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Table of ContentsIntroduction.................................4Recent History...................................10Hero Characters................................12• Geralt of Rivia.....................12• Yennefer of Vengerburg....13• Dandelion............................14• Zoltan...................................15• Triss Merigold....................16• Vernon Roche.....................17• Iorveth..................................18• Letho of Gulet.....................19

Creating Your Character...........20Races.....................................................21Lifepath................................................25Life Events & Style.............................31Professions..........................................37• Bard.......................................38• Craftsman............................39• Criminal...............................40• Doctor...................................41• Mage.....................................42• Man At Arms......................43• Merchant.............................44• Priest.....................................45• Witcher.................................46Statistics..............................................47Skills.....................................................49Skill Resolution..................................57Leveling Up.........................................59Reputation...........................................60Skill Trees............................................61

Gear.............................................71Weapons..............................................72Armor...................................................78Elderfolk Armory...............................83Alchemical Items...............................87Armor Enhancements......................90Transportation...................................91Tool Kits..............................................92General Gear.......................................93

Magic...........................................98Mage Spells.......................................101Priest Invocations............................109Witcher Signs...................................114Rituals................................................116Hexes..................................................120Places of Power.................................122Learning Magic................................123

Crafting.....................................124Crafting System...............................126Crafting Components.....................128Crafting Diagrams...........................130Fixing & Disassembling..................140Alchemy System...............................141Alchemical Substances...................143Alchemical Formulae......................146

Combat......................................148Combat Basics.................................151Critical Wounds..............................159Effects................................................161In Depth Combat............................163Magic Resolution............................166Transportation & Cavalry.............169Example Combat............................172Healing..............................................173Optional Rules.................................175• Monsters in the Novels..........175• Adrenaline................................175• Verbal Combat........................176

World.........................................178The Northern Kingdoms...............180• Redania..............................182• Kaedwen............................183• Aedirn................................184• Temeria................... ..........185• Skellige...............................186• Kovir & Poviss..................187• The Hengefor’s League...187• Lyria & Rivia.....................188• Cidaris...............................188• Verden................................188The Elderlands.................................189• Mahakam..........................190• Dol Blathanna...................191The Empire of Nilfgaard................192• Nilfgaard...........................194• Etolia..................................195• Vicovaro............................195• Gemmera..........................195• Ebbing................................196• Maecht..............................196• Mettina.............................196• Gheso.................................197• Nazair.................................197• Mag Turga.........................197• Angren...............................198• Cintra.................................198Beyond the Borders........................199• Zerrikania.........................200• Ofier...................................200• The Far North..................200Powerful Alliances..........................201• Witchers............................202• Mages................................204• The Havekar......................205• The Scoia’tael....................205• The Mage Hunters..... .....206• The Crescent Moon.........206Powerful Religions..........................207• Melitele..............................208• The Eternal Fire...............208• Freya..................................209• The Great Sun..................209

Game Master’s Guide..............210Running Witcher.............................216Encounters.......................................219Rewards............................................221Random Possessions......................223Relics & Min-Maxers.....................224Good NPCs......................................226Campaigning...................................227Curses...............................................230World States....................................232

Witchers....................................236Witcher Lifepath.............................238Life As A Witcher............................241Witcher Gear...................................246Mutagens..........................................251

Relics.........................................252 Experimental Technology.............254Runes & Glyphs..............................256Relic Items........................................257

Bestiary......................................266Monster Types................................268• Bandits..............................270• Mages................................272• Scoia’tael Archers............274• Drowners..........................276• Ghouls...............................278• Grave Hags.......................280• Wraiths..............................282• Noon Wraiths..................284• Wolves & Wargs..............286• Werewolves......................288• Sirens.................................290• Griffins..............................292• Endrega.............................294• Arachasae.........................296• Golems..............................298• Fiends................................300• Nekkers.............................302• Rock Trolls.......................304• Wyverns............................306• Katakans...........................308• Cats & Dogs.....................310• Birds & Serpents.............311• Horses & War Horses....312• Oxen & Mules..................313

Quest.........................................314

Character Sheets......................326

Index..........................................330

Author Info...............................334

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The World of the Witcher

The Witcher role playing game is set in a world of dark, adult fantasy where happy endings are rare and actions have conse-quences, often swift and brutal. In the war-torn lands of the Conti-nent, murder, assault, and theft are a daily threat and only the strong survive. Thieves run rampant and mercenaries are as nu-merous as the doctors who heal them or the priests who inter them. Only the brav-est souls venture into the wilderness, where witchers armed with razor-sharp silver swords hunt monsters armed not only with tooth and claw but magic as well. In the cities, the poor scrabble to survive in filthy tenements and the rich perch high above on the unstable towers of their power, some advised by clever mages constantly looking for the best opportuni-ties. Humans reign supreme, save for a few

small communities. Once-proud elves and dwarves are kept in hovels and executed dai-ly, often for crimes they have not even com-mitted. Hatred and fear fuel this great blaze, and most will continue feeding the fire ‘til their last dying breath. There are no heroes, only people. Whether you’re a hard-bitten mer-cenary who lives from job to job never ask-ing questions, or an idealistic bard traveling the land to spread some cheer and revelry in these dark days, you must fight if you want to survive in a world determined to break you. Though happy endings are rare, the darkness makes the joyful moments all the sweeter, and companionship is one of the greatest treasures that you can attain. For better or worse, this is your world.

“People,” Geralt turned his head, “like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottag-es at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.” –Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish

If you took a look through the Table of Contents, you may have noticed that this book has a fairly large Game Master’s Guide. All of that is dedicated to teaching new Game Masters (GMs) and helping long-time GMs run games in this dark and gritty world. The Witch-er is a ‘Dark Fantasy.’ Unfor-tunately, all too often dark fantasy just gets boiled down to “fantasy where everyone dies and nothing good ever happens.” That’s not the case for The Witcher. Its strength as a world is contrasting dark and horrific danger with brief moments of genuine joy and revelry. So if you want to get a better idea for the setting of this TRPG or how a game in the world of The Witcher should go, head on back to the World section on pg.179 or the Game Master’s Guide on pg.211.

Dark Fantasy, Witcher Style

Dice You’ll NeedLuckily, the Witcher TRPG only needs two types of dice! You’ll need ten-sided dice and six-sided dice to play the game.

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Rodolf KazmerEvenin’. Name’s Rodolf, and I’ll be your salesman for this evenin’. Heh, formalities aside, if yer lookin’ for a damn good bit of knowledge or a fair price on a piece of steel, yer lookin’ at the right dwarf. Don’t ya worry your little head about me turnin’ on ya—got more in common with a rock than those damn Scoia’tael bas-tards. Even fought for the Temerian Lillies in the last two wars. That’s right—you’re lookin’ at a bonafide Temerian arbalist. Heh, mighta even been decorated if it weren’t for my damn commander. Anyhow, after the Second War wrapped up, went back to my first pas-sion—coin. Heh, call us dwarves greedy as much as ya want but there’s no denyin’, nobody handles trade and coin like a dwarf. These days, with the war on for a ploughin’ third time, I travel the Front supplyin’ folks in need with war salvage at a reasonable price. Bit of in-formation as well if they need it. Hell, scouted the back roads of the Mahakams, sailed the sea, even traveled with a witcher for a while. Name a place, I probably been there at some point. Name a person and I mighta met ‘em.

–Rodolf Kazmer

The OriginsNo one knows how the Continent came to be, though every religion has some opinion on the subject. All we know is that the Continent has been here since long before the time of elves, dwarves, and humans. In the beginning there were only gnomes, scattered widely across the land. Soon enough they’d be joined by the stout and hardy dwarves, who took to the mountains. No one can really agree on where the dwarves came from, though many assume that they split from a subterranean society that had existed for centu-ries prior to their emergence. For a while the dwarves and gnomes lived in peace, sharing a continent which was effectively all theirs. Some time after the emer-gence of the dwarves, however, an-other player came to the field. A vast ship appeared off the coast of the Continent, carrying a people known as the Aen Seidhe, elves from anoth-er realm. The Aen Seidhe were part of a series of scouting groups who left their homeland seeking refuge in another realm where they could escape an event known most as “The White Frost”. The Aen Seidhe found the Continent suitable and the dwarves and gnomes didn’t care much either way. As long as the Aen Seidhe didn’t cause trouble they didn’t care. From time to time there were border disputes but the three elder races managed to live in rel-ative harmony for many centuries. Until the Conjunction.

The ConjunctionThe Conjunction of the Spheres changed the way the world func-tioned forever. Many different realms collided with one another, creating rifts through which hun-

dreds upon hundreds of creatures spilled out. The reasonably mun-dane world of the gnomes and dwarves was suddenly filled with creatures of all shapes and sizes as well as a mystical force that came to be known as “Chaos” or “Mag-ic”. Unfortunately, with very little ability to manipulate the forces of magic and little preparation to fight the monsters that came through the conjunction the gnomes, dwarves and elves, as well as many other dis-placed races such as the reptilian vran, the beaver-like werebbubbs, the short and stout halflings, and the first humans were plunged into a strange, dangerous, and uncertain time period. This uncertainty would last for many generations.

The Race WarThe first humans who came to the Continent appear to have died out quickly as far as Northern histori-ans can discern. There are plenty of possible reasons, but no one can really find any evidence of what wiped them out. Some theorize that the Nilfgaardians and many of their provincial neighbors are the result of more successful human colo-nies that chose to work closely with the Elder Races rather than fear-ing them, but until Northern and Southern historians are able to co-operate more closely there’s no way of knowing. The humans that would settle the North were exiles, ruffi-ans, and warriors who landed on the coast of the Continent on great ships from some other land across the sea. While they did work with the Elder Races for a time, the drive to expand soon became their main focus and war spread across

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Brandon of OxenfurtI, Brandon of Oxenfurt, came from very humble be-ginnings, having been the eighth child of a cobbler in Oxenfurt. I learned that there was a better life for me than being a cobbler if I attended classes at the Uni-versity. At the age of 8 I used my few crowns to make unsolicited bread deliveries to a random student in desirable classes. As no student turned down free food, I was admitted to the class and then managed to sit inconspicuously and listen. Professor Eudarius of the History Department caught on quickly but allowed me to sit in his classes as long as I brought him bread. I was a quick and stealthy child, so that was not a prob-lem. And so began my rapid ascent to scholarly fame. At age 10 I was copying manuscripts. By 14 I was writ-ing papers for history students and then blackmailing them for money to buy books. By the age of 16 I had written my first controversial paper on the descent of Nilfgaardians from the Black Elves. When I started to teach classes at 16 my compatriots grew jealous, but I knew it was the price of greatness. Today I am the head lecturer in History at Oxenfurt University.

–Brandon of Oxenfurt

the North like fire. Non-humans were pushed farther and farther back into the hills as the humans claimed more and more land. Unfortunately, the only ones capable of putting up much of a fight against these war-born humans were the elves and the dwarves who both had little in-terest in fighting the humans at first. The dwarves remained pri-marily in their mountain keeps, which the humans didn’t really want and didn’t dare to venture into for fear of monsters and rock slides. The elves, meanwhile, be-lieved that the humans would sim-ply burn themselves out like their precursors. Some speculate that there may have been ulterior mo-tives among the elves as well—it has been noted that the presence of humans somehow helps elves produce offspring, a process that has always been troublesome for the long-lived race. By the time the Aen Seidhe rallied their troops it was too late—they had lost too much ground to make a comeback and the Continent belonged to the humans. This early conflict laid the grounds for today’s human-dom-inated North. Centuries of bitter feelings, culminating in non-hu-mans aiding the South in the Nil-fgaardian Wars, created what we have today: a brutally racist and bigoted North, which treats any race that isn’t human as an inferi-or species, and non-human rebel factions like the Scoia’tael, who do the same to humans. In the end, this leaves the North solidly divid-ed between humans and non-hu-mans. Mostly.

Witchers & MonstersWitchers were created centuries ago to save humans from monsters. They were a brotherhood of mu-tants, rigorously trained for years and sent out every spring to wander the Continent, hunting monsters and saving the local townsfolk from curses. While many people were thankful to see a witcher when they needed help, the bizarre and fright-ening nature of witchers (as well as their secrecy and penchant for neu-trality in politics) often got them in trouble, and still does. This became especially true a few centuries into their existence. Witchers’ sole reason for living is to hunt monsters and break curses; their training makes them extremely efficient. In a way, they did their work too well. Witch-ers, and their silver and meteor-ite blades, made many species of monsters extinct. And as monster species fell one by one, and mon-sters became less and less common, witchers began to lose their pur-pose. Even with very little work in monster slaying and curse break-ing, witchers still often refused to work as assassins or mercenaries. This aggravated the kings of the realms—soon, they saw witchers as more dangerous than helpful. By the 1250s monsters were so rare that many species had fallen into my-thology—no more than fairy tales to frighten children. It was rare for anyone to see so much as a ghoul, let alone a fiend or a grave hag. The common folk’s fear transferred onto the mutants who had once been their protectors. One by one, the once-proud Witcher Schools were assaulted and destroyed by the same humans that they protected.

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At first this relieved the commonfolk, but that would soon change. Many people spec-ulate that wiping out or driving away all of the witchers eliminated the only natural predator of the remaining monsters. Such species have now come back from near ex-tinction. More and more monsters are be-ing spotted around the world, and witchers are needed yet again. Unfortunately most of them are dead. Those that aren’t have largely abandoned the witcher’s life to avoid lynch mobs and execution.

The Nilfgaardian WarsThe Nilfgaardian Wars, also known as the Northern Wars by most, encompass sev-eral wars through which the country of Nilfgaard expanded across the Continent, absorbing around 16 other countries and forming an Empire that has had no equal in the history of the known world. Unfortu-nately, Nilfgaard also became known for its brutality over the course of these wars. Technically the wars began decades ago with Nilfgaard’s absorption of Ymlac and Rowan, two smaller neighbors. Howev-er most people point to the year 1239, when Nilfgaard marched into Ebbing under the command of a Usurpator who had killed the

previous emperor and exiled his heir, Emyr. While the Empire had absorbed five coun-tries by this point, this invasion launched a massive campaign that conquered six regions, nearly tripled the size of the Em-pire, and brought them to the borders of what we know as the Northern Kingdoms. With Emyr var Emries’ restoration as the true Emperor of Nilfgaard, the Nilfgaard-ian Wars that everyone talks about began. Nine years ago in 1263, Nilfgaard invaded the country of Cintra, starting the First Nil-fgaardian War. The combined armies of the Northern Kingdoms repulsed Nilfgaard, but after a short interregnum, Nilfgaardian sub-terfuge pushed the leaders of the Northern Kingdoms to secretly instigate the Second War in hopes of catching Nilfgaard before they were prepared. This backfired, and Nil-fgaard conquered much of the North before another combined effort from Northern monarchs pushed the Empire back. Now, just three years after the end of the Sec-ond Nilfgaardian War, the armies of Nilf-gaard yet again storm the Northern King-doms, having already weakened the North through sabotage and assassination. Things look dark for the Northern Kingdoms at the moment.

Living Through ItLikely your character will re-member (or at least have hazy impressions of) the First and Second Northern Wars. Any male character above the age of 24 probably fought in these conflicts, or at least had to avoid conscription. Perhaps most interestingly, if your character is older than 43 and comes from one of the Nilfgaardian provinces, it’s likely that you remember what it was like be-fore you were part of Nilfgaard. Once again, depending on the province, you may have mem-ories of fighting the Nilfgaardi-ans and eventually losing.

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