Does anyone else remember this game? And, by "remember," I mean remember its advertisements from Dragon magazine?
I've looked into it and apparently, unlike other games I also saw advertised around the same time, Witch Hunt was actually released in 1983, along with an adventure module for it the following year. I've never seen it, but that's not unique to Witch Hunt. There are quite a lot of RPGs from the 1980s that whose existence I know only through advertisements.
At the moment, the barriers to creating and selling a new roleplaying game on some niche subject are lower than they've ever been. Back in 1983, putting together and selling even a slapdash RPG involved a significant outlay of time, effort, and money. That's why there were so comparatively few in number and nearly everyone I knew in my youth all played games selected from a fairly small constellation of games. It's also why I find myself strangely fascinated by the few weird little games like Witch Hunt that somehow made it to print and sale. Clearly, it didn't do very well or else we'd all likely remember it from more than its advertising, but I nevertheless have respect for its creators for having been willing to take a chance on bringing their dream project to fruition.
Saw it, and actually briefly owned it(!). It was a very odd duck, not just because of the limited scope, but because it seemed to pit the player witchfinders against the player witches. I'm not sure how well it worked in practice as I never played it and ended up eBaying it back in the day. I could also be misremembering the format of play, but I do remember having doubts about whether it was viable as anything more than a one-shot curiousity.
ReplyDeleteThat's my next collecting phase, all those weird one shots or minor game lines from back in the day that I never got to see, let alone try.
ReplyDeleteI just picked up a copy of Mach still in shrink at a very reasonable price. I'm considering doing an unboxing video of it, but have never done such a thing.
Yes, I remember seeing the advertisement, but there were other elusive games that interested me more, such as Neighborhood and Creeks & Crawdads. It would be nice if those could be released on PDF at least.
ReplyDeleteThis Creeks & Crawdads? https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1452473983350.pdf
DeleteNever seen a copy of this, but always wanted to. Thanks.
Delete“The players choose their sides” is an interesting throwback to roleplaying’s wargaming roots. It was surprisingly (to me, at least) common. As I recall, the FGU game Psi World did the same thing but with psychics and government agents; we played it once and immediately jettisoned that idea; we played the psychics and the GM handled the opposing agents. TSR’s Gangbusters also had that feature—criminals vs. law enforcement, in their case—as an option.
ReplyDeleteI remember being fascinated by all the small press RPGs that Dragon used to advertise. Witch Hunt certainly captured my attention. But the only one I actually owned was one that actually made it into my local game store: Valley of The Pharaohs, a boxed RPG set (obviously) in ancient Egypt.
ReplyDeleteIt was very historical. Rigidly so. Along with dice and rule book, it came with maps, pyramid diagrams, historical background and all the sorts of extras that RPG fans geeked out about. I never played it and eventually sold it at a game store for store credit. I wish I hadn’t. The last time I saw a copy for sale, it was $300!
The main reason it commands so much from collectors is that it's the first RPG released by Palladium Games, way back in their infancy as a company. Had a very small print run as well, so rare as hen's teeth these days.
DeleteI have a review of Valley of the Pharaohs here:
Deletehttps://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2023/02/1983-valley-of-pharaohs-role-playing.html
I remember the ads - now that you jogged my memory. I never saw the game "in the wild", as far as I can recall.
ReplyDeleteTim over at The Other Side has referenced it, I'm pretty sure...but I don't know that he's ever revealed much beyond that. His witch expertise would be a welcome perspective!
ReplyDeleteAh! Here we go...I think it's noted here BUT alongside acknowledging the oversight of having never reviewed it (maybe he has since then?)...
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/10/affliction-salem-1692-2017.html
It is only fitting that Tim would own this one.
Delete; )
Yup. Owned it and played it. But I have not talked much about it other than it being a neat curiosity.
Deletehttps://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2021/12/plays-well-with-others-man-myth-magic.html
The System Mastery podcast did an episode on it. They weren't very impressed if I remember rightly.
ReplyDeletenice art, in the ad
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain one of the Steve Jackson Games mags reviewed it when it came out, but if it was in The Space Gamer I'm unable to track down the specific issue. That was the year where The Fantasy Gamer existed as its own bi-monthly magazine, so most likely it was in one of those six issues.
ReplyDeleteWitch Hunt was reviewed by Jon Sutherland in issue 61 of White Dwarf magazine (January 1985), rating it a 5 out of 10 overall. Sutherland concludes the review by saying: "Witch Hunt is interesting in a limited way, in fact 'limited' is a good word to sum the game up.
Delete@T.G. Moore Interesting, that was a few issues before I started reading WD regularly. I can't recall what Steve Jackson's review of it had to say about the game, assuming I'm not just delusional about it existing.
DeleteIt took me a while, but finally I own a copy of Witch Hunt. Unfortunately, not sure where it is now as I want to review it.
ReplyDeleteThey apparently had it at Noble Knight at one time. It's out of stock now, but the page still exists.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147375047/Witch-Hunt
I hadn't realized it was a boxed set until I checked here.
My first issue of Dragon was #68 (Dec, ‘82). Man how I loved the ads for the cool-looking games (some of which I ended-up playing, but most not). But I’ll be damned if I remember seeing one for Witch Hunt. No idea how that one got by me?
ReplyDeleteI still own a copy, along with A Tyme of Darkness. It's an interesting curiosity, as others note it includes two opposing sides, the witches and the witch hunters. I think it would be logistically difficult to run with both "sides" at once, though; as someone noted, a similar situation applied with Psi World from FGU.
ReplyDeletei found a copy of this in junior high just sitting on a shelf in a classroom. nobody working at the school in 1990 knew where it came from, but they wouldnt let me "borrow" it either
ReplyDeleteGreat art. I've always wanted to play in a Solomon Kane type game.
ReplyDeleteSavage Worlds did a Kane game a while back. Big hardcover job with a full campaign included in it, and it did well enough to get a second campaign book later on, so pretty well-supported.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI have looked into the rights for publishing an updated version of this game, but so far have turned up nothing.
ReplyDeleteI found my copy of this game in a flea market in the mid-1990s, years and years after having seen the ads in back issues of Dragon (so the ads were already old when I read them -- i found my copy of 1st edition Chill the same way). As others have said, in practice the game is sort of a limited concept -- very focused on what Hite and Laws call the "core activity" -- either being a witch or being a magistrate. I think to get most out of it would require the GM and players to be buffs about the period, to give some variety to the proceedings (and some verisimilitude -- the game presents a very cartoonish version of colonial New England). For some reason I want to say that there was a second edition of this game, though I might be mistaken.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the ads for odd games like this one were a major factor in Dragon's appeal. Before the internet, it really was the central forum for what was going on in the hobby, even in a limited fashion.
I found Space Gamer quite a bit more useful for news and game reviews than Dragon, although the latter was better for D&D stuff (obviously). They dedicated a lot of page space to them, both big feature articles and hundreds of short capsule reviews. Early White Dwarf was also quite good, although that fell off sharply as time went by and they became more of a pure GW house organ.
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