I’ve been working on CID for quite some time. This is my first real project and I’m about 50-60% through it right now, mostly having done the lore/classes side of things. CID is inspired by the movie, the Craft, the 1980s counterculture scene of East Germany and WOD (gameplay wise). I’ve been using Affinity to design the project so far, with 48 pages done and looking at around 70-80 in the finished project. I’m trying to gauge everybody’s interest in what I’ve got so far mechanically.

CID, like WOD, is an RPG with a strong narrative focus. Now let’s talk about character creation, we start by choosing between 5 Upbringings, which is essentially how you became a witch. Each comes with a unique passive and functions as ‘origin’ stories, so each character should have a starting goal related to said Upbringing. We then have a choice of 8 classes, called Cliques. I’m really happy with them so far. They all come with a special ability that affects play and changes how others react to your character. They are inspired by this document that was posted here from the GDR, I saw it and thought that it looked like a character select screen and that’s what led to me starting this project in the first place lol.

Gameplay-wise, I’m still working out the dice mechanics (least engaging thing for me to work on).

We have 11 Magic Branches, each Upbringing is locked to 4 specific branches (unless you’re playing a Goth). At character creation, you choose two branches to start and can unlock two more via level-up later on. You choose a Major (lvl 2) and Minor (lvl 1) Branch, the only difference being the starting level. Max level being 5. Every level unlocks a passive/ability and a group of Words of Power. We also have two other groups of Words, Binding and Free-form words. Binding words are acquired once per level up (but we chose two in char creation) and through various other means, such as ancient tomes and spirits/entities. Free-form words are rewards given to players upon completion of a major goal, task, trial, campaign, or ordeal, it’s a word chosen by the player and then approved by our FT.

Hope that sounds clear, now, how does actual magic work in CID? There are two types of spell casting, ritual casting and quick-casting (need a better word for it). Ritual casting guarantees intent but sacrifices time and convenience, quick-casting is what most players will be using during play. I’ll only be going over quick-casting rn, these spells are cast by using three Words of Power to construct a sentence.

When performing a spell, intent is what matters most and is what you are rolling to achieve. So the more vague one’s spell is, the harder it is to achieve one’s desired result, it’s best to get creative with whatever Words of Power you currently know. Let’s start with an example. I’ve just created my character, let’s say I chose False Witch as my upbringing, and Tramp as my clique. From False Witch, I can choose between, Empathy, Astral, Hexing, and Ars Goetia. I’ve chosen Empathy and Hexing, with Hexing as my major and Empathy as my minor.

Now I can chose between 4 words in Hexing and two in Empathy. I’ve chosen from Hexing, Woe, Omen, Secret, Invite. From Empathy, Share and Despair. My two binding words are Bring and May. To finish, let’s say my free-form word is Shrink. So with that being all my current words, let’s cast a quick spell.

‘Secret May Share’, my target is someone who I’ve just caught following me around town, he seems entirely unaware of anything magical and most definitely following me on the orders of someone else. I failed a persuasion roll against him and he’s clammed up on me, so I cast the spell, relay the intent of the spell to my FT. The spell has a very defined purpose and so my FT gives me advantage and one easy roll later, I very easily carry out said goal.

‘Omen Invites Despair’, my target is a rival from an opposing coven, she’s recently come after one of my sisters in a attack against our coven. In retaliation, I cast the spell, relaying my intent to my FT. The intent being to be darken her future, that the next time something goes wrong for her, it goes wrong. The spell has an intent that is kinda open ended and is open to lots of interpretation so my FT gives me no advantage or disadvantage. My roll is a success and I successfully hex my rival.