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Princess Lucinda and the Wand Witch
by Christopher S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/21/2024 03:35:01

I've been a big fan of the Princess Lucinda character in the past, a wicked 12-year old magical princess that uses her vast magical powers to rid herself of all the annoying humans that are unlucky enough to cross her path. What I really loved about the two previous graphic novels, "Black Rose of the Empire" and "Princesses in the City" is that they combined a ton of black humour (Lucinda transforming the "peasants" around her in all kinds of things, from two-headed toads to lollipops, never gets old) with actually interesting characters. Lucinda is by no means a good person - she destroys people's life for fun basically, and can be quite arrogant - but not only is she pretty funny, her relationships with her kinder older sister and her best friend Katelyn can actually be pretty touching and serve well to humanize her character her little.

Sadly, I found this continuation of the series rather disappointing. Not only does it not serve as a direct sequel to the story set up in the previous two graphic novels, instead choosing to just skip over the conclusion of that storyline (and SPOILER ALERT informing us at the start that Katelyn was killed in that offscreen conclusion, which I did not like at all - she was one of the most likable characters and just a kid!), but it also switches formats to an actual novel. I don't think that change was for the best. I found myself missing the comic book format, which to me fits the tone and style of the story a lot better, and I have to honestly say that I wasn't very impressed with the writing, which to me felt a little bland and lacked the wit of the previous entries.

In fact, what this story mostly lacked was the enjoyable dark humor I really appreciated about Lucinda and her world. The story introduces a likable new character, Ari, who has come to America to escape her home country. Ari is quite sympathetic and basically this is her story, but to be honest, she kind of feels a little too much like Katelyn as a character, just with the added cultural background of being a muslim. The novel actually tackles quite serious issues and is at times hard to read - the characters have to deal both with American white supremacist groups as well as nationalist, misanthropic Arabs, and there are sections where Ari basically gets tortured by them!

While I find it amiable that the writers try to tackle issues like that, I'm not sure the Princess Lucinda series is the best place for these topics. It's hard to enjoy the black humor in Lucinda turning an annoying kid at school into a snail when most of the novel deals with actual real-life violence and horror, which led to a lot of tonal whiplash while reading. Weirdly enough, despite Lucinda usually using her powers against mostly innocent people, the actually horrible, racist and murderous people depicted in this story mostly get away with comparatively tame fates.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Princess Lucinda and the Wand Witch
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Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
by Bob V. G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/27/2023 14:47:52

Witch Girl Adventures Rule Book (194 pages, on sale at DriveThruRPG) was designed for a magic school girl setting, or a Harry Potter setting. I used this as my RPG with a D & D setting. I did change some of the rules so that I could simplify the character sheets. I used the first adventure in the product Wyvern Songs (also at DriveThruRPG, 110 pages). To solo this, I used The Trials of a Young Wizard (48 pages, same place) with a yes/no/maybe oracle. I created four PCs, a male fighter, and a black cat for Ann the necromancer. This cat can look into your soul and know your deepest, darkest secret. He is hoping to learn how to speak so that he can blackmail his victims.

The adventure started when the mayor of Nanlet paid the PCs to investigate the problem at the lighthouse. Once inside they went up and then down. The first trap that they encountered gave the fighter a severe neck wound. As he was dying, Ann told him her plans for making him into a zombie (she is still first level though, so that is a problem). The first monster they encountered was a giant fire beetle. Kyla used her alteration magic to make it smaller. Anya, the mentalist, used her frying pan to smash the bug. They did have a problem with the insect swarm and the Skitterlord. They used oil to start a fire. It did kill the two pests, but it also destroyed the lighthouse (Oops!).

The PCs tried to disappear into the sunset, but they were intercepted by four older witches. “We know what you did. You did not complete the job. Four thieves escaped. Use this magical device to find them and then kill them.” The black cat looked into the eyes of the witches and was terrified. “The cost for destroying the lighthouse is this cat.” The ugliest witch scooped up the cat and put it in a bag. The PCs continued their journey and did survive the covered pit trap. Later they set up camp and slept for 90 minutes. They were attacked by five kobolds, my dice kicked me in the butt, and the PCs were captured by the kobolds (how embarrassing). Everyone then slept and in the morning the PCs were in charge of fixing breakfast. Anya did cook it, the PCs pretended to eat it, and the kobolds suffered from food poisoning. The PCs took the kobolds’ weapons, tied them up, and left them behind.

At dusk, the PCs watched as the thieves climbed up some ivy vines into the second story of a mansion. There was a party going on the ground floor. The PCs climbed up and the fight started. Three of the PCs went down, and Ann was captured. They were tied up and left up there on the second floor. A ginger cat came in wearing a necklace labeled, “Princess”. It watched them, waiting for them to give pets and compliments. Ann looked into its eyes and Ginger became Ann’s new pet. Ginger used its sharp claws and freed the PCs. They exited the mansion and spent the night in a farmer’s barn. They gave up on the idea of killing the thieves. At one time they had 542 gold pieces, but the thieves took all of their gold.

Give this a try!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
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Hexengeddon
by Maria S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/19/2022 19:14:10

If the punk band the Runsways wrote an RPG, this would be it!

A love gamebooks that are artistically beautiful, but this game is more than that, it says something about what's going on in the world along with simple rules.

If you want something different, fun, and meaty then this is the game for you.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Hexengeddon
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Witch Girls Adventure Rule book 2nd edition
by Maria S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/17/2022 12:31:33

Witch Girls Vol. One has always been a favorite of mine and the kids I run games for,

This version is bigger, beautiful, and brighter. While a lot of it is just expanded there are a few new gems and I appreciate the fact it still contained the best magic system ever!

Thank you for what is still the best all-agess Tabletop RPG, ever!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventure Rule book 2nd edition
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Hexen: The herstory of witches, the world's oldest sorority
by Dax M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/14/2022 12:25:33

After buying the Hexengeddon RPG I purchased this and I found it a fun read. It reminds me of the Wizardology books, only it's about witches.

Well done.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Hexen: The herstory of witches, the world's oldest sorority
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Hexengeddon
by Dax M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/14/2022 12:22:57

My girlfriend isn't into medieval fantasy. She hated Game of Thrones and Lord of the rings, and I've been spending a lot of time looking for something TTRPG related for her. She does like modern fantastic media like Discovery of witches, Orphan Balck, Marvel movies, and Supernatural. I heard of Hexengeddon, and I thought I would give it a look before handing it over to her.

The best way I can describe it is if Tank Girl or the girl from "Girl with a dragon Tatto" were witches in modern times fighting against the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers and whatever other right-wing group out there, including the religious right. This game isn't for everyone. The fact is, I can see this game angering a lot of people. But the publisher knows this and makes a point of saying that's cool with them.

If Warhammer is a far-right fascist fantasy, this is the Left's answer to it.

The rules of the game are simple and great for new players. Sometimes they repeat themselves and I'm not sure if that's an editing mistake or them just making sure you know. The system reminds me a lot of Shadowrun only, streamlined in the best way while allowing for adaption based on the person running the game. You roll X amount of dice with X being an attribute number or Attribute number plus something. There are also Dice pools for more common rolls in combat. You roll against other dice rolls or a set number of needed successes.

Character generation is crazy big and point-based. There are fifteen types of witches ranging from the Magic item-making Articerfix to the Harley Quinn with magic Muse of Chaos, Gloomy Persephones, and Fairy Tale Queen type Reginas. Each one has starting attributes and powers.

You then choose a Matron for the witch, this is like a Dnd Cleric choosing a deity to grant minor abilities. There are a lot of Matrons, and my girlfriend pointed out to me, that Elsa from Frozen is just a Regina with a Winter-Matron.

You purchase skills, Purchase special benefits for characters, choose drawbacks for extra points, and then purchase magic.

The magic system is simple and very open-ended without being too simple and too open-ended. You don't buy spells you buy ranks in a magic type such as Nature. How many ranks you have in the type limits what you can do with that type including range, duration and effects but you can do a lot with a few ranks, and if your imagination is up to it, you can have access to dozens of 'spells" with a starting character. Magic types are ranked 1-10.

Lastly, you buy "Swag" or equipment and other things that help the witch. Your swag is ranked with higher ranked swag being better. I and my girlfriend both loved the fact you don't have to keep track of trivial things just the important ones.

The game itself is beautiful with Black pages and bright lettering, and art. The layout is simple but fun. Again there are a few editing issues, but nothing more than you'll find in most TTRPGs. Another plus is it provides a beginning adventure, lots of world information, and sample bad guys and friends. It's a one-stop shopping kind of core rulebook.

Again, This game isn't for everyone, but I like it, My girlfriend likes it and we're currently putting together a group to play it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Hexengeddon
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Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
by Michael T. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/16/2019 11:46:23

Terrific set of rules but the inability to search greatly limits the usefulness of the PDF.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
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Hex Scouts Guide to Cryptozoology
by Michael T. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/26/2019 12:55:18

“The Hex Scouts Guide to Cryptozoology” is a supplement for the Witch Girls Adventures role-playing game that deals with a girl-scout like organization for the magical girl.

Anyone who liked the “Secret Saturdays” cartoon shouldn’t hesitate to pick this up immediately!

A great idea with a terrific backstory and organization. It makes it very easy to get into the structure of a game with “earning badges” consisting of very interesting and varied adventures.

It is a 98 page PDF, with most of the book (around 67 pages) consisting of a ‘monster manual’. The rest is detailing the nature and organization of the “Hex Scouts”.

The PDF has readable fonts but it is on the dark brown ‘parchment’ like background that is extremely unpleasant to read. Searching the PDF is especially difficulty because it’s almost impossible to tell the highlighted word from the background.

There is color art scattered throughout some of it appropriate to the text, some of it not. It mostly depicts Hex-scouts ‘day-in-the-life’ scenes. The style is ...unusual. Almost like stained glass with rich colors. A step up from the “Super Crusader” art if you’re familiar with that style.

I’m not sure why thematically a blood splat marks the page numbers, but it does the job.

Personally I don’t think it even comes close to the art in the “Witch Girls Adventures” core rulebook. It’s not out of place and better than nothing but I wouldn’t call it “playful” or “inspiring” either.

The art for the badges and chapter separators (mostly just badges) is very good and very inspiring for the material.

All in all it does what it says on the tin and gives enough material to easy creating an episodic game of the adventures of a troop of young witches.

What is there is excellent and will be perfect for setting up an easy to run game with a varied cast of characters who can come and go as the players schedules allow (something very much needed in today’s busy world). So if you’re looking to run a “open” game, I can’t think of a better way to organize it.

A great history and background, an explanation of the organization and specifics on meetings and events make it very gameable.

Earning “Badges” is done by accomplishing a certain number of missions, with the older girls getting the more complex missions. The missions are open-ended enough that getting them will be fun and not subject to the “leveling-up” mentality prevalent in a lot of RPGs. There are 12 badges described and all of them seem interesting to play.

For example, earning the “Mermaid” badge requires visiting a total of 12 oceans - including earth and other realms. The adventures practically write themselves.

The scouting activities are well described and inspire great ideas for wholesome adventure where combat isn’t necessary or expected (mostly).

Four new Cliques are added: A horse rider, an archer, a monster whisperer and totem spirit watcher.

Skills gives some new skills are added: Animal Training, including a list of the tricks the animals can be taught.

Crafts including example difficulties and time to craft. It mentions “Wealth” with no explanation as to what that is.

Fighting: Range Weapon is also given, along with a list of nine maneuvers its possible to do with this skill.

Herbalism skill and Languages along with a list of “exotic” languages.

Medicine is also given along with eight example difficulties and modifiers for the type of patient.

Riding skill and Survival skill along with seven example difficulties.

Track along with 5 different example difficulties and terrain modifiers.

Cryptozoology is considered a Magical skill and is a knowledge skill.

An absolutely excellent skill section that doesn’t skimp on the details.

New scout/nature oriented talents are also given: Capricious, Environmentalist, Flower-child, Naturalist, Relentless and Survivalist.

Heritages are also given: Moon Maiden, Monster (with monster examples), Summoner and Shape-shifter all with a good amount of details.

The Magic section gives examples of Summoning and Summoning spells and Totem Bonds with two pages of examples.

Another excellent and well-detailed section. It might be too many rules for some, but they are all well written, detailed and distinctly different from anything else, and well-suited to magical scouts.

The Equipment section is not and has not only a fine selection of camping equipment but “Add ons” which for a cost can add abilities to the weapons as well.

Finally there is the rest of the book - the Cryptids.

It first describes several pocket dimensions where cryptids are kept in a form of magical nature preserves.

Cryptids are given a sort of “Challenge Rating” that compares their difficulty to defeat with the equivalent “Stars” and “Groups of Stars”.

The Cryptid descriptions are pretty standard “monster manual” descriptions and all take up one or two pages.

They give some extra information in terms of the locations where they are likely to be found and their motivations and some “common traits” that can be chosen that mean that not every cryptid of the same type will behave the same way.

They also give some ‘hooks’ that are good for inspiring an adventure and ‘facts’ that can be used to for researching.

Also, every cryptid is illustrated and truthfully, while I’m not very fond of the ‘human’ depictions in this book I think the cryptid illustrations are excellent and evocative. Forget everything I said before! Go figure.

There are some ‘classic’ monsters and some entirely original ones (at least new to me). These descriptions are overflowing with plot ideas and this is something I WILL be using and WOULD be willing to get a printed copy of! Though please get a white background!

The variety is amazing and if you play games like “Monster of the Week”, “Meddling Kids” or “Cupcake Scouts” there is a lot to like here.

There’s even stats for normal animals as well.

Unfortunately it is marred by the worst editing I have seen in quite a long time - and I buy a LOT of PDFs.

Extra spaces in sentences are the smallest of the errors. Extra lines between paragraphs. Misspelled words (that won’t get caught by a spellchecker). Weirdly worded phrases and dropped words are most common. Hex-Scouts sometimes has a hyphen and sometimes doesn’t. Missing commas that make the sentence confusing. Words after semi-colons sometimes capitalized sometimes not. For example:

“Most Covens have three or more, meet twice a month...”. In the next paragraph it states that Covens have monthly meetings. So do they meet once a month or twice a month?

“If the creature isn’t to dangerous...”;

“Hex Scouts depending on their skill explore those places and even help map and them.”

“Hex Scouts competed on broom carpet and flying steed amongst a coven and other covens in various races...”

“...as members as long as the are of age and....”

“.This magical uniform provides +_1 bonuses to resist intense heat and cold, Changes to Standard uniform, Casual uniform and dress uniform for 1 Zap point and is resistant to dirt wear and tear” So if you spend at Zap point they are also resistant to dirt and wear and tear, but if you DON’T spend a Zap point they resist intense heat and cold? And what the heck IS a Standard, Casual and Dress uniform? They are never mentioned again.

“To show this Directors..”

“Basic Perks” What are the basic perks? I think they are the uniform(s) and skill bonuses, but it’s never made clear.

“...don’t have I easy...”

I could go on, but I think you get the drift. It’s mostly understandable but a frustrating and jarring read.

Especially considering the high production values of the other Witch Girls Adventure book, this is especially glaring.

As a supplement to mine for ideas and a campaign, I highly recommend it.

The information is so dense and useful I’d even buy a print copy.

(Like most Witch Girls Adventure products) This Is Good Stuff.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Hex Scouts Guide to Cryptozoology
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Witch Girls Adventure Star Creation Guide
by Gorram W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/11/2018 18:13:58

An excellent product, definitely fun and interesting. I look forward to exploring this world more!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventure Star Creation Guide
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Princess Lucinda's guide to world domination!
by Roderick Y. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/09/2016 17:00:55

Before purchase, the preview is misleading because it only provides a single page of sample art, the cover. This cover artwork is of much higher quality than the remainder of the book, and the "humour" of this guide is tedious, at best. The ideas contained here would be better served as part of a larger narrative, perhaps with Lucinda describing possible plans to her friends.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Princess Lucinda's guide to world domination!
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Witch Girls Magical Minutia: Crossover
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/01/2015 11:16:03

This book for Witch Girls Adventures previews a bit of the rules we will see in WGA 2.0 and the upcoming super hero games from Channel M. WE are introduced to Nemsis Earth, an Earth populated by superheroes and some differences in history. Chapter 1 covers the details of this new Earth and it's features, both magical and tech. The book is presented from the point of view of a Witch Girl travelling across the dimensions. There are plenty of new equipment for Witch Girl stars and even a new heritage (Half-Metahuman). Chapter 3 covers Channel M's new "Youthquake" team of superpowered teens. The general feel of this "Crisis on Two Earths" and honestly I really like that. I wish I had had this back when I was working on Season 3 of my Willow & Tara game where I crossed over to a super powered Earth that resembled the Earth int he DC universe. While reading this I was also wishing I had an Icons version of this. Same ideas, characters and text, but Icons as the rules. They would mesh together rather nice I think. If you are a fan of supers and Witch Girls Adventures then this is a good buy. One issue. I hate to bring this up, really. I love Malcolm's work but he should really hire a good proofreader and editor to help clean up his work. That leaves him to focus on the big ideas and let others do the editorial work.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Magical Minutia: Crossover
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Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
by keith b. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/18/2015 01:29:15

Upon purchasing a product I immediately start looking at how many genres the system can mimic easily and how many it can with a little work. The game system and information provided can handle many genres easily with no effort on the GMs part. So if you don't want to be a teen age witch you can easily be a male teen with magical powers or a witch hunter, shapeshifter, vampire, God of past pantheons, etc. with the information provided by means of dozens of samples of npcs and creatures and animals you can be almost anything you want with in the world provided. If you want to be a super hero or government agent with psionic powers you can with very little effort. I immediately started to think of past cartoons that could be mimicked such as 1980's He-man, thunder cats, up to current thunder cats, dragonball z, and many others that can be done. the only genre not possible without a lot more effort is Mecha but as the greatest part of the game is the magic system you probably do not want to emulate that as there are many other systems that do a wonderful job with Mecha. If given a choice of books buy this one over the more recent Respelled as it is a cheaply made copy with only a few of the supplement material added but has a lot of the other info removed. This book and the game system is easy, versatile and perfect for beginners but also has world information and social rules for those wanting more than a combat simply game however if that is what you want it can also provide that.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventure Rule book
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Witch Girls Respelled
by Mike B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/02/2015 23:42:57

I backed the Kickstarter for this project (formerly WGA: Book of Shadows) three years ago. Over a year and a half ago, the author simply stopped communicating with the backers, no updates, comments, or responses to emails. Today, the backers have finally received our download codes and I must say, it fails to impress.

After nearly three years of development (half of that in radio-silence), the final product is fairly riddled with typos and formatting issues, lacks vast chunks of promised content (setting information, the option to play non-witches, any kind of bestiary), and smacks of a quick-and-dirty retread of a previous product. A paragraph at the beginning declares that this is actually WGA 1.5 (not 2.0) and is simply meant to be layered on top of the original book. I hate this kind of "update," because it lazily declares "everything in the previous edition is still cannon, except for this, and this, and this..."

Ultimately, I paid $20 dollars, three years ago, for something that now sells for $10, and I would be better served simply playing the original version. Don't give these guys any of your money. It's a poor product, made by people who lack even the most common of courtesies concerning their customer base.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Respelled
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Witch Girls Adventures: Director's Cut
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 03/26/2014 12:49:42

A lot of what said about Witch Girls is still true from my original review. Here it is, with edits to reflect this newer version.

We now have 2, soon to be 3, versions of Witch Girls Adventures. WGA = Witch Girls Adventures (1st ed) WGA-DC = the Director's Cut, this version. 1.5 Edition. WGA-BoS = Witch Girls Adventures: Book of Shadows, 2nd Edition. Out sometime in the future.

Witch Girls Adventures is a a "Drama Diaries" game, using the "Drama Dice" system from Malcolm Harris. This version, WGA-DC is using the first ed version of the Drama Dice system with some of the modifications of the upcoming 2nd Edition.

It is aimed at new players predominantly and girls in particular. The book begins with 10 pages of the Witch Girls Adventures comic to set the tone and mood of the game.

The book continues as it goes on to your typical introduction into what is a roleplaying game and is written for a young or teen girl audience ("just tell the geek (trust me; they are used to being called geeks) behind counter you need... ") cute. But too much of this would ruin the presentation of the game for me. Thankfully this is the only time, but it does establish one thing right away; this game is going for a different audience. The intro stuff continues with some terms both for the game and for RPGs.

It makes an odd left turn to give us optional rules (we haven't had any rules yet for these to be optional to) about how to run a "Harry Potter" like game with this. Eh. Nice, but this should have come last, not first. I still think this would have worked better as an appendix.

Chapter 2 gives us "Cliques" . So perfect. In another game these would be "Factions" or "Classes" or even "Traditions" or "Associations" or "Backgrounds", but given the Middle-school/High-school this is great. Cliques basically give your starting dice and what skills you are likely to have. The system is very easy. The dice system (The Drama Dice system as it is called) quickly reminds one of Cortex or Savage Worlds. Attributes are scored d2 to d12 for most types. The spread even looks the same as Cortex and Savage Worlds. Not surprisingly, afterall it is a logical progression. You have six attributes Body (which combines Strength, Agility and stamina), Mind (intelligence), Senses, Will, Social and Magic. Right away you see there is only one body type attribute but four mental ones. This is the way it should be really, WGA is not about beating people up, it is about the social aspects of the game and about magic, our last attribute. There are some secondary attributes that are derived. Rolls are made depending on the dice vs a difficulty table very similar to d20 or Unisystems' success levels. Cliques are detailed and they are your basic magical girl stereotypes (the Goth, the insider, the outsider…) . Plenty here to work with and if you are so inclined create your own (which is what the "Harry Potter" bit tries to do).

Chapter 3 moves onto skills. Each chapter has some fiction to introduce you to the Witch Girls world. It seems to be a cross between Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Buffy and the Craft mixed in with anime magical girls. Skills. Unlike Cortex or Savage Worlds, skills are given a + score like Unisystem or d20. Roll the die associated with the attribute (each skill is connected to an attribute like d20) add the bonus the skill provides, check your success, or roll greater. There are 34 mundane skills and 10 magical skills. A little too much in my book, but I am willing to see how it works out here.

Chapter 4 Traits details traits, which are like Edges or Qualities. They are broken up into Talents (which you can get later in life) and Heritages (which are inborn and never change). Heritages have both a positive and negative aspect to them. Typical ones are there like "Beautiful" and others which have to be unique to this game like "Drama Queen".

Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are all well detailed and very straight forward.

Chapter 5 is Magic. Really this is what we came here for. There is a lot more here on what magic is and what it means to a witch. There are different types of magic (necromancy, mentalism, cybermancy…) which you can spend points on to improve your rank. This can provide a lot of variance between witches. Think of it as somewhere between Harry Potter's classes and Mage's spheres. As GM (a Director in WGA) I might limit some of these to NPCs (Guest Stars) and not to PCs (Stars). Spell casting is broken down into a lot of detail. More than maybe the seasoned gamer needs, but given the audience it might be about right. Effects are broken out into Magic Type Rank (MTR) and the overall feel is like a table you might see in Mage or Mutants & Masterminds with what MTR (read as Power level) you need to achieve a certain effect. Want to cast that spell across the world? Better have an MTR of 9. There are rules for Signature Spells, which take less Zap (read: Mana, Essence), choose only one and from the "School" with your highest MTR (which makes sense really). I like the idea of the signature spell and might try it in my other games too. This is all followed by 20+ pages of spells and these by no means seem to be all of them. Since your cast member (Star, remember) isn't going to be buying swords, guns or anything else that characters spend money or points on then this is a good thing.

Chapter 6. Your Star gets an allowance allowing her to buy things like magical computers, flying Vespas, and more brooms than found in Home Depot. There are familiars, clothes, wings and all sorts of magical equipment here as well. You could build an adventure on just shopping for these things cause I am sure getting them is not as easy as going to the mall. Lots of neat wands and I have to say the books for young witches are pretty funny ("Samantha's Guide to Merry Mortals" yeah that made me laugh). And a bunch of mundane stuff like DVD players and skateboards. The allowance system is nice, I like it better than the Modern d20 purchase DCs and easier than keeping track of cash.

Chapter 7 is some odds and ends. A character questionnaire (nice) and a filled out character sheet (also nice). Good detail on what things mean and if you are new to games a certain boon.

Chapter 8 is for Directors, so all the rules of the game. The system, some combat rules (yes this is the FIRST game I have seen where the rules for shopping are longer than the rules for combat. ;) ) Some nice background fluff and some ideas for different types of stories, basically you can do Buffy, Good vs. Evil, Charmed, and Magic School. The experience system is "interesting" (Voodollars), but it looks like it works.

Chapter 9 is the world background. Now this one is kind of neat. I details the various races (witches are a different race) and they are not alone. Some history, some magical places (Santa's Workshop, No joke and it looks cool!) The ruling council of Witches (I am yoinking this for my Unisystem games), Spelling Bees, groups and other schools. Even how the mundane world reacts to all of this.

Chapter 10 presents some creatures. But if the art is any indication most of these are not for combat purposes, but potential dates (well there is only one witch kissing a vampire…) Nearly every kind of creature is covered from fairies to Cthulhu like horrors. But no demons. Seems a bit odd, given it all. Some NPCs (Guest Stars) of note.

Chapter 11 details the Willow Mistt School. Lands, buildings, faculty, everything you would expect to find is here. Willow Mistt is not Hogwarts, but it is easy to make the comparisons. I actually found it closer to Claremont Academy from Mutants & Masterminds.

We close with a sample Episode, some plot ideas, a lexicon, and a list of Witch names (see how many you recognize!), and some NPCs with sheets.

The Good: Harris obviously has a love for this genre and it shows. The rules are well crafted and while there is nothing earth shaking here, they are familiar mechanics done up in a very nice way. The point of view of the work is nice. This is anti-Grim-Dark. It's not all unicorns, princesses and kittens (though it does have all that), it's a fun game. The art is not D&D 4e, but it is good and more to the point very appropriate for this game. For new players this is a great little game. More experienced players may want more, but that is not due to the game itself, but rather expectations. Do not expect this to be "WitchCraft: The Junior High Years" (though you can do that). This Director's Cut has been update to mostly full color interiors. Especially the art.

The Bad: I know Harris is basically a one man operation so I am willing to cut him some slack here. But there are a large number of typos that should be fixed and some terms that might have either been mistakes or from earlier versions (the Magic attribute is called "Zap" in one spot.) I am willing to overlook those IF they are corrected in the 2nd Edition. They should have been corrected in this edition to be honest, but I am going to cut him the slack here but none in the 2nd ed WGA-BoS.

The Ugly: Well....WGA has something of a weird rep online. I am not sure it is entirely justified to be honest. Gamers can get really weird about the oddest things. Are some of the witches depicted here anti-social monsters? Yeah. The poster child, Princess Lucinda is exactly that, but it is presented in the same vein of cartoon violence.

So. Who is Witch Girls Adventures for? Well , that sort of depends but here is what I see.

New players and Game Master get a lot with this book. I see them having a great time. People that enjoy the more social aspects of a game (and of gaming) rather than a bunch of combats. Anyone that is a fan of Magical Girl Anime, Witches or even high school based games. Anyone that has ever wished for a Harry Potter RPG. Anyone that looks at the setting and resists the urge to make it "darker". WGA is not about being dark. You can be evil sure, and as a witch the entire world is after you, but the setting does not need the WoD feel at all.

Last Words This is a fun game. Take it as it is, not as you want it to be, and you will have fun too. If you are an old pro, use this game to introduce younger people to the hobby. I hope that Malcolm Harris is successful and ends up getting a lot of new people, boys and girls, to our hobby.

The Director's cut adds a few more pages and most of the interior is now full color. There are some new pieces of art and some of the older b/w art is now in color. Whether or not this is worth 10 bucks is up to you. I enjoyed the 1st ed so much I wanted to get this.

I have two hopes for Witch Girls now.

  1. That the final copy of 2nd edition, WGA-BoS, is out soon.
  2. That Malcolm Harris gets someone to help with the editing. It is a shame to mar a great and fun game with some easily fixed typos.


Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Witch Girls Adventures: Director's Cut
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OWG: The Orginal Witch Girls
by Bill H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/27/2013 20:01:52

Fair quality scans, but missing pages (e.g., 21-29 in the Halloween Spook-Tacular). Text content not OCRed.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
OWG: The Orginal Witch Girls
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