Dice or Playing Cards
Each with similar probabilities but with their own minor benefits, Witchgates is built to utilize one of two interchangeable random-generating tools. With playing cards, players will need to pull or draw cards from a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Alternatively, with dice players will need to roll 6-sided dice. Players will never need to pull or roll more than 7 cards/dice at once, and game masters will generally never need to pull/roll any number of cards/dice.
A standard playing deck of 52 cards
- Playing cards are explicitly useful for mobile games where players are standing and don’t always have a surface to roll dice on. As such, they are explicitly useful for Live-Action-Role-Playing games (LARPs).
- For fast-paced encounters, the GM may choose to wait until multiple players pull from the same deck before reshuffling. Doing so thereby allows the fates and fortunes of player pulls to affect each other, and helps balance fortune; bad pulls will take out the worse cards from the deck, making future pulls more likely to have better results.
7 six-sided dice (7d6)
- The common shorthand for any number of a specific type of dice is XD# where X represents the number of dice, D simply stands for dice, and the # stands for the number of sides on that dice. So “roll 2d6″ means roll two 6-sided dice.”
- The most accessible dice and easy to use at a table or online.
- It’s quicker to roll several dice at once than to pull 1 card at a time, and dice do not need to be routinely reshuffled.
Designer’s Commentary:
Before starting a game, players should agree on whether they want to use dice or cards or are fine with using both.
A Character Sheet
Players need a character sheet to record their character details on and from which to reference information about their character. It can be further useful to have additional paper to take additional notes about the game world and stories that the player characters interact with.
A printable sheet
- Players looking to print out a character sheet to write on can find one by clicking on the link here
- Players can further customize their character sheets using the original .doc file found here
- An additional page to track meta merits here
- For mobile games, such as LARPS, players are also encouraged to carry a hard surface to write on, such as a simple clipboard.
An electronic sheet
- For online games and for players who have an electronic device to update their character sheet, players are encouraged to take a copy of the google-sheet document found here
- Electronic character sheets can also be shared (read only or with edit permissions) with other players and the GM if anyone needs to be able to quickly reference your sheet.
Modular Quick-reference Rules Sheets
Though not nearly as expansive as this website, players can also printout and/or edit one of the below quick reference document with additional rules for their own use. A quick-reference document can help players avoid a need to consistently check online for reoccurring rules.
The additional modular components can be added for character-specific rules, such as how Fey contracts work, and other helpful tools, such as the spell diagram, which helps witches visualize the allocation of dice to spell components.
- Core quick-reference sheet can be downloaded here
- Modular rules that can be pasted into the core sheet can be found below:
- Witch Spell Crafting Rules
- Spell Crafting Diagram
- Fey Contract Rules
- Witch Spell Crafting Rules
A Pencil and Notecards
For physical, in-person games, a pencil for each player will let them make temporary adjustments to their character sheets, take notes, and assist in various other ways.
A stack of notecards are also useful for various small purposes, including:
- Tracking items, favors, and resources that may be traded between players
- Sending ‘texts’ and ‘whispers’ to a specific player without letting others see the information.
- Sending interaction requests to a player who is currently too occupied to step-away from their current scene (for games with many players)
- Notecards can also be used to create various tokens in a pinch, which have further utility, such as to for action trackers.
- (LARP) To create locations for players to physically travel to
- (LARP) To create “Do Not Interrupt Scene” cards to let players know that a location or interaction is currently locked down by an ongoing event/scene.
Game Management Sheets
These are various documents that can help players and GMs manage and track details within and outside of a game. Some of these are documents with simple guidelines, rules, and agreements all players should be aware of and have input on, while others are for the GM(s) to manage core story details. Players are encouraged to copy these electronic documents for their own games.
All Players
- Lines and Veils Tracker
- This document is for all players to list their own personal lines and veils (described in the Safety Tools section) and to take note of those mentioned by other players.
- The Blue Sheet
- A document which provides common knowledge characters within the setting would be privy of. It is often printed on blue paper to distinguish it from character sheets and other documents, but a Blue Sheet does not need to literally be blue.
- The Green Sheet
- A document which provides information players should have about how a game is going to be run. It is often printed on green paper to distinguish it from character sheets and other documents, but a Green Sheet does not need to literally be green.
GM Documents
- Who-knows-Who?
- A correlation matrix to track which PCs, factions, and NPCs know each other at the start of a game (through backstory and lore)
- What’s going On?
- A sheet to list Factions, their goals, and active pursuits and activities