Witchcraft! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Historical Note
Components
Game Overview
Setup
Key Concepts
Playing the game
Ending the Game
Frequently Asked Questions

Historical Note

Witchcraft! is set in a fantasy world that was inspired by 17th and 18th century Europe and North America. Wildegrens is not a real location and players will recognize the villains and minions from the folklore of many different cultures–we took the liberty of bringing these together in a single place. In many cases the villains have different names in different cultures, and we chose this collection of villains to capture the historic fears of that time period: fear of the unknown, fear of privation, and fear of illness.

Our game world presents witches as forces of good that wield real magic. In reality the witch trials that swept Europe and North America were motivated by malice and ignorance resulting in the execution of tens-of-thousands of people, the vast majority of whom were women. In showcasing powerful women striving to protect their village, we as game designers hope to honor the memory of those who were persecuted. We do not intend to trivialize or rationalize the immense pain and suffering caused by the witch-hunts in early modern European and North American history.

Components

28 WITCH CARDS
3 PERSUASION MARKERS
24 MISSION CARDS
8 JUROR CARDS
12 CONVICTION CARDS
6 CURSE CARDS
60 CHALLENGE CARDS (40 linked to Juror + 20 Commons)
1 AID CARD
8 VILLAGER CARDS

Game Overview

Lead a coven of witches in their fight against the evils threatening Wildegrens. Over a series of rounds, you will undertake increasingly difficult missions. If you succeed, you will gain the persuasion you need to convince the village that magic can be a force of good. If you fail, you may lose the game. At the end of each round, you must choose to risk another mission or go to trial, hoping your persuasion over the jurors is enough.

This book describes the rules for the standard game. See the Tales of Wildegrens book for additional ways to play.

Setup

JURORS: Shuffle the 8 Juror cards and deal 3 face up into the Juror display. Place the remaining 5 Jurors back in the box.
PERSUASION: Place a Persuasion marker on the 1 space on each of the tracks on the Jurors in the display.

Adjusting difficulty: To make the game easier, you can place the Persuasion markers on the 2 spaces. To make the game harder, you can place them on the 0 spaces.
CONVICTION: Shuffle the 12 Conviction cards and deal 2 face down next to each Juror in the display. Place the remaining 6 cards next to the Jurors to form a face-down Conviction deck. Leave space for a face-up Conviction discard pile.
MISSIONS: Find the 3 Mission cards linked to each Juror in the display. Sort these 9 cards by their act and shuffle each set separately. Flip the 3 Mission cards from Act I (Unease) face up and place them in a row, forming the Mission display. Stack the 3 Mission cards from Act II (Concern) on top of the 3 from Act III (Terror) to form a face-down Mission deck.
CHALLENGES: Find the 5 Challenge cards linked to each Juror in the display. Shuffle these 15 cards together with the 20 common Challenge cards. Deal each Mission in the display a number of face-down Challenge cards equal to its Challenges value. Leave the remaining Challenge cards in a face-down Challenge deck. Leave space for a face-up Challenge discard pile.
VILLAGERS: Shuffle the 8 Villagers cards and leave them face down in a Villagers deck. Leave space for a face-up Lost Souls pile.
WITCHES: Find the 4 Witch cards marked with a Moon and place them back in the box. These Witches are only used for the additional play modes outlined in the Tales of Wildegrens book. Shuffle the remaining 24 Witch cards then use the following process to choose the 12 Witches in your Coven deck. Reveal two Witch cards. Choose one to the Coven deck and the other to add to the Recruit deck. Repeat this process until there are 12 cards in each deck then shuffle each one separately. Leave space for a face-up Coven discard pile and a face-up Jail pile.

For your first game: Choosing the Witches in your Coven deck is a key part of the game’s strategy but it can be tricky for new players. For your first game, you may wish to use the 12 Witches listed below instead. After this, try focusing on a few different families each game.

STARTING COVEN: Gwen Hayes, Jocelyn Hayes, Charlotte Kent, Jane Kent, Katherine Kent, Eleanor Lilly, Mercy Lilly, Sabrina Lilly, Hannah Miller, Mary Perrin, Amelia Stephens, and Phyllis Tancred.
CURSES: Shuffle 3 Curse cards into the Coven deck. Place the remaining 3 Curse cards into a face-up Curse pile.
STARTING HAND: Draw an initial hand of 5 cards from your Coven deck. Leave space for a Play Area in front of you.

Key Concepts

WITCHES

The Witch cards in your Coven deck, discard pile, hand, and play area are the active members of your coven. You will cycle through these cards as you play the game. When you reveal a Witch by using their magic, you will need to place them in the Jail pile. Witches in the Jail pile and the Recruit deck are not normally available to you, but can be added to your coven through special actions and effects. When a card tells you to recruit a Witch, draw the top card from the Recruit deck and place it into your Coven discard pile. When a card tells you to lose a Witch, place the indicated Witch card back in the box.

CURSES

Curses represent evil magic working against you. These cards are unusable and serve only to clutter up your Coven deck and hand as you draw and discard them. Some actions and effects allow you to remove a Curse from your hand and place it in the Curse pile. In contrast, if a card tells you to gain a Curse, take a card from the Curse pile and place it into your Coven discard pile.

If the Curse pile is empty when you are told to gain a Curse, you immediately lose the game.

If at the end of the round you draw a new hand with no Witches, you immediately lose the game.

MISSIONS

Missions are the locations and situations that your Witches must encounter to protect Wildegrens and win the game. Each round you will choose a Mission from the display. If you overcome the Mission, you will gain some benefits and reveal a new Mission. If you fail to overcome it, you will not reveal a new mission.

If you fail two Missions, you immediately lose the game.

CHALLENGES

Challenges provide additional threats and opportunities which you will uncover (flip face up) when you choose a Mission. Certain actions and effects may allow you to uncover them sooner.

FAMILIARS

Familiars are magical animals which can join your coven and help you win the game. They begin as Challenge cards but can be captured and placed into your play area. Captured Familiars provide you with the benefit indicated in the Familiar effect section of their card.

JURORS, PERSUASION AND CONVICTION

The Jurors in the display are the key members of the village that you need to convince during the trial in order to win the game. Each time you overcome a Mission, you will gain persuasion over one of the Jurors, moving the marker up their persuasion track. You can also gain and lose persuasion through other actions and effects in the game. To convince a Juror, your persuasion must reach or exceed their conviction, the total of the values on their Conviction cards. You will uncover (flip face up) these Conviction cards during the trial. Certain actions and effects may allow you to uncover them sooner.

VILLAGERS

The Villager cards represent the people of Wildegrens that you are trying to protect. When you are instructed to lose a Villagers card, draw a card from the Villagers deck. If you draw the 0 card, shuffle it back into the Villagers deck. You don’t lose any villagers. Otherwise, place the card face up into the Lost Souls pile.

If the total number of villagers on the cards in the Lost Souls pile is 5 or greater, you immediately lose the game.

Playing the game

The game is played over a series of rounds. Each round is divided into 6 phases. Perform each phase in the order indicated below.

PLAY WITCHES
CHOOSE MISSION
PLAY REMAINING WITCHES
RESOLVE MISSION
GO TO TRIAL?
RECOVER

The game continues until either you go to trial or you trigger one of the game’s loss conditions. See Ending the Game.

Playing Witches

There are two opportunities to play the Witches from your hand each round, during Phase 1 and Phase 3. You must play all these cards, including any additional cards drawn from special actions and effects. You may not choose to discard Witches or keep them in your hand for future rounds. You may never play the Curses from your hand.

When you play a Witch, you must choose to reveal them or to keep them hidden. Witches are more powerful when revealed but must be placed in Jail at the end of the round (Phase 6). Witches which are hidden remain in your coven to use in future rounds. To record your choice, place revealed Witches to the right of your play area and hidden Witches to the left. See the Setup diagram above.

After making this choice, you may perform the action indicated on the appropriate side of the Witch card. You are never required to perform the action. If the action has a requirement, you must meet it. If the action allows you to perform an effect multiple times, you can choose to do it less than the number specified.

As an example, consider Katherine Kent’s hidden action:

“For each Kent (including Katherine) in play, discard one Curse from your hand to the Coven discard pile then draw a card from the Coven deck to replace it.“

Assuming you have 2 Kent Witches in play (Katherine and one other), you may discard only 1 Curse and draw 1 replacement card (or no Curses and no replacements). You may not draw more replacement cards than the number of Curses you discarded.

Additional details about Witch actions can be found in the Frequently Asked Question section at the end of the rules.

Mission and Challenge Effects

There are four types of effects on Missions and their Challenges:

CHOSEN effects trigger when you choose the Mission (Phase 2).
NOT CHOSEN effects trigger when you choose another Mission (Phase 2).
SUCCESS effects trigger if you overcome the card (Phase 4).
FAILURE effects trigger if you fail to overcome the card (Phase 4).

Success and Failure effects on a card do not trigger if the card is discarded or removed from the game in any other way.

Cards may have multiple effects of different types. For example, the Possessed Challenge cards have a Success and a Failure effect. The Success effect will trigger if the card is overcome. If it is not, the Failure effect will trigger.

If multiple effects of the same type trigger at the same time, you choose the order in which they resolve.

Additional details about Mission and Challenge effects can be found in the Frequently Asked Question section at the end of the rules.

1. PLAY WITCHES

Play any number of Witches from your hand, resolving them one by one. See Playing Witches above.

2. CHOOSE MISSION

Choose one of the Missions in the face-up display then do the following:

Resolve any Not Chosen effects on Missions in the display which you did not choose.
Uncover (flip face up) all Challenges at the chosen Mission.
Resolve any Chosen effects on the chosen Mission and its Challenges.

3. PLAY REMAINING WITCHES

Play the remaining Witch cards from your hand, resolving them one by one. See Playing Witches above.

Remember! You must play all the Witch cards in your hand each round, including any additional cards drawn from actions and effects.

4. RESOLVE MISSION

This phase is broken into four steps.

A) DETERMINE AVAILABLE POWER

Total the power on all the Witches you’ve played this round and add it to any power produced by effects on Familiars in your play area. Use the revealed power for revealed Witches and the hidden power for hidden Witches. If the power includes a ‘*’, increase the value as indicated in the appropriate text box on the card.

Important! In the next two steps, you will use your available power to overcome Challenges (step B) and/or the chosen Mission (step C). You often won’t have enough power to overcome all of these cards so you will have to choose which are the most important.

B) OVERCOME CHALLENGES

Use your available power to overcome Challenges at the chosen Mission. Resolve Challenges one at a time, in any order you choose. You may choose to stop overcoming Challenges at any time, particularly if you want to overcome the Mission in the next step. You must stop if you don’t have enough power available to overcome any more Challenges.

To overcome a Challenge, perform the following steps:

Reduce your available power by an amount equal to the Challenge’s difficulty.
If the Challenge is a Familiar, place it in your play area. Otherwise, place it into the Challenge discard pile.
Stop applying any Chosen effects on the card.
Resolve any Success effects on the card.
Check all Witches and Familiars in play (particularly those with a ‘*’) to see if their power changes. Adjust your available power accordingly.

C) OVERCOME THE MISSION

If your remaining available power is equal to or greater than the chosen Mission’s difficulty, you have overcome it.

Resolve any Success effects on the card.
Gain persuasion over one Juror of your choice, tracking this change change with their Persuasion marker. If you choose the linked Juror, use the higher persuasion value indicated on the Mission card. If you choose another Juror, use the lower value.
Place the Mission card back in the box.

Any remaining available power is lost. You may not save it for the next round.

D) SUFFER THE AFTERMATH

If you failed to overcome any Challenge cards on the chosen Mission, resolve any Failure effects on these cards and then place them face up in the Challenge discard pile.

If you failed to overcome the chosen Mission itself, resolve any Failure effects on it and then flip it face down. You will have one less Mission to choose from for the remainder of the game.

Remember! You immediately lose the game if any of the following occur:

You fail 2 Missions.
The total number of villagers on the cards in the Lost Souls pile is 5 or greater.
You are told to gain a Curse when the Curse pile is empty.

5. GO TO TRIAL?

You must now decide if you want to continue taking on Missions or go to trial. If there are no Missions left in the display, you must go to trial.

If you choose to continue taking on Missions, move on to the next phase (Recover).
If you go to trial, see Ending the Game.

Be careful! If you choose to continue, you may overcome the next Mission and further persuade the Jurors, but you may instead lose the game. At some point, you will need to go to trial if you want to win!

6. RECOVER

Place the Witches in your play area face up into the appropriate pile. Place revealed Witches into the Jail pile. Place hidden Witches into the Coven discard pile. Keep any Familiars.

Place any Curse cards in your hand into the Coven discard pile.

Draw a new hand of 5 cards from the Coven deck. If the deck is empty and you need to draw a card, shuffle the Coven discard pile to form a new Coven deck and continue drawing. If the Coven discard pile is also empty, do not draw a card. It is possible that in later rounds your coven will be so small that you will not be able to draw a hand of 5 cards.

Remember! If you ever draw a new hand with no Witches during this phase, you immediately lose the game.

If you overcame the chosen Mission this round, draw the top card from the Mission deck and place it face up into the gap left in the display. If there are no cards left in the Mission deck, skip this step. Draw a number of cards from the Challenge deck equal to the new Mission’s challenge value and place these cards face down next to it. If there are no cards left in the Challenge deck, shuffle the Challenge discard pile to form a new deck.

Now begin a new round.

Ending the Game

The game can end in several ways.

You fail 2 Missions.
The total number of villagers on the cards in the Lost Souls pile is 5 or greater.
You are told to gain a Curse when the Curse pile is empty.
You drew a new hand with no Witches during Phase 6 (Recover).
A card effect tells you that you have lost.

Otherwise, the game ends in a trial. This happens if you choose to go to trial during Phase 5 or a card effect tells you to go to trial.

To resolve the trial, consider each Juror in the display one at a time. Uncover all Conviction cards on the Juror and total the values; then compare that total with the value indicated by the position of the persuasion marker on the Juror’s track.

If the Juror’s conviction is less than or equal to the persuasion, you have succeeded in convincing them.
If the Juror’s conviction is greater than the persuasion, you have failed to convince them.

Now look up the number of convinced Jurors in the table below to determine your result.

Convinced Jurors	Results
Three	Innocent (Victory): Your victory over the threats to the village convinces all the jurors of your righteousness. Your coven has been welcomed into the village.
Two	Not Guilty (Draw): Your valiant efforts against the threats to the village convince two of the jurors to reluctantly rule in your favor. The witches have been released from jail, but you all are still considered outcasts within the community.
One	Guilty (Minor Loss): Despite your efforts, you are only able to convince one juror to support your coven. The witch hunts continue, and your entire coven is imprisoned. Who will stop the supernatural threat now?
None	Evil Reigns (Major Loss): Your coven is unable to stop the supernatural threats from sweeping over the village.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if I run out of cards?

If you are told to “draw” or “look at” a card in a deck, and there are not enough cards left, shuffle the associated discard pile to form a new deck and then continue drawing or looking at cards. If there are still not enough cards, draw as many as you can. If you are told to “gain a curse”, and the Curse pile is empty, you immediately lose the game.

What happens when an action or effect tells me to discard a card?

It depends on the type of card you are told to discard. If it is a Witch or a Curse, place it face up into the Coven discard pile. If it is a Conviction card, place it face up in the Conviction discard pile. If it is a Challenge card, place it face up in the Challenge discard pile.

Is discarding a card the same as overcoming it?

No, discarding and overcoming are different. You only resolve Success effects on cards when you overcome them, not when you discard them. You may use actions or effects to discard Challenges when you have been prevented from overcoming them (for example, because of the effect on the Whip-poor-will). Overcoming only happens during Phase 4 (Resolve Mission), discarding can happen at many points in the round.

What happens when an action or effect tells me to remove a card from the game?

Place it back in the box. Do not put it into a discard pile. Do not resolve any Success or Failure effects on it.

What happens when an action or effect tells me to lose a card?

If it is a Witch, remove it from the game. If it is a Villager, place it into the Lost Souls pile.

What should I do when I am told to uncover a card?

Flip the card face up. If it is already face up, don’t do anything.

What does it mean when an action or effect talks about Witches which are “in play”?

A Witch card is considered “in play” after you’ve played it from your hand face up in front of you. Witches typically leave play during Phase 6 (Recover) but may leave play earlier due to Challenge and Mission effects. Witches in your hand, in decks, or in piles are not considered in play.

What does it mean when an effect talks about “revealed” or “hidden” Witches?

Each Witch card in play is either “hidden” or “revealed”, depending on the choice you made when you played it. Witch cards in your hand or in a deck or discard pile are not considered “hidden” or “revealed”.

If an action or effect tells me to draw a Witch card, do I need to play it this round?

Yes, you must play it. You cannot “hide” Witch cards in your hand or save them for the next round.

How do I get the Witches from the Recruit deck and Jail pile?

There are a few Witch actions and Challenge and Mission Success effects which tell you to recruit a Witch. When this happens, draw a card from the Recruit deck and place it into your Coven discard pile. There are also a few actions and Success effects which let you take Witches back from the Jail pile.

Do I need to overcome all Challenges at a Mission in order to win the Mission?

No, you don’t. In fact, you typically won’t be able to overcome the Mission and all of its Challenges. You need to choose which is more important!

Can overcoming Challenges increase my available power?

Yes, it can. Each time you overcome a Challenge, check to see if this impacts the power on any of the Witches or Familiars in your play area.

Is there a limit to how many Challenges can be at one Mission?

Yes, no more than 8 Challenge cards can be placed in each Mission. The highest Challenges value on a Mission is 6, but some actions and effects instruct you to add more Challenges to Missions or move Challenges between Missions.

Can I use Witch actions to affect Challenges in other Missions?

Yes, you can. You can discard, uncover, and move Challenges at any face-up Mission in the display, not just the one you’ve chosen (or will choose). You cannot, however, overcome Challenges on other Missions or move Challenges to a face-down (failed) Mission.

How do I deal with “blocking” Challenges like Angry Mob and Whip-poor-will?

You have two options. You can get rid of the blocking Challenge by overcoming, discarding, or moving it. Alternatively, you accept that you won’t overcome the Mission (Angry Mob) or the other Challenges on the Mission (Whip-poor-will). If a Mission has multiple blocking Challenges, you need to get rid of them all before you can overcome the “real” (non-blocking) cards!

Can I use Marie’s revealed action in Phase 1 to shut off an Non Chosen effect on a Mission you won't choose in Phase 2?

Yes, you can.

Can I use the Fox’s effect as soon as I capture it?

No, you can only use its effect when you choose a Mission in a future round.

How does Josephine’s revealed action interact with effects which boost difficulty?

Ignore the difficulty boosts. Only increase her power by the unmodified difficulty value printed on the discarded Challenge card. So if she discards a Skeleton card, don’t increase her power value for each hidden Witch in play. Similarly, don’t give her extra power if there is a Wood Sprites in play or the chosen Mission is “Destroy the Lost Soldier Camp at the Old Battlefield”.

What happens if all of a Juror’s conviction cards have been removed?

They have a conviction of 0.