Witch Hunter: A Child’s Game

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a-childs-game[1]Introductory adventure, also legal for Dark Providence shared campaign play.

By Megan Robertson

Publisher’s blurb: “A child, blessed by the Almighty with visions to aid the fight against the foul Adversary, has been spiritually assaulted by vicious devils of all sorts. Taken to the famed Court of Whispers, birthplace of the accord, Witch Hunters from throughout Europe have attempted to aid her to no avail. The characters are compelled to follow her visions across the ocean to the New World. Can they triumph against the forces of the Adversary before the veil between worlds is torn asunder and devils walk the earth? This introductory adventure represents an ideal starting place for any Witch Hunter campaign.”

Megan’s Review

Designed as an introductory adventure to start both players and characters off playing Witch Hunter, the book begins with some sage advice on building groups of characters who will be able to work together credibly from the outset, as this is what you’ll need for a game such as this. There are also suggestions for how, once you have built a group of individual characters that can cooperate, you get them together as a party.

Next comes the adventure background and details of the main adversary that the characters will face. They are going to be thrown right into the world of Witch Hunter, dealing with an acolyte of one of the Twelve Penitents whose visions will start their mission off, visions that draw the characters from wherever they are to the Court of Whispers beneath Westminster Abbey in central London! An NPC to help get them there is included, as is a wealth of background detail about London in 1689. This covers all manner of topics giving a good feel for life and society, both covert and overt, as well as notable places and people.

We then move on to the adventure proper, with the characters visiting the Court of Whispers. There’s lots of detail that will enable you to set the scene, now or any other time your characters visit the Court. From then on in, events follow fast and furious all over London, culminating in discovering the need to journey to the New World.

Here again the scene is set vividly, highlighting the sheer difficulty of establishing a foothold in unknown, unexplored country and the many superstitions held by those attempting to do so. Throughout, there is information to gather and people to interact with, as well as supernatural dangers (and mere mortals) to combat. Whilst there is a lot to get through, it’s tightly linked and flows well. By the time the adventure is done, the characters will have a good knowledge of several notable locations and some of the more important – at least as far as witch-hunting is concerned – people to be found there… and should have defeated (at least for now) a major threat.

Overall, it is an exciting and informative adventure, tightly scripted and indeed providing a good introduction to this game and setting. There are a few typos but little to complain in what is a clear presentation of a great deal of information. You’ll need to read it all through several times to have it at your fingertips when it is time to play… but if the players are not begging for more, well, this isn’t the game for them! An excellent campaign starter, never mind introductory adventure. Happy witch-hunting!

Book Details:
Author: Rucht Lilavivat
Publishers’ Reference: PCI2403
ISBN: 978-1-931374-38-5
Paperback, 64 pages
Date: September 2008

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