Toss A Coin To The Witcher Role-Playing Game: RPG Spotlight
Season Two may not come out for a while yet, but there’s no reason we can’t go back to the world of Geralt and monsters early with The Witcher Tabletop RPG.
Players looking to jump into the world of Geralt of Rivia were promised a new way to adventure with The Witcher on official Witcher forums in 2015 with the announcement of the pen and paper tabletop roleplaying game. And after some delays, the game became a reality in 2018, just in time for GenCon. Developed by R. Talsorian Games, The Witcher Role-Playing Game translated the time of the Third Nilfgaardian War into an RPG without controllers or disks, and depending on the GM, possibly even more hours of gameplay.
And they translated it over pretty darn well.
Players can choose between five races with Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and of course, Witchers, each with unique abilities or bonuses and social standing within various factions. There are also twelve classes including Bard, Craftsman, Mage, and Witcher – because it’s a race and a class. If you’re familiar with the videogame – or at least the TV show – you may recognize a fair amount of discrepancy and strife between some of these. Not everyone is going to get along depending on who and what they are and where they are from. And in a world full of monsters, some party members will be almost useless in combat situations while others (Witchers) will dominate the battlefield.
While this doesn’t lend itself to fair and balanced combat or even positive interparty relationships across the board, this game does create a world where some characters will shine in town with other people, some will shine in battle, and everyone will have to work together and roleplay through their issues. Good GMing will always create situations where every player can feel like their character is useful, even if swinging a sword is the farthest thing from their wheelhouse.
This isn’t from the TTRPG, but it feels like a good representation of TTRPG playing anyhow.
That said, combat is a huge part of this game with high stakes battle, specific rules regarding which weapons are best against which foes, a very complete list of spells and invocations that are all pulled from the books and games, and a bestiary of monsters that will keep any roving crew of monster hunters busy for a while.
And if it sounds like some of those rules are heavily inspired by the games, I think you may be right. Just like the electronic version, players who prepare the right weapons, do their research, and prepare the right tactics will always be rewarded while sloppy gameplay can mean terrible injury for their characters. But that’s not unusual for RPGs in general, The Witcher just steps it up a notch.
Gameplay is based on the Interlock System, using a d10 + stat + skill mechanic, similar to the old Cyberpunk 2020 system. At its core, this isn’t a terribly complex game to play, but small mechanics that are automated in videogames add a crunchy factor to the tabletop version – and this is equally good and bad depending on who you’re talking to. A fan of the games and books will probably appreciate the detail and mindfulness when trying to incorporate as much of the world as possible. But a newcomer to tabletop RPGs as a hobby may be a little overwhelmed at first. All in all, I think they’ll pick it up within a session or two and have a great time.
Have you played The Witcher Role-Playing Game? What kind of character have you or would you make? Are you excited for season two now that filming has wrapped? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
