About Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a roleplaying game dealing with the supernatural/occult and set during an alternate present day where all the stories about vampires, werewolves, ghosts and dragons are true - yet most ordinary people continue to disbelieve in them and pass off reports as fiction and fantasy.

The following is excerpted from CJ Carella's Witchcraft corebook which is available for free download from Eden Studio's homepage: http://www.edenstudios.net/witchcraft/

"We are born, live and die in the material world, what the Norse referred to as Midgard, Middle Earth, the place of the living named Malkuth in the Cabalistic Tree of Life. Even before humans learned to read and write, they knew that the physical realm was but one of many worlds, that there were other places we visited in dreams and trances, places we arrived in after we died or came close to death.

It was also well known that other beings also visited our world from their own realms.

Those who could see and interact with the other worlds were the first magicians and priests. Their connection to the realms of spirit allowed them to transcend the limits of the flesh. Some could talk with the souls of the dead, or with spirits of nature. Others could directly affect the material world with the force of their wills. They were the Gifted. They have been feared, worshipped and persecuted through the ages.

Eventually, beliefs in the Otherworlds became religions. Mistakes disguised as dogma hid and confused the truth. In Europe and the Americas, the Church protected its people from the supernatural and became the only legitimate conduit to communicate with the world of spirit. All others were persecuted, forced into hiding, or killed outright. Valuable knowledge was lost or suppressed; only a few dedicated believers kept the ancient secrets alive. Later still, as technology allowed humankind to master the physical world, belief in all things spiritual decayed. Why pray for luck and protection when electric lights, guns and concrete buildings provided comfort? The vast majority of people embraced the mundane and forgot the spiritual, except in a perfunctory way.

The Otherworlds do not care about belief or disbelief, however. They continued to exist, and those who knew how were able to cross over and acquire unique abilities, which they used for good or for ill. Instead of persecution, they had to face ridicule and skepticism. The same skepticism protected beings who looked human but were not. Able to operate in a world that neither knew of nor accepted their existence, the Predators of myth and legend were able to hunt with impunity.

Nature moves in cycles. Day follows night. Planets, stars and universes are born, grow old, and die. “As above, so below.” This ancient magical formula indicates that all things, great and small, are bound by the same laws. From the smallest microbe to the mightiest spirit, the cycle is largely the same, with a beginning, middle, and end, followed by a new beginning. The end of one such cycle is drawing near. The world, and all within it, are in a transition stage, a time of change that may doom humankind, or lead to a true Golden Age. Like many great events, it moves slowly, almost imperceptibly. The world of WitchCraft is undergoing a radical transformation.

Its first symptom is the increase in numbers of those with the ability to sense and communicate with the supernatural -- those who are called the Gifted. People born with the Second Sight, the ability to manipulate the world through mystical power, or the capacity to see beyond the barriers separating the living and the dead, become more numerous each day, and their actions can no longer be dismissed by Science. Even more disquieting is the increase in unexplained occurrences, disappearances and gruesome crimes. Predators from the Otherworlds are multiplying. More and more spirits of the dead are staying in this world instead of moving on. All this indicates an approaching time of crisis and chaos. The madman carrying a sign saying “The End is Near” may not be wrong. Those with greater understanding are beginning to believe that a Time of Reckoning is at hand. Their actions will determine whether the world will survive the process."

These are the stories of one group of these Gifted individuals seeking to make sense of a world tumbling into chaos. But first, let me give you a little background on each of them.

Ankhesanefer (pron. A-nek-sa-neh-fur) San, as she likes to be called, is a member of the Covenant called The Storm Dragons - an organization based around ancient martial arts techniques handed down from before human memory - and a very old member of the race known as the Bast. "The Bast are an ancient species of intelligent felines, a mating of elemental spirits and the bodies of normal cats...a few could actually change their shape and assume the forms of short and slender humans for short periods of time.... All Bast can survive the death of their bodies. If their feline body is killed,... The Bast’s spirit homes in on the nearest female cat about to give birth, and reincarnates in the new body...Unlike humans, the Bast do not forget their previous existence;" San has always delighted in life, content to pursue the pleasures and luxuries in the easiest manner possible, which has frequently led her into the shadier parts of society. Lazy, flamboyant, and even a little reckless at times, she never focused enough in her studies of the Metaphysical arts to become as powerful and learned as her kin of similar age. Now, with all that is going on in the world, even she cannot ignore the signs that herald an approaching storm of crisis and chaos. Having lost one partner already in her previous life, she now joins with a Gifted scholar named William Baker. The two have an easy going relationship and rib each other in normal company, but when the chips are down they act and fight as one - sword and shield.

Naphtali Cummings Naphtali is a wanderer, a modern day gypsy and the blood of the Roma flows through her veins. A Gifted Witch with both magic and a psychic abilities that may keep her safe in her wanderings, but she knows better than to seek out danger. "Since the dawn of humanity, there have been some who could communicate with nature and spiritual entities. Some...learned to manipulate reality themselves, through the use of Magic or by developing inborn abilities collectively known as the Sight. Others worked through their connection to nature spirits, or the spirits of the dead."

Cast

Chronicles

New Qualities & Drawbacks

The Bast were originally created to be fighters by combining elemental spirits with wild hunting cats. Although the Bast later became domesticated and subsumed into house cats from interbreeding, a few still have the ability to assume their original wildcat form. The Feral Bast form is a large, menacing-looking hunting cat unlike any surviving member of the cat family. Resembling most closely a lynx in form, this cat can reach the size of a full-grown Siberian Tiger.

In Feral form, the Bast have the following modifiers to their Attributes: +4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +3 Constitution, -1 Intelligence. The Feral form requires the expenditure of 1 Essence Point for every ten minutes of transformation, just like the Human Form. This Essence is not regained until the character returns to her natural, feline form.

And now in tribute to a truly great penny-arcade parody,
follow the terrified strawberry....