WitchCraft RPG

WitchCraft RPG

by C.J. Carella

WitchCraft is a game of modern magic and dark secrets. Player characters are the Gifted. Feared for their unique powers, they have been hounded for centuries, and forced to practice their Arts in secret. The time for hiding is over. A Time of Reckoning draws near. It marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new one or the destruction of all things. The choices the Gifted make will determine what our future will be like.

WitchCraft is a complete roleplaying game, with rules to create Gifted and Mundane characters, an overview of a modern world beset by supernatural danger, and the Unisystem, a set of game mechanics that can use dice, cards or be completely story-driven to fit the needs and desires of your gaming group.

The revised Eden Studios, Inc. Second Edition WitchCraft main rulebook corrects typos, clarifies rules, smooths the organization and adds several new features, including an index, detailed table of contents and some new game rules. For those with First Edition WitchCraft, the Mystery Codex prints the major rule changes and additions.

The Hardcover Edition is an updated, corrected version of the 2nd Edition Softcover.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Gaming, Horror

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

C.J. discovered his obsession with making up crap and writing it down at the age of 6, when he wrote his first short story, back in the days when the Cold War was still on and the only mobile devices were the wrist watch and the walkie-talkie. He's been making up crap and writing it down for fun and profit ever since.

Reviews

[Max · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm honestly kinda torn about how I feel about this book. I went back and forth a fair bit while I was reading it as to whether I like the rules and setting or not. I think in the end, I kinda like this, and could maybe see using it, but I'd probably still prefer the World of Darkness in some form. The rules seem to be fairly light and straightforward at times, but rather heavy and complex at others. The core resolution mechanic is fairly simple - D10 plus a stat and a skill. It never really becomes more complicated than that, but the combat rules do get kinda messy at times, and while I appreciate the idea of ignoring movement rules, I'm not sure how well that works for me. There are some things in here that seem to be included only because all RPGs seem to have to have them, like rules for poisons and diseases. The latter set of rules is hilarious because the only two diseases detailed are the common cold and ebola. The magic systems do a nice job of being somewhat varied, but they suffer from a lack of material. Standard magic gets the most detail, while necromancy and the "inspired" (think modern day paladins) get around five or six pages apiece. Brevity unfortunately plagues this book - there's too little detail in the monsters chapter as well. A lot of creatures and ideas are mentioned, but few are given details or statted up.

This lack of detail also applies to the setting. In some ways, it feels like a generic urban fantasy setting, meant for the GM to fill in details as they choose. However, there are mentions of specific concepts and rules that kinda ruin this. There's explicitly a monotheist creator deity alongside Cthulhu Mythos-esque Mad Gods. Vampires er Vampyres are psychic rather than the more typical blood suckers - they drain Essence, which functions like a mana pool but is apparently the stuff from which the entire universe is made. Also, there's some talk of a Time of Reckoning (reminiscent of Gehenna and the other apocalypses of the old WoD), but this isn't given very much detail.

All in all, while I wanted to like this game, I ended up feeling a bit meh about it. I do like the relative simplicity of the system, and it could make for some fun gaming. It's just that the flavor of the World of Darkness games grab me much more strongly. Still, I may spend some time reading one or two of the supplements, since I already own them.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have liked Carella's work for a long time, even before I knew it was his. This game is nice, very atmospheric (of course reminiscent of WoD, but one cannot do Dark Fantasy/Urban horror without being compared tho White Wolf's System) with a clean game mechanic (the Unisytem) that strives to remain in the background to the story telling, which for this type of game is paramount. I am looking forward to running some games in this system with my group to mix it up a little.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the game mechanics and overall structure of this game.

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good system and I do see why a lot of people use this as an alternative to World of Darkness as they are both similar. I do like the lore and it does give some generalization to all of the different groups and background necessary to play this game. I think the system looks ok to run and pretty easy to learn.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

World of Darkness heartbreaker, interesting for being the debut of Unisystem but not very much else. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[Francisco Becerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elegantly simple, all-in-one dark gothic RPG take on Magic, but too close to his bigger Competition. Useful for short stories. However, it pretended to embrace a lot in a too short space: illuminati-like conspiracies, apocalypse, Cthulhu-like mythos, high magic vs paranormal detectivism... Too much, poorly depicted inna single volume.

[Bryce Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly well written game that sounds quite fun to play.