Casting Shadows

I am late getting this out, and after reading and trying out Rectify over a few weeks leading up to the Kickstarter and a few more as it has been running (ending soon!), I have to wonder what sort of penance might be assigned to me as a result. What is Rectify, you ask? That is both easy and difficult to answer.

Rectify

The simple answer is that Rectify is a solo – largely journaling game – but with a twist. The game is the work of Chris “Shep” Shepperson, whose name you might recognize from his work on Nightfall’s SLA Industries revival, from his work as project manager on some stellar titles from Modiphius, or hopefully from his own Hansor Publishing company. If you have heard of the dark and compelling Gaia Complex, you have heard of Shep. In Rectify, the player embodies a powerful link between the world of the living and the brutal force of hell. They are both in the grip of punishment in the afterworld and in a position in our world to do something about it. In this case, doing something is literal. The game asks you – the player – to attempt to have actual experiences that matter. Given that a soul is on the line, these experiences are not minor, and there may be a few that not even such a motivation could get us to assail… or perhaps… perhaps context is the cure.

To show the text itself:

Could you do one of these? What would stop some of you? What makes it an easy ask for others? What about the other pledges for the other trials in the game’s gritty hell? On which trial do these pledges become too much, or your resistance to change, risk, vulnerability, scrutiny, or some other thing hold you in place – static. Is life really as dynamic as we think it is when so often some part of us fights tooth and claw to defy some sort of movement from one state to another?

It’s no wonder we clothe the Major Arcana for change in the fearsome clothes of hungry, smiling death.

The game itself comprises 5 trials, each presented with brutal black and white art. The book runs 33 thematically brutal pages which both clearly and eloquently set up the solo player for an introspective and valuable journey into both imagination and examination. Also available is a themed journal to record your experiences and possibly even share them, I suppose, if you are so brave. Journaling, of course, is a feature of the game, but the meat of it is the experience – even if you shy away from the pledges for a trial. That experience is valuable, too. Who knows, on a cold and lonely night when sleep is slow or outright refusing to visit, that unaccepted act – which might free a tortured soul – might return to mind and sit with you for a spell.

At the time of writing, Rectify is ending its very successful run on Kickstarter. All stretch goals have been for print, binding, and paper quality and all have been reached. The game, in its final form, is on the best of heavy paper so as to show off the art, while the pages are protected by a thick, matte, hardcover. Sharp artistic details round out the presentation. There are pledges for PDF as well as PDF and Print. Pledges also exist which include one or more journals, and add ons provide more flexibility.

You can see much more of the game in the Kickstarter updates. You can get up close and personal with it and let it breathe its insinuations into your subconscious.

Go on.

You know you want and don’t want to.

Will you be able to rectify?

It’s a very real question.