Game Design and Creator: Christopher GreyInspired by the Fiction of Kathleen Kaufman

Content Editors: Mac Beauvais, Lauren Bryant-Monk, Kate Bullock, Danielle DeLisle

Cover Illustration: Minerva FoxLayout, Logo Design: Christopher GreyCopy Editor: Danielle DeLisleCreative Consultant: Kathleen KaufmanCultural Consultant: Adam M. West (Choctaw), Veronica Vega (Aje)Game Design Consultant: Danielle DeLisle, Robert Hebert, Kate Potts and Kurt Potts from Lighthearted Games.

Interior Illustrations: Tithi Luadthong

Playtesters (Birchwood Manor Coven): Dannielle DeLisle, Robert Hebert, Joanna Nelius, Kate Potts, Kurt Potts

Playtesters (South City Sorcery Shop Coven): Anne-Kathrin S., Philip Pletzing, Nika Grtzner, @ichbinangelo, @sukideluxe, Guided by Falco Schneider

Original Happy Jacks RPG Podcast Cast (Salem’s Hearth Coven): Mac Beauvais, Joe Kou, Jaime C. Sandoval, Emily VanDerWerff

Planning rules in the Guide Section heavily adapted from and inspired by the Sly Flourish (Mike Shea) game prep method in Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master.

Special thanks to Strategicon Conventions and all of the groups there that put up with my constant playtesting, as well as Storygames Glendale Meetup and Tomer Gurantz for the same. Thank you also to Happy Jacks RPG Podcast for giving me a platform for a public GAW campaig.

Published by Gallant Knight Games.

Developed at Foundry58.

An Ennead Media production.

Copyright © 2020, Christopher Grey. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Copyright holder provides express permission to reproduce pages of the books to assist in gameplay.Sample

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Copyright © 2020 Christopher Grey.

Published by Gallant Knight GamesAn Ennead Media ProductionSample

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F or all of the witches. May your light forever shine.

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Isaiah 47:12

Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

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THE GAME 8

† About the Game 8

† History 12

† Life as a Witch 16

† What to Expect 17

THE GAME 19

† Core Themes 21

† Getting Started 25

† The Guide 27

† Witches 28

† Story 28

† Aspects 29

BASIC GAMEPLAY 30

† Weal and Woe 30

† Chapters 30

† Conflicts 34

† Character Moves 35

† Resolving Characters 37

† Narrative Control 38

† Using Charms 38

† Magick 39

† Coven Magick 40

† Gameplay Example 42

COVENS 48

† The Divine 51

† The Hearth 53

† The Inverted 55

† The Oracle 57

† The Storm 59

† The Sleepers 61

† The Town 63

† The Veil 65

† The Whispers 67

WITCH CRAFTS 70

† Aje 73

† Hag 77

† Hekate 81

† Lilith 85

† Mary and Isis 89

† Spider Grandmother 93

† Tara 97

GUIDE 101

† Agenda and Principoles 102

† Guide Moves 108

† Threats 109

† Preparing Your Story 120

MATERIALS 126

Contents

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T he Great American Witch is a tabletop roleplaying game about modern witches who pro-

tect the secret world of witchcraft from the supernatural, secret societies, and those seeking to destroy them.

The true nature of your characters is hidden to the world even as they live in it, fighting the supernatural and engaging in spiritual warfare. The very existence and livelihood of witches are threatened daily. But in these dark times they maneuver, they collect their power and forge solidarity among the disenfranchised, the abused, and the forgotten. Witches subvert the unseen forces working to destroy them. They craft magick until it is transformed by the unbridled power of the forces of creation.

Yes, you will play witches, but they are not necessarily the witches of popular culture. They are not the tropes of film or anime. You will play witches of legend. You will play witches with the power to destroy societies and establish entire movements. You will play avatars of ancient goddesses: feared, worshipped, or reviled for ages.

Your witch topples governments, creates miracles, and guides global leaders. Your witch protects the waking world from supernatural terrors, leads nations into glory, and saves humanity from themselves. Your witch is the divine on earth and keeper of the most powerful magic in the world.

Yet they are surrounded by enemies, vilified by history, and hunted by secret societies. Constant threats work to destroy them. What their enemies lack in power they make up for in numbers. To be revealed as a witch can be a death sentence.

Witches protect each other and practice their craft unseen to defend the world from destructive forces. Your characters will overcome adversaries, natural and supernatural alike, to unseat the evil powers at play in the world and work to create a balance of power.

WITCHES

Witches can be any gender, gender-fluid, or non-gender. They can be from any walk of life, any culture, any heritage. They can be anyone.

The defining quality of a witch is that they can see beyond the veil and, therefore, draw from supernatural primal forces. Witches draw primarily from the divine feminine powers of the universe because they have historically followed goddess traditions. Thus, most witches are conduits for divine feminine power, even if they do not present as feminine themselves.

The witch’s traditional focus on goddess traditions is deeply rooted in their history and comes from centuries of oppression from patriarchal societies. While witches will sometimes draw from divine masculine powers, it is not part of traditional sanctioned witchcraft.Sam

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In The Great American Witch, a witch’s power is not tied to a religion or a belief struc-ture. Witches have the innate ability to look beyond the veil and access cosmological power by using goddess symbolism. This does not necessarily mean the goddesses are “worshipped.” The goddess traditions are prescriptions witches use to perform magick. They can do so even as atheists.Witches have no direct connection with the religion of Wicca (or any religion). When we use the word “witch” in this game, we are discussing fictional magick practitioners of primal feminine power, not individuals prac-ticing the Wiccan religion. Certainly, witches can be Wiccan--or a member of any religion, philosophy, or belief system. Additionally, these witches are not from Christian lore tied to Satan, the Devil, or demons. All of that said, the divine is very real in this game. Deities, demons, angels, and all man-ner of demigods can interact with the char-acters. But we need to take this in the context of fiction, not religion. As always, use the X-Card to keep the table aligned surround-ing real-world religion.

THE CRAFT

While witches draw power from the same source, how they do so can vary dramatically. Some will rely on intuition and their natural ability, whereas others require rituals to do their craft.

There are seven major accepted craft traditions, called “the sanctioned crafts.”

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These witchcraft traditions are modeled after feminine divine powers from legend: the Aje, the Hag, the Spider Grandmother, Isis and Mary, Tara, Lilith, and Hekate. Some witches practice traditions outside the sanctioned traditions, known as the Broken Circle.

THE SEVEN

The sanctioned crafts are overseen in America by witches who constitute a governing body called The Seven.

This council of witches serves as judge, jury, and executioner for grievances among witches and covens. They are also an advisory council for witches, protectors of covens, and ambassadors for non-witches in both the natural and supernatural worlds.

The Seven are only replaced when one passes away, and another witch is appointed after a series of trials.

COVENS

Beyond the Seven, witches have their coven, a group of witches who took an oath to serve and protect one another for life.

Covens are formed for many reasons and by diverse groups of people. To be in a coven, one must be a witch, but any other requirement will vary based on the group.

Some covens will require witches to practice a particular craft, whereas others

will not. Some have a shared philosophy or religion, while others unite because of a neighborhood.

Most covens initiate witches to bind them to the coven, either through an oath or magick. The consequences of violating the oath are dire, and punishment harsh and quick. Some of the worst cases are escalated to the Seven to handle.

In the context of the game, the coven is your group of players. By default, you all come together as allies, guardians, and families to protect each other and work together to protect the community.

THE MOTHER GODDESS

Witches call the feminine force of creation from which they draw their power, the Mother Goddess. Modern tradition accepts that the power manifests in three fundamental aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

Most witches work within this symbolic framework, however, not all of them do. It is also a very modern take on age-old traditions and looks quite different in the 20th century. The specifics of how a witch manifests magick are particular to the individual witch and their craft, but they are often personified as a goddess tradition from pagan mythology.

Individual witches observe a tradition that personifies the Mother Goddess. These traditions are called “crafts” and vary from witch to witch.Sam

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Introduction

The Mother Goddess is a highly personal concept for witches. Witches will follow a particular tradition but do it in their own way. While some may view The Mother Goddess as a higher entity, others may view Her as a natural or supernatural force. Some view Her as a symbol or metaphor for supernatural energies.

The reality of it isn’t clear. Historically witches have revered the divine feminine as a focus of worship. Certainly, many religions do this as well. However, for modern witches, the Mother Goddess is less about worshipping a deity, but more about using the traditions around goddesses as a symbol with which they can focus their efforts.

RELIGION

The practice of witchcraft can and often do coexist with other religious and spiritual beliefs or practices.

Some witches even integrate the Mother Goddess into their religion. Where a witch finds faith and solace, and how they practice, is entirely up to them.

THE VEIL

The observance of the Mother Goddess is an invocation of divine power beyond the understanding of humans. The practice of witchcraft is to “lift the veil” of human perception to see into the spiritual realm and beyond. Witches know humans are limited by their bodies, and an entire universe exists around them. With their craft, they can extend beyond the physical world into where spirits dwell, the spiritual battleground, to Faerie, and even to the divine planes.

THE SUPERNATURAL

Being magickal, witches tend to attract the supernatural. All manner of creatures exists around us, ranging from fay and spirits to vampires and werewolves. Beings that exist outside of nature also lurk. Non-human beings like demons, angels, demigods, and others trespass in the material world. Witches stand between humanity and all other worldly threats.

Andy was one of the seven until the late 1970s

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HISTORY OF AMERICAN WITCHES

Witchcraft in America is far older than the arrival of Europeans. It began with the migration of the ancients who settled the land 12,000 years ago. They roamed throughout the continent, along the west coast, the Great Basin, the Southwest, the Plains, and eventually the Northeast and Southeast.

By the time Europeans invaded, several cultures were thriving throughout the continent most prominently in the Southwest, the Mississippi, and Ohio river valleys, the Southeast and the Northeast. There was a massive trade network between entirely different societies.

Indigenous people practiced what modern witches call magick in as many ways as there were tribes.

Ultimately, the Europeans and indigenous people would share each other’s magick and eventually create the Spider Grandmother craft.

THE FIRST EXODUS

The organized witchcraft prominent today was brought over to the New World covertly with the Puritans’ arrival in the mid 17th century. Many European witches saw a unique opportunity to start over in America without the persecution of European religious powers.

The rise of the Church in Western Europe and the horrific torture the pious rained

down upon accused witches forced many witches into England and Scotland’s relative safety. Although the English and Scottish Puritans were every bit as zealous, they were tempered by the Anglicans, and witches were able to live quietly without fear of trials and persecutions. Many were also attracted to the ancient Pagan practices, which still covertly flourished in Britain and Wales.

As the English Civil War broke out, the witches’ safety fell into question again. Drastic changes in the government and ceaseless war meant no one was safe. Many witches joined the Puritans, incognito, as they left Scotland and Britain for the New World.

There was danger in this flight because the Puritans were every bit as eager to burn and hang witches as the Catholics. However, the New World had something the island didn’t--a world of opportunity. A chance to start a new society separate from the tyranny of their enemies.

SALEM

Any hope of a place for the Mother Goddess in the New World was immediately squashed. The Puritans seized control of the Northeast devoted themselves entirely to building the City on the Hill--their religious Utopia. Their way would lead to indigenous people’s slaughter, the subjugation of women in their society, and the supremacy of their extremist ideas.Sam

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