What do you think?
Rate this book
The Witcher
This is the core rule book for The Witcher tabletop roleplaying game based on the novels of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski and the videogames of the same name by CD Projekt Red.
Unknown Binding
First published August 2, 2018
8 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 9, 2020
The Witcher is a great book series, an amazing video game, and an entertaining TV series, so I decided to check out the roleplaying system as well. The first thing to note is that this roleplaying game is based off of the video games, not the book series, and it is set in the time period between The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3, so none of the events of the third video game factor into the story here.
First, I'll discuss the positive aspects of this book. Perhaps the thing that I appreciated the most was the world building. You learn why humans and fantasy creatures are living in the same world, and you get an overview of the history of the world leading up the time period of the game. Each country gets an entry, so you get a sense of how politics work in this world, which could lead to games with lots of political intrigue.
On the other hand, there are a few negative points. One is that it is based on the video game a little too tightly. One aspect of this is that there is a crafting system, where you have to collect resources to build practically everything that you use in the game. The economic system in the game is designed so that everything is really expensive in the world, so it strongly encourages you to go the crafting route. While crafting works in a video game setting, I can't think of anything more boring for a tabletop game than hunting around for odds and ends to build better gear. It's just not entertaining storytelling. The second negative point for me is that a lot of the content is written in dialect. There is a dwarf character who delivers a large portion of the content, such as class descriptions. It makes it a little difficult to sort through important information. Also, it quickly becomes evident that the dwarven dialect depends too much on a few tricks, so it gets repetitive really quickly.
Finally, there are a few points to be aware of. These may be negative or positive depending on your group. First, the combat system is more brutal than a lot of modern systems. You can lose arms and legs and fatalities are not rare. The book itself recommends to have in mind some relatives or friends that can take up your quest if your first character dies, so you should basically expect it. If you get injured, you have to spend weeks to heal up. This will really change the way you will plan a story. Another point to be aware of is that different character classes have very different specialties. There are some classes that are good at combat and some that shouldn't even be in combat. If your GM is good at balancing combat with other challenges, that shouldn't be a problem. However, if your GM runs mostly combats, there won't be much for certain classes to do.
Overall, it feels like an older roleplaying design, but if you're interested in the Witcher, it might be worth a try.
First, I'll discuss the positive aspects of this book. Perhaps the thing that I appreciated the most was the world building. You learn why humans and fantasy creatures are living in the same world, and you get an overview of the history of the world leading up the time period of the game. Each country gets an entry, so you get a sense of how politics work in this world, which could lead to games with lots of political intrigue.
On the other hand, there are a few negative points. One is that it is based on the video game a little too tightly. One aspect of this is that there is a crafting system, where you have to collect resources to build practically everything that you use in the game. The economic system in the game is designed so that everything is really expensive in the world, so it strongly encourages you to go the crafting route. While crafting works in a video game setting, I can't think of anything more boring for a tabletop game than hunting around for odds and ends to build better gear. It's just not entertaining storytelling. The second negative point for me is that a lot of the content is written in dialect. There is a dwarf character who delivers a large portion of the content, such as class descriptions. It makes it a little difficult to sort through important information. Also, it quickly becomes evident that the dwarven dialect depends too much on a few tricks, so it gets repetitive really quickly.
Finally, there are a few points to be aware of. These may be negative or positive depending on your group. First, the combat system is more brutal than a lot of modern systems. You can lose arms and legs and fatalities are not rare. The book itself recommends to have in mind some relatives or friends that can take up your quest if your first character dies, so you should basically expect it. If you get injured, you have to spend weeks to heal up. This will really change the way you will plan a story. Another point to be aware of is that different character classes have very different specialties. There are some classes that are good at combat and some that shouldn't even be in combat. If your GM is good at balancing combat with other challenges, that shouldn't be a problem. However, if your GM runs mostly combats, there won't be much for certain classes to do.
Overall, it feels like an older roleplaying design, but if you're interested in the Witcher, it might be worth a try.
November 29, 2018
This is an excellent system, a little complicated, but we'll-balanced as far as I can tell. The world and people are richly developed and there is a really awesome system for generating your character's life history. The GM section contains a lot of helpful advice and information and the book comes with one pre-made scenario which is unusually flexible with accommodating player decisions. I also greatly enjoyed the flavor text and how it wove into the book to provide essential information in a fun and entertaining way. Overall it is well done and I look forward to playing this game.
November 29, 2018
This is an excellent system, a little complicated, but we'll-balanced as far as I can tell. The world and people are richly developed and there is a really awesome system for generating your character's life history. The GM section contains a lot of helpful advice and information and the book comes with one pre-made scenario which is unusually flexible with accommodating player decisions. I also greatly enjoyed the flavor text and how it wove into the book to provide essential information in a fun and entertaining way. Overall it is well done and I look forward to playing this game.
May 18, 2025
Un univers connu adapté en jdr, des fois ça passe bien et d'autres fois non. Pour moi, cette adaptation de The Witcher fait parti de la deuxième catégorie.
Un bel univers mais des règles lourdent. La base est facile mais tous ces sous systèmes sont lourds.
Il y a des points positifs quand même, surtout au niveau du Bestiaire (même si peu étoffé dans ce livre), et aux conseils pour les MJs qui partent de l'expérience personnelle des auteurs et autrices de ce livre.
Bref, The Witcher en jdr se fera sans moi, où pas avec ce système de jeu.
Un bel univers mais des règles lourdent. La base est facile mais tous ces sous systèmes sont lourds.
Il y a des points positifs quand même, surtout au niveau du Bestiaire (même si peu étoffé dans ce livre), et aux conseils pour les MJs qui partent de l'expérience personnelle des auteurs et autrices de ce livre.
Bref, The Witcher en jdr se fera sans moi, où pas avec ce système de jeu.
May 28, 2022
Witcher me parece un juego que captura bien la esencia del mundo de los juegos y libros. Quizás le habría venido bien más trasfondo para desarrollar más las particularidades de las distintas regiones del mundo y demás, pero cumple. El sistema, por lo poco que, de momento, he podido probar funciona bastante bien, consiguiendo aproximarse bien al rollo del universo del brujo, más "down and gritty" que DyD y otros juegos similares.
August 31, 2021
Love this game!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews