I recently started a role playing group and was looking for a game to run. The players were familiar with various iterations of AD&D and a few had played Shadowrun. We needed a game that five or six people could play at a time, with simple rules and an approachable campaign milieu. By simple in this case I mean something that people could start playing almost immediately, and by approachable I mean a setting that could be grasped without each player having to read the rules before play. I purchased Witch Hunter: The Invisible World (WH), and we have since played a number of times. Other reviewers have done thorough jobs of describing the rule system so I thought I might touch on how the game actually plays with a group such as ours. .

The Game World

            Briefly, WH is set in a mildly ahistoric version of 1689. The game world includes familiar cities like London and Boston but allows the existence of magic and the supernatural. Creatures are of the “traditional” variety- entities that might be found in folklore and literature prior to the twentieth century. Examples include vampires, were creatures, ghosts and of course witches. The authors have gone to some trouble to include a very detailed alternative history to describe how magic, occult events and entities can coexist in historical Europe and the New World. In our gaming sessions the players showed virtually no interest in these details- they suspended disbelief easily and just ran with the basic premise. This was a promising early development. Eventually several players did buy their own copies of the rules but at our first game they were all able to jump into the game immediately.

The Game Session

            Our players began the session in the Massachusetts colonial governor’s office. They were introduced to a peddler who claimed that an angel had appeared in Western Massachusetts and taken up residence in a small town. The governor was concerned about the potential for social unrest if the story broke and the players were dispatched to investigate. This was our first game and I designed it as a “road movie” of sorts, in which main point of the game was the various challenges confronted along the route to some arbitrary destination.

            The players joined a convoy of wagons heading to Springfield. Included in the convoy were two families with children of various ages, a shifty merchant, and a sailor with his slave. The players began to talk with the NPCs and we got to see how social abilities worked. We found the social skills to be pretty useful, specifically skills like Intimidate, Charm and Empathy (to assess whether someone is telling the truth). It may have been the players or the setting but I felt like investing in social abilities was much more productive in WH than in previous systems we had tried.  The players charmed the farm families, discovered the merchant had a hidden agenda or secret, and found that the sailor was harmless but had a secret of some sort. They got nothing from the slave which should have tipped them off that he was more than he appeared.

            The next period of play followed the group into the wilderness of western Massachusetts. Along the way they set up scouting routines for the two characters with outdoor skills, encountered a human figure made of twigs hanging by the side of the road and discovered that they are being followed by an unknown party. This allowed us to run through some more skill checks and see how the system for successes played out. The game rules allows you to roll a number of dice based on your skill level and the value of its associated attribute. In theory then a very weak person with good melee skills could roll the same number of dice as a strong person with low melee skills. Each time you roll a target number or higher it’s counted as a “success.” Harder tasks require more successes, and when obtaining information one gets more data with more successes. This mechanic led to many tense and amusing episodes. The players “Notice” they are being followed but roll so poorly that they have no idea who or what is pursuing them. The players examine the twig figure and I roll secretly on their occult knowledge skills. They all fail so I tell them it’s a hex charm from Prussia.

            One issue that began to creep in at this point in the game is that specialists will tend to outshine characters who have purchased a variety of skills of lower level. One player found himself frustrated that he could get a success or two in many situations, but one of the other players would outshine him because they had concentrated in that skill. It became clear that the jack-of-all-trades character is unsatisfying in WH.

            Over the next portion of the game the players attempted to pin down the people following them, and over the night the camp was roused when one of the farm wives saw a ghost. In the former area the players with outdoor skills really shone as they racked up heaps of successes in tracking and stealth. They succeeded in locating a band of native Americans who were following the convoy in order to buy alcohol from the merchant. The twig figure was simply a marker to let the merchant know it was time to get the goods ready for sale. The characters with social skills then jumped in and intimidated the merchant into giving them a cut of the profits. In the latter subplot the more charming characters were able to interrogate the farm families and discover that the ghost was actually one of the teens, off in the woods with a teen from the other family, doing what teens do, and dressed for the occasion. Again we got to see a nice variety of skills in play and most of the characters had something useful to add. And again, the more specialized characters typically accomplished more, and with more panache.

            In the final portion of the adventure the players stumble across an isolated inn overlooking a lake. Several of the players have received premonitions of this area, frightening dreams, waking doused in cold water, so they recognize that this is probably a sinister location. They stop for the night and search the rooms only to discover a hidden basement and signs that travelers have been murdered in their sleep. Finally we got some straight forward combat. In this setting we found that WH could really deliver. The rules allow for detailed opponents as well as “minions,” which are larger numbers of mildly dangerous opponents. Minions can be created and documented in seconds and are easy to manage. The more detailed opponents take a bit more time but the rules include numerous examples, sample creatures and opponents of all sorts, as well as a structured point system for creating unique villains. In this first game I was able to create a witch with powers and her husband, an unusually skilled mercenary, with no difficulty.

            Our combat involved six player characters taking on the witch, her husband, and a pack of hounds. It ran smoothly and simply despite the fact that none of us had played before. Once again we saw different player specialties come into use, in this case the scouts were less in the spotlight while the veteran soldier was able to shine. We found the system walked the line well between instant mortality and having the encounter drag on interminably. As an aside, our first game was played without miniatures, future games used minis and benefited hugely.

            The game wrapped up with entry into the Western Massachusetts town in question. The group discovers that the angel is dead- stabbed by a local with a rusty knife. The local is in prison, the angel was buried. The sailor discovers that his deed for a coal mine is a fake and leaves town in a fury, his slave trailing behind him. When the players encounter that pair repeatedly they may begin to wonder.

            In conclusion we were very happy with our first game, and with the games which followed. We liked WH’s accessible milieu. We felt that the game system was fluid and easy to use. Character generation was simple and interesting, and includes a variety of details designed to play up the concept of fighting demons and harmful supernatural entities. From the game master’s perspective I felt like the supporting pages were quite helpful and allowed me to roll out NPCs and monsters with ease.

            We did find that one needs to use some care in character creation. A concise image of the target character is helpful in order to keep your choices focused. There are a lot of choices with regards to special abilities and talents and we would advice players to take their time, or even go back and make adjustments, in order to make an effective character. We also found that the rules can be slightly tricky to navigate and maybe not entirely proofread.  Just be prepared.

            Overall the game has been a hit. Our group has gone and picked up additional copies of the rules since we started playing. We’ve also invested in some miniatures, primarily from Conquest and Mega-minis, as well as Worldworks cardstock terrain. We would recommend WH highly to experienced and novice role players alike.