Witches' Quarrel: a quick 2-player legacy game

The Witches' Quarrel Kickstarter is over!  We got 550 backers, and raised $28,500 to print Witches' Quarrel!! 

Thank you so much everyone!  It's still possible to late pledge to get the game for $45, and there's another day to order the unlocked art cards.  

I'll send out a better announcement as a Kickstarter update real soon I promise. 

Current Stretch Goal

See the Stretch Goal Map for completed goals.

How to Play

Witches' Quarrel

A Fast 2-Player Legacy game of Best Friends learning magic by hurling spells at each other

Witches' Quarrel is a quick Legacy game for 2 players. You play as Yi-Feng and Nitya as they learn magic in 20-minute deckbuilding duels. 

Witches' Quarrel comes in 36 sealed envelopes. The first game starts with just 3 envelopes, and just enough spells and instructions to start playing. 

As you complete Rituals, you open more envelopes, gently adding more spells and complexity, and a bit more of Yi-Feng and Nitya's tender story.

20-minute deck-building duels

Small decks and no shuffling make every game of Witches' Quarrel a fast, strategic deck-building puzzle. The 32 Arcanum spells in this game were carefully chosen from hundreds of tested designs to make every spell matter. Spells start simple and grow in complexity but stay balanced.

Short games, Legacy progression, and a tender, character-driven story minimize hurt feelings. A handicap system prevents long winning streaks. Witches' Quarrel is made for two players of any skill levels to enjoy together.

Character-driven narrative

A deep, character-driven narrative is told in intriguing 30-second bites.  Yi-Feng and Nitya discover magic geometries in a rural village where even talking about magic is forbidden. Discover their story with each envelope you open, and recreate their competitions in every game.

Major themes in the story include: growing up, traveling the world vs. building community, exploring many different kinds of magic, and following Ursula K. Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.

36 game-changing envelopes to discover

Complete your 2 Rituals each game to open new envelopes! Every envelope starts one card of the story of Yi-Feng and Nitya growing up and learning magic, followed by simple instructions. Each envelope adds a new spell right in the middle of the game (and a new option for future games). 

Many envelopes contain other surprises, which you can find hinted in the pictures and videos on this page. 

A Fast, 2-Player Legacy Game

Designed by a new parent, Witches' Quarrel is easy to get to the table and takes only 20 minutes to play. But the unfolding Legacy story and mechanics leave the feeling that you're still exploring something deep across your sessions.

Components

Witches' Quarrel comes with a box, reference book, 330 bridge cards, 36 poker cards, 9 box dividers, 15 power stones, 2 colored Resolve sliders, and 36 Sealed Envelopes. The bridge and poker cards start inside the envelopes.

Stretch Goal Complete! The power stones and Resolve sliders now come in a purple velvet bag!

Stretch Goal Map

Update 5: On the way to the gardens, we found Giant Witches' Quarrel Cards! These are a new add-on available for purchase, signed or unsigned. Check out Giant Cards below for more info. 

From up here in the foot hills, we have a great view to Reveal the entire Stretch Goal Map! Just ahead is another add-on, Playmats ($30).  Beyond that, we can make out: 

• Pink AND Purple Foil on the box, 
• doubling the number of power stones, 
• upgrading to a Magnetic Book Box, 
• getting Index Tabs cut into all the Divider Cards, and 
• Thicker, Stronger Witch Character Cards!

Update 4: We met our goal of 20,000 for the purple foil on the box!  Now Yi-Feng and Nitya have completed their washing at the stream, and head to tend the gardens, hauling water on the way.  On the way to the Garden it looks like we'll find two new add-ons!  

Now these add-ons will NOT come with the base game.  They are additional things you might choose to buy.  I don't expect to make money on them, and I don't plan to stock them after the Kickstarter campaign.  If we reach the goals, I'll do the design work and put in bulk orders for just as many as y'all buy. 

The Giant Art Cards are big, thick, 16" versions of Witches' Quarrel cards.  We're giving away 8 of them to the top place tournament winners (signed with tournament position).  They will start out with 3 designs of the 3 most basic Witches' Quarrel spells: Focus, Scorch, and Brace.  For every $1,000 more the campaign earns, we'll add one more spell design to the options.  These will be cost $20 each, with the option to get them signed by the artist (Lizzy Siemers or Lauren Addy) and/or designer (me, Shanti), for $5 extra. 

Playmats have been heavily requested at conventions, so if we reach 23,000 I'll make an option to buy them.  These should cost $30.  They'll be based on the layout we used at conventions, and will probably either be 2-sided 14"x24" or 3 separate 10x16" mats, because I want to support both playing across a table from each other or playing side-by-side. 

Finally, it looks like at 24,000 we're back to pouring oil on the box, and now adding ink as well???  Last time turned out to be purple foil, but the ink makes it pretty clear, right?

Update 3: We're almost to the stream! And we found sticker seals on the (non-deluxe) envelopes! Oh, from here it's clear, it's not "pour oil on box", it's Purple Foil on Box! Just another $549 to get that shiny shiny foil! And from here we can make out some of the details to come, although a giant car sounds rather anachronistic... 

Update 2: We found the Velvet Bags!!! We're getting close to sticker seals on the (non-deluxe) envelopes! And...yes, I'm pretty sure at $20,000 we're going to pour oil on box!??

Update 1: We're so close to those Velvet Bags!  And I think I can make out something up at the stream... some kind of Oil Box??

Start: We're starting on a quick trip from the village to the stream.  Looks like we can unlock velvet bags and sticker seals on the (non-deluxe) envelopes along the way!  We'll reveal those ??? stretch goals as we travel around Yi-Feng and Nitya's rural home.

Last Update: $23,436

Giant Cards

Giant cards are an add-on you can order for $20 each ($25 signed by the artist and/or designer).  Focus, Scorch, and Brace are available options from $22,000, and every additional $1,000 the campaign earns will add another spell option.  You can edit your pledge at the top of this page.  Add the number you want, and you'll get to pick which spells after the campaign.  Art and layout may change, but you'll see the final versions before you choose.

Replayable + Resettable Legacy

When it's time to put away the game, the Witches' Quarrel box has a section for everything, saving your progress through the story and making setup quick for next time. It takes 12-15 games to open all the envelopes; then you reach the endgame. 

The endgame plays as fast, randomizable deckbuilding duels with tons of options, good for hundreds of games of replayability. We're hosting a tournament to show off the details and test our final game balance (sign up on Discord). 

If you would like to reset the story, every card in Witches' Quarrel has an envelope number, and every envelope has a packing list. It's easy to return everything to its initial state (the envelopes will no longer be sealed). This lets you share the story from the beginning with someone new.

Join the Witches' Quarrel Community

We're most active on Discord.

Reception

"You get that endorphin rush...every time you open a new envelope. And this is happening multiple times during a game."  -Amanda Panda

"It's the perfect first step into deckbuilding. Each game starts with streamlined rules...then layers in fresh twists as you crack open new envelopes, always balanced, never overwhelming." -Starla Fitch, Our Family Plays Games

"The intimacy of two people fighting comes through in a wonderful way as you open packs and see their lives." - Patrick Leder, Leder Games

You May Have Seen Witches' Quarrel...

I have been designing Witches' Quarrel for five years, a have brought it to playtest at these wonderful venues:

• Protospiel Online
• Break My Game
• Gen Con - First Exposure Playtest Hall
• Origins - Unpub
• PAX Unplugged - Unpub
• CONvergence
• Con of the North
• Protospiel Minnesota
• Protospiel Twin Cities
• Protospiel Madison 
• 2DCon
• Midwest Gaming Classic

Kickstarter video produced by JC Wollslager.  Thanks JC!