Witch Doctors in Historical gaming

[gloriousbattle]

My Zulus also double as Kukuanas, and, for this purpose, I have Witch Doctoresses (if you need to know why they are all female, read H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines).  In those games they cast spells, etc.

In most historical rules, I simply fade them in to the Zulu warrior units, but is this really fair?  Should tribal wizards play a more important role?  After all, M'botu knows that the witchdoctor cured his stomach ache, and he also knows that the old boy cursed his brother-in-law's cattle after the two argued over the price of a chicken, and the witchdoctor is watching him now... Nope.  Better not head for the hills just yet.

Now, this morale effect may not survive half the impi being blown away by maxim guns, but it is real enough, nonetheless.

I also know a guy who runs the occasional Victorian adventure game, and, he will never tell anyone whether magic is real in his games or not.  Yes, the witch doctor casts spells, and yes, they have real effects, but they could be just hypnosis, misdirection, hallucinogens, etc.

Anyway, what do you think the limits of magic should be in a historical game?

[Conquistador]

<snip>

Now, this morale effect may not survive half the impi being blown away by maxim guns, but it is real enough, nonetheless.

I also know a guy who runs the occasional Victorian adventure game, and, he will never tell anyone whether magic is real in his games or not.  Yes, the witch doctor casts spells, and yes, they have real effects, but they could be just hypnosis, misdirection, hallucinogens, etc.

Anyway, what do you think the limits of magic should be in a historical game?

Morale - the difference between knowing you have decent medevac available and no medical support?

Melee - the difference between being sent into combat and led into combat?

Missile - a one time increased ROF?

Defense - a belief that allows one to stave off effects of hits/wounds until after the turn?

Depending on the system in use most any effect can be modeled.

Gracias,

Glenn

[chicklewis]

In Chris Peer's Africa rules, magic works, but only against those who believe it works.  
Casting spells or curses on native african units, works a treat, if they see her casting it.  
Casting them against a Muzungu (white explorer) unit has no effect.  
I like this paradigm.  

[gloriousbattle]

Good thoughts.  I was also thinking that there might be a morale bonus for the witchdoctor's presence, but that morale could turn REALLY bad when the witchdoctor died, or his magic was otherwise proved ineffective.  For example, they might skip an intermediate morale level like shaken, and just drop their iklwas and run.

[nicknorthstar]

The Witch Doctors rule for Chris Peers' 'Death in the Dark Continent' is part of the free downloads, so you can have a read here.

http://www.northstarfigures.com/lists/ditdc12.pdf

The rules are actually on offer for the next month or so, if you've not got a copy I'd recommend them.

http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=194

I've got some photos of the games we've played on the North Star Facebook site.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288195217876054.94456.218634441498799&type=3

Cheers
Nick

[gloriousbattle]

Thanks for that!

[aecurtis]

The Witch Doctors rule for Chris Peers' 'Death in the Dark Continent' is part of the free downloads, so you can have a read here.

http://www.northstarfigures.com/lists/ditdc12.pdf

The rules are actually on offer for the next month or so, if you've not got a copy I'd recommend them.

http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=194

I've got some photos of the games we've played on the North Star Facebook site.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288195217876054.94456.218634441498799&type=3

Cheers
Nick

Just waiting for my copy to arrive, Nick!  Ordered a few days ago.   I'd been intending to order it for a while; the online PDFs had already convinced me of that.  But it was your Facebook page note that did the trick; these social media thingummies are occasionally useful!

Allen

[nicknorthstar]

Hi Allen

Hope it arrives safe and sound.

Going back to the original post referencing King Solomon's Mines (not read it, ashamed to say), a couple of the guys locally are getting frothy about converting one of the new Wazungu figures.

http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=4002

The guy on the far right, one of the characters in the book gets captured in his night shirt mid shaving, so he's in the native village with no trousers and half a beard.

Nick

[Patrice]

I also know a guy who runs the occasional Victorian adventure game, and, he will never tell anyone whether magic is real in his games or not.  Yes, the witch doctor casts spells, and yes, they have real effects, but they could be just hypnosis, misdirection, hallucinogens, etc.
Anyway, what do you think the limits of magic should be in a historical game?

I think that the limits of magic are what your players and you can tolerate in an historical context.
I use some magic in my historical skirmish games but I don't say obviously that magic works.
For exemple: I sometimes use fog (white cotton) to conceal the movement of troops (as modern "tactical smoke" would do). This smoke can appear "naturally" on a marshy area in a pirate game ... if a voodoo priestess is there with a group of marooned slaves; or it can already be on the table over a small stream, as natural morning fog, in a Dark Ages (Arthurian) game, it vanishes with the sun (meteo dice), and if a white-haired elderly Pict is talking to a standing stone not far from there it seems that the fog has less % chances to disappear quickly; when non-Pictish players ask me if this old Pict has magical powers I answer no he has Alzheimer.

[aecurtis]

Not sure if it's necessary to attribute to medical conditions anything that can simply be explained by different belief systems. 

Otherwise, many aspects of today's "culture wars" could be dismissed with clinical diagnoses...   

One could simply answer that the Pict believes he has magical powers!   

Or I may have been reading Jim Butcher too closely last night...

Allen

[H.M.Stanley]

My Explorers have just moved up the painting queue ..

[Patrice]

Not sure if it's necessary to attribute to medical conditions anything that can simply be explained by different belief systems.

What I meant is that this Pict (or any other witchdoctor / magician) has some (very limited) magical power in the game (his prayers can change the duration of the tactical smoke fog) but I don't admit it openly.

[gloriousbattle]

My Explorers have just moved up the painting queue ..

Glad this thread had some positive effect!

What I meant is that this Pict (or any other witchdoctor / magician) has some (very limited) magical power in the game (his prayers can change the duration of the tactical smoke fog) but I don't admit it openly.

I would like to do similar stuff, though, if the player's searched, the'y usually find some explanation.

Example: The askaris and white mercenaries out fron suddenly bolt, after walking into a strange mist.  They are screaming about being attacked by ten-legged pink tigres, the trees opening up fanged mouths, etc.  If the explorers looked carefully, they might find the remains of a bonfire that was burning some hallucinogenic herb.

[H.M.Stanley]

Even better - my Congo Cannibals jumped the queue and have a Witch-Doctor