigmata talks about empathy, compromise and alliance. No one should be judged by the limits they feel they can place on their emotional commitment at the table. At the same time, players must be aware that they are facing a shared narrative focused precisely on the discomfort that is created when revolution, dictatorship, counter-revolution and humanitarianism intertwine. This is quite an emotional burden.
Review of Sigmata: the Role of the Game Master
Show fascism, don’t be fascist
An extremely specific gaming experience, which has the clear intention of stimulating the person at the table even once the gaming session is over. Sigmata brings to the surface personal conflicts, contradictions and hypocrisies, but also great ideals and a spirit of sacrifice.
The best security tool is not presented in the dedicated paragraph, but in the section dedicated to the Game Master: “show fascism, don’t be fascist”. Non-player characters must not be a way to indirectly perpetuate oppressive slogans and behaviors by reflecting them in the game. The best way to make players feel fascism is by showing its effects. Screaming insults at the table in the throes of interpretive fury leaves little time to spare and could hurt someone. Showing what happens on the streets to the victims of those offenses leaves much deeper marks, but in a much more delicate way.
Conclusions of the Review of Sigmata
There would still be a lot to say about it Sigmata. On the setting, on the way in which the mechanics allow us to expand the consequences of the game on the future of the American Insurrection, on the impact it can have on the gaming table. But in the end what really matters is the value of this game.
All too often we hear a voice calling for keeping politics away from the game. Sigmata – This Signal Kills Fascists instead it speaks precisely of awareness. Every form of narration is in itself a political act, whether we want to recognize it or not. Sigmata it simply takes this concept to the nth degree, using the game not to make propaganda, but to convey an indisputable message: fascism is a crime, not an opinion. And it doesn’t do it in a didactic way, but by providing an extremely targeted experience.
Do not be afraid. Try this game. Get hurt trying it, and discover what it means to become a group to avoid hurting each other. And especially repeat the Signal. This Signal kills fascists.
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