(commercial/Kickstarter) Witchin' Hour

[Witchin Hour]

Hello all,

I have developed a new skirmish game pitting Witch Hunters and their retinues of righteous men against foul Witches and Cultists.

Februari 1st 2020 will see the launch of the Kickstarter to produce the hardcopy rulebook. This will be a full color 64-page soft cover with stitched binding. (See the attachments for samples of the pages.)
Next to the general rules the book will feature a series of scenario's that form a mini campaign when played in successive order.

There are some new and innovative game mechanics for deployment and activation-reaction of your models as well as a simple but effective way of resolving close combat outcome.

If you are interested and want to follow the progress of us working up to the Kickstarter you can always visit our Facebook page: Within' Hour skirmish game.

Happy Holidays all!

[Duncan McDane]

Yeah, will get me this one for sure. Burn the witch! 

[Comsquare]

Sounds interesting and would like know more about it, but am sadly not doing Facebook.

But will follow with interest here on LAF

[robh]

.......There are some new and innovative game mechanics for deployment and activation-reaction......

New and Innovative?  Would be interesting to see some examples of what makes them so. 

[Witchin Hour]

Thank you for the responses and interest in my game.

I will try to answer all questions posted here as well as on the Facebook page.
Those not on Facebook can already note the date of the Kickstarter launch, February 1st 12:00 ECT.

As for the new and innovative ways of several game mechanics:
Here is an example (deployment)
Deployment is not a static affair. Instead you have a few deployment points (depending on how big your warband is) which you and your opponent can shift along the table using activation tokens. The amount of activation tokens depends on the composition of your warband. Moving the deployment points is done in alternate fashion, but you can spend as much tokens each time it is your turn, whereby each spent token gives you 2" of moving space for one deployment point.
Once both players run out of tokens models wil be placed at one, or more deployment points (up to the players choice).
In this way you can already start playing while you deploy your forces and try to out-manouvre or out-bluff your opponent.

[Duncan McDane]

Will you have some miniatures released for the game or is it a book only and we'll have to use our own models?

[Witchin Hour]

There will be no miniatures because there are plenty of good models available.
Frostgrave soldiers (box set) gives you plenty of Mercenary models. They also have a set of plastic cultists which are surprisingly very good as Cultists in Witchin' Hour. Foundry has a lot of Witches and peasants. The book will have a list with manufacturers who given their permission to use their models in the book itself.
And you can always use other types of models. The ruleset is flexible enough. You can start a warband with fighting nuns (mercenary rules) and have them led by a Sister Superior (Witch Hunter rules).
You can even use sci-fi-fi models and apply the normal rules for creating a warband or coven.
Basically you choose a troop-type for your model, which gives it a set of base rules and skills. And then you can equip the model with weapons etc of your own choosing. So it's very diverse.

The book itself contains everything you need to play the game once you have suitable models. The Kickstarter page will also have a list of manufacturers for suitable models, so if you pledge you will have enough time to get yourself some models before the book arrives at your doorstep.

[Duncan McDane]

Check. Got plenty of models myself but was hoping for a couple of mini's especially made for this game. Never can have enough mini's, you know. 

[Pascal]

There will be no miniatures because there are plenty of good models available.
Frostgrave soldiers (box set) gives you plenty of Mercenary models. They also have a set of plastic cultists which are surprisingly very good as Cultists in Witchin' Hour. Foundry has a lot of Witches and peasants. The book will have a list with manufacturers who given their permission to use their models in the book itself.
And you can always use other types of models. The ruleset is flexible enough. You can start a warband with fighting nuns (mercenary rules) and have them led by a Sister Superior (Witch Hunter rules).
You can even use sci-fi-fi models and apply the normal rules for creating a warband or coven.
Basically you choose a troop-type for your model, which gives it a set of base rules and skills. And then you can equip the model with weapons etc of your own choosing. So it's very diverse.

The book itself contains everything you need to play the game once you have suitable models. The Kickstarter page will also have a list of manufacturers for suitable models, so if you pledge you will have enough time to get yourself some models before the book arrives at your doorstep.

Not being critical, just some question. 
Why not self publish via DriveThruRPG vs. Kickstarter? 

I am one of the many that do not use Facebook, not because I am old, but for privacy reasons.  Will you have a website or Blog for errata and updates or will it be exclusive to Facebook?  If you are going to only post content on Facebook, that will be a hard pass for me since I hate to ask others who have an account to get me some content. 

How long from KS to delivery will the book take?  I mean, has the game been written and playtested and you are only missing layout so there will be a quick turn around or will it be a year to deliver like many KS?

Thanks

[Blackwolf]

Game looks interesting,however I’m another one that isn’t on Facebook.

[Witchin Hour]

@Pascal and Blackwolf (and others who are not on Facebook):

When the Kickstarter is successful I assume that production time will be around 6 months. The reason for that is that I do not have written all the scenario's yet and I also want to play-test them before releasing the book. But the general rules have all been written and thoroughly tested. Also the layout and design of the rulebook is done.
There will be no immediate need do publish updates etc once the book is released. As I said, all the rules are done and in the book and the book will have about six scenario's. If there will be any more content it would probably be more scenario's. I get these available to those interested in a number of ways. Facebook among them, but I could also e-mail them or indeed, put them on a website. I do not have a website for Witchin' Hour exclusively, but I do have a blog site that I could use for this as well (www.thedesertscorpions.com).
So I do not foresee any problems for those who are not on Facebook.

[Duncan McDane]

Is it also playable without using the scenario's? If not, six is quite limited...

[Pijlie]

As one of the play testers I can state that I enjoyed quite a few games without any specific scenario or with a quickly made up one. The six scenarios in the book offer a quick start for a game (or the basis for a campaign) but the game is replayable either without them or with a scenario of your own.

[Duncan McDane]

Excellent, thanks. 

[Witchin Hour]

Happy New Year everybody!
And to begin this year I would like to show you a sample of a spread page from the rulebook. My friend Jan-Willem has done some drawings for the book and tokens and I was able to find some time during the holiday to get it in the book design. (see attachment)
Hope you all like it.