Witchburner is a 2019 social adventure about finding a non-existent witch. It comes with a roster of NPCs, multiple subsystems including drinking and torture(which inspired my General torture magic 8-ball), a schedule of 30 events, and very useful worksheets that help immensely at the table. It will probably take around 3-4 sessions at minimum, but comes with decent guidance on converting it to a one-shot. I ran it with Swords and Wizardry, but it should run well with any system; for me, the system barely ever came up during play.

Witchburner is not easy to run. It doesn't advertise itself and such, but I was still caught a little off guard reading it before my inaugural session. Perhaps calling it an adventure isn't quite right: it functions more like a toolbox. This doesn't absolve itself from any adventure-focused criticism, though. Though I can improv pretty well, running the calamities becomes increasingly frustrating as the book intentionally gives no guidance. It makes sense, since the adventure makes it quite clear that these are all coincidences, but I much prefer giving players at least some explanation as a reward for investing time (in game and out) and resources on any given lead. If you're like me, I'd recommend coming into the first session with basic 1-2 line explanations that may help lead the player's to questioning the legitimacy of the witch.

There are obviously are pros to how improvisational Witchburner tends to be. In my game, the key calamity winded up being a dead child born with the third eye mentioned in the Town section of the book. I decided to make this a secret, only revealing that the child had died before the adventure began, but not revealing the third eye aspect or it shouting "Amimam!" This became a conspiracy in which the council secretly sent word to the town's lord, the lord Rightmaker(who conveniently shares a very similar description to the child, also possessing a third eye), and killed the child on her orders. They learned this through the midwife, which led them on an investigation into the council which led them to the realization that all of this witch business was a plot by the Lord Rightmaker to buy up land. It should also be noted that they found the body because the Blacksmith's boy, who lives in the graveyard, had watched it be buried. All of this to say, Witchburner absolutely gives you some incredible inspiration to have a lot of fun.

There is one more feature of the book that I'd like to gush over, but here are some random tidbits. The drinking subsystems and culture (everyone will expect you to drink when you pay them a visit) are interesting, but I ran into some problems with it being a slight hassle to keep track of. The players were forced to make decisions and take time resting because of it, which worked well. Also, because I don't roll a whole lot of checks for social encounters (and because a lot of your time is spent walking around town and talking), the mechanical penalties didn't have much of an impact. the fear/love model for tracking the status of the party's quest worked well, though didn't lead to much for our table. Likewise, we never actually had a trial, though I can easily visualize how that would go based on the rules provided.

The best part of Witchburner for me are the characters, bar none. There are 30 'main' characters who have their own entries. This is perhaps the gold standard for any social adventure/fleshed out town module. Each character comes with their title (The Mayor, The Blacksmith, The Wild Child), their faction and some defining details. An example:

This already enough to get a grasp on the basic shape of the character, but what follows for every single entry is about half a page of flash-fiction. These are immaculately written, often starting with a sort of narrative "scene" and then opening out to details of varying levels of importance. Then, they often have a portrait, a description of their house, a list of possessed treasures, and a list of family members, mostly named characters who do not have their own entry. Some characters also have a supernatural calling, many of which are rooted in natural spirits. They range from making really good coffee to drowning oneself for divination.

The flash-fiction is absolutely the highlight here. Almost every single one gives you a real feeling for the character that conveys more than 1 or 2 word keywords could ever do. It's a very "Show not tell" style approach that I don't believe is taken all that often in adventure design. Some of them are genuinely compelling; my favorite character may be Leo, Dukesget, the blacksmith's boy. He's a bastard whose mother was exiled from town for reasons not explicitly given, which follows Luka's Anti-canon Design Philosophy of allowing details to be formed at the table or by the GM. It's implicitly very obvious to me just WHAT the intended interpretation is(Leo is afraid of fairy mounds because a little girl told him that his father was a fairy when he was 5) but leaving it open makes the entire read more fun. It also creates a connection in me that feels more like I'm reading a well-written short story, rather than the informational resources that most adventures tend towards. Some honorable mentions include: Jesus, the kind-hearted giant who writes poetry with his bird-speaking wife; Ursula Bearbraker, the butcher who paints a cave with blood, "feeding the uterus of the earth"; The midwife Nina, the only character with two magical abilities, one for abortions and the other to literally rebirth a spirit; And finally the Town's Uncle, who came down from the mountains crazed and with the ability to see possible futures. It was hard choosing just these few with so many great characters that deserve recognition.

There's an attention to detail here that reminds one of the older TSR village descriptions, though this eye places more attention on creating rounder and more interesting personalities. It is a genuine blast playing most of these characters, and something I WILL do again. Will it be with Witchburner? Perhaps, but this is a setting that can and should be used in other games.

Finally, here's a quick list of tips to help smooth out running the game.

That about does it! I highly recommend Witchburner to any GM or table that wants a good challenge with Immaculate vibes. Let me know if I've missed anything, and I'm totally down for unsolicited writing critiques.