Sovereign Syndicate Preview

Originally announced back in 2021, Crimson Herring Studios’ steampunk RPG Sovereign Syndicate that seems to be mashing together some elements from Disco Elysium and Arcanum is currently aiming for a “late 2023 – Mid 2024” release. But in the meantime, we’re free to sample the game’s demo and get a feel for its systems and characters.

Which is exactly what PC Gamer did, and so now, we can read their preview describing the demo’s content and its approach to attributes, abilities, and tarot-driven skill checks.

Here’s a couple of paragraphs to get you started:

Picking dialogue responses and making decisions flagged with abilities gives you points in the bodily humor(opens in new tab) linked to each one. Animal Instinct is yellow bile for instance, while Self Discipline is phlegm. They’re the equivalent of experience points, with every 10 letting you choose to either increase that ability by a point, increase one of the skills related to it by three points, or take a card from the major arcana that has some kind of special bonus.

One major arcana card I earn highlights whichever facedown card I draw during a skill check has the lowest number, while another gives me back three Nerve points every time I flip a face card. It’s a flavorful idea, as is the character sheet styled after a phrenology exam—though given my bull’s head, it also looks kind of like a diagram for cuts of meat.