The Witches: a Discworld Game Rulebook
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THE WITCHES ‘The Witches’ game draws on some of the characters and situations described in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld® books. In the game you take on the part of a young trainee witch such as Tiffany Aching or Petulia Gristle. You have been dispatched to Lancre to improve your craft, which seems to be a case of learning on the job. Being a witch means solving other peoples’ problems. One day you will be curing a sick pig or fixing a broken leg. On other occasions it will mean fighting back an invasion of elves or dealing with the Wintersmith. It very much depends which day of the week it is. In essence this is an adventure game. As a trainee witch you Players must be careful to not let too many crisis situations move around the board attempting to solve problems which build up, as if they do the game will end quickly, resulting in come in two types, easy ones and hard ones. At first you should everybody losing. stick to attempting to solve easy problems as doing so will ‘The Witches’ is a game for one to four players and should increase the number of cards you hold, making you stronger. take around ninety minutes. Please do not be daunted by the At some point you will be able to take on hard problems. All number of pages of rules in the game. The game itself is not problems are solved in the same way, you roll the dice and see too complicated, but there are a number of situations that may if you reach the required total. You can increase your chances of occur where the rules have to be clearly expressed, which leads success by using headology and magic (although with the latter to additional pages. You can get a good idea of how to play the you have to be careful you do not turn ‘Black Aliss’). Cards may game from the Player Aid Card. You can then refer to these also help you to succeed, as well as giving you other advantages. rules when you need to seek clarification about a particular Solving problems gains you points, and the witch with the most rule or situation. points at the end of the game is declared the winner. Components As well as these rules and a game board you should also have the following: Four Witch pieces Four Witch dice Thirty Easy Seventeen Hard Player Aid Card Problem tiles Problem tiles Four Trainee Witch displays One Invisibility One Cure Sick One Magic tile tile Pig tile Fifty five Game cards Sixteen Cackle Twelve Crisis Twelve Black counters counters Aliss tiles The board 2 Starting the game Shuffle the Hard Problem (purple) The Crisis and Black Aliss counters should be placed by the tiles face-down. Place one face-down side of the board. in each location box on the board You now decide who will be the first player to choose their that is marked with a purple square trainee witch personality. Each player should roll all four (of which there are five). Witch dice. Whoever rolls the highest total will be the first Then place a number of Hard Problem to choose a Trainee Witch display. Note that the ‘Cackle’ tiles in each Problem box (along the bottom of the board) as symbol on each die has a value of zero. In the case of a tie then indicated below, which depends on the number of players. re-roll the dice. After the first player has chosen a Trainee Note that some boxes may be left empty depending on the Witch display the player to their left chooses a display, then number of players. the player to their left, until all players have selected a display. One player – 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0 Two players – 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1 Three players – 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 Four players – 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 0 Now shuffle the Easy Problem (green) tiles face-down. Place one face-down in each location box on the board that is marked with a green square (of which there are ten). After placing these tiles turn them face-up. Then place a number You now take the Witch piece that matches the colour of your of Easy Problem tiles in each Problem box Trainee Witch display. as indicated below. The display that you choose tells you which trainee witch One player – 2, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0 Two players – 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1 personality you are playing in the game. There are four Three players – 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 Four players – 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 0 personalities, each of which has a special ability, as Turn each pile of Easy Problem tiles so that they are face-up. described below: All surplus tiles should be placed back in the box without Tiffany Aching starts the game with the being examined. Note that all Easy Problem tiles are Invisibility tile. You can use this once face-up while all Hard Problem tiles remain face-down. during the game to gain the benefit of Hard Problems are only revealed when a player visits the invisibility. This power is described in more location containing the tile or a card is played. detail later on in the section that describes card effects at the end of these rules. Annagramma Hawkin starts the game with the Magic tile and one Cackle counter (taken from those available in this game). The magic tile can be used in the same way Example: Here is an example of how the Problem boxes should as a card with a magic symbol on it, which look in a four player game, with two Hard Problem tiles face means you take one Cackle counter when down in the first five boxes, four Easy Problem tiles face up on top you use it. You can only use it once. of the first three stacks, and three Easy Problem tiles face up on Petulia Gristle starts the game with the the next two stacks. The sixth Problem box is empty. Cure Sick Pig tile. You can use this once Cackle counters will be acquired by players during the during the game to automatically solve a game for a variety of reasons, which will be explained later. problem involving a sick pig. The number of Cackle counters in the game depends on the number of players, as indicated below: Dimity Hubbub goes first when the One player – four Cackle counters. game starts. Two players – eight Cackle counters. Three players – twelve Cackle counters. Four players – sixteen Cackle counters. Any unused Cackle counters should be placed back in the box. 3 Finally, shuffle the cards and deal out three face-down to each player. Place the Playing the game remaining cards by the side of the board to form the draw deck. One player should Now you are ready to start playing the game. volunteer to take ‘control’ of the deck to Players take their turn in player order, which is make sure one card is drawn at the start of clockwise around the table. When it is a player’s each player’s turn. It is a good idea to turn he or she goes through the following phases: choose somebody responsible and with a 1. Place the next Problem tile. good memory. 2. Move witch – you may perform this action twice. If no player has taken Dimity Hubbub then the player who 3. Draw cards to bring hand up to the maximum selected his or her Trainee Witch display last becomes the allowed. first player. The next player then has his or her turn. The game continues Going clockwise from the first player each player places their in this manner until one of the game end conditions has been witch piece on an empty space on the board (it cannot be one met. The game ends either when all of the Problem tiles have containing a Problem tile). You can start in the same space as been placed or when a Crisis counter needs to be placed on another witch. the board and none are available or when there are three Elven tiles face-up on the board. The cards 1. Place a Problem tile Cards contain three or four distinct pieces of information and only one is used whenever a card is played. These are: Symbol The player who has taken responsibility for the Each card has either a ‘magic’, deck now draws one card to see which location the ‘headology’ or ‘broomstick’ symbol next Problem tile should be placed in. Take the top on it. Magic and headology are tile from the left-most stack and place it in the used to help solve problems. location indicated. Broomsticks are used to move If there is already a Problem tile in that location around the board quickly. then place a Crisis counter in the location, on top of the tile. If there is already a Crisis counter there then you do not place another one, i.e. a Magic Headology Broomstick tile can have a maximum of one Crisis counter on it. Then draw another card for the placement of the original Benefit tile. Repeat this process as necessary, so it may occur that a number of Crisis counters are placed on the board. All of the cards will have a benefit described on them. You can play a card for its benefit at any point during your When placing a tile in Lancre Castle or Lancre Town it should turn, and this does not count as an action.