D&D General ‘Witcher’ Style Adventures?

[Scott Christian]

As I have the book and intend on running a few one-shots to see how it shakes out, what do you see as the real point failures where the system falls short?

To be upfront:
1. I played the game directly after it was published after I bought the book at GenCon. Got it home, read it, and ran it. No errata. (From my understanding, the errata have been heavy, but helped a lot.)
2. It rules might fit your style. They did not fit mine.

• That out of the way, the rules, as written, were a bear. Placing needed rules in sidebars of the book, having to jump around the book for clarity, and designing rules that had longtime RPG players scratching their head. That was not a good start. (Not to mention the layout!)
• Then came the actual character build. They are very lopsided, which I do not mind. But it bothered my players - a lot. And that was with me throwing as many scenes as I could to highlight their talents.
• Of all the lopsidedness, witchers, still aren't, well witchers.
• Combat (this is a preference) is a slog. Four rolls. And yeah, it can speed up a bit, but the criticals and fumbles, and extra rules are what bog it down again. (Again, in fairness, my group has limited time. I remember fondly days of Rolemaster and dozens of tables, but that is not the case now.)
• Combat again. (And again, a preference - maybe?) We are not a table that hides rolls or finds some silly story workaround. When you die, you die. In this game, it is easy to maim yourself or die. And to be clear, you could have done everything right. In fact, the entire group could have done everything right. It goes back to that swingy part. In theory, it is great. In practice, it is only fun if you are a group that doesn't get attached to your characters. To put it another way, if players at your table clap and smile when a character dies, this is the game for you.
• For quite a few things, your rolls will not even matter. (Remember when I talked about it being all swingy - well that is just one lil' ol' combat part. The rest, not swingy enough.)
• While some liked the crafting, I thought it was silly. It does not help translate the Continent's world vibe. It instead makes it like a videogame. It absolutely does not match the rest of the rules either.
• (Another maybe preference) The character creation rules can be offensive to some. Things like suicide, race wars, and forced prostitution are not for everyone. That said, it is the world of the Witcher, so the authors are well within their bounds to use those things.
• Tables! There are four separate critical tables alone.
• Armor layering... why?

All this, and I am still wishing you the very best of luck. If it turns out good, please respond. I am more than willing to give this game another chance, and have even written some adventure designs based off how the system runs. But until I hear (or see) otherwise, I just can't. But my fingers are crossed for you. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

So he doesn't need any Monster Manual in front of him. He can sense monsters up to a mile away, and when looking at one, can tell what immunities, resistances and vulnerabilities they have.

Right, but here it's actually in character to also know their name, lore, rough ability scores and AC, and what special attacks or abilities they have. Basically all the stuff in a MM entry.

All I'm really getting at is that next time I get that player who wants to use metagame knowledge of monster stats, I'm going to tell them that they can as long as they play a professional monster hunter so that it at least makes in game sense that they are an encyclopedia of monster stats.

 

[Flamestrike]

Right, but here it's actually in character to also know their name, lore, rough ability scores and AC, and what special attacks or abilities they have. Basically all the stuff in a MM entry.

He also has this:

Geraldt of Rivia

Class features: Natural explorer, Favored enemy: (Aberrations, Monstrosities), Primeval awareness, Extra attack, Lands stride, Hunters sense, Slayers prey, Supernatural defence, Fighting style (Defence), Hexblades curse, Hex warrior, Pact boon (Witcher Talisman), Eldritch invocations (Repelling blast, Rebuke of the Talisman)

Which grants this:

You have advantage... on Intelligence checks to recall information about them.

He can sense the presence of aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead within 1 mile, determine the resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities of any creature by looking at them, and (for monstrosities and aberrations) he also has advantage on Intelligence checks to recall information about them, adding +1d4 to a failed check thanks to his Wolf Talisman pact boon.

He's no slouch when it comes to detecting monsters, and figuring out what they can (and cant) do.