Witch Hunt Role-Playing in Salem 1692!

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TristramEvans

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So, as much as I am a fan of quite obscure RPGs, every once in a while I still come across one that completely managed to fly under my radar

Today that was this amazing-looking thing:

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It's by a company I've never heard of, but it looks absolutely fantastic.

What's even better is the advertisements I chanced upon while googling it

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So, anyone here own it/ever play this? I can find very little in the way of information about it online. What kind of system did it use? Was it as cool as it looks?
 
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(Goes off in search of info. Fails. Confirms obscurity.)

The only thing I could find was this little snippet from wiki:

"Witch 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. There are precious few innovations in evidence and I couldn't imagine players wanting to bother playing it more than once or twice. It is neither 'realistic' nor comprehensive enough to merit recommendation."

It almost looks to me like a very limited focus story game, albeit one with polyhedral dice, from a time when such a thing was.......(tumbleweed).

I'd have been tempted by those ads if I'd have seen them at the time.
 
The module advertisement says it’s for the “popular” game but I’ve never heard of it before.
That does seem a little disingenuous unless they're cunningly using just the first part of the definition of popular, ie liked or enjoyed. Even then though it may be a stretch.

It does remind me of a gentler and possibly more pleasant time when things weren't always "the greatest," "award winning," "innovative," or "groundbreaking." Only yesterday there was a post here pimping a new 5e game that would have an "elite" set of writers. Maybe it's just me* but overplayed hyperbole is an instant turn off.

(* It probably is but at least I'm self-aware and diagnosed.)
 
I have no personal experience with this game, but I did find this:
This early rpg I remember seeing in various magazines, but never actually on game store shelves. In Witch Hunt players can either be a coven of witches in 1690's New England or a group of Magistrates. Each offers a radically different campaign. Witches cast spells (and doing so while remaining alive gains them experience). That means that the supernatural is real in the setting, an assumption setting the game logic. The process of Witch trials takes up a significant chunk of the rules. Is it horror? It is a marginal case- a game which lends itself naturally to those themes but which could easily be played cold and straight. I think it could be used to represent a certain kind of existential horror- with the threat of accusations, punishment, and the actual presence of dark powers as a factor. Witch Hunt is one of the earliest non-Medieval history games as well as one of the earliest horror games.
Not sure how much of the game is actual role-play and how much is witch trial stuff.
 
Also, this, which actually has some details about the mechanics behind the game:
Witch Hunt 1st ed by Paul D. Baader, Roger Buckelew (1983) Statcom Simulations, Inc. A historical/horror RPG set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Player characters are either witches with actual magic, or lawful magistrates trying to hunt them down and prosecute them. It includes detailed notes on the setting: including daily lives of the Puritan Colonists, maps of typicial buildings, accusation process, and magistrate duties and procedures. It uses a simple percentile system. Character creation includes percentile random-roll of ten attributes (five physical and five mental), followed by 30 points to distribute among them, and then rolls for Age, Marital Status, Children, Height, Weight, Social Status, Home Town, and Occupation. Advancement is by level and consist of adds to attributes, depending on whether the character is a Witch or a Magistrate. Witches get most of their experience for remaining free and casting spells, while Magistrates get experience mainly from disrupting magic rituals, making accusations, and executing witches. There is a detailed accusation and trial process, as well as a magic system for witches.
http://darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/encyclopedia/alphabetical/W.html
 
It sounds like one of those games that claims that it would offer a Unique RPG Experience, but likely fails to deliver. It would be something worth reading, regardless. The blurb wouldn't be out of place on a board game. I've been to Salem several times and really enjoyed it. IIRC it has a gaming store that does RPGs and board games. It also has a shop that carries comics and rpgs in its magazine and news stands.
 
I remember the magazine ads from back in the day, but I've never seen an actual copy of the game or heard of anyone playing it.
 
I own a copy but I've never played it. Not sure where my copy is, so can't do that much on the mechanics. The main thing I remember is that it wanted you to run the witches and the witch hunters separately and the mechanics were such that it was near inevitable that everyone (including the hunters) would be accused of being witches within a week.
 
I was able to find a larger picture of the character sheet

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I missed the "Accoutrements" line at first, so I thought the 24 slots at the bottom were all for tracking all accusations you'd made.
I own a copy but I've never played it. Not sure where my copy is, so can't do that much on the mechanics. The main thing I remember is that it wanted you to run the witches and the witch hunters separately and the mechanics were such that it was near inevitable that everyone (including the hunters) would be accused of being witches within a week.
Having them as two separate groups seems to miss out on the kind of fun you have in Paranoia where players are simultaneously troubleshooters and traitors.
 
It's definitely a premise at least that has potential. The presence of "alignment" on the character sheet did make me groan a little, and I can understand the reviewer's dismissal that the system offered nothing new, but I can't help but wonder if the historical info and map were of value, and if the ads are anything to go by, the liner art may have been quite good.

I found one copy on ebay in the UK, but the seller wants 200 GBP, because of course they do.
 
It's definitely a premise at least that has potential. The presence of "alignment" on the character sheet did make me groan a little, and I can understand the reviewer's dismissal that the system offered nothing new, but I can't help but wonder if the historical info and map were of value, and if the ads are anything to go by, the liner art may have been quite good.

I found one copy on ebay in the UK, but the seller wants 200 GBP, because of course they do.
The quality of the art in the ads is probably the main reason I remember the game after all this time.
 
It's definitely a premise at least that has potential. The presence of "alignment" on the character sheet did make me groan a little, and I can understand the reviewer's dismissal that the system offered nothing new, but I can't help but wonder if the historical info and map were of value, and if the ads are anything to go by, the liner art may have been quite good.

I found one copy on ebay in the UK, but the seller wants 200 GBP, because of course they do.
Alignment in this case was either "magistrate" or "witch" rather than D&D stuff.

I think that saying it offered nothing new was a bit unfair. I remember some of the authentic feeling witchcraft rituals being quite fun. The main issue was the standard RPG one of it being nice ideas that wouldn't really work out of the book. I suspect it was someone's home game and a lot of assumptions were left out of the rulebook.
 
I think it’s cool that they use ten attributes. That wasn’t very common in 1983. I’ve also never heard of StatCom, the company that made this. Perhaps this was their only line?
 
I think it’s cool that they use ten attributes. That wasn’t very common in 1983. I’ve also never heard of StatCom, the company that made this. Perhaps this was their only line?


Yeah, I looked up the company, this was their only product published, along with a single supplement. The company appears to have been comprised of two fellows - Baader and Buckelew. This was definitely what nowadays would be deemed an indy project, but I think was par for the course in '83
 
That eBay ad has pictures of the credits. The interior art was done by one Dennis B. Meehan & Metro Art Services.

lol, I tried googling "Dennis Meehan + Art" and got someone's page of photos of pot plants
 
I think it’s cool that they use ten attributes. That wasn’t very common in 1983. I’ve also never heard of StatCom, the company that made this. Perhaps this was their only line?
Another nice thing about it was that standing out was bad. Yes, being ugly made it more likely you'd get accused of being a witch, but so did being beautiful. And social class was really really important. Being a vagrant was near suicidal.
 
I had this game plus the modules when it first came out, sold it in the 90s and have regretted selling it ever since... I consider this my Grail game... NK has a copy of the game and module for $295 each... HAHAHAHAHA no thanks
 
I had this game plus the modules when it first came out, sold it in the 90s and have regretted selling it ever since... I consider this my Grail game... NK has a copy of the game and module for $295 each... HAHAHAHAHA no thanks
Welcome to the Pub!
 
I had a copy for years. As mentioned, it was very narrow in what it covered... what I'd normally consider for a scenario situation than an entire game.
I gave it to someone who had been searching for a copy.
 
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