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Introduction
Welcome to RPG of Witch Hat!
TTRPGs (tabletop roleplaying games) are a really special genre. If you’ve never played one
before, you’re in for a treat! Basically, there’s one Game Master (GM) - probably the person who
convinced you to give this a try. Together with the GM, the other players, and two six-sided dice,
you’ll be making your own stories in the world of Witch Hat Atelier.
If you’re not familiar with the Witch Hat Atelier manga, well, first of all, go read it! It’s
awesome and I cannot recommend it enough. If you’re really stubborn and won’t read it, it’s
basically a world where anyone can do magic. All you have to do is draw a glyph with special
ink. But Witches, the people who do magic, keep that a secret from the Unknowing (the people
who can’t do magic) because magic did so much harm to the world.
I tried to keep this super simple - I feel like the magic system should be the crunchiest thing
about it. I’d call this a finished version, but I might come back to it someday.
I really hope you enjoy this! Please, please let me know if you have any feedback. You can find
me on the Witch Hat Atelier Discord Server. And I’d love to expand on the player-made spells
section, so send ‘em my way if you got ‘em!
-Comprehensible
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Introduction 2
Stats 4
Moves 5
Friendships/Flaws 7
Character Sheet 8
Magic 9
Starting Magic 9
Learning New Magic 9
Runes Index 10
Sigils 11
Keystones 13
Canon Spells 16
Fire Runes 16
Water Runes 16
Earth Runes 17
Wind Runes 18
Light Runes 19
Other Runes 20
Player-Made Spells 22
Gamemaster Corner 25
Session 0 25
Objectives 26
How to Make A NPC 26
Forbidden Magic 27
GM Best Practices 28
Combat and Higher Powered Games 30
Acknowledgements 32
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Stats
Roll 2 six-sided dice whenever you undertake an action with
risk involved.
★ A roll of 10+ is great! You succeed, no strings attached.
★ A 7-9 is often complicated. You might be offered a hard
choice or have to make a bargain, but you’ll still get what you
want.
★ A 6 or less means you’re unsuccessful. Work with the
GM to determine what goes wrong.
Assign one stat a +2, one stat a +1, one a 0, and one a -1.
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Moves
As you’re moving through the world, sometimes you’ll do risky things. That’s where moves
come in. When you do something involving risk, you’ll pick the move that fits best and roll 2d6
+ the stat that fits best. Then, look at the results and the move to see what happens.
Conceal
When you try to hide something, like a spell, a secret, or yourself, roll + Instinct. On a 10+,
whatever you try to hide is unnoticed. On a 7-9, you manage to keep whatever it is hidden, but
choose one:
★ Someone unimportant noticed you sneaking around. But that just made them important,
right?
★ You must leave something behind or be discovered.
★ You feel suspicious. Any bystanders know something’s up, but they don’t know what.
(Yet.)
Convince
When you try to talk, threaten, or trick someone into doing what you want, roll + Charm. On a
10+, they do what you want - for now. On a 7-9, they go with it, but choose 1:
★ They want some sort of promise or payment in return.
★ They only give halfway and move to protect their agenda.
★ They don’t give in at all, but they let something interesting and helpful slip.
For a player character, on a roll of 7 up, they get to choose whether they go along, but they get an
XP if they do.
Overpower
When you try to overcome a situation with strength or willpower, roll + Force. On a 10+,
choose 2. On a 7-9, choose 1.
★ You don’t exhaust yourself in the process.
★ You 100% succeed at what you set out to do.
★ You look good while doing it.
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Cast a Spell
When you want to cast a spell, first choose what stat you’ll use.
Instinct is for spells that let you move quickly, hide, or move around.
Charm is for spells that are pretty, help people, or are comforting.
Force is for spells that break things, protect, or overpower.
Wonder is for spells that uncover truths, light the path, or aid learning.
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Friendships/Flaws
This game is about making friends, working together, and overcoming your weaknesses.
Mechanically, this is represented by Friendship and Flaw points.
You get a Friendship point when you work together as a team or when you are kind and helpful
to someone else. You can spend them on a roll to increase the result of that roll by one.
(Potentially making a failure into a success.) You can have up to three Friendship points at a
time. You must spend the point before you know the consequences of the roll. You can spend
multiple Friendship points at once and you can spend them on other player’s rolls to help them.
When making your character, you’ll think of a Flaw. A Flaw is a short sentence that describes
one of your character’s major weaknesses. It shouldn’t be something easy that a bandaid and a
smile can fix, but it shouldn’t be all-consuming and paralyzing either. “Anger management
issues,” “more magic than common sense,” or “manners of a goat” are some examples.
When you lean into that flaw, roleplaying it out and possibly causing something to go wrong, the
GM will award you a Flaw point. (Alternatively, the GM may ask you to lean into your Flaw in a
situation. You can choose whether you want to, but you get the Flaw point if you do.) You can
have only one Flaw point at a time, and it can be spent to make a failure into a success with
complications, a success with complications into a full success, or a full success into an
extraordinary success. You can spend this at the same time as a Friendship point, but just like
Friendship points, you have to spend them before you know the consequences of your roll.
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Character Sheet
(Feel free to copy/paste this!)
Character Name:
Pronouns:
Player:
XP: ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
Friendship Points: (Max 3)
Flaw Points: (Max 1)
Assign one stat a +2, one stat a +1, one a 0, and one a -1.
Instinct: / Charm: / Force: / Wonder:
Description: (What do they look like? What’s their personality? What drives them and what are
they afraid of?)
Flaw:
Spells:
Picture Name Effect
Sigils:
Keystones:
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Magic
Starting Magic
Everyone chooses 2 Sigils and 5 Keystones to start. You can make as many spells as you like
using a combination of those. You need to create the corresponding rune to have you cast the
spell.
(Side note - feel free to copy/paste from the spells section for spells. “Needing to create the
corresponding keystone” means having a picture of the spell on hand, not having to draw
everything yourself.)
About every 3 new keystones or whenever the GM feels appropriate, your characters will
undergo a test. If you succeed, you can either choose a new Sigil or increase one of your stats by
1. (Maximum of +3)
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Runes Index
All magic is made of three pieces: the Sigil, the Keystone, and the Seal. The Sigil sits at the
center of a rune and determines the core element of the magic produced. The Keystones are
arranged around the rune and determine what direction/shape the magic will take. The Seal is a
simple circle enclosing the Sigil and Keystone. Once the Seal is closed, the magic will take
effect.
You (the player) choose your own Sigils and Keystones unless the GM says otherwise. You’ll
have the chance to learn more as the game progresses.
The most interesting part of Witch Hat Atelier’s magic system is that the effects of magic differ
depending on how you draw the rune. Two runes with the same Sigil and the same Keystone may
have wildly different effects based on how it's drawn. For example, a crush Keystone inverted
will repair the intended target. A pull Keystone turned around will push.
The law states that magic cannot be drawn on the living body. Therefore, the vast majority of
magic is used to create magic items - pave stones that light up when you step on them, carriages
that fly, and pots that keep their food forever fresh, for example. Everyone is capable of using
magic, but Witches keep their secrets closely guarded. If a mortal learns the secret of magic, the
Witch is punished and the mortal’s memory is erased.
If you’re new to Witch Hat Atelier or don’t know where to start with your own spells, take a look
at the already made spells! No shame in grabbing a few of those to round out your repertoire.
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Sigils
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Soar Sigil Enables flight.
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Keystones
Bend Bend warps its Sigil element. When paired with the
eye Keystone and a light Sigil, it can turn the user
invisible.
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Crush Crush, well, crushes together elements that are the
same as its Sigil. It’s usually used with a kinetic Sigil
to disintegrate objects.
Dancing puppet Dancing puppet causes its Sigil element to move and
dart around.
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Radial Radial diminishes the effect of its Sigil element. If
facing outward, it amplifies the effect of its Sigil
element.
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Canon Spells
(Note - if the picture looks bad, it’s because I drew it in MS paint. Goes to show that anyone can
draw runes, even artistically inept people like me.)
Fire Runes
Water Runes
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Surging Stage Creates a powerful column of
water that can lift people into
the air.
Earth Runes
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Integration Temporarily rearranges
broken matter into the shape
it once took.
Wind Runes
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Gathering Winds Uses wind to pull a selected
object towards the caster.
Light Runes
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Phoenix Portent Creates a fiery bird that flies
into the air and swoops
around.
Other Runes
These runes either A) include two or more elemental Sigils or B) their Sigil does not have
enough established spells to warrant its own category.
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Erase Memory Erases the memory of
whomever it touches.
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Player-Made Spells
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Firework of Light Creates a heatless firework made only
(by Ok668) of light. Pretty!
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Vacuum Cleaner Spell Sucks up air through the center hole.
(by Chromatic Flare) Make sure to put a bag on the back -
otherwise, the dirt will fall right back
down to the floor!
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Gamemaster Corner
So you’ve decided to be a gamemaster! That’s awesome, hats off to you. I’d highly recommend
reading Witch Hat Atelier before diving in, just to get a feel for the world and how things are, but
if you don’t want to, hey, that’s your call! It’s your world now. And your players certainly don’t
have to read WHA to enjoy this game.
A QUICK NOTE: Do not nitpick players on their runes. I know that in WHA, even the smallest
imperfection in a rune can affect its outcome, but we’re not all artists. If a line is (accidentally)
longer than another or if it’s not symmetrical, that’s okay! As long as you can get the gist of the
rune it should work.
Session 0
So, you gather up some friends, meet up on Discord or in person or wherever you meet up to
play games. Great! What happens next?
Well, first off is a Session 0. This is where you get together and talk about what kind of game
you and your players want to play. It is very important. This isn’t a game of D&D - you aren’t
constructing any stories in advance or mapping out encounters. Your players are going to make
the story with you.
1. Decide the premise of the game. This game is about being a group of Witch apprentices.
Maybe you’re on an important journey. Maybe you’re going to stay at one Atelier and
explore the surrounding area. Find something unifying to bring the characters together.
2. Make characters! It can be together or apart, with 5 page backstories or vague ideas.
Just go for it.
3. Go around and ask everyone 1 thing they’d like to see in the story. It can be as simple
as “soarboots,” or as complex as “a political assassination with wide-ranging implications
(yes, my players asked for that once.) This is a super good way to get a feel for what sort
of game your players want. Plus, you’ll make them super happy by throwing in the thing
they want!
4. Play out a day in the life! Have everyone introduce their characters (names, pronouns,
what they look like, etc.) Then, ask what their character is doing on a normal day. Let
their characters talk to each other. If you’re going to be playing their teacher/watchful
eye, introduce them. Throw in a problem. Give them a chance to make magic. And make
sure to take notes! You might come up with an NPC on the fly that they get invested in.
Or a rival you can bring back later. Or maybe they do something cool or mess something
up.
5. That’s it! Go play and have fun!
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Objectives
As a gamemaster, you have three main objectives:
1. Keep things fun. That’s what you’re here for! Games should be fun for the GM and the
players. Different groups may have different ideas of what’s fun. If it’s not fun,
something needs to change. Go on, absolutely wreck this game. I don’t mind. :)
2. Keep things safe. Your player’s comfort and wellbeing is your first priority. Ask them if
anything is off-limits before they start playing and respect those boundaries. Make sure
they know they can contact you if they ever need to say something. And when they do
reach out, take them seriously.
3. Fill the world with magic and wonder. The world of Witch Hat Atelier is so cool.
Embrace it! Fill the skies with flying carriages and the streets with glowing pavestones.
Magic weaves through everything in this world so make sure to show it where you can.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me give you some tools to help you with those
objectives:
★ Start with a concept. Like, “Test Proctor Who Was Paid To Make Sure The Characters
Don’t Pass The Test.” Now, make them interesting. Let’s call this character Jerry. He has
a nasal voice and makes snide remarks about the players. Usually this is an easy character
for the players to hate.
★ Next, give him some abilities. If this is the first test, the one where they have to climb the
Dada Mountains and get that flower, we can gear his abilities to that. He won’t outright
attack them, but he will “accidentally” splash them all with water to ruin their runes. And
if asked for help, he will mislead them.
★ You can give an NPC stats if you want, but they don’t tend to have them. For example, if
you have a rival in a magic competition, they’re not going to roll against the player. If the
player rolls well, they beat the rival. If they roll poorly, the rival pulls out some amazing
spell that the judges just adore.
★ Great! Now you have an NPC. As a rule of thumb, don’t force love interests, mentors,
rivals, etc, on players. If a player isn’t engaging with an NPC, drop ‘em!
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Forbidden Magic
These spells are absolutely forbidden to Witches. Only Brimhats, the evil ones, use these. Once
forbidden magic affects a person’s body, it cannot be undone without resorting to forbidden
magic.
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GM Best Practices
GMing is hard. Whether it’s your first time or your hundredth time, running a game is a
challenge. So here I’ve gathered some tools and strategies for hopefully making it a little easier
on you. Hope this helps!
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Hard Moves and Soft Moves
When you come to a lull in the story, when your players look to you for what happens next, or
when you want to move things along, make a soft move. The soft moves for this game are:
★ Have an unknowing ask for help
★ Reveal an impending threat to something that is beautiful and good
★ Introduce a rival
★ Bring to light what is wrong with magical society
★ Expose a character’s secret pains
Take Notes
Oh boy do I struggle with this one! But notes are
really, really helpful for GMing. You can refer to
them while planning or in the middle of a session
and it’s going to save your bacon. I’d go for
jotting down shorthand notes while playing and a
more detailed write-up after you’re done.
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Combat and Higher Powered Games
Okay, let me just start this section by saying that this section is not how this game is intended to
be played. This game is about helping others and experiencing the wonders of magic and living
your best cottagecore life.
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You’ll also add these moves to the existing moves:
Face Oblivion
When you get to 4 points of harm, roll with no stat. On a 10+, you recover to 3 harm, but
describe how the experience marked you in some way. On a 7-9, you’re out until your character
gets help. On a 6-, your character is out of the game. Work with the GM to figure out what
happens.
When you start combat, have the character with the highest Instinct stat roll with Instinct. On a
10+, the players go first. On a 7-9, the players go first, but with some sort of disadvantage. On a
6-, the opponent goes first.
Also, if you’re going to be big, powerful people, maybe start your characters with some more
Sigils and Keystones. Heck, maybe even all of them. It’s up to you!
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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I’d like to thank Kamome
Shirahama for writing Witch Hat Atelier! The
love, care, and dedication she has poured into
Witch Hat Atelier truly shines through every
page. Without her, I’d never have had the chance
to make this game and play it with wonderful
people.
Finally, I’d like to thank you! Yes, you specifically. Thank you for picking it up, for reading it
through - even the acknowledgements. I really hope you like it!
Disclaimer: The transformative work featured on these pages is not for sale. Neither it nor this
page is in any way authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Kamome Shirahama,
Kodansha, or Kodansha USA. All copyrights and trademarks referenced herein are the property
of their respective owners.
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