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Message: <blockquote data-quote="robowieland" data-source="post: 9728758" data-attributes="member: 7026452">[ATTACH=full]416047[/ATTACH]The best way to keep an evil or antihero campaign on track is to supply the players with bigger villains to go after. It’s a joy to see the thieves from Leverage or the symbiotes from Marvel use their dastardly knowhow or vicious powers to take on bad guys that deserve the worst. <a href="https://www.sickestwitch.com/" target="_blank">The Sickest Witch</a>, from designer Justin Sirois, understands this and pits the players against corrupt demons, power hungry knights and charismatic cult leaders. The witches they play stand up for the common folk and the powerless. Sirois sent me a copy of the book for this review. Did the game make me cackle? Let’s play to find out.The players in <a href="https://www.sickestwitch.com/" target="_blank">The Sickest Witch</a> are part of the same coven of witches. There are eight classes to choose from, six of which offer magical abilities. The spellcasting classes aren’t built to be squishy either. Witches in the game get their power from harvesting body parts of the dead so they’ve got to get in close to cut up a victim. Most of the classes focus on a style of magic or a speciality of acquiring wicked body parts such as Seducer, Knight or Conjurer. For those folks who really, really don’t want to deal with spells. The Butcher, for example, is an expert at preserving bodies and delivering evil people to the coven for harvesting.[ATTACH=full]414355[/ATTACH]While not a full on Borg Family member, the system takes a lot of inspiration from the system. Actions are rolled with a d20 plus a modifier with players rolling to dodge rather than the GM attempting to hit. One of the biggest differences is 5e style long and short rests, though these Calls have some more in-game options than just healing damage and magic points. Players can repair items, send things back home through a magical portal and level up their characters. The XP process reflects the darkly heroic nature of the game by calling out how liberating oppressed people and helping strangers give players a chance to grow. One of the most interesting aspects is that the designer encourages players to share their experiences on the game’s discord and use it as a resource for new abilities and magic items. It’s an unusual approach to get more resources for the players and inspiration for the Game Master.Everyone pools their magic points and spells in the Cauldron. Specific spells require specially prepared body parts to cast. You need to have a tongue in hand to cast silence while a brain plus a foot plus a hand gives you the opportunity to create a shadow version of yourself to help you out. As written, the rules require a magic point spend plus a casting roll. I would probably let players automatically burn the part they are using to bypass the roll. The harvesting/spellcasting cycle is my favorite part of the play cycle because it pushes players to seek out villains with the hope of getting just the right spell component for a bloody bit of murder.While the game is framed as OSR-inspired folk horror, it struck me a bit more like a splatterpunk horror. It was fun for me to create utter bastards for the players to eviscerate and watch them giggle as they pulled out the parts they needed for the next spell to take down the next big bad guy. They players enjoyed standing up for their community and for the people who came around looking for a little justice or vengeance. The witches don’t care about the distinction but they did drink the power fantasy like a bowl of soup straight from the cauldron on a chilly day.Bottom Line: <a href="https://www.sickestwitch.com/" target="_blank">The Sickest Witch</a> puts players in a gory power fantasy that’s perfect for a few nights of doing bad things to worse people.</blockquote>

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