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The Mountain Witch
The Mountain Witch is a role-playing game by Timothy Kleinert, independently published by Timfire Publishing. The player characters are samurai ronin that have banded together to destroy the Mountain Witch at the top of Mount Fuji. Each character has its own "dark fate", randomly drawn and known only by the player of the character. Most fates pit the ronin against the group, and makes betrayal likely.
Players can give "trust points" to another player's character, signifying the amount of trust between them. These points can be used to help the trusting ronin, or against him in case of a betrayal.
Players can give "trust points" to another player's character, signifying the amount of trust between them. These points can be used to help the trusting ronin, or against him in case of a betrayal.
- GenresRole Playing GamesGaming
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 19, 2017
I came to Timothy Kleinert’s The Mountain Witch via the Indie RPG scene. The game is often admired for its trust mechanic and its focused scope of play. Since I am working my way through a deep reading of the second edition of Apocalypse World, and since Hx is that game is born from The Mountain Witch’s trust mechanic, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
The text may not read trippingly or easily, but it is a neat read because Kleinert is interested in explaining how everything works within the game. It’s not enough for him to say, do this, or do that; he says, do this because it interacts with this mechanic to make the game do that. The heart of the game is the tension between each character’s hidden motivator (their “Dark Fate”) and their need to work together as a team to defeat the mountain witch. You need to trust your fellow ronin to work together while you simultaneously can’t trust them because their hidden goals most likely work against your own.
There is a great passage in which Kleinert talks about the resolution mechanic in the game: “The Mountain Witch utilizes a universal resolution mechanic for all types of conflicts and tasks—both mental and physical, lethal and non-lethal. This universal approach underscores an important mindset of The Mountain Witch—while some may consider combat to be just another form of conflict, The Mountain Witch considers all conflict to be a form of combat” (21). The game uses an opposed roll because everything in the game is opposing you and actively working to stop you from achieving your goal, even inanimate objects take on a kind of aggressiveness in opposing you. It’s not that combat is just another task; it’s that all tasks are a form of combat. So good.
The Dark Fates are fantastically designed. There are only six options, but they are all rich and broad, allowing the players to bring a lot to them while still allowing the game to function as it was designed. In fact, all of character creation is well thought-out, from Zodiac’s to establish starting trust and optional personality seeds to the abilities which only impact the game narratively (as opposed to mechanically). The few simple steps quickly create characters with rich pasts and strong motivations forward.
The advice for running the game is really useful. Up to that section, I was loving what I was reading, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the pacing of a session or how to control the story from the GM side. This section brought it all to life, and it did so by focusing solely on the game at hand. There is no general “how to GM” stuff—it’s all pertinent to The Mountain Witch specifically.
It’s not the most enjoyable text to read, and I found the sidebars and footnotes to be distracting even when I like the information they contained, but the rewards for reading far outweighed the shortcomings of the text itself. This book is great for people who actively think about how an RPG ticks as well as people who want to play an awesome game.
The text may not read trippingly or easily, but it is a neat read because Kleinert is interested in explaining how everything works within the game. It’s not enough for him to say, do this, or do that; he says, do this because it interacts with this mechanic to make the game do that. The heart of the game is the tension between each character’s hidden motivator (their “Dark Fate”) and their need to work together as a team to defeat the mountain witch. You need to trust your fellow ronin to work together while you simultaneously can’t trust them because their hidden goals most likely work against your own.
There is a great passage in which Kleinert talks about the resolution mechanic in the game: “The Mountain Witch utilizes a universal resolution mechanic for all types of conflicts and tasks—both mental and physical, lethal and non-lethal. This universal approach underscores an important mindset of The Mountain Witch—while some may consider combat to be just another form of conflict, The Mountain Witch considers all conflict to be a form of combat” (21). The game uses an opposed roll because everything in the game is opposing you and actively working to stop you from achieving your goal, even inanimate objects take on a kind of aggressiveness in opposing you. It’s not that combat is just another task; it’s that all tasks are a form of combat. So good.
The Dark Fates are fantastically designed. There are only six options, but they are all rich and broad, allowing the players to bring a lot to them while still allowing the game to function as it was designed. In fact, all of character creation is well thought-out, from Zodiac’s to establish starting trust and optional personality seeds to the abilities which only impact the game narratively (as opposed to mechanically). The few simple steps quickly create characters with rich pasts and strong motivations forward.
The advice for running the game is really useful. Up to that section, I was loving what I was reading, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the pacing of a session or how to control the story from the GM side. This section brought it all to life, and it did so by focusing solely on the game at hand. There is no general “how to GM” stuff—it’s all pertinent to The Mountain Witch specifically.
It’s not the most enjoyable text to read, and I found the sidebars and footnotes to be distracting even when I like the information they contained, but the rewards for reading far outweighed the shortcomings of the text itself. This book is great for people who actively think about how an RPG ticks as well as people who want to play an awesome game.
July 22, 2019
Currently, Tim Kleinert has run off with $68,000 he has effectively stolen from those who contributed to the Kickstarter for a second edition of Mountain Witch. Whatever credibility he had as a creator is currently gone, just like the $68K he stole from people who loved the first edition of his game and wanted to help him create a new edition. A good game ruined by its own deadbeat creator. The backers of the Kickstarter are currently exploring legal options against Kleinert. So, beware this deadbeat, and don't buy anything from him or back any of his projects. You will most likely be robbed.
November 29, 2023
I actually read the Finnish edition (2006). It had some old Japanese art added and also few extra pages by the Finnish editor Eero Tuovinen, where he gives some advice for the GM and shares some experiences from running the game. These additions I found very enlightening.
The game itself had really cool ideas and the whole concept is really nice. I enjoyed reading the book, but I have to say, that the book is poorly constructed and many things could have been explained a lot better. But I still gave it 4 stars.
The game itself had really cool ideas and the whole concept is really nice. I enjoyed reading the book, but I have to say, that the book is poorly constructed and many things could have been explained a lot better. But I still gave it 4 stars.
February 8, 2022
Really wanted to read this so I backed the Kickstarter for a second edition - but it appears the author is a swindler who has run off with the $68k he made from dupes like me. Shame on him.
May 16, 2008
I'll make it simple. The Mountain Witch rocks. It's a game about a group of ronin on a suicide mission, but that's only the hook. The real story is how the conflicting goals of the characters form the narrative of doomed men and women on their way to meet their dark fates.
The game is intended originally to be run over 4-6 sessions of play, but I have found a sweet spot in powering through the entire thing in a 4- 6 hour time slot. Given the pressure cooker nature of the situation, this seems to work particularly well. Every time I run it, the players surprise me. Every time I run it there is horror, betrayal, bloody murder, and insane courage.
It encourages the players to go nuts with ideas, and when you get a good feedback loop going, the result is tension you need a razor sharp katana to cut through.
It's only available in PDF form now, but well worth hunting down if you want a real rip-roaring story telling experience.
The game is intended originally to be run over 4-6 sessions of play, but I have found a sweet spot in powering through the entire thing in a 4- 6 hour time slot. Given the pressure cooker nature of the situation, this seems to work particularly well. Every time I run it, the players surprise me. Every time I run it there is horror, betrayal, bloody murder, and insane courage.
It encourages the players to go nuts with ideas, and when you get a good feedback loop going, the result is tension you need a razor sharp katana to cut through.
It's only available in PDF form now, but well worth hunting down if you want a real rip-roaring story telling experience.
March 9, 2008
The Mountain Witch is a self contained RPG that sets the characters, a group of ronin with nothing left to lose, on a mission to climb Mt. Fuji and take out the evil Mountain Witch. But the game is less about the mission and more about the men (or women) who all have some terrible secret to hide and need to trust each other to get to the top of the mountain, even though in the end it is likely their individual fates and motivations will lead to bloody betrayal. It's like Resevoir Dogs crossed with Yojimbo.
This is a very tightly designed game that makes for a really exilherating story. I've run it several times and the outcome is always different and equally exciting.
This is a very tightly designed game that makes for a really exilherating story. I've run it several times and the outcome is always different and equally exciting.
February 6, 2008
This is a totally cool roleplaying game. It's mean to be run in three sessions or less, and it's very player-oriented, which makes it a lot easier to GM than other games. Plus, the look and layout of the book is just really nice -- it's easy to read, it's easy to find information, and the artwork is gorgeous.
January 9, 2009
One of my all time favorite rpgs, and probably the one I've played the most. This game has never failed to be awesome. Sadly, it's currently out of print, and the author has vanished from the face of the earth. (Come back, Timothy, we miss you!) It's still, thankfully, available in PDF format. Everyone who is into rpgs, or samurai, or kwaidan, should own a copy of The Mountain Witch.
June 11, 2008
An interesting idea, and some of the various conflict rules are definitely worth noting.
However, it suffers from a lack of suggestions of just what to do with it and missing information that was only later made available on the author's now defunct website.
However, it suffers from a lack of suggestions of just what to do with it and missing information that was only later made available on the author's now defunct website.
May 13, 2008
A great and influential game.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews