Sanctum
Release Date: July 1999
Set Size: 4 Buttons
Publisher: Digital Addiction
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Lee Moyer
Rares: Wumpus [(4) (8) (8) (X) (X)]
These four characters were designed as a prelude to a full set of 12 characters from the Digital Addiction online trading card game known as Sanctum, but were ultimately the only four produced. They were given as participation awards in Digital Addiction’s 1999 on-site Origins Tournament, and were also sold over the Digital Addiction website.
Design Notes[edit | edit source]
Ogi’s 2-sided die and pair of X’s make him a formidable opponent, and it was, in fact, a player from Digital Addiction, using Ogi with two 16-side dice for his Swing Dice, who won the Cheapass Games-sponsored “Button Men National Championships” at Origins 1999. Along with introducing 2-sided dice, the Sanctum set also introduced the 7-sided die (Fingle), and this along with the 16-siders in the nationals was a wake-up call to many players that the value of X was not restricted to the normal range of polyhedral dice. Indeed, the most prevalent question that followed the release of the Sanctum set was whether X could be -any- integer between 4 and 20, the answer to which was a resounding “Yes.”[1]
The employees of Digital Addiction had a special button that was not officially offered for sale that they would play during conventions with fans of the Sanctum card game. Wumpus was a special character in the game that was played by very experienced players and gave rewards upon defeat.
One of the designers of the game Sanctum and the artist of the Button Men set, Lee Moyer, expounded further on the characters presented in the Sanctum Button Men set:
My memories of Button Men are far from perfect, but here’s what I can tell you for certain:
There were 12 Great Houses in Sanctum - embodying 6 direct Oppositions.
We chose to highlight two of those Oppositions for Button Men.
Dracha represents the House of Justice and is opposed by Ngozi leading the House of War.
Fingle is a mutant misfit who leads the House of Unmaking against Ogi in the House of Making.
I created all the art and adapted it for the Button Men.
Buttons[edit | edit source]
Dracha
(4) (10) (20) (20) (X)
Fingle
(6) (7) (8) (12) (X)
Ngozi
(4) (6) (8) (10) (X)
Ogi
(2) (4) (10) (X) (X)
