I approached this product with extreme skepticism; most of the magic based games et in the modern world seem to rely too heavily on angst-ridden characters (and players) and rarely leave the impression that the characters have any reason to live. "Witchcraft", while not a happy-happy-joy-joy setting, places the assumes that the characters are interested in using their abilities to help save humanity from the coming bad times. While it would probably qualify as one of the "dark" role-playing games out there, "Witchcraft" actually gives the payers hopethat their efforts may actually contribute towards an attainable goal.
The setting is the modern world with the spin that magic, in a variety of forms, actually exists. These magical forms are split into religious magic and secular magic. Most of those with magical abilities, The Gifted, tend to belong in Covenants that have their own agenda and means of accomplishing missions. While most of the opponents are in the form of supernatural creatures, the possibility of an evil member of a covenant is quite strong.
The game system itself seems quite simple and playable. It is a point based system with attributes, skills and magical abilities. In order to gain more character points a player can introduce Drawbacks into his character. Skill rolls and combat seem straight forward with skills+attributes+dice-penalities being the means of determining success or failure. The only part that bothered me was the means of attaining game balance between those with magic abilities and those without. The fewer magical abilities a character has the more points he has to spend on character attributes and skills. While this probably prevents powergamers from running amok it does seem to be a sledgehammer method of character control.
Overall I found the game setting to be impressive and fun. A lot of thought went into this world and the presentation of the material makes it a fun read. If you are a fan of modern world magic this product is strongly recommended. At the very least it provides a nice world setting for a GM to use.
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
