The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG

by Cody Pondsmith

idea of two outlooks inter-

  were all Cidarin citizens and after their town crimes, lynchings, and vandalism are ram-

  acting. They aren’t there to

  was wiped out by Nilfgaardians, they band- pant in backwater towns. Even in the capi-

  show your players how they

  ed together to hunt down and kill the gen- tals of the Northern Kingdoms mass purges

  should act. If you push it too

  eral who ordered the attack. Maybe one of are not unheard of. The Witcher TRPG rep-

  far, the players will kill the

  your players was cursed by a sorceress and resents this through your social standing, a character and leave them in

  has hired the other players to escort them status that you get at birth with your race.

  a ditch.

  as they look for a way to undo the curse. If This explains how the average human popu-

  you want high stakes, tie your plot to a king- lace of a settlement will deal with you.

  dom or the war. Your players could be an-

  Barring strange circumstances,

  archists or even Scoia’tael who are plotting dwarves are tolerated, which means that the assassination of a northern monarch, or humans will general y stomach your pres-maybe working as spies for Nilfgaard. No ence; it only becomes a problem if you cause

  matter what plot you pick for your game, a disturbance or are in the wrong place at

  remember that The Witcher is not The Lord the wrong time.

  217

  Witchers are feared, which means towns-

  The world of The Witcher can be,

  folk will actively avoid them— anyone who messy, difficult, and bloody. Never let your

  is forced to deal with them will try to cut players get off with an obvious answer to a

  their dealings short quickly. Elves, however, difficult question. Make them compromise.

  having been less than friendly in the years If your whole party gets caught up discuss-

  before the Nilfgaardian War, are hated. ing the ethical ramifications of what they’re Most people view elves as lesser beings. In about to do then you’ve done a good job.

  most places, the risk of hate crimes nearly

  doubles; in backwaters it’s wisest to hide

  your heritage.

  Nothing Is Ever As It Seems

  Witcher stories are rarely as simple as they

  first appear. Most times you will get halfway

  through a story thinking one thing before a

  plot twist sends you in exactly the opposite

  direction. A mission to wipe out a group of

  bandits plaguing a town may turn out to be

  a death sentence for a band of war refugees

  who refused to pay a toll to the town alder-

  man.

  In a good Witcher game your play-

  ers should go in with one concept and leave

  with another. Nothing is black and white.

  Always look for twists and mysteries that

  will make your players question if they’re

  on the right side. Keep your players on their

  toes. Send them out with a basic mission

  that unravels into a grand mystery as they

  travel (or kill) their way across the country-

  side. You can tempt your players by putting

  especial y good loot or something they re-

  al y want at the end of the trail of clues and

  leaving hints along the path. Later in this

  section we’ll go into how to set up a good

  mystery so you can keep it all straight and

  keep your players guessing.

  No Question Is Easily

  Answered

  The Witcher world is not a nice neat little

  world where the right answer is obviously

  apparent the minute the question is asked.

  In many cases there isn’t even a “right” an-

  swer. Players must often choose between

  two answers that both seem equal y “right”

  or “wrong”. They may make mistakes that

  haunt them for the rest of their lives.

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  Life’s Hard. Enjoy it!

  As a GM it’s important to remem-

  By now you’ve probably noticed that the ber that while the world of The Witcher is a Witcher TRPG is fairly ruthless. Gear is dark, grim, and deadly place, achieving hap-expensive and life is cheap. That’s because piness is possible. Players can find someone

  that’s what The Witcher is. It’s deadly and to love, settle down, and have a happy fami-unforgiving. The economy is such that a ly. But it doesn’t come without a price. Hap-

  simple throwing knife costs you an arm and piness should always be out there for your

  a leg, and you may lose an arm and a leg get- players to reach for, and if they get it that ting the money to buy that throwing knife. doesn’t mean that the game ends and noth-The world is hard-edged and rough, but this ing more can be done. Once you’ve achieved

  makes the happy moments all the sweeter. happiness you have to protect it. You have to

  After a long day of death and destruction, defend everything you care about from the

  an almost normal home or a genuinely lov- ravages of this war-torn world. Even if your

  ing embrace can be the greatest reward in players discover happiness, make them fight

  the world. The brightest of the few shining for it. Have monsters attack their homes,

  lights in The Witcher are friendship and soldiers try to take their families. Make it love. These two things make the grim slog clear that they can have a happy life but it

  through life worth it.

  won’t be without cost.

  Healing, Or Got Any Twos?

  Not only is the Witcher TRPG more gran-

  ularly brutal with the introduction of crit-

  ical damage, but healing is handled more

  realistical y. While there are potions to heal

  Health Points, either temporarily or perma-

  nently, the natural healing process (espe-

  cial y of critical wounds) goes fairly slowly.

  It’s good to remember two things

  when running a Witcher game. First off, try

  to make sure that your players are always

  within at most a day of a doctor or a mage.

  This way if they screw up horribly and get a

  punctured lung, they have a chance. How-

  ever, if your players knowingly venture far

  from anyone who could help them, then it’s

  more or less on their own heads. Secondly,

  remember to make room for healing. In the

  Witcher books, Geralt spends a fair amount

  of time healing—extended periods in a

  temple doing nothing but healing. If your

  players all sustain internal organ damage

  or have broken limbs, give them some time

  to heal so they aren’t crippled for the rest of

  their adventure. You can either “time skip”

  (“Wel , you guys spend a few weeks heal-

  ing”) or you can actively play out some of

  that time, allowing players to bond, plan, or

  perhaps seduce their caretaker.

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  Encounters

  When setting up an encounter in the threat categories: Easy, Medium, and Hard.

  Witcher TRPG always remember: more

  Parties With No

  Each category is split into Simple, Com-

  is better. Rarely will you ever be attacked plex, and Difficult to show just where on Witcher

  by one monster. Usually they swarm. If the spectrum the beasts are. For most par-

  You may be running a party

  you’re lucky you’ll only be attacked by ties you can play it like this:

  t
hat doesn’t have a witcher.

  three monsters, but most times it’s five

  For every medium monster you

  In this case you may want

  or six. So here’s an equation to remember put into your encounter take out three easy to start with 1 monster per

  when sending enemies (monster, human- monsters.

  player to gauge how your

  oid, or otherwise) after your players:

  Unless your players are proven ba-

  players do. Monsters have

  dasses, don’t put a hard monster in with any

  resistance to steel weap-

  Number of Monsters =

  other monsters. A party of five or fewer can

  ons which means your

  Players + 2

  take one hard monster.

  non-magical players will be

  You can scale monster encounters

  doing half damage no mat-

  Plan on at least one monster per person in more using the complex or difficult monter what. This also applies

  your party. If you’re running an encounter sters from each threat category.

  to parties that are less com-

  with one person, put in at least three mon-

  bat-oriented. If you have a

  sters. This number of monsters will gen- For Example: My three players (Joe, Felicia,

  bard, a merchant and two

  eral y be good for your players until they and Mark) walk into a crypt in Temeria and

  priests you may want to start

  get stronger. Eventual y, your players will are set upon by ghouls! There are three of

  with 1 monster per player to

  get relic weapons and they’ll be throwing them, so 5 ghouls lunge out of the shadows!

  gauge how well they do be-

  around enough dice to one-shot small mon- That’s 1 per person plus 2, and assuming they

  fore throwing the full horde

  sters. At that point you can raise the num- have silver weapons it shouldn’t be that tough at them.

  ber per person, and chances are your players for them. However, after resting up a bit they will love it. What’s more badass than three travel deeper into the crypt and find another heroes taking down 20 enemies? Not a lot.

  group of monsters! This time they are facing

  You may want to throw large mon- a grave hag! Once again, this shouldn’t be too

  sters into your game, and that works just hard if the players are relatively skil ed and fine, but not using the same numbers. If you have silver weapons. But seeing as the grave throw eight fiends at four starting players, hag will take more of their focus, there will they are gonna be toast in no time. In the only be two ghouls there as well, rather than Witcher TRPG, monsters are split into three a horde.

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  Monster Ratings

  One more thing to remember when setting

  up a Witcher encounter: monsters are not

  Easy

  very good at working together. If your

  Simple

  Complex

  Dif icult

  players stumble into a nest of nekkers while

  Bandits

  Scoia’tael Archers

  Wraiths

  being chased by wolves, the nekkers and

  Drowners

  Nekkers

  Ghouls

  wolves will not team up to fight the players

  Wolves

  Sirens

  Endrega

  together. In general, whenever you have

  two different types of monsters in the same

  Medium

  encounter with players, the battle turns

  Simple

  Complex

  Dif icult

  into a free-for-al . Each turn, any monster

  Mages

  Grave hags

  Noonwraiths

  not being attacked or actively attacking will

  attack the closest thing to them. The only

  Werewolves

  Rock trolls

  exception to this is intelligent monsters,

  who will attack whatever set them off or

  Hard

  looks most dangerous.

  Simple

  Complex

  Dif icult

  Golems

  Grif ins

  Fiends

  Wyverns

  Arachasae

  Katakans

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  Rewards

  Recipes

  Diagrams & Formulae can

  be realy great loot for a

  You have to face it, loot is a big part of Recipes

  large party or a party with a

  any game. Treasure and the looting of Among the best things you can find when

  craftsman. One recipe for a

  dead bodies for money, armor, weapons, sacking a bandit lair or looting a dead mer-

  powerful weapon or a useful

  and magic items is the benign obsession chant on the road are diagrams and formu-

  item like a bomb or trap can

  of most gamers, both tabletop and video. lae. Take the right materials to a crafter and open up a lot of doors for the

  And never fear, there is still loot in the they can make you some real y awesome

  party. Now they can prepare

  world of The Witcher! But it’s a bit differ- stuff. If you have a crafter in your party, they the whole party with pow-ent.

  can use them nearly on the fly if they have

  erful weapons, armor, and

  the tools. Just like magic items, however,

  Gold, i.e. Crowns

  gear which can turn the tide

  powerful diagrams should be doled out over

  in dangerous bat les.

  This may be where you get a bit sad. Crowns, time.

  the coin of the day, are not common. The

  rich are rich and the poor are poor—pain- Interesting Items

  ful y so. This means looting a group of With intelligent enemies, you’ll find a lot of

  bandits you and your party just killed may personal items on whoever you are looting.

  net only 70 crowns, tops. When the cheap- This stuff doesn’t have to be important, but

  est longsword costs 160 crowns, 70 is not it should be interesting. After al , think about much. While you may find some cash, loot what would happen if somebody killed you

  in the world of The Witcher means items. right now and rifled through all your pock-You may find 5 crowns on a guy, but also a ets.

  great sword or a couple of potent alchemical

  In my case, my assassin would find

  items.

  $4.91 in change, my wallet, two phones, a

  pen, a jack knife, some keys with dog tags

  Magic Items & Relics

  from other people, a public transit card,

  Witcher magic items range from pretty good movie ticket stubs, and dice of all shapes to truly insane. It’s always a good idea to and sizes. Not much money (and only one

  study the statistics of each item before you usable weapon) but a lot of interesting items

  give it to your players. If you decide to hand with story. If they went through my wallet,

  your players the legendary sword Cleaver it’d get even more interesting as they found Hood for killing a bandit on the road to Te- a library card, a science center membership meria, that better be a plot-related item be- card, some I.D. info, an All United States

  cause it’s way too much power to give some- Kendo Federation card, more movie stubs,

  one for killing a lone bandit.

  and a punch card to a piroshky restaurant.

  Dole out magic items over time. You gotta admit, I’d be a pretty intriguing

  Unlike many other fantasy games, magic corpse.

  and relic weapons are not commonplace.

  Despite the fact that you creat-

  You usual y can’t
buy them at a marketplace; ed them for a purpose in the game world,

  they require adventure and effort to get. But every body your players loot is a person.

  once you get them it’s very worth it. Not They had a life. It’s always cool to have some

  only do people take notice, but 24 points of indicators of what they were like, and it’ll

  average damage, Stamina regeneration, and give your players a sense that the world has

  a 20% bleeding chance isn’t bad either.

  depth. If you want varied possessions, use

  the Random Possessions table on pg.223.

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  Monster Bits & Twine

  Looting Monsters: On solitary monsters,

  Last but not least, your players will collect you’re most likely to only find parts of the

  a lot of components and ingredients, oth- monster or small bits of loot mentioned in

  erwise known as ‘monster bits and twine’. its bestiary entry. However, that changes for

  Almost every monster you can kill in The intelligent monsters and monster dens.

  Witcher can be used for something, be it in-

  fused dust for a bomb or a delicious bowl Intelligent Monsters: Besides the usual

  of drowner brain soup. When players kill a useful monster bits, it’s good to put a few

  monster you can refer to its bestiary page trinkets and favorite objects of the monster

  to see what useful parts you can cut, gouge, on or around it. For most monsters, though,

  or tear from its corpse. It’s a gruesome job, there won’t be many. Roll 1d6 to see how

  but somebody’s gotta do it and you’ll be glad many items the monster owns, then roll on

  you did.

  the Random Possessions table to see what

  Monster parts are helpful to craft a they are (or decide). Even intelligent mon-

  lot of potions. It’s best not to tear humans sters don’t usual y carry crowns, armor, or

  and elderfolk apart for alchemical materials. weapons. They might have diagrams.

  Nothing on a person is real y all that use-

  ful for alchemy, however they do often have Monster Dens: In a monster den you have a twine, cloth, and other crafting materials bit more room to experiment. The monsters

  on them. Tearing down even cheap clothes themselves may not carry items on them,

  gives you stuff you can use.

  but they often have the bodies of travellers

  or adventurers in their caves. Roll 1d6 for