Microgame of the Month: The Witch is Dead

 
Once upon a time, there was a kind and wise and beautiful witch who lived in the forest with her familiars, and her life was peaceful and happy until a FUCKING WITCH-HUNTER broke into her cottage and dragged her out and fucking MURDERED HER and now she’s DEAD. But: if you get revenge and kill him and bring his EYES to her corpse within a week she’ll come back to life. Or so you’ve heard. Even if it doesn’t work, at least he’s dead.
 
You are a cute woodland animal. You have four traits:
 
CLEVER (interact with humans and human culture)
FIERCE (scare, lift, push, carry, claw, bite)
SLY (sneak, steal, hide)
QUICK (outpace, climb, evade)
 
SYSTEM:
Roll a d10, add your relevant trait, and try to beat the task number. 
6 - Simple
7 - Basic 
8 - Challenging 
9 - Difficult 
10 - Nearly impossible
 
GM: remember to divide tasks into smaller parts. Some tasks remain impossible, as you’re animals. You can talk to other animals of the same or similar species.
 
Take turns to act. You can’t act twice in a row.
Enemies don’t roll dice – they force you to roll dice.
 
If the task is dangerous, you are gain a point of danger if you fail. Using magic is always dangerous. If you roll equal to or under your current danger, you’re out of the game. You can lower your danger by running away or solving the problem.
 
Animal types
  1. FOX (C2 F2 S1 Q1)
  2. CAT (C0 F1 S3 Q2)
  3. TOAD (C1 F1 S2 Q1)
  4. SPIDER (C2 F0 S3 Q1)
  5. OWL (C3 F1 S1 Q2)
  6. HARE (C0 F0 S2 Q3)
  7. MAGPIE (C2 F1 S1 Q2)
  8. CROW (C2 F1 S2 Q2)
  9. DOG (C1 F3 S0 Q1)
  10. RAT (C1 F0 S2 Q2)
 
Spells
  1. Unseen hand
  2. Conjure Light 
  3. Speak Human (d6 words)
  4. Lock/Unlock, Open/Close
  5. Conjure Snack
  6. Make Flame
  7. Tidy, Clean and Mend
  8. Plant Growth
  9. Distract/Confuse
  10. Make Book Read Itself Aloud
 
The village is (roll twice, re-roll doubles):
  1. Under the thumb of the baron
  2. Filled with cheery gnomes
  3. Controlled by a cult
  4. Devoutly religious
  5. Incredibly superstitious
  6. At war with forest tribes
  7. Built around a wizard college
  8. Full of hardy mining folk
  9. Shady and dangerous
  10. Oppressively perfect
 
The witch-hunter is:
  1. Armoured and tough
  2. Wizened and wise
  3. Drunk and violent
  4. Pious and aggressive
  5. Guarded and cowardly
  6. Magical and jealous
  7. Clever and cruel
  8. Duplicitous and hidden
  9. Jolly and well-meaning
  10. Headstrong and wild
 
The twist:
  1. The village are in on it
  2. A rival witch set her up
  3. The witch hunter didn’t do it
  4. The witch hunter is waiting for you
  5. The village folk are having a festival
  6. The witch-hunter died, and is being buried
  7. There are two (rival) witch-hunters in town
  8. The village is abandoned for some reason
  9. The witch-hunter has dragged a suspect up for questioning
  10. The village hate the witch-hunter

 

WHO MADE THIS?

Rowan, Rook and Decard are a London-based RPG company comprising of Mary Hamilton, Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor. They’re most famous for their free monthly one-page RPGs (such as Honey Heist, Crash Pandas and Jason Statham’s Big Vacation) and Spire, a fantasy-punk game of dark elf insurrection in a mile-high, high-elf-controlled nightmare city. For more information (and over 20 free games) go to rowanrookanddecard.com.

 

This game originally appeared as Microgame of the Month in the January 2019 issue of Tabletop Gaming. Pick up the latest issue of the UK's fastest-growing gaming magazine in print or digital here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.