Mountain Witch: Trust, Fate and Betrayal on Kickstarter
The seven-year story of a once-loved tabletop game comes to a bittersweet end.
Content warning: cancer
The first edition of The Mountain Witch by Timothy Kleinert was a part of a contest in 2004 called Game Chef. It’s a bloody game of trust and betrayal, featuring a cinematic, film noir version of Japanese ronin. It was—as much as the label could apply—an instant hit among the storygame community. It was stylish, experimental, had a clear voice and a vision.
In 2018, Kleinert ran a successful crowdfunding campaign for a second edition—more than 1,500 people backed it, raising almost $70,000. Everything seemed fine for a month or so. But then the updates suddenly and abruptly ended. At first, backers were annoyed. Many of them got upset. Some got angry. They felt duped, cheated, robbed. Even 5 years later, backers were commenting on the campaign, either in sadness and anger. Then, suddenly, in January 2025, Kleinert posted an update. He apologized, revealed that he had brain cancer, and attached a PDF of the game.
In The Mountain Witch, you play ronin in highly-fictionalized feudal Japan. You’re outcasts, but the romantic kind. There is a witch on the holy peak of Mount Fuji and the ronin have been hired to kill him. They are desperate mercenaries on a quest with a dark fate hanging over them. These fates, which range from love to revenge to a pact with the witch himself, start out secret but must be revealed before the game can hit its climactic encounter at the top of the mountain.
