Product Review
“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 |
