Fantasy skirmish wargame Warcrow is gearing up to launch The Witch, a global participation campaign that will give players a chance to shape the world of Lindwurm by playing games and submitting the results online to push their faction closer to victory. I spoke to Warcrow lore master Laura "Hoopoe" Royo and learnt that "whatever team and nation gets the highest results will be canon and will be translated into the narrative" - and the writers have already planned a dozen possible conclusions to the the campaign so that no matter how unlikely the outcome is, "all the narratives have their own canonical ending".
The Witch is a mysterious and powerful entity who has attracted the attention of all six current factions in the world of Lindwurm, Warcrow's setting. "The people in Lindwurm don't know exactly who she is or what she can do", Hoopoe says. "It's not revealed in the campaign, because we want to do that when we publish the narrative".
Players will take the role of Hunters attempting to track down and slay the Witch, or Seekers attempting to recruit her to their cause. "You can choose whatever role you want with any of the nations", Hoopoe says, "which has been [a huge challenge] from the narrative perspective, because some nations are very much in sync with certain values" and not others.
For example, it's easy to understand why the dogmatic knights of Feudom would be hunting the Witch - they have a pyre ready and waiting for her - but the studio has also come up with a consistent narrative justification for Feudom to send out Seekers. Coming up with "solid and believable narratives for each nation was so hard, but so fun", Hoopoe says.
Whether the Witch is slain, or recruited by one of the factions, "it will create this domino effect on a lot of things" in the wider world of Lindwurm. As for how heavily those dominoes will land, "I'm pretty sure we're gonna go for something in the middle… we're not gonna demolish nations", Hoopoe says. But the results won't be purely cosmetic. The Witch is a powerful entity, and whatever happens to her - dead or alive - will have consequences.
Hoopoe admits she is "really, really curious to see what happens, because you would think that - for the canon - it's in everyone's best interest that the Hunters do not succeed [in killing the Witch]. But she's accepted her destiny, she's okay with anything".
Details of the Witch Campaign will appear on the Warcrow Blog on September 3, and the first of three linked scenarios will go live on September 8. You'll have until October 6 to submit the results of your game, and the winner of the campaign will be revealed the week after. The new canon will then be revealed via a short story on October 20.
Do you have fond memories of times game studios allowed players to change the story of their game world - or vexed memories of when the results of participation campaigns were retconned out of existence? Come and chat about it in the Wargamer Discord community!