The Nature Witch
The Nature Witch is deeply connected to their environment and less experienced when it comes to people. They’re either new to socializing or are newly exploring what it feels like to socialize as their true self.
Their central conflict revolves around the growth that their explorations will require from them and those who love them.
Example Archetypes:
- Oblivious Horse Girl
- Beacon of Kindness
- Plant Geek Babygay
Aesthetics
(circle or invent one for each)
- Innocent demeanor, wise demeanor, sad demeanor
- Modest clothes, rough clothes, simple clothes
- A wooden sword, a harmless sword, an elemental sword
Stats
Choose one column of stats, then add 1 each to two different stats.
| Stat | Set 1 | Set 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Daring | +0 | -1 |
| Grace | +0 | +1 |
| Heart | +1 | +0 |
| Wit | -1 | +0 |
| Spirit | +1 | +1 |
Curiosity
Dealing with people feels new to you and you might be awkward, but you want to learn. What better way to learn than by doing?
Choose four Trials from the list. When you complete a circled Trial, cross it out and choose one: mark XP, clear a Condition, or take a String on someone involved. When your four chosen Trials are all fulfilled, reflect on what you’ve learned about yourself and pick four more. If you complete the entire list, choose the ones that meant the most to you and then evolve into a new form of life inspired by those experiences. Adopt a new playbook, remain a Nature Witch, or retire to live happily ever after.
Trials
- Ride a fantastical creature
- Win a duel
- Go somewhere no person has tread before
- Fall in love
- Stick up for yourself, though it breaks someone’s heart
- Lose someone you care about
- Befriend someone very different from you
- Liberate something dangerous
- Receive a rare gift from someone you respect
- Experience an altered state with a friend
- Fail at something that means the world to you
- Reject a conviction you once held
- Extend kindness to someone who doesn’t deserve it
- Achieve a lost cause
- Throw away something comfortable to pursue a dream
- Kiss someone dangerous
- Forgive someone who deserves forgiveness
- Trust someone with your secrets, only to be betrayed
- Shock someone with an unwelcome truth
- Earn forgiveness for a misdeed
Playbook Moves
(start with the move marked and choose two more)
Wild Friends: You can speak with animals and plants and may Influence them with Strings just like other NPCs. Near your home, or anywhere you have spent a long period of time, animal and plant friends are always nearby when you want them.
Awaken the Wild: When you are in a safe position and attempt to commune with a place or non-sentient creature, roll +Spirit:
- 10+: Choose 1
- 7–9: Choose 1; GM will offer you a hard choice or success at a cost
- You cleanse it of hurt, corruption, or sickness
- You alter its behavior, ecosystem, or atmosphere to one you choose
- You make it dangerous to a certain person or creature, or a type of person or creature
If you attempt this move while rushed or while distressed to the point of having three or more Conditions, it works as above, briefly, but afterwards the place or creature will fall dead and barren.
Familiar: You have a cute animal as your loyal familiar. You can perceive the world through its senses whenever you choose and communicate with it at any distance. In addition, choose a basic move. When the familiar helps with that basic move or with Emotional Support, take +1 to your roll.
I Ship It: When you want to make a match between two other people and talk up one to the other, roll +Heart:
- 10+: You may give the listener a String on the other person or give the other person a String on the listener
- 7–9: As above, and the listener can either take a String on you or give the other person a String on you
Anyone involved may mark XP if they become Smitten with anyone else involved, including the Witch (immediately or later this session, maximum of 1 XP per PC).
The Magic of Love: When you’re Smitten with someone and proudly extol the power of love, either of you may spend a String on the other to gain the use of one of their playbook moves for one scene.
Nature’s Touch: When you touch someone and let the power of the natural world flow into them, roll +Spirit:
- 10+: Choose 2
- 7–9: Choose 1
- They may give you a String on them to clear a Condition
- They gain the ability to speak with plants and animals for the rest of the scene
- They must answer one of the Figure Out a Person questions of your choice or else they take a Condition
Truths of Heart and Blade
Love Conquers All: When you become Smitten with someone, say why, give them a String, and answer this question:
- What is a clear challenge to being with them that you’re overlooking because of your naivete?
Clear-Hearted Insight: When you Figure Out a Person during a physical conflict, you may additionally ask one of these questions, even on a 6-:
- What makes you feel loved?
- What do you hope for the future?
Playing the Nature Witch
The Nature Witch has the option of avoiding the spotlight and supporting the other PCs, with moves like I Ship It, which puts the spotlight on your chosen couple, or Nature’s Touch, which provides you an easy, nonverbal way to help clear Conditions.
Of course, the Nature Witch can be just as rambunctious and troublesome as any other playbook, if that’s how you want to play. They’re expanding their horizons and that can be messy—particularly when surrounded by thirsty sword lesbians.
When you select your Trials, the Nature Witch isn’t necessarily looking to get into those situations; you as the player are saying that you’d like to see them come up in the fiction and have those experiences for your character. Also, if you selected a Trial and are having difficulty meeting it, set it aside and pick another. The reason you only pick four at a time is so that you can signal what you want to come up in the narrative, not to hamstring you or turn character development into a scavenger hunt.
With a few easy modifications, a Nature Witch in a high-tech setting could instead be a Techno Witch, communing with artificial environments and life-forms instead of (or in addition to) natural ones. The Nature Witch is fundamentally in tune with her non-sentient surroundings at the expense of experience with people, and those surroundings need not be the natural world if something else better fits your setting.
Likewise, if your setting doesn’t include magic, then the Nature Witch can simply be very knowledgeable about the environment, able to achieve feats that seem like magic to others. For more information on playing without magic, check out page 218.