| “A
Game of Magic and Dark Secrets. They 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…”
CJ Carella’s WitchCraft is a modern
horror occult roleplaying game where players
are given the option of exploring ‘real
world’ magical stereotypes against the
backdrop of a post-modern world teetering
on the brink of The End Times. Exciting, atmospheric
and spooky, WitchCraft forces characters usually
from magical orders used to hidden existences
to face up to the titanic battle soon to come.
Sides are being drawn up, and the over-riding
question is do your characters stand with
the dark or with the light?
Gamers of a certain age - rounding thirty
- may remember the warnings about ‘role
playing games leading to the occult’
that were bandied about in the early 1980’s.
Whether it’s true or not, it’s
certainly safe to say that twenty years on
gaming companies are less worried about upsetting
the moral minority which gave the likes of
TSR a run for their money back in the bad
old days. WitchCraft is one such example of
the shift in attitudes in the western world
in general, an excellent game set in a modern
day world which on the surface seems identical
to our own, but which has monsters and magic
lurking just beneath the surface.
Sound familiar? Yes, well it’s true
to say the game enters a genre which is already
packed with systems, which is probably why
it isn’t carried by as many Games Shops
as say, World Of Darkness or Unknown Armies
books. Which is a shame really, as WitchCraft
has a flowing and uncluttered approach to
modern occult role-playing which does reasonably
approximate the beliefs and methods of ‘real
world’ pagans and magicians. Although
every game carries the “This is a Game,
and should not be confused with reality”
tag, WitchCraft does take real world beliefs
and practices and shifts the gears up a little,
taking them into the realm of a magic rich
modern world where it is all ‘Real’.
We are presented with an Earth that is secretly
populated by a range of supernatural creatures
and mortals with the ability to harness and
work ‘essence’ – the magical
building block of reality. These wonder workers
are known as The Gifted, and it is one of
these rare and powerful magicians you are
assumed to play as a starting WitchCraft character.
The traditional orders of Occult Practitioners
(called Covenants) in this technologically
advanced world at the end of the Twentieth
Century (or thereabouts) are becoming aware
of the approaching ‘End Times’,
colloquially called The Reckoning. Marked
by a preceding period of heightened magical
activity and an increase in magical predators,
The Reckoning heralds the end of the world
that was. Games are suggested to be set in
this period of Supernatural unrest and many
events fore-shadow the coming Apocalypse.
In the main book we are given the basics
of the UniSystem rules, a ‘one dice
for most task resolution’ set of mechanics
which are quick to learn and easy to implement.
The character archetypes presented cover the
mainstays of the ‘real world’
occult community, The Wicce (wiccans), the
Rosicrucians (high magicians), The Cabal of
Psyche (psychic power using New Age weirdoes),
The Twilight Order (happy-go lucky necromantic
Spiritualists) and The Sentinels (they kick
arse for the Lord). Add in a minor Supernatural
Race of feline shape changers / telepathic
witches kitty companion, and our cast is complete.
Expansion books greatly open the range of
possible player character types, with other
Gifted Magical Associations and races of Supernaturals
on offer.
WitchCraft uses an open ended magic system
that is flexible and again easy to understand,
a blessing for a game which is ideal for new
role players. Although the game world comes
primed with it’s own mythic back story
and cosmology, many popular magical concepts
are tied logically together to form a system
free from complexity and over-dramatic ambiguity.
I found it all a very refreshing change. As
well as the main character types, Magical
system rules and the games background, the
rulebook also has the obligatory Gamesmaster
section with more insight into the extra-planar
workings of the WitchCraft game world and
a host of bad guys to throw at your party.
All of this is well written and beautifully
illustrated, bound into a 315 page book available
in both soft and hard-back.
Not only a fine stand-alone game that’s
easy to pick up and uncluttered by mechanics
or over-bloated back plot, WitchCraft is a
member of the family of games linked by the
Unisystem mechanics. Other Eden Studio’s
games such as All Flesh
Must Be Eaten and the forthcoming Buffy
The Vampire Slayer use identical dice and
character mechanics, allowing for a great
deal of cross-over potential. When WitchCraft
was first published back in the late 1990’s
by Myrmidion Press, a follow up game called
Armageddon was also printed, which advanced
the relatively sedate WitchCraft time line
twenty years into the middle of an Apocalyptic
World War Three. Eden Studios hope to re-print
Armageddon after taking on the long awaiting
Buffy The Vampire Slayer RPG adaptation, which
is good news as this is another excellent
game due a long awaited overhaul.
Reviewed By Harry Albany |
