Hey fa/tg/uys, I need your help.
I'm trying to write up a campaign for some players that want to play Witches in a DnD or WoD setting, and I'm having a difficult time finding material to draw on that is modern and fun, like Witch Hunter Robin, but all I'm finding really is colonial fetishists and thinly veiled lesbian propaganda. Or Japanese shit that's just magic-flavored K-on!...
Can you help me out?
Stories, movies, your own campaigns, whatever you've got.
Images are cool too. Thanks :)
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When all else fails, OP, look at Discworld.
Witches on the Disc are closer to wise women who happen to be able to use magic, and tend to use common sense and psychology to deal with their problems as opposed to magic. That's probably for the best, as most magic on the Disc is compared to nuclear energy - an extremely powerful natural force with unpleasant side effects, which you probably wouldn't want to use to cook breakfast with. Witches generally take care of smaller areas, known as steadings. While the witches themselves aren't necessarily looked at with the greatest admiration, everyone who's part of a witch's steading agrees that they're probably the glue that keeps communities from falling apart at the seams. At least, so long as they don't go bad and start making houses out of gingerbread.
I got you some fun webcomics:
>blindsprings
mostly focuses on a sort of witch and her journey to bring back the spirits of the land. art is great, pic related
>astral aves
has one of the best magic systems I've ever seen, and is also hilarious. I particularly enjoy the humorous insistence on manners. art is strange, with an insistence of floofy hair.
>witchery etc.
follows a witch and her pumpkin headed compatriot going around and solving problems, strangely without much magic. art is kinda meh.
that's some pretty solid advice, thanks :)
anyone else got anything?
oooo, webcomics! i haven't read those much since Megatokyo was cool lol, i'll check those out tonight!
Was gonna post Discworld too, recommend you start with Wyrd Systers, damn good book.
I also have this to offer, it's not much, but it might give you something:
peppercarrot.com
>since Megatokyo was cool
oh damn! ive seen pics from that but i never knew what it was :D saved, thank you
lol oh you
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>Or Japanese
LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA. Watch that shit now.
what about equal rites?
HOLY CRAP YES
You will crawl in the mud at the end of time to the lasting of my spite.
i did! well, the first one. i liked it a lot but it's not exactly the vibe im going for.
i guess i should say my direction is modern world experiencing a revival of magic on a mid-low magic scale.
trying to stay away from apocalyptic stuff and harry potter, and explore magic from a "self vs magic" on a town-city scale as opposed to a "self vs the world" on a universe scale
also trying to avoid teenagers and find material about older people, im done with final fantasy tropes lol
It's worth reading, but not really on the same level as the later other books. Also, while it uses some of the same characters, you kinda notice that Pratchett was still working out and finding the feel for the setting when he wrote it.
Plus, the other books form a nice continuity with the same core characters while events from Equal rites are never mentioned again, so it comes of as some kind of Alternate Universe story (Which I think was Pratchett's official excuse for any continuity errors he made).
Fucking Fremen, man.
Witchposting? Witchposting.
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You ever read an RPG called Witch Girl Adventures?
Creator has an obvious transformation bad-end fetish, but the rules are simple and fun.
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Try reading a bit about Malleus Maleficarum. Basically, the first pocket book to deal with witches, written by an inquisitor in 1486.
en.wikipedia.org
Just reading may not give you enough inspiration, but if you manage to find it online, or read about the most interesting thing, you may be inspired.
There are lots of nice thing, on how they would gather to celebrate and fornicate with the devil, transforming into cats, black dogs or goat. Also, they could simply make people ill, spoil the milk, make bad weather or simply fly (Swiss witches were said to fly on a three-legged stool rather than on a broom).
Of course, it's more the evil kind of witches you'll get, but it's plenty fun and well, being grated forces from outsiders rarely ends well.
On another note, my last campaign had a good part about witches. My witch player in PF wanted to discover more about his patron, and went on some quest to know more. He went to the big Sabbatm the great gathering of all witches which happens once a year (in a desolated swamp, protected by a black dragon). Her patron was a wendigo, and each new information came in his dream or hallucination, like seeing at first, only blood stain in the snow, and then the burned limb and so on.
It was plenty fun and had mostly the gross imagery of witches, like eating babies and having bocals full of strange goods.
There also was a healer witch, which was kinda berated by others for being so nice and almost only able to heal (stole a bit from Soul Eater there).
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That's all, OP
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Did this once, worked so well and so much fun
checking
im trying to stay away from the blood magic thing, but idk if i should.
its seeming to me that the more i look for material that sexuality, blood, and the beast are cornerstones of the archetype and bending elements to your will and talking to animals are a sort of high-fantasy reskinning and not true to the roots of what "being a witch" is.
since ive been collecting information im not sure what a witch really is anymore
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Vin Diesel's movie "The Last Witch Hunter" focuses on witches in a modern, WOD type setting. It's not a great movie, but might be worth a look for inspiration's sake.
I'll just lay out some of the mythology I cooked up for a potential modern fantasy novel project I lost interest in before starting it:
>witches are psychopomps and mediums, able to see and interact with the dead
>sometimes ghosts create silent hill esque otherworlds that trap people inside them, witches have to jump into those and solve the ghost problem
>Witches can also raise and command the dead under the right circumstances, but prefer not to
>witches are unable to cross rivers due to all the people murdered, accidentally or deliberately drowned in them and how they're coursing with stuck ghosts
>Witches thus operate over particular areas, London for instance had a Witch of the West End, Witche of the East End, Witch of Lambeth and Witch of Hackney
>main villain was a really old rock that was animistically intelligent and wanted to end the world of man by funnelling all the dead of the river thames into a greater necromantic working
>final battle involved main character stealing icheal jackson's red thriller coat and raising a load of zombie to counter the "Mineral Intelligence"'s zombie army in a great battle in london's streets while she tries to get her moped up a steep hill to the mineral intelligence while carrying a motorised jackhammer to end the mineral intelligence once and for all.
(this was a plotbunny from years ago, before the london riots even, which is why there's so much zombies)
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I take inspiration from the bene gesserit from Dune and created a psudo religious order of wise women who are often politically neutral and have a presence in many villages where they offer their magic and advice where possible.
It's considered a great honor to have your daughter accepted by them and they arn't swayed by the girls status as well although they often take in orphaned girls more then ones with families.
Mechanically they are Druids and Warlocks with the witch background
didn't even know that was a thing lol what the hell vin diesel
thats cool!
>main villan is a really old intelligent rock that wants to destroy the world
thats so terrible but poetic and also awesome at the same time, might use some of that
I don't know much decent modern stuff about witches I'm actually in the process of writing such a story, basically Ghostbusters starring the Buffy gang with the main character was a new witch, but might I suggest the Rivers of London series?
goodreads.com
Peter Grant is a London cop that discovers wizard powers, and then becomes the lone police presence in the magical underground. Highlights include Genius Loci of London's main rivers, architectural history (that's actually interesting), and looking at the how of magic with modern eyes. Love it to bits.
And now, pictures!
>didn't even know that was a thing lol what the hell vin diesel
Dude, Vin Diesel is a /huge/ nerd. The Last Witch Hunter is basically straight up his D&D character.
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For some reason I always figured modern witches would be bohemian as fuck
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I don't have many chicks, but I figure the style of these would transfer nicely
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witches can be dudes too im told, dudes are acceptable :P
Figure. The term "bohemian" basically means gypsy.
But real gypos only nick things and use drugs.
I mean, if I were witch hunter I'd hunt 'em too, but not sure if it's really the same.
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Gyppos don't steal things, the problem is that gypsy caravans carry with them evicted house spirits, your hob, your heinzelmann or germanic kobold, your slavic domovoi, much akin to the klabautermann who protects and cares for ships - there are many tales of people burning down their houses to get rid of these house spirits, only to turn around and find the damn things on the back of the wagons they drive off in to seek a new home.
Similarly, when a house burns down and its inhabitants die in the process, many a house spirit is left homeless only to attach themselves to the travelling homes of the gypsies, where they bring mischief wherever the gypsies go.
Go classical,
Discworld classic
There's always Kiki's Delivery Service?
It's sort of 'modern' (there's cars and black and white tv for tech level) at least.
Even though Kiki is a child, it's more about witches finding a place for themselves and their magic in the modern community for when they grow up, among other things.
Kiki's mother settled down and became the local magical apothecary/pharmacy and another witch Kiki meets has started up a fortune telling business.
Though it might be a bit too comfy for what you're after.
Pic unrelated.
Dropped my pic because I'm an idiot.
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Goddamn do I love owls
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Russian witches best witches.
Hemlock for Web comics.
Look up Koschei the Deathless as a sign of what they can offer.
Baba Yagas representation in Hellboy comics is also surprisingly dope as fuck.
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Best witches.
Aww shit, more webcomics. Awesome.
What is this?
bibidi bobodi bump
Hemlock a webcomic
Ah, many thanks
op is back!
more witch stuff please!
Make SURE your witch weighs the same as a duck. Otherwise they're not a real witch.
jolly good thread
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I really liked the movie "The Witch" if your players don't mind pretending to be satanists. You know now that I say that. Probably don't do that