Hello you Curious Lynxes! We have been super busy at CLG HQ this week settling lots and lots of little details for our new prototype for Which Witch, which means that I have new art to show you, and I have new articles to write about the first Curious game that we are publishing!
If you were at UK Games Expo and saw us demo the game there, you might possibly have a dim recollection of me telling you that the Witches are called in numerical order, which is super important for Witch #1, Queen Mab. Because her power has you pick a player and try to guess Which Witch they played this round.
I fibbed. Just a little. I certainly had such a Queen Mab to show you, sitting proudly in the #1 slot, but during early playtesting Witch #1 was always someone else, and I’m proud to be able to restore order, now that her art is fully finished. Presenting, the Greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night and the crossroads. The daughter of titans Perses and Asteria, predating Zeus and the Olympian gods. The Triple-formed Patron of witches herself… HECATE!
I have one more little treat to show you, that you certainly will not have seen at the UK Games Expo. Our main point of audience feedback was that the art of Which Witch is incredible and gorgeous, and people wanted to see more of it. So, I give you… Tarot Card Hecate!
Tarot-sized Hecate to show off just a little more art at an increased scale. Including knees!
Here’s how it’s going to work in-box. Each player will have their own hand of witches - those cards will be poker-sized cards, or 63×88mm. On the table, either laid out in a line, flipped from a deck or laid out in our preferred ‘clock’ formation, will be tarot-sized, 70×120mm versions of the cards. The extra height lets the circle behind each Witch properly stretch to the edge of the card, and with the extra width on the card, that makes the central artwork a full 25% larger! For the largest expression of our witches art you’re going to love our playmat designs, but we’re keeping these under wraps until much closer to the Kickstarter campaign itself…
Hecate’s gameplay
Hecate is the real reason that Which Witch’s interactivity shines through. A successful guess grants you a whopping 2 potions. Now, granted, those potions must be different colours, so you’re going to have to work out what to do with the potion that’s off-colour for you. You win the game by having 5 potions of the same colour after all. But that 2 potion bounty is the best reward the game has on offer to you.
Hecate’s power is called first. Remember, during the veiling everyone selects a Witch from their hand to veil, and during the calling the witches are called in their numerical order around the clock. What do you mean I haven’t gone through the turn structure of Which Witch before? OK, this diagram from the rulebook might help:
The turn starts at Dusk, then comes the Veiling, the Calling (starting with Hecate), and finally the Witching Hour
Where was I? Oh yes, right. Hecate. She’s always called first, so the lucky player that gets to use her power has the least available knowledge at that time. What clues could you glean that help you make a good guess?
Firstly, the cards that people have already played are face up on the table. There’s no secret memory element to this, you can see all the available information. Hecate loves to pick on a player who has fewer cards in hand than anyone else. Left only one card in hand? Then you’d better hope that more than one person chose Hecate in the Veiling, causing a clash and making Hecate stay home that night.
But secondly? This is where you come in. You’ve played with these people at the table before, and even if you haven’t, it doesn’t take many turns to get a read on them. There’s no downside to getting a guess wrong with Hecate, so go for it, what have you got to lose? Go with your gut, be bold and claim that reward!
What makes Hecate an eternal witch?
One of our curated starts, the first one you’ll play!
Hecate is an absolutely key element of Which Witch and we wouldn’t be without her. That’s why I refer to her as one of our Eternal or Evergreen witches. You see, because you don’t play with all 13 of our witches at once we have some curated setups (like Purrfect Start, the setup for the first game) which help you find an interesting playing field. You can also play with some rules that allow for randomised play, but Hecate is in every game.
In fact, there is one other Eternal witch in our game. I’ve shown you her artwork many a time, she features on our box art, lorded over the banners at the UK Games Expo, and is currently busily advertising our Kickstarter page to those who are ready to sign up and follow us.
Born to Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky, one of 4 siblings rounding out the last generation of the Ennead, an Egyptian goddess of great magical power and wisdom, revered for having power over the afterlife, I give you, ISIS ENNEAD!
What’s that moon?
What’s that moon?
Isis lets me show off another part of our turn structure. Isis has 2 abilities. The first lets you take any off-colour potions you have, for example, from a previous correct Hecate guess, return them to the supply, and brew a new potion using them. This is a regular witch ability, if 2 people (or more) have veiled Isis in the same turn then that’s going to be a clash, and Isis will help neither of them this night.
However, Isis has a second ability, and the moon symbol there tells you that this is not an ability that happens during the Calling - this ability fires at Dusk, which our clock from earlier reminds us is at the beginning of the turn. Potion brewing happens at night, obviously….
This means that even if many players called on Isis in the same night, despite her first ability clashing, she will be in front of those players during Dusk, and those players will all get to pick up their revealed Witches, replenishing their hand for a new night. I love how Nat has connected Isis’ ability to raise Osiris from the dead in ancient Egyptian religion with her ability in this game to bring your previously played witches back to you.
And that’s all I have for you today!
If you enjoyed this newsletter, we’d really appreciate it if you would forward it to a friend. If you are that friend, welcome to the newsletter!
You can also join our community Discord where we play games and discuss gaming ideas, and generally hang out and be cool people
You can sign up to be notified directly by Kickstarter when the campaign launches for our first game, Which Witch?
And finally you can contact me at [email protected] if you need to tell me anything that I might not know!
Oh, I forgot to give you Isis’ Tarot form, didn’t I…
Who’s that cat?