Which Witch coming at you this October from Curious Lynx Games
The many facets of Which Witch
Which Witch is a light strategic game that plays in about 15 minutes once you’re familiar with the rules. I’m going to tease you with previews of each part of the game as we inch closer to our crowdfunding campaign as we get them finalised, so here’s an idea of where we are headed:
The Which Witch round structure starting at Dusk, through the Veiling and the Calling, to the Witching Hour
The types of witches whose ancient powers you will call upon to aid your quest to win the potion brewing competition
The Tricksters - witches who love messing with your plans
The Menagerie - witches who play with familiars
The Brewers - witches who make potions
The Thieves - witches who steal potions from others
The familiars that can bond with you over the game
The Cat - even Ancient Powers love a good pet
The Crow - likes shiny things, can protect you from theft
The Octopus - generally you don’t want this one…
Why do you play Which Witch? - a little backstory
You’ve gathered to celebrate the equinox and as dusk settles the competition begins. You work at your cauldron beseeching ancient powers to imbue your magics, to bind mystic familiars to you, and to hex your competitors.
The ancient powers that we speak of are the many witches in the game. Nat has pulled witches from folklore all around the world to aid you in your quest. One such witch is Pincoya, who recently got her artwork finalised!
Pincoya - a female water spirit of the Chilotan seas, said to predict the abundance of shellfish. In our game, she brings the octopus familiar into play, messing with a rival.
Let’s talk about those mystic familiars
There are 3 familiars in the game of Which Witch - but you might not see them all. In fact, using the curated first game setup, you’ll only see the Cat and the Crow in your first game, but we do have some surprises up our sleeve.
If you came and demoed the game as we had it on display at the UK Games Expo, you would have seen an earlier version of this card:
Moon Cat, here to break clashes and win snuggles!
That seems… familiar
Meet Thor, one of Nat’s cats, appearing in this game as Moon Cat. Yes, we know the trope is that witches’ familiars are always black cats, but Thor really would make a great familiar, and oh look! - a butterfly! <zoom>
This Cat helps you with a mechanic in this game called the clash - you see, each player during the veiling is going to play a witch from their hand face down. Those witches will be called in numerical order, starting from Hecate at number 1, ending with Isis at number 13. When your witch is called, only then do you get to execute the power of their card.
But what happens if 2 or more players have beseeched the same ancient witch at the same time? Circe can’t be everywhere at once! Normally, in such a clash, the witch decides to help nobody, and those clashing witches don’t get to perform a power that turn. Truly, this is the heart of the game, to read your opponents, to beseech witches they will not, and assemble a winning set of potions that way.
Early on in your witching career though, reading your opponents can be a little tricky, and that’s why Moon Cat exists. With an ability that triggers every Dusk to make sure the Cat is bonded to someone1, he gives those ancient witches a reason to choose you over any other witches who called them. The other players involved in the clash go home empty handed, but you still get to activate the witch you chose. Only, after the power of that witch has fully resolved, the Cat wanders off, probably bonding with someone else next Dusk.
Why am I giving him his full title - Moon Cat, when the card is just called Cat? It’s because I’m hinting at an extra layer of customisation that goes into the setup of this game. If you’re playing with Freyja, you’ll need a Cat. Morrigan needs a Crow. Pincoya needs an Octopus. Angrboda isn’t fussy - she’ll bond any familiar.
Angrboda, the mother of monsters, from Norse Mythology. She’ll steal from you but leave behind a new friend for you to play with.
The thing is, you can have any Cat, Crow, and Octopus you like in the game, so every game with Pincoya in can be changed up just by changing which Octopus she brings in with her. And who knows, we just might be preparing extra sets of familiars to use as Stretch Goals and Kickstarter Exclusives in our October campaign!
That means that, as soon as you’re ready to take the training wheels off and experience the full extent of the game, you can replace the friendly Moon Cat with another Cat entirely. Who knows, maybe Nat’s other cat, Loki, could get a look in…
1 You could say, as he bonds with the player with the fewest potions, that we’ve created a Cat-chup mechanic… *crickets*