Roll to seduce sorceress: The Witcher tabletop RPG announced

By Will Fulton July 29, 2015

witcher tabletop rpg announced geralt d20 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Are over 30 hours of planned DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, in addition to the recently announced new game plus mode, still not enough new witchery to scratch your itch for gritty, Eastern European fantasy? Soon you will be able to take matters into your own hands with The Witcher Role-Playing Game, a pen-and-paper RPG recently announced by video game developer CD Projekt Red in collaboration with tabletop RPG developer R. Talsorian Games.

Fans of Andrzej Sapkowski’s epic fantasy novels and CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptations will be able to recombine familiar characters, locations, and other elements of the setting into entirely new adventures set in the world of professional monster hunter Geralt of Rivia.

“The Witcher Role-Playing Game will feature a myriad of spells, rituals, and curses; favorite gear and items from the entire Witcher series including a bestiary of devilish monsters players can face during their adventures” explains CD Projekt Red’s Marcin Momot in the post announcing the game in the developer’s forums. “The system will provide all the necessary tools to create and play out your own adventures and become everything from a battle-hardened monster slayer to a merchant kingpin controlling a vast network of contacts.”

Mechanically The Witcher Role-Playing Game will be based on Fuzion, the open source ruleset that powers R. Talsorian Games’ most famous tabletop product, Cyberpunk 2020. The collaboration is a natural result of the Polish developer already working with R. Talsorian founder and Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith on a digital adaptation of the seminal analog sci-fi role-playing game.

Cyberpunk, first released in the late 80s, has never seen a formal video game adaptation, although it has influenced other examples of the genre. The first edition was set in 2013, but that timeline has been pushed forward in subsequent releases to 2020, and more recently the 2030s. Cyberpunk 2077 (jumping ahead yet again) is CD Projekt Red’s next big project after its breakout success with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The Witcher Role-Playing Game is currently scheduled for release in mid-2016. More details about the system, price, and availability will become available in time.

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Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…

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