The Domain of the Starry Witch

Witches in the Woods Announcement Post

Hi everyone!

Anna here, leader of Witches in the Woods (WitW) at Starwalker Publishings! If you're new here, thanks for coming all this way to check at this post about the game, and, so as not to bore you, let's get right into it, shall we?

WitW is a TTRPG that I've been working on since at least November 2023, although since that was when I released the first public version (0.5), it's more likely a few months older than that. After all those years, a few playtests, including at least one full campaign, I'm ready to start talking about it publicly. It still needs a lot of work, of course, I'm sure! But, it's got a lot, and a long history, so let's talk about what we do have!

I'll divide the below into sections so that you can move to the section that interests you the most.

Quick Summary

Witches in the Woods! The name describes the game, or at least it can. We've got a game fully playable as a roleplay focused game, fully playable as a D&D style game of mixed roleplay and tactical combat, and I've been told the combat is even optimizable enough to make it a full tactical game if you so wish!

Everyone's a Witch and does some kind of magic! We've got a d6 dicepool system for skills and saves and d20s for attacks and Rituals! We've got Rituals and Covenbuilding!

This game has been being worked on for like three years!

Mechanics

Witches uses a couple of different mechanics. For roleplay, the main mechanics you'll be interacting with are character features and Skill Checks. If you've played TTRPGs before, you know what both of those are on a basic level -- features give you bonuses to your statistics, or give you new fictional permissions, whilst Skill Checks use some of your statistics to determine how well you do something.

For Skill Checks, WitW uses a d6 dice pool system, with a couple of (to my knowledge) unique variations. First, the number of the D6 that counts as a success is not set by the rules, rather being set per check by the Witch Mistress. This means that some checks only have a 1/6 chance of succeeding per die, while others might have a 1/3 or even higher chance if the WM thinks that this doesn't require a lot of luck.

The other unique variation is that one Skill Check can require more than one successful roll to be successful. So, you might be asked to roll a DC 5 check that requires 2 successes -- two of your dice would need to show 5 or 6.

Of course, Witches also has mechanics for success with a cost and success with a great cost, because the players succeeding but is generally more interesting narratively than a simple failure. There's also mechanics for succeeding extra well, although doing so is exceedingly rare. There are no critical failure mechanics.

Another thing to note about the Skill Check system is that the multiple successes required can effectively lock characters who are not well suited for a particular skill out of attempting difficult checks. This is an intentional design choice -- it can be funny when an unskilled character succeeds while a skilled one fails, but if it happens too often, it can get annoying. Witches lets characters feel strong at the things that they're supposed to be good at, rather than leaving everything in the hands of the dice.

You also will likely use the Ritual system, which involves getting together enough Witches and the right materials to be able to conduct a Ritual. This is a simple d20 roll modified by how many Witches you have with you, some character features, and the statistic of whoever's leading the ritual. On a success, you're able to pull off something much bigger than you could accomplish alone.

Also, as you level up, you might use the optional Covenbuilding system, which uses points to help you build your home and community -- but as that's more narratively focused than mechanical, I'll put it in another section.

Now, if your story includes some fighting, then you might want to touch the combat mechanics. I didn't find it necessary to reinvent the wheel here -- Resolution Rolls are your equivalent to resistance rolls, saving throws, and similar. They work identically to Skill Checks, except the DC and number of successes is determined by the Enemy you're fighting.

As for dealing damage, some features let you force Resolution Rolls on enemies, and then you always have your basic attacks -- something that you can always do as its own thing on your turn to roll a d20 and maybe do some damage to an enemy if you hit them. The number of attacks you can make increases with your level, and while some classes are decidedly not meant for a standup fight and have weak attacks, some classes are able to focus on getting more or making those stronger.

Still in combat territory, you naturally have Hit Points and Evasion, and again here it was not necessary to reinvent the wheel or add more systems. My goal is for Witches to be both simple to learn for TTRPG newcomers and easy to adapt to if you've played other games, and especially in a game you can easily play entirely without combat, making a super crunchy combat system wasn't the goal. That said, with all of the different character features available to you and the rest of your Coven, I've been informed by my optimization-minded playtesters that it's plenty fun.

As you might have expected from what I've described already, in combat we have a grid, and turns, and initiative. We have ranges, although only really for attacks, and we have movement speeds (fast). The depth of combat is truly in the characters and that's too much to get into here.

Finally, as for statistics that affect the entire game, you have 5 stats, each of which can range from 0-6. Those are: Agility, Body, Intelligence, Wisdom, & Charisma. They do about what you'd expect, and you have 12 points to distribute between them at the beginning, and get more as you go on (the ratio of points to stat numbers is 1-1).

What Does a Witch Look Like?

A Witch is the sum of her parts, of course, and what are those parts? Each Witch has a Background, some A Witch's Touch features, a Class, and a lot of features from that, as well as whatever else her WM comes up with for her. She could have a race if she's in a world that makes distinctions between such things, or she could not.

A Witch's Background informs us as to what she did before the story started, and our Backgrounds range from being a simple Apprentice to being raised by ghosts to having strange unstable magic to being forced to work for the evil enforcers of The Society.

A Witch's Touch features are a small selection of features available to any Witch that allow her to get some general magic to flavor her abilities, give her some more fictional permissions, and generally remind her that even in the mundane aspects of her life, she's a Witch.

A Witch's Class is the most important part of her. WitW's 12 classes are:

Since just the name doesn't tell you a lot about what they are, let's talk about it!

Arcanist: Arcanists are nerds, plain and simple. They do magic for the dusty smell of books, and when they're not reading something about magic, they're reading another book. About what? Depends on the Arcanist, but you can bet they're reading. An Arcanist is most at home in a library, but, despite that, they're the most modern Witches, practicing fancy new, clean Arcane magic, with a variety of utility uses. They also just... know a lot. All that reading does things to your mind.

Beauty: Beauties are enchanting, and not necessarily entirely on purpose. They have magnetic personalities and can choose to further use their powers to be able to enchant and control others, or to uplift and support their fellow Witches. They can also simply make sure neither they or anyone else gets hurt, and provide some much needed calm to tense situations.

Brewer: Brewers brew. Whether that be potions, drinks, food, baked goods, they brew it all. They're usually pretty good with plants and cooking, not just potions and drinks. A Brewer's skillset depends on what she likes, some might be bakers, some might be true healing potion pursuits, some might be bartenders. Whatever the case, they brew.

Common-Born: Raised in The Society, Common-Borns were brought up being taught that magic was evil and anyone with it should die. Whether or not they believed it before they discovered they could do it, or perhaps even learned, well that's up to them. But now they're just trying to learn how to do it after surviving The Society. Most of their early magic is emotionally charged and dangerous to themselves in addition to others from internalized self-hatred, but over time, they can learn to control their emotions with journaling and therapy, as their connections with other Witches grow.

Dancer: Dancers dance, and I suppose they also music, but only so they may dance. Dancers are elegant Witches, moving with grace everywhere they go, whether that's to preform a dance to help or educate others, to give someone advice through the magic of the dance, to play some background music, or even to dance their way through the heart of a fight. They're elegant and refined.

Diviner: Diviners can see more than a normal person. Not just the future, though, but also more about the present, and the past. This naturally makes them rather good at gathering information, and most Diviners have to hone their skills through careful training and practice. Beyond that, though, Diviners vary wildly, both in application of magic and personality.

Druid: Druids work with nature to make sure that nature has what it needs, and in return, nature grants them the magic with which they can help it. Able to command animals and plants as well as hold conversations with them, Druids can use the help given by nature to help or harm others, and gain insights from it. Druids tend to be more wise and thoughtful thanks to their connection with nature, and not so great with people.

Elementalist: Elementalists study for their magic in the same way Arcanists do, but unlike the equations, runes, and facts that govern Arcane magic, the magic of the elements is governed by the emotions of the Elementalist. So much, in fact, that they often use magic unpredictably when they're feeling particularly emotional. Some Elementalists have a connection to one specific element of the four they work with (fire, water, air, and earth), whilst others embrace the benefits of each.

Keeper: Keepers are Witches who study old, nearly forbidden, Witch magic. Their magic comes from the dark days when Witches were hunted and feared, and works on force of will alone. Closely guarded because of the consequences of the magic falling in to the wrong hands, those who choose the path of Keeper are often selfless, motivated by protecting those they love with the best magic they can find, or deeply traditional.

Mechanist: Mechanists are tech-Witches. Just magic is old-fashioned and boring, don't you think? What about a magic sword? A magic gun? A robot I gave a soul? That's cool! Mechanists are also generally just good at engineering and craftswork in general.

Medium: Mediums are able to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Some worked for this ability, some were born with it, and it haunts them even now still. These spirits can offer great wisdom, and helping others reconcile with their ancestors can certainly be a help to them, but it can take its toll on the Medium. Still, some summon and control spirits just as easily as they hold a conversation with them.

Priestess: Priestesses work for deities who give them their magic. Varied as the deities they serve, while many are healers of both body and soul, some choose to act as holy warriors or guides for their deity.

Setting

Witches in the Woods' default setting is a low fantasy world, with a demilitarized zone stretching between the two countries of Normandia and Witchlandia (no, I didn't say it was a subtle game), where a lot of stories can take place in the Woods, with the ever present threat of The Society, but also the opportunity to visit Witchlandia when wanted. Games can, of course, also take place in either nation.

The game also comes with a couple of other settings, a high fantasy setting with a variety of nations and races -- like the neutral Republic of Adron, surrounded by mountains, populated by humans, dwarves, and orcs (most of whom are farmers) -- and a sci-fi setting with several notable alien species (like the Kynogi, very "logical" space cuts who also worship The Hunt) as well as a basic cyberpunk setting (need to workshop that one more now that I've played a lot more cyberpunk-style games).

Covenbuilding

The optional Covenbuilding system has been beloved by playtesters as a way to give narrative control over the community to the players, allowing them to build not only their own custom cozy cottages, but determine what sort of shops and NPCs are in town.

Misc. Details

WitW has 100 enemies in the default Bestiary, as well as a detailed explanation of how stats work so you can make your own for whatever you need. The art for all the enemies is done by our wonderful Creature Conjurer, the Kriller Witch, who is just great and amazing and one of the best artists I know (the others being the ones who did the art for the classes).

The game master is called the Witch Mistress, or WM.

Witch is a gender neutral term, although it has been noted to me that the book feels very feminine, especially my choice to use "she/her" where other books would use "he/him" (although, "they/them" is used in most places, as it should be).

History

I can't find the exact date, but I started working on Witches in the Woods sometime in 2023, I think around late summer to early fall. I wanted a game in which I could fill my long-time deep fantasy of just being a Witch, living in a simple cabin in the woods, having a cute lesbian girlfriend, and just being carefree and not having to worry about much besides small community issues (and, yes, I did have this dream long before realizing I was a woman... oops). Since no game like that existed yet, I took it upon myself to create it.

Besides that, I also wanted a narrative game that could have combat easily if I wanted it to. After all, that is a part of a lot of TTRPGs, and while not needed for every story, I didn't like when games that had stories that could reasonably include combat didn't have a lot of rules for what happened when you got in a fight. While I'm better at fighting in completely narrative TTRPGs now, I'm still not as creative without a list of features and things I can do to guide me as other players can be, so although I've now seen games that make combat work without turns and Hit Points, I still think that my idea of wanting a system that has those for players like me who can get overwhelmed by the lack of direction in narrative games can be helpful.

Those were all the initial visions. I worked on the game for a few months before making a server for my friends to playtest the game. Since then, I've taken their suggestions, and improved and refined the game a lot. We've added three classes (Keeper, Mechanist, and Medium weren't original), a lot of features, I've reworked core mechanics several times. We've told good stories, even with the bugs and unfinished nature of the game. Playtest 2, which never even had a real campaign name, is one of my fondest TTRPG memories, the sweet and small story we created about the characters in that game always makes me happy when I remember it.

I've written pregenerated scenarios and others have run them. I've played through a friend's Shining-inspired one-shot. I think that this system can truly help you tell amazing stories, and, at the end of the day, that's all a TTRPG is supposed to do. It's my sincere hope that you'll enjoy it.

Closing

If any or all of those has interested you, please check out our Discord server at: https://discord.gg/b6cQ2hBRff or the game at: https://jstark25.itch.io

May you walk among the stars, Anna, Starry Witch