Witchcrafting with Salem: A wand-building zine

The Witching Hour

It's my first time doing Witchstarter! 🐈‍⬛

Witchcrafting with Salem is a zine about building a wand. It's designed around a concept I've been playing with for years, and it's great to finally get a zine out there that encourages you to play slow. It could take you days, weeks, even months... Just put the zine down, spend time outdoors, explore, craft, learn new skills, and by the time you've worked right through it, you'll have built something unique with your own hands.

Meet the Witches

I'm Estie! 🦝 I'm a furry artist and tabletop games geek, with a love of all things creative and nerdy. I've made a lot of tabletop game zines, including simple choose-your-own-adventure stories, solo RPGs, and even miniature skirmish games. But this is my first time writing a zine that shares my love of making things with you!

This zine is a little different to anything I've made before, but that's just how I like it! Developing it was a tough process, with a lot to learn, and a lot of early versions that got ditched before I arrived at the final zine.

And this is Salem. 🐈‍⬛ While my magic is making art, theirs is making wands. As you play through the zine, they'll be there to guide you along the way, and to throw out some little snippets of witchy history and lore.

Messing with Fate

As you work through the zine, you'll use a deck of cards to add a touch of luck to the wand-building process. They'll help you determine your own magical temperament and focus, to find out whether your choice of stick is suitable for a wand (and if not, how to better your search next time), and to determine the runes of power that bind a witch with their wand.

I've built a lot of game zines over the years, but never one quite like this. I wanted to make something slow, something creative that encourages you to take a step back, put the game down, and spend time outdoors. Foraging for a stick to build your wand from, or finding the charms and tokens that make it yours are things that take time. You can't rush through the zine in a single session, even if you get lucky and find the perfect stick first try!

It's all about finding your way, figuring things out, and getting crafty only once you've gathered all the components you're going to need.

The Zine

By pledging at the Witchcraft tier, you'll get a copy of the zine. It's going to be an A5 saddle-stitched book, printed on 100gsm satin finish paper, with a heavy 250gsm cover. It'll have all the rules for working through the process, as well as some story to go with each step.

You'll need a pen, and a deck of playing cards to work through it. (just remember to remove the Jokers!)

All my zines are handmade from start to finish. I develop the mechanics and write the story, building a whole new world from scratch, and filling them with an ever-growing cast of characters. The illustrations are hand-drawn using a digital display graphics tablet (you can see more of my artwork on my social media and galleries), drawn specifically for each zine.

Once I've finished designing and writing the zine, I print them on an inkjet printer, staple them, and trim the edges by hand with a craft knife to give that nice flickable edge.

Deluxe Pack

By pledging at the Deluxe Pack tier, you'll get your copy of the zine, plus a Kickstarter exclusive art print on A4 250gsm white card.

Grab Some Add-ons

You can get a copy of Witchcrafting with Salem at any reward tier, the zine made for Witchstarter 2026. But I've also thrown in some older zines from my collection, which can be added to your pledge.

Awoo! was my first ever zine! I wrote it when I first discovered zines as a format for tabletop games. A solo dice and decision adventure game, you'll follow the story of a werewolf trying to find the cure for their curse, while struggling with their own wild side as the moon waxes and wanes. To play, you'll need pen and paper, and a 6-sided dice.

The Last Ride of the Rustwyrm is my most recent zine! It was made for Zine Quest 2024, right here on Kickstarter. A solo RPG set in a post-apocalyptic desert, you'll take on the role of Nella, writing her story as she travels out across the dunes for one last ride with an old pirate sand-ship, restored to (relatively) working order. To play, you'll need a 12-sided, and an 8-sided dice.