History TabletopGame / TheWitcher

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wiedzmin_gra_wyobrazni__bn4153.jpg]]
''The Witcher: Game of Imagination'' (Polish ''Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni'') is a Polish Tabletop RPG set in the Witcher universe and released in 2001.

During the late [[TheNineties 90's]], there was some real hype around ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' in Poland. The last part of the saga was released and the author had a deal for a TV series and a film. In addition, there was a small project to create a tabletop RPG game based on the saga. The tabletop game was the only one of the three to find success.

There was no real competition for the game on the Polish market during that time, as it was the first Polish system to combine a few key elements: it was based on an established media property, it had its own unique mechanics, it had a fantasy setting, and it was helped by hype (as it was faithful to the source material). Its rules and mechanics are also extremely simple and user-friendly - it's entirely possible to explain them to a layman in five minutes.

The mechanics are based on d6 and derived from it d3 and d2. [[TheSixStats There are nine stats]] divided into two sections: six physical (Construction, Movement, Strength, Perception, Dexterity and Agility) and three more or less mental (Intellect, Will and Savoir-vivre, the last being a combination of generic Charisma and overall presentation). Each statistic (except Movement) has certain skills attached to it, like Alchemy and Economics being listed under Intellect or Acrobatics being listed under Agility. Both stats and skills range from 1 to 5 (skills can also be at 0). The higher the stat, the more d6 you use, e.g. 3 Strength means you grab 3d6 for rolls based on it.

All tests go by the same rule - certain actions have either a set difficulty or a difficulty which is derived from certain parameters. The difficulty ranges from 0 ("no sweat") to 9 ("heroic deed"). Skills lower the difficulty by themselves, e.g. the difficulty of opening a basic lock is 4 and if your character has 3 in ''Cracking'' the final difficulty is 1. Then you take amount of d6 equal to your tested stat (so in case of mentioned ''Cracking'' you take d6 equal to your Dexterity) and you must roll a number of successes equal or higher to the difficulty. Success is any outcome higher than 3 on any given dice. This makes for the unintended effect of having high stats matter less - while a high stat makes a success more likely, the higher-difficulty actions scale together with stats or even faster.

There are also [[LuckManipulationMechanic Fate Dice involved in success tests]]. If your stat is 1, you only use one Fate Die. Any higher amount adds additional dice. Fate Dice are used as a critical success and failure meter, with 1 being a critical failure and 6 working as a critical success.

Certain stats are calculated into sub-stats, like Construction determining HitPoints, or Strength how much your character can actually carry.

These simplistic mechanics, while often criticized by [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] players, were intentional. As the title implies, it is a ''game of imagination'', putting heavy emphasis on story-telling and pure fun, while both the source books and later additions heavily discourage using mechanics as the sole way of controlling and judging players actions. Also, the GM is called the [[InsistentTerminology "story-teller"]] (''bajarz'' in Polish), to put further emphasis on story instead of dice rolls.

And even when mechanics are used in combat, they are still dynamic and fast-paced. Aside from regular attacks, players can use called attacks targeting certain body parts (with increased difficulty) or use special combat maneuvers... if the character knows any. It also happens to be one of the few tabletop [=RPGs=], where even a small skill increase makes your character very visibly stronger in said field, as higher skills means lower difficulty and thus more successes during throws, which can lead to (much) higher damage, lower mana use, or automatic successes in trivial tasks.

There are no levels, so the game is basically based on very slow and hard-to-do StatGrinding. Why is it hard? Thanks to its mechanics, [[AnyoneCanDie even the strongest character can die]] after 3 to 4 hits from regular thugs (while being able to kill them in one, which is the trademark of witchers and well-trained rangers), not to mention monsters, powerful magicians and [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mobs]]. The game designers have taken a lot of pride and pleasure from such balance in fighting mechanics. And to grind your skills and stats you use your [[InsistentTerminology Points of Proficiency]], which are a mix between ExperiencePoints and Skill Points.

There are also no classes nor premade professions, but each race gets certain starting skills (and most of them are repeating, as everyone has some basic knowledge about fist fighting or talking) and most of the races have minimal, maximal, or both kinds of caps on their stats, [[HumansAreAverage except for humans]].

The game was first released as a "demo" pocket edition. Being a teaser, it only covers the bare basics of the mechanics and contains a simple example scenario. Then the actual source book arrived, giving detailed descriptions of mechanics, expanded combat maneuvers, a spell and prayers book, ''[[{{Infodump}} massive]]'' [[WordOfSaintPaul chapters full of information about the setting]], a [[MonsterCompendium monster book]], and a hefty chapter full of advice for story-tellers. Later, two expansions were released: the first was a description of [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]] and a supplement to the basic rules (covering art of MinMaxing, new fighting moves, and a new kind of magic based on PsychicPowers), and the second was premade scenario for a CloakAndDagger campaign with only minor tweaks in the mechanics.

After those, a short-lived periodical called ''"White Wolf"'' was released. In fact, the whole "periodical" part was a marketing campaign to bring more attention towards the system. ''"White Wolf"'' lasted only three issues: one covering [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Brokilon, [[TheLostWoods their]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou forest]], one about [[LandOfOneCity Novigrad]], and one about spies, secret agencies and diplomats. It was [[RiddleForTheAges never clearly stated]] if ''"White Wolf"'' was cancelled because the authors run out of ideas, or because [[TroubledProduction MAG Publishing House, resposible for the whole system, was facing financial problems and was slowly leaving the RPG business]]. Aside from all those direct expansions, the magazine ''"Sword and Sorcery"'' - also owned by MAG - was printing articles [[WorldBuilding even further expanding the game setting]], giving handfuls of advices for story-tellers, and providing a few scenarios.

There was also a semi-official expansion, which covered the world a century before the Witcher's Saga, as a tie-in to a short story about Geralt's parents. It was intended to be released on an official level, but after cancellation it ended up being released for free by its author.

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!!Tropes related to the game include:

* {{Acrofatic}}: Halflings are pudgy - to put it mildly - and hardly look dangerous, yet their Splat requires the player to take at least 3 points in Agility.
* ActionGirl: By default, [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Zerrikanian Faithel warriors. The latter were introduced directly as a result of complaints about all the limitations of playing as a dryad and their lacking flexibility.
* AdmiringTheAbomination: ZigZagged and {{inverted}}. Zerrikania has a cult of dragons as its religion, paying them respect for their power and wisdom. Other countries and most of the intelligent races treat dragons as mindless monsters razing the countryside and hoarding treasures, who should be rightfully taken by some noble dragon-slayer. This leads to ''serious'' CultureClash. [[PerspectiveFlip And since dragons are really intelligent creatures with no intention for harm]], you can guess the rest.
* AerithAndBob: The names of some settlements and landmarks are in Polish, some sound like they fit into a generic MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting, others are GratuitousForeignLanguage, and a few are all of those at the same time.
* AggressiveCategorism: Probably the biggest flaw of humanity and elves, as it fuels all of their morally questionable actions.
* AlternativeCalendar: It's somewhere during the 13th century of the Age of Man... counting from an unspecified event, most likely [[TheMultiverse the Conjunction of Spheres]]. [[FutureImperfect Humans themselves have no idea]] why their calendar works this way. The oldest event written down is their arrival to what's now the Northern Kingdoms somewhere during the year 764.
* AmazonBrigade: Since dryads are a OneGenderRace of {{Cold Sniper}}s devoted to protecting their forest, this is the ''basic'' way of organizing their ranks.
* AmuletOfDependency: Witchers' medallions. They are the only source of Arcane Points for witchers and, not counting emergency meditations, they can't be recharged instantly. If they are depleted, witchers can't cast their signs until a recharge.
* AncestralWeapon: [[MundaneUtility Self-]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sharpening]] swords cost quite a lot, but they also never wear out, so they are usually held by the same family for generations.
* AnnoyingArrows: Averted. After calculating everything, regular weapons deal about the same damage as the weakest type of bows. That makes them even already, without going for more powerful bows and [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill crossbows]]. It's also far easier to shoot someone - shields, magic barriers, [[ImplausibleFencingPowers costly fencing moves]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking bad weather]] are the only things that can stop arrows.
* AntiCavalry: Pikes and polearms by default. Magic barriers and some signs may be used to create invisible force-fields, breaking any possible charge and scaring horses in the process. The combat maneuver ''Break charge'' may be used to stop any kind of charge, including that of cavalry.
* AntiMagic: The sign ''Heliotrop'' can block any form of offensive magic, as well as concentrated sound-waves. Witchers are advised to use it from a safe distance — it tends to create a small explosion when the spell's energy is deactivated.
* AnyoneCanDie: This system is a hard punch for anyone who is used to PlayerCharacters being MadeOfIron. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis You. Will. Die. A lot.]] Most basic weapons in the hands of average enemies can deal enough damage to take a quarter of your hit points with a single blow. [[TheManMakesTheWeapon In the hands of professionals, the same weapons can kill you on the spot]]. And that's without even mentioning monsters - they deal enough damage to kill a character even with a mediocre roll.
* AnythingThatMoves: As a result of being a DyingRace, elven sexuality descended into having as much procreation and conception as possible. It borders on ExtremeOmnisexual - when given a choice, they prefer going to bed or raping humans and getting half-elves in the process than not having children at all. Because the aim is to get kids, homosexuality and purely romantic relationships are treated as TooDumbToLive among elves.
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Elves ''insist'' that they don't fight nor kill their own kin. The fact that the Scoi'a'tel kill without the blink of an eye every elf they arbitrarily label as a RaceTraitor is only a tip of the iceberg of hypocrisy.
* ArbitraryMaximumRange: You can't throw a rock further than 10 meters...
* ArbitraryMinimumRange: You can't use bows or slings at a range of under two meters, while javelins and spears are no longer considered ranged weapons.
* ArcherArchetype: Dryads. They could be the poster-girls of this trope played ''very'' serious.
* ArmorAndMagicDontMix: Armor restricts movement, making the [[MagicalGesture complicated gestures]] needed for sorcery difficulty — doubly so if you're untrained in wearing it. Witchers, by contrast, use rudimentary signs created specifically to overcome this problem.
* ArmorIsUseless: Averted. When facing humans and humanoids, armour can be very useful, going so far as to make a character almost invulnerable. On the other hand, bigger animals and monsters deal so much damage that armour won't even stop the fixed part of it, not to mention the outcome of damage rolls.
* ArmorPiercingAttack:
** Overseas weapons bypass anything less than plate armor, while there is a combat manoeuvre allowing a character to bypass plate armor with any weapon. However this works only on crafted armour, not the natural armor of monsters.
** Spells dealing direct damage by default bypass half of the target's armour, rounded down.
* AscendedExtra: Every single monster ever mentioned (even if just by name) in the short stories or the saga is present in the source book, with description, stats, attacks, and most with a picture.
* TheAssimilator: The Nilfgaard Empire, with a political system designed to hold the vast empire together by both force and cultural means. Being very tolerant (for the setting) helps immensely.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: The only way to beat armoured opponents and bigger monsters. Dragons are extremely hard to take down, since the only body parts that can be effectively attacked are their eyes and the insides of their mouths. The skill ''Knowledge: Monsters'' is dedicated to figuring out the weak points of the monsters your character is facing.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Whips can be used for very flashy combat maneuvers like tripping over, disarming and strangling, but over such short distances that it's easier to just draw your sword or shoot your enemy from afar. They are close to useless against armoured enemies, most of animals and monsters.
** Exotic weapons bypass any armour except plate armor, but they also cost a small fortune and have only d6 damage roll, while normal weapons can be customised for the user to deal additional fixed damage and become easier to wield.
** Two-handed weapons deal 2d6 + twice the Strength of damage, but they require sufficient Strength and many combat maneuvers are restricted for one-handed weapons. It's more practical to use a a one-handed weapon and a shield, as this grants protection and the [[ShieldBash shield may be weaponized]].
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the case of mini-crossbows and lamias (whips with metal spikes all over their lenght). The first deal relatively little damage and have a very short range, but they can be hidden in wide sleeves and shoot two bolts in a single round - [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange right in the face]]. The other has the range limitations of other whips, but deals the damage of a two-handed weapon. And unlike other whips, it overcomes the problem with close-quarter fights, since the handle is a mace.
* BackgroundMagicField: Arcane Points can be recharged just about anywhere, even if by a small amount. Of course [[PlaceOfPower some places]] are better sources than others.
* BadassNormal: In a world with powerful magicians utilising FunctionalMagic, mutated monster hunters, a few different non-human races with physical capabilities beyond those of humans, personified GaiasVengeance and [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou tons of monsters who can eat you whole for dinner]], playing as a human tends to give this feeling. Because you can and often ''must'' stand your ground against all of those. Fluff-wise, humans managed to literally beat the other races into submission while having none of their perks and feats.
* BadassOnPaper: Applies to almost any type of character with inherited reputation. Witchers are feared for a reason, but they can die just like anyone else and are covered with countless scars and/or maimed by monsters that were ''this'' close to killing them. Still, in most cases their sole presence is enough to scare {{Mooks}} away or hold them back without doing more than taking their sword out of its sheath. Same applies to dryads - they are extremely dangerous, but fully aware that their main advantage is their status of TheDreaded. After all, they are just a handful of young women armed with bows and usually end their lives being hanged by an angry mob or slain by some barely trained mercs. Mages usually don't try doing anything stupid. Even if they can burn the whole town to the ground with a single spell, everyone in the setting is aware that getting trampled by an angry mob is much faster than burning them alive.
* BearsAreBadNews: You really, really, ''really'' don't want to fight them. They are the strongest of normal animals... and stronger than most of the monsters. A single bear can tear a PlayerParty composed entirely of grizzled veterans apart, one character per round. It says something when aside from [[OurDragonsAreDifferent flying dragons]] and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent high vampires]], bears are ''the'' toughest creatures you may fight against. And they are much, much more common than the other two.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The Cult of Freyja from [[HornyVikings the Skellige Isles]] takes this mindset to the logical extreme, since Freyja is the goddess of beauty and fertility. Her clergy is entirely made up of girls chosen for their looks and nothing else. It's assumed that if they are pretty, they must be chosen by Freyja to serve her and thus are good and innocent.
* BerserkButton: Some of the disadvantages you can pick during character creation are these. Your character can be [[RevengeBeforeReason vengeful beyond reason]], be extremely racist towards a certain race, or just become AxCrazy whenever blood is drawn.
* BigEater: Halflings are the friendly and cuddly version of this trope. Then there are bigger monsters. And oversized arthropods.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Just to name few out of a rather big bunch there are gigascorpions in size of a cow, crab-spiders able to chop your leg with their pinclers and ygherns, centripedes measured in ''meters''. All of them are as dangerous as hell, as they have strong carapacse, most of them are poisonous and all of them are always hungry. Oh, and they are the only creatures immune to the ChunkySalsaRule.
* {{BFS}}: The standard-issue Temerian Landsknechts' two-handed sword, which can be as long as its wielder. It also comes with additional punch.
* TheBlacksmith: Dwarven {{Splat}} gives players a choice to pick one of a few Craft skills as their starting. They include: [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Armourer, Blacksmith, Goldsmith and Weaponsmith]]. Oh, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Stonemason]].
* BladeOnAStick: Two-handed weapons that are not [[{{BFS}} swords]] are various kinds of pikes and polearms.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Humanity is the only race that has any form of (often misguided and exploited) patriotism. Other races barely comprehend why some oppressed villagers are more willing to die for their king and the political interest of their country than to just mind their own bussiness, especially since HumansAreDivided.
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: You really '''don't''' want to piss off [[GodOfEvil Coram]] [[EldritchAbomination Agh Ter]] or [[{{Cult}} his]] [[ReligionOfEvil worshippers]].
* BoundAndGagged: The best way to deal with magic users when you don't have to kill them. Or at least a cost-efficient one, since [[PowerNullifier dvimerite]] handcuffs cost a fortune. This can [[TotalPartyKill badly backfire]] if the mage in question is good enough to cast spells without gestures or words.
* BoisterousBruiser: Dwarves, but only when you are nice to them. People from Skellige are like this as part of [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy their]] [[HornyVikings culture]].
* BoringButPractical:
** Shields. They make their wielders harder to hit with any kind of physical attack, [[DamageReduction add armour]] and are not penalized by anything. Oh, and you can [[ShieldBash bash]] people with them.
** Polearms and pikes are very good against mounted enemies.
* BowAndSwordInAccord: Entirely possible, with mechanics designed to help doing so. The better the bow, the more required Statistics. Longbows require 3 points in Agility. Compound bows need that ''and'' 3 points in Strength. Each two points in Agility provides character with one more defence, so 3 is the threshold at which it gets harder to hit characters with ''any'' physical attack. And melee damage gets a fixed bonus from Strength (two-handed weapons get ''twice'' the Strength). So with minor investment in ''Armed combat'', archers can be deadly both at a distance and in close quarters. Humans have it especially easy, since they get 5 bonus points to skills during character creation, which can only be used on skills from their {{Splat}}. And ''Armed combat'' is one of them.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The extent of it and how long it lasts depends on the process used for it:
** Mages can use ''Charm'' and ''Hypnosis'' spells. The first one turns its target very friendly towards the caster. The second gives total control over its target. Both can be broken by sudden sound, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan pain]], or strong willpower and can't last for more than an hour.
** Witchers have the ''Aksji'' sign, which turns any creature friendly and obedient for a short while. Witchers can also use it on ''themselves'', making them more focused on a given task and lowering the difficulties of actions related to fulfilling it. ''Aksji'' can be broken by roll of the ''Concentration'' skill and lasts for a single turn in the basic version.
** Naturalised dryads are created by giving normal human girls the Water of Brokilon. The memories of their previous life are erased (some traces may remain) and they think of themselves as dryads. The effect lasts forever and is irreversable.
** Depending how powerful [[PsychicPowers psychics]] are and how much they focus, effects may range from a single, simple order to turning someone into a vegetable.
* BreadAndCircuses: The Nilfgaard Empire is literally using this over its population, with GladiatorGames, [[NoDelaysForTheWicked doing everything on time]], and providing basic consumer products in reasonable prices. Who cares that half of those things came from pillage of the far North?
* BreakMeter: Played every possible way. Combat maneuvers, especially those in melee, can affect the defences of both the target and the user of that move. Most often, using combat maneuvers exposes the user in the next round (because they end up in a bad position for blocking incoming hits or to avoid being surrounded by enemies). They can also increase the defence of their target, making it harder to hit (try to reach two people with a single slash of sword). Usually, more powerful moves do both. There are also defensive moves - they make it harder to hit your character, often exposing the enemy in the process.
* BreakingTheBonds: Inverted to the point of a deconstruction. The spell ''Fire net'' binds its target and that's about all it does. Any attempt of movement will deal d3 damage. Breaking free? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero That's 2d6 damage]] - almost half of the maximum possible [[HitPoints Vitality]] the average character will have.
* BrownNote: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Bruxas]] can utter a scream strong enough to make your ears bleed. Or [[MakeMeWannaShout knock you to the ground]] at close distances.
* CallAHitPointASmeerp: Vitality is divided into four stages: Healthy, Beaten, Wounded and Dying, each corresponding to a quarter of total HitPoints. Healthy and Beaten represent situations when the character is out of a fight or has sustained some minor bruises during a fist fight and are rather harmless. Wounded makes your rolls progressively harder, while Dying seriously lowers your stats and skills and requires medical attention in a short time or the character will die. Reaching 0 Vitality or below it is instant death. Armour [[DamageReduction soaks damage]], so it technically gives you additional points of Vitality for the body parts covered by it.
* CastFromHitPoints: When mages cast spells beyond their current number of [[{{Mana}} Arcane Points]], the difference is taken from [[HitPoints Vitality]].
* CatsAreMagic: They can't be fooled with illusions. And their favourite spots to lie on? [[PlaceOfPower Places of Power]].
* [[AnimalsHateHim Cats Hate Him]]: Witchers make cats angry, for unspecified reasons.
* ChainmailBikini: Defied. Source book treats armour as unisex. If some part of body is not covered by armour, it doesn't gain any protection. Even the pictures in the chapter about the fighting mechanics have a few {{Action Girl}}s in proper, functional sets of armour, [[MundaneMadeAwesome and they still look awesome]].
* CharacterAlignment: Inverted. There are no typical alignments, but there is an [=Honor/Reputation/Adventure=] triangle in which players must put their characters. They are treated more as a compass for the players and a way to judge their actions by the story-teller than any actual mechanics.
* CharacterCustomization: While the source book only discussed it, it wasn't until the expansions that there were any mechanics for traits, perks and other special feats.
* CharacterLevel: The game is built on an aversion to such system, being more about StatGrinding.
* ChargedAttack: Players can use their Combat Points to enhance the outcome of a hit roll. The same rule applies to spells, prayers, signs and psychic powers, but Arcane Points are used instead. Witchers [[MagicKnight are unique]] and can spend Arcane Points as Combat Points.
* TheChewToy: Mercenary Svarte and wizard Perignon, example characters used to show the mechanics in action, are treated almost like crash-test dummies, suffering AmusingInjuries in every single case that can end with [[FinaglesLaw something going wrong]].
* ChildSoldiers: Since dryads don't shy from kidnapping young girls and brainwashing them, this can happen. Then again, the "adult" age for humans in this setting is 16.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Not only present, but hits and shots aimed for the head also deal twice the default damage. Aiming for the eyes multiplies the damage by three, often leading to instant death or [[EyeScream at least being incapacitated]].
* ChurchMilitant: Most of the religions tend toward this.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: All kinds of prayers works this way. And the more people are chanting a prayer, the stronger the effects get. On the other hand, [[FunctionalMagic spells]] don't require any faith and are not only more reliable, but usually also more powerful. Usually.
* ClassAndLevelSystem: Intentionally averted.
* TheCoconutEffect: The authors openly admitted that this trope is the only reason why armour adds penalties to the wearer the way it does, e.g. plate armor is portrayed as heavy and constricting, in stereotypical [=RPG=] fashion. It didn't work - many players of other games ''still'' treat the system as "unrealistic" for [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not following other typical]] tabletop [=RPG=] [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen fighting]] [[PVPBalanced mechanics]].
* ColdSniper: Dryads are an ''entire race of these'' armed with bows.
* [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatism]]: A recurring theme of the fighting mechanics. You can fight with honour and die a horrible death, you can use only flashy moves and exhaust yourself long before killing your enemies... or you can just fight as dirtily as possible, surviving the whole ordeal without breaking a sweat. Story-tellers are advised to rarely (if ever) use MookChivalry and make humanoid enemies as bastardly during fights as it fits.
* CombatTentacles: Zeulgs have four tentacles with hooks and suction cups, but [[ManEatingPlant kelpies]] are ''made of'' sentient tentacles, so there are always more of them than your character can chop down before being strangled.
* CommonTongue:
** Subverted. While there is a language called "Common", it's simply a language that humans use and not even all of them - people from Skellige use their own dialect, while Nilfgaardians and Zerrikanians use different variants of Elder Speech, language of the elves. Elder Speech itself is used in a few different forms that have as much relation to each other as Romance languages have with Latin.
** The starting level of any language skill is usually 2 (in 0-5 scale), which means that even if characters use the language as their own, it's the local version and nothing more. It won't cover pronunciation from other countries and regions, not to mention knowing subdialects or understanding more complex words. This issue is constantly stressed in the source book, expansions and articles written for the game to remind players and [=GMs=] how suspicious their characters can be by the sole merit of talking in a different way than the locals.
* CompellingVoice: A starting advantage that players can pick, which lowers the difficulty of every possible test based on talking, from haggle and pillow-talk to diplomacy and leading troops into battle. Costly, but very effective for diplomat-type characters.
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Averted. Bolts from crossbows may have enough force to stick out the other side of their target, ''after'' passing through cover.
* CoolButInefficient:
** Most of the combat maneuvers for ranged weapons and some of the signs used by witchers count. But nothing can compare with OneHitKill moves - they use more Combat Points than some characters can even have. For a single attack that could miss or be dodged.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the case of spells. At first glance ''all of them'' are ridiculousy overpriced, often costing more Arcane Points that it's possible to have, turning spellcasting into a highly inefficient playstyle. [[ReadTheFreakingManual But if you carefully read the rules]], they also show how high skill and additional successes during hit rolls reduce the intake of Arcane Points to almost nothing, or at least to bearable amounts.
* CoolSword: Overseas blades, witcher's swords (both types), and those customized for the user.
* CorruptChurch: The Cult of Sun Disc has shades of this, but the Cult of the Eternal Fire is this trope. [[TheTheocracy A church organization running the]] [[LandOfOneCity biggest trading port in the known world and its city]], looking out mostly for its own benefits.
* CounterAttack: ''Riposte'', probably the [[GameBreaker most powerful]] combat maneuver for melee weapons, is described as such. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation But you can declare using it whenever you want]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: DiminishingReturnsForBalance strikes in its finest during character creation. Not counting [[{{Splat}} race-related skills]], rising anything beyond 3 points will cost you dearly, leaving almost no points for other skills. Rising too many things to level 3 will cost you dearly ''as well'', So it's a player choice if he or she wants the character to be really good at a certain thing and virtually ''nothing else'' or being [[MasterOfNone more balanced but without any distinctive abilities]].
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted in a really painful way. The less [[HitPoints Vitality]] a character has, the more penalties are added, as a way to [[RealityIsUnrealistic emulate effects of real injuries]]. Authors gave players a choice if they want to use this aversion as a rule, as it leads to HarderThanHard territory.
* CriticalFailure: Authors are advised to be creative with their outcome, but never [[KillerGameMaster sadistic]]. There is no real mechanic for the effect of such failures, so it's all up to the story teller. ''But'' there is a special rule allowing to still succeed in whatever the character was trying to do, as long as there were enough successes on the other dice to pull the action and additional two to cover 1 on Fate Dice.
* CriticalHit: Criticals in a fight multiply the outcome of damage rolls by two (three when aiming for the head). Criticals in general may allow a character to pull an action that would otherwise be impossible to do with their Stat and skill level.
* {{Cult}}: Not counting druidism, none of the religions or church organization have any official name, so they are referred as "cult of Place Name Of The God Here". Said that, Coram Agh Ter has '''[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]]''' Cult, with all the nasty things you can imagine about worshipping an EldritchAbomination. Not to mention being [[RealityEnsues persecuted by law in all countries]].
* CurbStompBattle: Being ambushed by dryads is an in-universe example. Monsters the size of an elephant or bigger will stomp (some of them literally) the entire PlayerParty if no tactical cunning is used by the players. A single dragon can take down a small army with ease.
* CursedWithAwesome[=/=]BlessedWithSuck: In any other setting, witchers would have it good. Thanks to their mutations they age ''very'' slowly, and are always in good health/perfect condition. Said mutations also gave them such inhuman feats as night vision or the ability to control their heart rate, not to mention healing faster than anyone else. On the other hand, those same mutations provide them with often hideous traits (strange eyes and pigmentation, albinism, overgrowing teeth). Their job is [[TheHunter the worst possible]], with constant risk to their life for [[PerpetualPoverty inadequate pay]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect no gratitude]]. It's hard to measure their life expectancy, since it always ends in desolated ruins or filthy dumping sites, when they are finally overpowered by a stronger monster.
* CuteMonsterGirl: [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent Mermaids, nymphs and rusalki]] can easily qualify. They not only look human, but are also friendly and easy-going in their nature. Gender-flipped with [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent tritons]] (mermen), as they are Cute Monster Guys.
* CycleOfRevenge: All racial problems are fuelled by this, but nothing can be compared to the conflict between humans and dryads. Humans cut trees. Dryads scared them away. Humans cut more trees and hanged a few dryads. Dryads killed all hunters in the forest. Humans went on a small war with dryads. Dryads retaliated by [[ShootEverythingThatMoves killing everyone coming even close to Brokilon]]. Humans decided to burn down part of the forest. Dryads started kidnapping and [[HeelFaceBrainwashing brainwashing human girls for their ranks]]... On the other hand, races that decided to break the cycle and simply live together have it much easier.
* DamageReduction: Armour, both natural and crafted, works this way. If the target is hit, the damage is reduced by a certain value, depending on the type and/or layers of armour. Can lead to situations when no damage is dealt at all.
* DamageTyping: Sort of. Damage itself is just damage, but during hit rolls, there are two groups of defences with three subgroups in each: physical (hand-to-hand, weapons, and projectiles) and magical (witchers' signs, magic, and prayers).
* DarkerAndEdgier: While the source book and most of expansions are much more optimistic and less crap-sacked than the [[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher's saga]], the expansion about Nilfgaard dials everything bad and horrible UpToEleven, as it takes place DuringTheWar between the Nordlings and Nilfgaard. Scoi'a'tel and marauders rampaging all around, abundant monsters, mages with more political power than ever before, famine, poverty, whole countries reduced into smouldering ruins... just name it.
* DavidVersusGoliath: While all smaller races can fit, halflings [[StealthPun take the cake]], since they are cute little gluttons able to [[BewareTheNiceOnes smash you into pulp with sneak attacks and slings]].
* DeathFromAbove: If it flies, your character is a good candidate for its dinner.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: If your character can withstand counterattacks, it's entirely possible to beat someone or something to death with just your bare hands or a stick. Or at least when the enemy is unarmoured and[=/=]or small enough.
* DeflectorShields: There is a spell that stops projectiles. Witchers have two signs that work this way - ''Quen'' can block projectiles and even smaller creatures, while ''Yrden'' creates an impenetrable and stationary force field.
* DepletedPhlebotinumShells: Weapons coated in or made of silver are extra effective against [[FantasticFragility all kinds of monsters]]. Sometimes silver is the only thing those creatures can be hurt with.
* DetectEvil: More in form of Detect Magic - witchers' medallions will start to vibrate when close to magic of any sort. Since all monsters are magic-related, it can detect their presence.
* {{Determinator}}: Starting advantage ''Tough guy'' allows a character to ignore half of the penalties added for lacking [[HitPoints Vitality]]. Characters with the ''Berserker'' trait ignore all Vitality-related penalties for the duration of their killing frenzies. A powerful enough ''Hypnosis'' spell may force people to do things otherwise unthinkable for them, but after doing so the spell is broken.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:
** More than a quarter of the source book is dedicated to giving different solutions and sugestions for story-tellers, ranging from things like "Organising campaigns for dummies" to exploring many of the high concepts of the game's world and their implications for players. This is ''very'' helpful for novice players, not only those starting with The Witcher, but with tabletop [=RPG=] in general.
** Numerous elements of mechanics have alternative rules, ready for both players looking for simple solutions and those aiming for highly-detailed calculation of different factors.
** There is a lengthy but light-hearted (and not condemning anyone) chapter discussing different types of players and how their behaviour can enchance or spoil fun forhe t rest of the team.
** As mentioned below, there is a whole chapter about solving [[SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome problems with the amount of witchers]] - going by one of interviews, devs started writing that chapter before they even fully decided to create the game, to be sure the problem could be solved.
* DiscOneNuke: Witchers' ''starting'' swords. While one-handed, they deal the damage of two handed weapons, ''and'' half of it is fixed. Even with the worst possible damage roll they still surpass any regular sword with the maximum damage roll.
* DividedWeFall:
** Elves in their backstory factionised during the initial contact with humans. [[DyingRace It didn't end well for them]].
** The main reason why the Northern Kingdoms get beaten by the Nilfgaard Empire - they are numerous, they hate each other and it's much easier to pick on them one at the time. By the time they realise the implications of a "not my bussiness" policy, a third of them are under Nilfgaardian rule.
* [[DoNotRunWithAGun Do Not Run With A Bow]]: Using any type of projectile-based weapon while running increases the difficulty of hit rolls. Shooting while riding makes it even harder.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Halflings, but to be honest they don't even have to wear them - the soles of their feet tend to be harder than shoes and seem to be immune to cold.
* DoNotGoGentle:
** Dryads are more or less aware what their chances are against the rest of the world. That doesn't mean they stop shooting down anything that cross what they consider as the borders of Brokilon. And some of those places were deforested years ago...
** Scoi'a'tel think they are fighting under this trope. The {{irony}} comes from the realization that new waves of pogroms agains elves emerged ''after'' [[WhatAnIdiot the Scoi'a'tel started their so-called revolution]] - in the source book elves are looked down upon, but treated more or less fair. In the expansion about Nilfgaard, where Scoi'a'tel commandos run all around, elves are treated as ''third''-rate citizens, as a form of collective responsibility.
* {{Doppelganger}}: An intelligent race of them. Pretty nice folks, at least when they don't [[KillAndReplace have to kill you to take your place]].
* {{Druid}}: Druidism is one of the religions, with serious eco-balance preaching. Druids themselves have only a few traits typical to other fantasy versions and are more closely to the real-life version. Sure, they take women to their ranks, choose new candidates from magic-sensitive people and the environmental message is added, but that's about all. No shapeshifting, no special orientation in healing, no AnimalTalk and especially ''no'' control over nature, since they consider it a sin. Think about it more like fantasy-counterpart Taoism than anything else. Oh, and they are usually nice to people. Unless said people are not nice to nature.
** Druids' powers were vaguely defined in the game proper and never standardised - we never learned whether they use prayers like priests (as supported by the specific druidic prayer) or spells like wizards (supported by lore and some mentions in the text). Nor is there any [[TakeAThirdOption specific skill]] for them either.
* DualWield: Penalized, but possible. With the proper perks character can wield two regular weapons (without them, the weaker hand can only hold knives and lighter weapons), and the penalties are removed.
* DumpStat: Movement. Dear God, Movement. The only thing it's used for is measuring how long a distance a character can travel during a single round of a fight (which is irrevelant, as sooner or later you will end up in melee distance), and while travelling the world (which is irrevelant, as when riding or traveling by any other means than on foot you use the Movement of your mount or vehicle). There are dozens of HouseRules to derive it from different Stats to save Stat Points.
* TheDungAges: In poorer kingdoms and remote areas at least. The info on life in Northern Kingdoms was [[{{Plagiarism}} directly taken from two books on medieval life]]. It should be noted that persona hygiene is on a rather high level for the setting - public baths are common and Nordlings take a bath at least once per week, while washing some body parts daily. The problems arise with the lack of any serious public sanitation, dung piling on streets (''if'' there is a street), and the poor quality of water in more densely populated areas.
* DuringTheWar: Expansion about Nilfgaard is set in times of [[Literature/TheWitcher the saga]], with sizable part of it devoted to explaining the new political situation and how war affected known world.
* DyingRace: Elves and dryads. It's easier to find a naturalized dryad (which is a well-disguised, [[HeelFaceBrainwashing brainwashed]] [[TykeBomb human girl]]) than an actual born dryad.
* EarlyGameHell: The mechanics is intentionally imbalanced vis-a-vis starting characters. In their zone of competence they have about a 50% chance to succeed in easy tasks. The expansions helped a bit, providing material for MinMaxing and a bunch of easy-to-gain perks, but for a ''long'' time your character will remain relatively underpowered outside the specific field picked up at the beginning.
* ElementalPowers: Mages regenerate their Arcane Points from elemental sources of different size. The bigger the source, the easier it is to overcharge - the effects ranges from nausea and nose bleeds to YourHeadAsplode. Casting certain spells is easier after drawing from specific elements.
* EliteArmy:
** Temerian Landsknechts - the most disciplined troops from the Northern Kingdoms, armed with {{BFS}} and acting like a single body on the battlefield. They are the only troops from the North to be descibed with standard ''Tactics'' and ''Cold Blood'' skills, so they are unlikely to panic or run away.
** Troops of Nilfgaard proper are all like this, since they are using a standing army with standarized equipment (including uniform and armour), well-organized logistics and are lead by professional officers, not random nobles.
* ElvesVersusDwarves: In the backstory, the first thing elves did after landing on the Continent was declaring dwarves not worth living and starting a genocidal war with them. This equally maimed both sides and paved the road for being conquered by humans. Both races still hold grudges against each other. Dwarves also like to remind everyone how elves started talking about "[[EnemyMine us, older races]]" only after humanity decided that there was no room for elves.
* EmotionSuppression: Witchers after meditation or under the effects of some of their elixirs completely repress feelings. [[TheStoic Not that they have a vivid emotional life to begin with]].
* TheEmpire: Nilfgaard. But from their own (and legal) point of view they are TheFederation.
* EnemyMine:
** Dryads and Scoi'a'tel against humanity. Dryads are open with the fact that in any other situation they would simply kill the elves, since they are no better than humans when it comes to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance nature preservation]].
** Dvarves [[SubvertedTrope are immune to this]], and whenever elves try to pull this against humanity, they coldly reply that elves only started talking about alliance ''after'' humans drove them to near-extinction.
* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: In desolated, remote, or semi-remote parts of the world everything is hostile.
* EvilPaysBetter: The most profitable disadvantages - those giving the most Stat Points and those not crippling a character - require the player to pick some criminal or outright psychopatic background. It starts with having a HairTriggerTemper, advances through things like RevengeBeforeReason or going into an UnstoppableRage whenever someone wrongs your character, and ends with being a wanted outlaw chased in the ''whole country'' or having the urge to kill everything around you after drawing blood.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The highest achievable level of Stat or skill, 5, is listed as Legendary. Reaching this level in any skill allows you to pull standard and mildly-badass actions ''without a roll''. Legendary Stat grants you five dice for rolls related to that Stat, so even with ''zero skill'' you can pull some actions by sheer badassitude. That said, you still have a chance to fail.
* ExoticWeaponSupremacy: Inverted. While "overseas weapons" bypass any armour exept plate and thus can deal higher damage, customized melee weapons might have a fixed bonus to damage (exotic get only one d6 roll). Not to mention that exotic weapons are extremely rare and cost a small fortune (especially true for bows).
* ExpandedUniverse: The source book is this towards the short stories and saga. Then there are expansions for the source book, dealing with more detailed subjects.
* ExperiencePoints: [[InsistentTerminology Points of Proficiency.]]
* EyeOfNewt: Components are rarely used and mostly for more ritualistic spells.
* EyepatchOfPower: You can create a one-eyed character. While it makes rolls based on visual perception just a tiny bit harder, it also grants 2 additional Stat Points during character creation, making it a really powerful bargain.
* FailedASpotCheck: The game tries to avert this by putting emphasis on story-telling and discouraging the use of mechanics. But if you are RulePlaying...
* FallingDamage: The safe height your character can jump or fall from is not only listed, but also influenced by the ''Acrobatics'' skill. Of course, after a certain point, it will be instant death for everyone. SoftWater is also affected, so not even it will reliably save a character.
* FanDisservice: Vicious and[=/=]or unintelligent humanoid monsters are not only described as butt-ugly, but all of them also get an appropriate pictures.
* {{Fanservice}}: Whenever it was possible or fitting, a picture of a scantily clad or outright naked woman was placed. Some of them are for laughts (like the one under spell ''Teleprojection''), while others are outright fanservice (like the naked wenches in the chapter about healing). Whenever an ActionGirl is drawn, chances are high that she will also be MsFanservice.
* FangsAreEvil: If anything looks humanoid, but sprout sizable or additional fangs - run like hell. Better not wait for a full analysis what you are facing, because it might be too late.
* FantasticNatureReserve: Zerrikania, sort of. It's a safe haven for dragons (they are worshipped as deities) and Faithel warriors are dedicated to finding and bringing back dragons from the "barbaric west" - aka the Northern Kingdoms. Since it's a country beyond the known world, there are also no witchers or their equivalent, so monsters tend to be much more numerous. In fact, the mountain passes leading to Zerrikania being so heavily infested by all kinds of monsters is the chief reason why the country is barely known and [[ShroudedInMyth almost mythical]].
* FantasticRacism: One of the basic rules for the world is that every race is hated by other races. Humans are the most hated, as they are dominant. The only races not driven by inter-racial hate are gnomes and halflings, but that doesn't stop ''others'' from being prejudiced against them.
* FantasyCharacterClasses: Mostly averted. There are no classes and your character can end up as a BunnyEarsLawyer or a JackOfAllTrades and actually master them all. The only exception is the [=witcher/mage/priest=] combo, but it mostly comes from how those trades work in the setting, not actual game mechanics.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Lots, some retroactively made to Sapkowski's canon. It's actally hard to find something which is ''not'' one. Many of them border on CultureChopSuey.
** Dwarves even ''[[UpToEleven speak]]'' in quasi-German gibberish and GratuitousGerman.
** Elves are somewhere between Celts run over by Romans and Romans run over by barbarians, with a few dashes of Native Americans.
** Kaedven is cross of UsefulNotes/KievanRus and [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire early-medieval Germany]], SettlingTheFrontier for human civilization. It's more clear in remote areas than in civilized parts (as 2[=/=]3 of this ''huge'' country is covered with dense forest).
** Kovir-Poviss is something between Britain and Venice - powerful, yet mostly uninterested with the affairs of other countries, [[UsefulNotes/BritainVersusTheUK an amalgam of small kingdoms and dutchies]], with a powerful fleet and merchant marine. Winter capital ''is'' Venice with UsefulNotes/BritishWeather. Their main goal is to profit on high-sea trade.
** Nilfgaard Empire combines both [[AncientRome Roman]] [[ByzantineEmpire empires]] with many elements of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. Funnily enough, it's the most liberal country when it comes to race and gender.
** Novigrad is [[UsefulNotes/HanseaticLeague Hanseatic Lübeck]] combined with FreestateAmsterdam. [[RefugeInAudacity And run by strict]] [[TheTheocracy clergy]].
** Mahakam is [[UsefulNotes/AllTheLittleGermanies industrialized Rhineland]] inhabited by dwarves, placed under the eponymous mountain chain.
** Redania is [[UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] - numerous and equal nobles hold power, their cavalry is the best in the world, the main source of income is exported grain and commoners are treated like private property, while halflings play role of foreign settlers in the Commonwealth. Their king has the [[AerithAndBob vaguely Slavic name of Radowid]], and he's the son of Queen Hedwig. Even its coat of arms is very similar to Polish from the times of the Commonwealth, while the book only said it's an eagle on a red shield.
** Skellige Isles are blatant HornyVikings, with many references to Norse culture and terminology.
** Toussaint ''is'' late-medieval Provence and Piedmont, only without the sea.
** Zerrikania has many vibes of Central Asia and steppe cultures, but under {{matriarchy}}.
* FantasyGunControl: The expansion about Novigrad introduced the skill ''Artillery'' and a GreekFire-like substance. [[FanonDiscontinuity Players deny it's existence]], while [[OldShame authors regret putting it in]].
* FatalFlaw: On race level:
** Dryads are [[RevengeBeforeReason Vengeful]]
** Dwarves tend to be [[EvilIsPetty Petty]] and [[HairTriggerTemper Wrathful]]
** Elves are [[{{Pride}} Proud]] {{Hypocrite}}s
** Humans are {{Greed}}y and [[{{Jerkass}} Cruel]]
* FearIsTheAppropriateResponse: Meta-example. When your [[PlayerParty hansa]] lacks a witcher or at least a powerful magician in his place, fighting monsters tends to be like this. Especially those immune to regular weapons.
* FeelNoPain: Witchers under their elixirs and everyone else under drugs, but it's more dangerous than helpful - characters may exceed their limits and end up with even more wounds. Oh, and pray for anesthesia when drugs start to wear off and your open bone fracture hasn't been treated.
* FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence: The trait ''Race hater'' makes the player's character like this. Unless a test of ''Cold Blood'' is passed, characters with this trait will lash, sometimes violently, against the chosen race.
* FictionalHoliday: They are related, either with important days in history, or are religious events related with solstices, while there is no equivalent of free Sunday.
* FighterMageThief: Mostly averted.
* FinalDeath: Just like in the books and short stories, dead is dead - you can't resurrect anyone.
* FiveRaces:
** Stout - Dwarves.
** Fairy - Dryads, at least the born ones.
** Mundane - Humans and half-elves.
** High Men - Nilfgaardians, witchers and elves. Biologically speaking, Nilfgaardians are like all other humans.
** Cute - Halflings and gnomes.
* FlavorText:
** There are many quotes lifted from the short stories and saga, often as an explanation from where the authors got their idea. Some monsters were only mentioned in the saga, which led to the brilliant description of "ornitodrakon" - "This could've been an ornitodrakon(...)". There are also flavour examples in expansions, all of them being {{Shout Out}}s toward politics, history and pop-culture, both international and Polish.
** Almost all examples of mechanics in action are made using three recurring characters: StraightMan-type mercenary Svarte, SpoonyBard Jezkier and GentlemanWizard[=/=]IneptMage Perignon. Sometimes they are joined by [[TheNondescript priest Groam and witcher Cormac]].
* ForestRanger: An entire race of them, in archer flavour.
* FriendlyFireproof: Averted. Projectiles, spells and signs will hit, hurt and kill whatever ended up as their final target.
* FullFrontalAssault: Dryads may or may not wear some sort of camouflage gear. Which is about [[InnocentFanserviceGirl all their "clothing"]]. Then again, their preferred tactics are ambushes and stealth attacks, so seeing them naked is not that easy.
* FunctionalMagic + MagicAIsMagicA: Magic is described as operating on scientifically explorable principles, with reliable and repeatable effects of every action. Which gives many opportunities for [[MundaneUtility Mundane Utilities]]. Even if the spell is cast in the wrong way, the mistake will have roughtly the same result every time it's made. Rules like no resurrection or no time-travel are also in place.
** On the other hand, priestly prayers were poorly defined, and in essence were just a supplication to the deity - who could agree or not.
* GaiasVengeance: Dryads.
* GameMaster: Gamemaster?! You mean, [[InsistentTerminology "story-teller"!]]
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard: That's how [[RulePlaying Rule Players]] consider any GM who is actually playing by the book... and the book advises to rarely use mechanics and encourage story-telling instead of rolls - especially when the core rules of the game are mutually exclusive.
* GenderIsNoObject: Wizards and sorceress have the same rights and are treated equally, ''but'' they are trained in two [[OneGenderSchool gender-separated schools]], themselves apart by hundreds of miles. As you may notice, this only covers mages. Meanwhile, women are [[StayInTheKitchen clearly subjugated in society as a whole]].
* GenrePopularizer: While there was a place for tabletop [=RPGs=] in Poland for the whole 90s, it was a very small niche, percieved as [[CrackIsCheaper costly entertainment]] for well-off nerds and [[ItMakesSenseInContext aging hippies]]. It took ''The Witcher'' and first edition of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzikie_Pola_%28role-playing_game%29 Wild Fields]]'' (based on Literature/SienkiewiczTrilogy) to make [=RPGs=] truly popular, as those were [[HomefieldAdvantage Polish games based on Polish media property that happend to be known by just]] ''[[HomefieldAdvantage everyone]]'' [[HomefieldAdvantage and thus much more familiar than any other setting]].
* GeometricMagic: The most powerful spells are in the [[RitualMagic form of a ritual]] and they require a lot of diagrams to be drawn on the ground.
* GladiatorGames: A popular form of entertainment in Nilfgaard.
* GlamourFailure: Applying silver to natural shapeshifters usually reverts them to their true form, which tends to be butt-ugly. Or at least it will give them a severe allergic reaction, which doesn't look good either.
* GlobalCurrency: Inverted. Every nation is issuing its own currency, often with different scales and sub-units made of different materials of different purity. Which leads to a serious mess when travelling between them. Banks are evaluating everything in denars - a unit of pure silver of a certain weight, which is used as currency in international trade and to cover travelling cheques in local currency. That said, it's possible to pay bills in the currency of another country, but requires someone to do the Math... or overpay.
* GoneHorriblyRight/[[GoneHorriblyWrong Wrong]]: The demo teaser version. The intention was to get more attention toward the game and provide a sample of a unique, new and home-made game that can easily compete with imported ones. But since the franchise was at the peak of its popularity, everyone knew the setting already, so no fluff was needed. The incredibly easy mechanics, based on [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment d6 dice]] that everyone can easily get didn't really need much more to be fully playable. Oh, and the teaser as part of its marketing campaign was [[{{Subverted}} subverting]] CrackIsCheaper by a tag-price of ''3 bucks'' for the book. The effect? The game ''did'' became highly popular, but the source book sold below estimated numbers, while the teaser run out of copies long before the official premiere of the game. Add to that [[DidntSeeThatComing the rise of wide access to the Internet in Poland]] and the source book ended up with more pirated copies than bought ones, even if it too subverted CrackIsCheaper.
* GoodIsNotNice: Witchers and Kreve's clergy are this trope personified, since both are dedicated to the eradication of evil with [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption brute force]] and [[KillItWithFire fire]].
* GoodIsNotSoft: Druids, Melitele's clergy and [[NaiveNewcomer younger witchers]] tend to be like this. Just remember that while friendly, they can also kill your character without much effort.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: Most basic hand-to-hand combat boils down to this. Advanced combat maneuvers involve lots of grappling, joint-locks, takedowns and kicking every part of the body that [[CombatPragmatist can be easily broken]].
* GoodPaysBetter: Averted, since the setting [[AWorldHalfFull is]] [[LowFantasy what]] [[FantasticRacism it]] [[GreyAndGrayMorality is]]. Creating a racist, bigoted outlaw with a HairTriggerTemper and a nasty knack for needless torture not only [[MinMaxing provides you with lots of additional Stat Points during character creation]], but such a character also perfectly fits in to the setting. On the contrast, playing as a goodie-two-shoes other than a KnightInSourArmor is an almost guaranteed way to get strange looks from [=NPCs=] and gives you no advantages.
* GoodShepherd: Priestesses of Melitele and Freyja are these by default, as their religions emphasis compassion and goodness. Less [[ChurchMilitant militant]] priest of Kreve can also count.
* GroinAttack: As a combat maneuver for ''Unarmed combat''. Not only does it deal bonus damage, but the unlucky enemy must pass a test of ''Vigour'' or he will be knocked out for one round. Of course it works only on male opponents.
* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Humanity versus dryads. Since dryads [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman are not human]], protect a primeval forest that can be cashed in on, and tend to kidnap girls to fill their ranks, humans treat them as monsters and gleefully kill them whenever possible.
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Dryads get very high starting ''Shooting'' skill for free and are one of only two races without any starting melee skill.
* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Half-elves have it really hard, almost always between a rock and a hard place. Depending on their mother's race, they are treated badly by either humans or elves. The latter are more pragmatic, as they seek as much offspring as possible and thus accept half-elves. Meanwhile humans treat them as [[KickTheDog yet another race of non-human freaks]], especially when elven heritage is highly visible.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Half-elves are the most obvious case. Dryads use human, elven and half-elven males for fertilisation, but the offspring is always a dryad girl.
* HealingFactor: Downplayed, but still present for witchers. They don't magically heal on site nor regrown cut limbs, but as part of their mutations they can, in certain circumstances or with proper care, heal three times faster than normally. Given that the healing system runs on RealityEnsues and going back to full health can take months, this is ''quite'' a feat.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: Naturalised dryads are human women in their teens or almost an adult when conditioned with the Water of Brokilon and bam, they are dryads, with almost no recollection of their former lives. Then you realise they were kidnapped from some village or lumberjack camp right next to the Brokilon, so they will shoot down their own family at the first chance... that is, if their family wasn't killed already.
* HeroesPreferSwords: Averted. Combat mechanics list four groups of melee weapons: knives and daggers, lighter weapons, regular weapons and two-handed weapons, with damage related to each group as a whole. Swords are in "regular weapons" and thus deal d6 damage, but so are cutlasses, axes, maces, heavy clubs, short spears and [[ImprovisedWeapon many other things you can handle with one arm]].
* HiddenElfVillage: Duén Canell, known also as the Place of the Oak. Heart of the Brokilon, "capital" of dryads. Getting there without their permission and escort is simply impossible.
* HiddenWeapons: The expansion covering espionage added two of them: a mini-crossbow lifted from the saga, and [[RuleOfCool boots with hidden blades]].
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Averted for anyone who isn't a witcher and ZigZagged for them. The healing process takes ''weeks'' under professional care and months without it. Eating food won't do you any good aside providing nutrition. The only expeption is witchers' immunity to most known diseases, which allows them to gorge themselves on rotting meat without any bad effects. They can also use their ''highly toxic'' elixirs to restore stamina and a very small amount of Arcane Points, but that's all.
* HobbesWasRight: Only countries ruled by tyrants (benevolent or not) seem to avoid problems with infrastructure, fiscal system or governing in general. Whenever nobles are granted privileges, mages gain new rights or simply some political freedom exists, things spiral into feudal anarchy or worse.
* {{Hobbits}}: You mean halflings? The race has traits both of Tolkien's hobbits and TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons' halflings. It's not helping that halflings and hobbits can be referred to with the same word in Polish (''niziołki'') and that's how they are adressed.
* HolyBurnsEvil: Not counting superstitions and what some priests believes, holy symbols do nothing to monsters. Unless they are made of silver and the monster in question is hit with them repeatively.
* HomefieldAdvantage:
** Humans start with ''Knowledge: Home area'', which provides them with additional informations about the surrounding area of their place of origin. This may range from the topography of some woodland to the configuration of streets in the chosen city.
** The only way to beat dryads in Brokilon is to bring superior numbers of seasoned fighters. And by superior it means at least 10:1 ratio, so your typical [[PlayerParty hansa]] is virtually powerless.
* [[HopelessWar Hopeless Fight]]: Dryads have been waging one with humanity for decades, if not centuries. It's so hopeless that it can't even be called a war. It's clear for everyone how one-sided it is, but that doesn't mean dryads even considered [[DoNotGoGentle going gently]].
* HornyVikings: Humans who arrived in what's now the Northern Kingdoms were clearly these. The Skellige Isles are a nation that still lives by "the old ways", with means [[{{Pirate}} as]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy many]] [[ProudMerchantRace references]] [[BoisterousBruiser to]] [[BraidsOfBarbarism stereotypical]] [[BeardOfBarbarism vikings]] [[BarbarianLonghair as]] [[StockCostumeTraits possible]].
* HorsingAround: Skill ''Riding'' is not about the ability to ride - it's assumed that everyone in the setting can do that. Instead, it's used every time the rider forces the mount to do something special, stupid or outright suicidal.
* HotBlooded: A calm dwarf? You mean the one who's too drunk to react?
* HouseRules: The authors heavily encourage this, pointing out that their game and rules can and sometimes even should be changed to enhance the gameplay. They also discourage doing everything by the book, since it can kill the creativity of both players and the GM.
* HumanSacrifice: Coram Agh Ter has a reputation of demanding these. But not in the standard way, on an altar's offering table, since he's the god of sudden death.
* HumansAreBastards: The chapter devoted to describing humanity as a whole nicely sums it up in its title - "Humans: Acquisitive and Brutal".
* HumansAreDivided:
** Not counting two (or three if you ask dryads) exeptions, all countries are made and mostly populated by humans. Said countries tend to wage wars between themselves more often than not and hate each other's guts. Then there is society as a whole, with nobles playing their own games of particularism and political deals are always under the shadow of [[TheMagocracy Capitule]], pulling strings to achieve more profit for mages. When Nilfgaard soldiers reached the borders of the Northern Kingdoms, things only get worse.
** [[DyingRace Elves learned the hard way]] to never, ever mess with humanity as a whole. While humans ''are'' divided, they also have unprecedented racial solidarity, putting their race (or at least country) before anything else. But after the common foe is defeated, they start to wage wars between themselves ''again''.
* HumansAreWhite: Having HornyVikings as your ancestors tends to have this effect.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: We're dh'oine for the elves and other users of Elder Speech.
* TheHunter: Witchers. They are rised and trained for only one purpose: track, find and kill monsters that are dangerous to humans. That's also their actual job.
* IShallTauntYou: One combat maneuver in ''Unarmed combat'' is a special kind of dodge. When it's successful, you make your opponent look like a clumsy and pathetic wimp.
* IWasQuiteALooker: ''All'' old priestesses of Freyja, since they are picked as teens by merit of their beauty, and only the most beautiful girls presented during the initiation ceremony are chosen.
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: The difficulty of rolls is not only scaled, but also listed with appropriate names, ranging from "no sweat" through things like "for kids" or "serious" and ending with "heroic deed".
* IllegalReligion:
** The Cult of Coram Agh Ter. Expected, given the [[HumanSacrifice nature of the]] [[ReligionOfEvil religion]] and its [[EldritchAbomination deity]].
** Within the small area under [[LandOfOneCity Novigrad's]] [[TheTheocracy rule]], there is only the Cult of the Eternal Fire. Praising any other deity or preaching any other religion is forbidden, or the local inqisition will get you.
* [[ImmuneToBullets Immune to Arrows]]: If some monster is immune to regular weapons, it's automatically immune to all kinds of physical projectiles. Arrows won't even scratch dragons, unless aimed for [[AttackItsWeakPoint softer bodyparts]].
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Averted. Not counting most basic {{mooks}}, dedicated rangers should have a high enough Perception stat, ''Shooting'' skill, or both, allowing them to effectively use their weapons. And don't forget about [[ImprobableAimingSkills dryads]].
* ImplacableMan: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Nosferates]] are practically unstoppable and unkillable. Even if you somehow "kill" them and ''chop them into pieces'', they will still regenerate after a few years or decades. Pray to be dead by that time, because they might [[BestServedCold come for a visit]].
* ImplausibleFencingPowers: A few combat maneuvers, like taking down flying arrows.
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Whips, both those made by dryads from vines, and those with spikes.
* ImprobableAimingSkills:
** 5 points in the Shooting skill, combined with a few traits and perks, leads to this. All you have to do is live long enough to get it all...
** Starting trait "Hawk-eye" alone grants such skills. Not only do all rolls based on Perception (including ''Shooting'') have lowered difficulty, but distance penalties are halved.
* ImprovisedWeapon: The general rule of improvised weapons is very simple: if your characters can lift something and swing it, it's a weapon. Be it a throwing crossbow, two-handed bench seat, or a nearby dwarf.
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: ''The Witcher: Game of Imagination by Andrzej Sapkowski'' is the full title of the game. Players and [[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher's]] fandom couldn't care less, since the game is [[FanNickname usually just called]] ''Witcher'' or now ''Witcher - Game of Imagination'' to distinguish it from the video games. Sapkowski's involvement at best was very limited - the only mention of him is the title and a small note after a page full of credits simply stating "Based on the works of Andrzej Sapkowski". On the other hand, he worked with MAG Publishing House for many years and it should be noted that he's a well-know critisizer of the ChooseYourOwnAdventure genre for its lack of real freedom, as well as a supporter of the WideOpenSandbox approach to Tabletop [=RPG=]s instead of folowing stereotypes and archetypes. (Which the game tried to implement as much as possible in it's rules and pre-existing setting.) Sapkowski did write his own small RPG before.
* InitiationCeremony: Naturalisation of human girls into dryads can be treated as one, and it's downright horrific: after drinking the Water of Brokilon, they fall into a state of catatonia or convulsions for a few hours, while their memories are wiped out. They experience vivid hallucinations for the duration of the process. It's not entirely clear if their memories are simply removed or are rewritten into those of a dryad.
* InhumanlyBeautifulRace: Elves. There are also dryads and mermaids. A few kinds of monsters are capable of disguising themselves as such. Of those, mermaids are the least vicious ones.
* InsistentTerminology: Many. To name a few: [[GameMaster story-teller]], [[HitPoints Vitality]], [[ExperiencePoints Points of Proficiency]], [[{{Mana}} Arcane Points]], [[PlayerParty hansa]] and many, many other, as was the custom in the 90s and still is in any Polish tabletop [=RPG=].
* InstantWakingSkills: The trait ''Light sleep'' allows the player to roll against a ''very'' easy test of Perception whenever something produces conspicuous sound, and a single success is enough to wake up instantly.
* InterspeciesRomance: Half-elves that were not concived by rape came from these. Subverted with dryads: they use human, elven and half-elven males for reproduction, but it's just for procreation and without any feelings.
* InvoluntaryShapeshifter: For starters, [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent lycantropy]] works this way, with a bad case of TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody. There are also spells dedicated to turning someone into another living being (albeit never bigger than the original form... but [[ShapeshifterBaggage smaller ones are somehow possible]]), or packing them into an inanimate object.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Averted. Hastily used tortures are almost guaranteed to kill the interrogated person, not to mention provide barely any information.
* JackOfAllStats: Humans, thanks to HumansAreAverage being firmly in place.
* JavelinThrower: Javelines are relatively weak, dealing the damage of a regular melee weapon and with limited range, ''but'' unlike most other ranged weapons they can also be used in melee combat.
* KillItWithFire: Excluding some dragons and vampires, there is not a single creature in this world who's resistant to fire. And even ''they'' don't like being set on fire.
* KillerRabbit:
** The cockatrice is a turkey-sized mix of lizard and pheasant, looking mostly like the latter. Doesn't sound intimidating? If you aren't careful, it will sneak up on you and peck your kidney or spine with a single strike. One success more than required, and it will reach a vital organ with its peck, dealing an additional 3d6 damage and another d3 from bleeding each round. That's enough to kill or incapacitate a character. To make matters worse, it has enough ''Sneaking'' skill to easily ambush your character, lowering defences to almost nothing and thus making it even easier to strike a killing blow.
** Echinopses are almost like porcupines. The only difference is that they can shoot a few of their spines for a very short distance. If those spines hit anything, they break and migrate deeper. It's not only painful, but also requires ''an operation'' or magic healing to remove them. Untreated, they'll eventually kill your character.
* KnightTemplar: More [[ChurchMilitant militant]] priests of Kreve are like this.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Free elves (those living away from human settlements) tend to be irritating, because they always think to know better. Especially when they don't.
* LaResistance:
** Scoi'a'tel percieve themselves as such. The truth is [[OmnicidalManiac complicated]].
** Nordlings' different resistance groups during the war with the Nilfgaard Empire, ranging from thugs posing as such to full-scale guerilla divisions made of [[TheRemnant remnant armies]] from conquered countries.
* LadyLand: [[UnreliableExpositor Depending who you ask]], Zerrikania might fall under this or not. By Nordlings' standards, it's a tyranny of {{Straw Feminist}}s, but given Nordlings' [[StayInTheKitchen attitude toward women]] and [[IrrationalHatred anything different than their own culture]], it's obvious that they're wrong. From the point of view of other races and Zerrikanians themselves, it's nothing more than a centuries-long tradition, with no opression towards men or gender favourism involved. This subject also divided players. Some of them point out that since the article was written by a woman, it must be StrawFeminism. Other just shake their heads in disbelief of such accusations. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Let us leave it as it is]].
* LadyLegionnaireWear: [[MsFanservice The archer]] drawn in the section devoted to bows wears one. By the game mechanics, they work just like any other leather armour that covers the legs.
* LampshadeHanging: Together with AsYouKnow, they are advised by authors as a way of cueing players about all the stuff their characters should be aware of thanks to their Stats or skills, regardless of how improbable, ridiculous or simply made up those things are.
* LandOfOneCity: The Free City Novigrad is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. There are also numerous small states and backward areas that have a single city, resembling the way how Italian city-states worked. The term "city" by itself is often very generous.
* LargeHam: Dwarves have it as their hat.
* LeadTheTarget: Not doing so provides an absurdly high penalty for hitting running creatures (humanoid or not) and cavalry. There is even a special combat maneuver designed for leading your targets, which nulls all possible penalties but takes a round to use.
* LeanAndMean: Elves are slim, ephemeral, and tend to be utter jerks or just plain monsters more often than not.
* LesCollaborateurs: This is how [[WhatAnIdiot Scoi'a'tel]] treat any non-human race that peacefully coexists with humans. [[SarcasmMode Because it's better to]] [[BullyingADragon bully humanity]]. [[IgnoredEpiphany Not that it previously put elves on brink of extinction or something...]]
* LethalJokeCharacter: Halflings. Small, pudgy humanoids who act somewhat childish and have the well-earned reputation of being gluttons. They've got a severe cap on maximum Strength and Movement. But watch out when they start throwing things. Or use slings. Or [[{{Acrofatic}} dodge]].
* LieToTheBeholder: Illusions of all sorts work this way, unless it's [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a dragon]] or [[CatsAreMagic a cat]], as they can't be tricked by mere illusion.
* LightIsGood: Or at least it repels some monsters and wild animals.
* LighterAndSofter: The source book and most of the setting is like this towards [[Literature/TheWitcher the saga]]. Many things are toned down, while others are turned up to create more a [[AdventureFriendlyWorld adventure-friendly environment]]. But there is also the [[DarkerAndEdgier expansion about Nilfgaard]]. It's players' choice which version they prefer. The adventures, obviously, were patterned after Sapkowski's short stories, often being [[FracturedFairyTale deconstructions of fairy tales]].
* LightningBruiser: Witchers' {{Splat}} requires that the player take many Statistics on minimal level, creating a durable, fast and able fighter in the process. Combined with skills granted for free, they land in the PurposelyOverpowered category.
* LimitedLoadout: Strength is calculated into Carry Weight and Maximum Carry. Taking more than Carry Weight will give you some serious encumbrance penalties and it's impossible to take more than twice the Carry Weight of equipment. Maximum Carry is considered as weight characters can lift above their head without suffering hernia, muscle strains, and other injuries.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Averted. Part of it comes from the setting, part from game mechanics, but the most important factor were the authors' annoyance with such mechanics. In a sense, ''everyone'' is quadratic, since the difference of a single point in any skill is well beyond linear profit.
* LineOfSightName: All of them were lifted from the short stories and saga, so it's not the fault of the game authors.
* LivingOnBorrowedTime: Sufficiently high Construction and ''Vigour'' allows you to live a few rounds longer in certain situations. If your characters are really lucky, the mage in the party will be still alive and with enough Arcane Points to patch things up, allowing you to survive the whole thing.
* LoadBearingHero: The picture neatly placed next to the paragraph on how Maximum Weight works contains a human male holding a ''collapsing cave roof'', while an elven maiden is crawling between his legs to retrieve a fancy-looking cane from the rubble.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: The whole concept for the game came from the idea of averting this trope and making the game as intuitive as possible, with as much story-telling involved as possible. It worked brilliantly.
* LoanShark: The general rule of doing bussiness in Novigrad is to never, ''ever'' take a loan, unless it's from a certified dwarven bank. [[RefugeInAudacity Or Pastry Credit Union "Torte"]].
* LongevityTreatment:
** [[WizardsLiveLonger Mages are able to stave off aging]], to the point where the life expectancy of the average human wizard or sorceress is around 200 years.
** Thanks to their mutations, witchers will still be in their prime well after their 100th birthday, while not even looking half of their age.
* LowFantasy: So low that it could easily pass as a '''''[[WorldOfPhlebotinum 2]]''''' on MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.
** On the other hand, the fighting mechanics are firmly HeroicFantasy, at least when your characters manage to live long enough to raise their Stats and skills at level 4 or beyond. After that, things like catching arrows, blocking numerous attacks with a single move, disintegrating your enemies with a mere look at them, or shooting a rider off a galloping horse against the gale wind become a norm. [[TropesAreNotBad And it's fun]].
* LuckManipulationMechanic: You don't want to [[CriticalFailure get 1 on a Fate Dice]], no matter what. On the other hand, critical success is sometimes the only way to actually do certain things if your character stats or skills are low.
** There is a small insurance during fights in case of critical failures or to enhance critical hit chance, but outside of a fight you can't do anything to prevent such failures. All you need to do is declare using Combat[=/=]Arcane Point during your Hit Roll and you can add it to the outcome to chosen dice, one point per dice. This may prevent getting 1 on Fate Dice, may give additional successes, ''or'' turn the attack into critical.
** Traits ''Lucky'' and ''Jinx'' are all about this trope. ''Lucky'' makes every 5 on Fate Dice to work as a critical success, while ''Jinx'' makes every 2 a critical failure. They are ''not'' mutually exclusive and take or give the same amount of points during character creation, allowing you to effortlessly pick both if you feel giddy.
** In short, what Stats you have don't really matter after level 3 or so - what matters are the Fate Dice.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Shields are extremely useful. They are the easiest way to get higher physical defense ratings (other ways require either grinding your skill or stat), [[DamageReduction soak damage]] and are the only conventional way to block projectiles. They can also block certain spells and the special attacks of monsters (but after the later they are usually destroyed).
* MadeASlave: Nilfgaard uses slaves on a regular basis, so even debtors can end up being sold on the slave market, GladiatorGames included.
* MadeOfIron: Witchers in their fluff. Technically speaking, they must start with at least 3 points in Construction, giving them extra Vitality and having more points than many players would usually put in this stat.
* MagicKnight: Witchers are these by trade - they are [[TheHunter created to fight monsters]] with swords and simple telekinetic spells known as ''signs''. And any mage who wants to survive in this world should arm himself and learn to use his weapon.
* MagicMisfire: Effects of failed spells [[AmusingInjuries may]] [[TotalPartyKill vary]].
* MagicalGesture: Almost all spells require gestures, to the point where ''Spellcasting'' is a Dexterity-based skill. By contrast, most of them don't need any [[EyeOfNewt special component]] and half of them are [[MagicalIncantation wordless]].
* MagikarpPower: All skills work under this principle:
** The difficulty of rolls is lowered by the skill, so with a single point it's almost good for nothing, while at 4 and 5 standard actions are automatic successes without needing rolls whatsoever.
** All fighting and magic skills provide 2 Combat or Arcane Points for each level of related skill, which is the easiest way to get more of them. And the Points themselves can be used to further enhance your hit rolls.
** Melee fighting skills not only allow you to hit your enemies with ease, but also makes it harder for them to hit you. With a measly level 3 of ''Unarmed'' or ''Armed combat'' your character is virtually immune to the attacks of random mooks.
** With ''Alchemy'' at 1 your character knows that ice, steam and water are all the same. By 5, he or she is one step away from creating the PhilosophersStone.
* {{Magitek}}: To the point where things as mundane as weatherproof capes are created with magic.
* TheMagocracy:
** In the Northern Kingdoms, all adepts of [[WizardingSchool Aretuza and Ban Ard]] pledge their allegiance to the Council and Capitule. The Council is a parliament-like institution, while the Capitule is made from the most prominent mages, leading and governing the rest. Wizards and sorceress are ''expected'' to be completely loyal. Council and mages as individuals have very strong ties with politics, local courts, and the [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking precious stones industry]]. Bigger towns and cities are almost guaranteed to hold a resident mage as part of its governing body.
** Subverted in [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]], where mages are trained by the state for the state and ''must'' pledge their allegiance to the emperor and no-one else. There is no special - not to mention autonomous - governing body for them, so mages are subjects of the same laws and customs as the rest of society.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Since the game world's dynamics are based on FantasticRacism, inter-racial marriages are completely out of the question, being a guaranteed way to get killed by an angry mob during the next pogrom. Or even before a pogrom.
* ManEatingPlant: Kelpies, which look for an unsuspecting victim like floating sea-weed. Their whole body is a mass of fast-moving vines, attacking en mass and drowning or suffocating their prey.
* TheManMakesTheWeapon: The main theme of the fighting mechanics
** In general, damage done by weapons (both rolls and the fixed part of it) is relatively low when compared to the bonus damage coming from higher Stats and skills. For example, a witcher or a professional soldier will deal about twice as much damage as a random mook, using exactly the same sword. And that's by just whacking someone with the sword, without any finess or purposefully-aimed attacks.
** It's entirely possible to single-handedly beat a small pack of heavily armed thugs with a stick (not a staff, but ''a stick''), as long as your character is good in ''Armed combat'' and has enough Agility to naturally dodge incoming blows.
** Projectile-based weapons deal puny damage... unless shots are aimed for the head, unarmoured body parts or other weak points, which of course requires being a well-trained ranger in the first place.
* {{Mana}}: Two kinds of it. Combat Points are [[CaptainObvious used... well, for combat maneuvers]] and aiming, while Arcane Points are used for spellcasting. Witchers have a relatively high pool of both and as {{Magic Knight}}s, they can use both types for combat actions and casting their signs.
* ManaPotion: Inverted. Only witchers have access to anything remotely close to such potions, allowing them to regenerate part of their Arcane Points in no time. It's only a secondary purpose of those elixirs and they are ''extremely poisonous'' for anyone not mutated to withstand their toxic effects.
* MartialPacifist: You probably expect that the people from the Skellige Isles, as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of vikings, will have an {{Expy}} of some warrior god from Myth/NorseMythology? Wrong. They worship the goddess of beauty and fertility, while kicking asses left and right.
* MassHypnosis: Very hard and costly, but possible to do.
* TheMedic: While there are no restrictions about skills and anyone can serve this role:
** [[PlantPerson Hamadryads]], a subspecies of dryads, are very proficient in herbalism and healing, both conventional and magical, as they are exceptionally well connected to nature. They get those skills from their {{Splat}} for free, but they [[PowerAtAPrice can't leave Brokilon]].
** Mages trained in [[WizardingSchool official universities]] take obligatory courses in alchemy, herbalism and healing. Creating a character with graduation as their background forces player to buy those skills on appropriate levels, seriously lowering the available pool of Skill Points.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Shamelessly deconstructed, just like in the source material. The deconstruction is at it's highest in ''On Their Majesties' Secret Service" expansion, which deals with espionage in [[Film/JamesBond Bond-esque style]].
* MenstrualMenace: While {{Virgin Power}}s are not an entirely clear subject (check below), it's at least agreed upon in-universe that one can't use magic before "gaining an adult body".
* {{Metagame}}: Since the fighting mechanics are so transparent, players may deduce the Stats and Skills of their enemies without trying to or even ''wanting'' to.
* {{Metamorphosis}}:
** The spell ''Triangle within triangle'' is this, combined with HulkingOut and PowerUpgradingDeformation. It permamently increases its subject's Strength and Construction by 1, while reducing Intellect and Agility. Not to mention changing them into an over-muscled parody of their former body.
** If botched or [[{{NightmareFuel}} purpousefully failed]], ''Artifact compression'' will turn someone into an inanimate object with ''no'' way to turn back.
%%* MightyGlacier: Dwarven {{Splat}} requires the player to take at least 3 points in Construction, while their Movement is capped at 3.
%%* MindRape: With magic.
* MinmaxersDelight: Introduced in the first expansion, as you can now raise the amount of Stat Points during character creation by picking disadvantages raging from obesity to [[HairTriggerTemper going berserk for no real reason]], or buy powerful buffs by lowering the amount of Stat Points you get. Or do both.
* MinMaxing: Leading directly into CripplingOverspecialization and GlassCannon characters. You can either create characters just above average, or badasses in a single stat and skill.
* MonsterCompendium: It spans almost 1/5 of the whole source book.
* MoodyMount: Using one makes all rolls based on ''Riding'' harder.
* MoralMyopia: Just about ''every race'' has its version of What Measure Is a Non-My-Own-Race.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Strigas have ''three sets'' of them. If that wasn't enough, zeulgs are a bulbous piece of meat that hosts tentacles and a huge mouth equipped with dozens of sharp teeth. Said tentacles have hooks that look conspicuously similar to teeth.
* MorphicResonance:
** If ''Artifact compression'' is used in its most standard version, the subject of the spell will turn into a tiny, crude figurine made of the material used for compression.
** Lamias can hide their snake-like body with ease. What will always reveal them is their forked tongue, fangs instead of teeth, and their inability to make sounds other than hissing.
* {{Multishot}}: One of the most critisized combat maneuvers added in the expansions.
* TheMultiverse: The Conjunction of Spheres, a magical event that happened around 1300-1400 years before the setting, suddenly placed in this world monsters, magic... and humans. It's not entirely clear if elves arrived during the Conjunction or not.
* {{Munchkin}}: The system is designed in such a way to discourage this behaviour. Sure, the rules are simple and easy to abuse, but not without [[CripplingOverspecialization certain]] [[GlassCannon consequences]] or a lot of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower time and work]] invested in your character.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: When combined with aiming and sufficiently high skill, basic attacks of any form allow you to pull things so spectacular that special combat maneuvers look drab and boring in comparison. Then there is the shield & weapon combination, which looks dull and hardly creative, yet thanks to a (more or less) realistic approach to combat maneuvers it's both practical and [[NoSell really]] [[ShieldBash spectacular]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe in]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic action]].
* MundaneUtility: Self-sharpening swords, weatherproof capes, bracelets that makes horse come to you no matter how far away you are, flying brooms and carpets, hats of invisibility...
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: The standard behaviour of humans, which the other races have a hard time understanding.
* NamesTheSame: Lamia - an illegal whip with metal spikes ''or'' [[SnakePeople a snake-like monster]].
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Witchers as {{NPC}}s. Dryads, especially when stealthed. Most monsters. It's easier to list what you don't necessary run away from.
* [[TheSixStats The Nine Stats]]
* NoArcInArchery: Averted. It gets progressively harder to hit even a stationary target with increasing distance. A few combat maneuvers for bows use the arc actively for the advantage of the archer.
* NoHuggingNoKissing: Dryads don't develop any relationship with the males that impregnate them, treating it as procreation and nothing else. At least some of them outright rape still-alive lumberjacks and hunters.
* NoNameGiven: As in the books, the actual landmass the whole game is set on is not referred to by name in-game. For convenience, it's called "the Continent" in the source book rules.
* NoSavingThrow: ZigZagged. There are no typical saving throws, but during bleeding or drowning (or more specifically, running out of oxygen) players must roll for their Construction and ''Vigour''. If the throw is failed, their characters will instantly die.
* NoSell: While wearing three layers of armour is heavily penalized, hardly anything remotely human can deal damage to such a target. On the other hand, most monsters and even normal predators don't have this problem, tearing or squishing the armour with its wearer inside. Some monsters themselves are big and strong enough to simply shrug away attacks.
* NotCompletelyUseless:
** Typical and heavy crossbows deal enough damage [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill to kill a human being]] ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill twice]]'' [[OneHitKill with a single bolt]], after which [[CoolButInefficient they take a whole round to reload]]. But you will be glad to have one (or a dozen) of them when facing dragons or other monsters that can soak "standard" damage without even noticing.
** ''Vigour'', the only skill listed under Construction, is almost passive. The only thing it does is lower the difficulty for [[HeroicSecondWind save throws when the character is dying or taking disabling amounts of damage]], so you will be grateful for every point of it when facing real threats. Same applies to ''Cold Blood'', which is only for scary and stressful situations - failing rolls of it will send your character into a state of panic or [[AxCrazy psychotic fits]]. It's considered as good choice to create a character with at least 2 points in ''Cold Blood''.
* NotSoDifferent: Humans and elves. Both races are almost enirely made out of jerks, bastards and monsters. Both treat every other race with a smug smile of superiority, almost always undeserved. First thing both did after arrival to the Continent? Starting a war with the local population. Elves like to use every opportunity to point out how barbaric humans are, glossing over their own equally horrific deeds. Meanwhile, humanity is over-jealous of many elven traits, be it longevity, beauty, or magic powers. Which leads to constant conflicts, pogroms and wars.
* NothingUpMySleeve: The mini-crossbow is designed to be used like this.
* ObviouslyEvil: [[OmnicidalManiac Scoi'a'tel]] are written in such way to make it clear to just about every player that there is nothing noble about their cause or methods.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Elves, witchers, dryads, dwarves, mages...
* OneGenderRace: Dryads - a race of hot {{Action Girl}}s. Their offspring is ''always'' female thanks to bizarre genetics.
* OneHandedZweihander: Averted as a core rules. Two-handed weapons are two-handed weapons, end of topic.
* OneManArmy: Stats of [=NPC=] witchers sum up at around 80-90 Stat Points. Meanwhile, with all possible MinMaxing you can't start with more than 44 Stat Points, and raising them takes forever.
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Intellect, hands down. In a skill-based system it controls your starting poll of Skill Points - including the ones you'd spend for your fighting skills. If you want to play as a melee, hand-to-hand fighter or use magic of any kind, Dexterity is this. On the other hand, Perception is used during shooting, to determine who attacks first, [[CaptainObvious to spot and hear things]], for dodging, and crossbows by themselves are the most powerful weapons in the game. Unlike the later editions of GURPS, all Stats cost the same.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted in normal situations and played with while under drugs. Going below half of your maximum Vitality starts to pile up more and more penalties. If that wasn't enough, taking sufficiently high damage to the limbs may render them limp or broken. Take too much and they are [=bite/cut/torn=] off or smashed into pulp.
* OrderVersusChaos: Since monsters are unnatural creatures that came to this world during a magical event known as [[TheMultiverse the Conjunction of Spheres]], they clearly represent Chaos. Witchers are humanity's response to those monstrosities, so nominally they represent Order. Nominally, because HumansAreTheRealMonsters and are much worse than all those creatures combined.
* OriginalPositionFallacy: Lower ranks of Coram Agh Ter worshippers tend to fall under this, since they are usually some bored nobles or equally bored rich merchants, looking mostly for a thrill in worshipping a [[ReligionOfEvil new]], [[EldritchAbomination exotic]] [[GodOfEvil deity]].
* OurMonstersAreDifferent: The list is long here:
** OurDragonsAreDifferent: There are dozens of dragon-like creatures and then there are actual dragons (more than 5 different species of them). They like to hoard treasures in their caves. Dragons are intelligent creatures and ignore humans and other races, but will get aggressive when they want to get some riches. All of them will NoSell when in combat and are able to rip a whole party in an amount of rounds equal to the number of party members. Or one, [[SplashDamage if they stand too close]]. Aside from conventional attacks they can use magic to different degrees and all utilise telepathy (hence the superstitions that dragons know all languages).
*** White dragons from the Far North breath ice instead of fire.
*** Black dragons are native to marshlands and like to lounge in the mud, hence their coloration. They spit acid able to corrode any known metal.
*** Red dragons are the closest thing to "classic" Western dragons.
*** Rock dragons live, as the name implies, in rocky crags and hills. They are the smallest of all dragons and don't breath anything, but can turn invisible.
*** Green dragons are the most popular species. They breath stream of chlorine, so its effectiveness can be affected by wind and topography. Getting inside their lairs is an almost guaranteed way to suffocate.
*** Golden dragons are a ShroudedInMyth species able to shapeshift as they please.
** OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: They're also bankers.
** OurElvesAreBetter: They're long-lived, pretty, and skillful, and have developed a sophisticated culture, but they're not that much better in terms of morality. On top of that, they're a DyingRace suffering the fate of Rome, with humans playing the role of barbarians adapting their culture, or perhaps Celts ran over by the Romans (with Boudicca and all). There is a distinction of "free elves" and "the rest". The free ones are living in the wild on stolen scraps (because farming is [[TooDumbToLive beneath their dignity]]), while the rest stay in their ghettoes or try to integrate with other races.
** OurGnomesAreWeirder: They're good craftsmen, possibly better than dwarves at certain precise and complicated tasks, or those requiring theoretical expertise. Dwarves make excellent swords, but the best swords in the world were gnomish. They are said to be the aboriginal species.
** OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Thanks to a few dashes of Slavic folklore, aside from typical western mermaids (human torso with fish tail) and nymphs (who dwell in the sea), there are also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka rusalki]] (think of sweet-water nymphs), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodnik_(mythology) vodniki]] (think of impish tricksters with a knack for drowning pranks) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topielec utopce]] (think of ghoulish creatures drowning anything they catch). Not counting utopce, all the rest are intelligent races with friendly and playful natures.
** OurVampiresAreDifferent: Where to start with? First of all, blood is like alcohol for them. There is also a clear difference between the 'low' and 'high' vampires. The lowly ones are no different from monsters and basically look like giant humanoid bats, while the high ones are the more familiar vampires, who can happen to be [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire quite nice and friendly folks]]. Religious symbols do nothing to them and most of the 'high' vampires easily tolerate sunlight. They don't need blood to survive; it's simply tasty and strengthens them. There is some sort of middle ground, as creatures like the Bruxa are intelligent, but concentrate on sucking blood. Either way, when facing anything other than the low ones, run like hell, as they will NoSell most anything and will drink your party dry in no time.
** OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: "Lycantropy" is a curse and a disease at the same time. Immunity to normal weapons and the stock [[FantasticFragility weakness to silver]] are in place, but you still can [[MundaneSolution just hack them to death]]. They turn into beasts only during the three nights of the full moon and are unaware of their actions during that time, or even of transforming at all. Also, the scent of aconite is said to repel them. While called "lycantropy", it covers many different species spliced with humanoid posture.
* OvershadowedByAwesome: Averted. Real-life predators are as dangerous as fantastic monsters. And [[BearsAreBadNews bears]] are only aced by dragons and higher vampires.
* ThePaladin: Witchers are a deconstruction of everything related to such characters.
* PathOfInspiration: The Cult of Sun Disc from Nilfgaard. Being a state religion of TheEmpire has a lot to do with this.
* PerpetualPoverty: Witchers tend to barely get paid enough to sustain themselves for a while.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Novigrad is a city-state of immense wealt, that holds half of the world's economy in its grip. But after all, it's just a single city with a comparably small population.
* PlayerParty: The authors advise to never have less than three players. On the other hand, they discourage combining your party by countering the weaknesses and lacks of players' characters.
* PlotArmor: Mechanics are designed in such a way that it's extremely easy to implement or take it off, depenging on the requirements of the scenario. The authors advise to use it to give a heroic feeling, or subvert it for an atmosphere of uncertainity.
* PointBuildSystem: This or random-generated stats. It's players choice which one they want to use. In the point-buy system the near-to useless Movement costs the same as the most powerful stat - Intellect. The first expansion added disadvantages and advantages directly influencing the amount of Stat Points players have on their disposal.
* PoisonedWeapons: {{Blowgun}}s by themselves deal a mere 1 damage (a slap in the face can't deal less than 2). The poison is what makes them so formidable.
* PoliceBrutality: The aforementioned lamia whip is used by the Guards of the Eternal Fire, the police of Novigrad, as standard equipment for subduing crowds. It's entirely possible to maim or kill with a single strike of it. If that wasn't enough, lamias are ''illegal'' all over the world, [[{{Hypocrite}} Novigrad included]].
* PowerEqualsRarity: Witchers' swords and any kind of overseas weapons.
* PowerNullifier:
** Dvimerite, lifted from the saga. A rare metal which nullifies any kind of magic and harms magic users. Mages are advised to stay as far as possible from it when casting spells - side effects range from severe nausea to painful death.
** Silver is this for any form of {{shapeshifting}}. Depending on whom and how it is used, effects range from spell protection to [[FantasticFragility offensive applications]].
* PoweredByAForsakenChild: There is an old technique of using children who are magic-sensitive but unable to cast spells as Sources - basically a living amulet full of easy-to-access magical power. It's rarely practiced in the time of the game setting. [[ValuesDissonance Not because of moral impact]] - it's simply not that effective. You must first find that special child, [[TheLoad drag them with you all the time]] and they [[PowerDegeneration won't live very long]]. Not to mention that most Sources have [[PowerIncontinence no control over magic]], but can [[SuperpowerMeltdown accidently use it...]]
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Dwarves have a well-earned reputation of being reliable mercenaries, fighting for humans and[=/=]or the highest bidder. Unless it would require from them to [[ThickerThanWater fight their own kind]].
* ProHumanTranshuman: Witchers are picked as boys, mutated with magic and toxins that could kill the entire population of a small town and then [[TrainingFromHell trained and educated for many years]] into [[TheHunter monster hunters]]. Then they spend the rest of their lives protecting humanity from all kinds of beasts for [[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike meager pay]] [[DudeWheresMyRespect and almost]] [[UngratefulBastard no respect...]]
* PersecutedIntellectuals: Since all kinds of intellectuals - be they scientists, mages, well-trained priests or druids - usually preach such silly things as gender equality, democratic rule, protection of the environment, or that all races are equal and should work together, they are treated as lunatics at best. If they don't have good connections or wield some power themselves, things usually end up nasty for them, with exile being the least concerning.
* ProtectiveCharm: Amulets and charms are one of few ways to increase defences against magic. Witchers' medallions may also count, since they can detect magic and monsters, alerting he wearer in advance.
* PsychicNosebleed: If someone is ''lucky'' during a psychic attack.
* PsychicLink: Any character can develop one ''with a horse'' thanks to MundaneUtility. Psychics tend to develop such links with people they know, met, or like. Or just random strangers.
* PsychicPowers: They don't look ''that'' strong... until someone [[MindRape mind rapes]] your character.
* PunctuationShaker: Elder Speech, the language of elves, runs on this. It's inherited from [[Literature/TheWitcher the saga]], to players' frustration, as it renders any attempt of more deep roleplaying impossible or outright [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable]].
* PurposelyOverpowered:
** Witchers. They get almost twice the [[{{Splat}} starting skills]] of other races. One of their skills, Knowledge: Monsters, allow them to fight all non-natural creatures with better results. They start with one of the most powerful melee weapons. They get innate defences against all kinds of magic attacks. They can use Combat and Arcane points interchangeably. [[TheHunter Happens when you are a mutant created and trained to kill monsters capable of smashing you into pulp with a single strike]]. The authors encourage the "one witcher in a team" approach, or at least "one at a single time".
** To a lesser extent, dryads. Just like in the books, they are capable of stealth in almost any situation and get absurdly high starting ''Shooting'' skill - [[{{Splat}} just for the fact that they are dryads]]. They will also track you even faster than witchers. Oh, and their starting bow is the ultimate weapon for rangers. Sure, the damage and range are just above average, but unlike other high-damaging bows it doesn't require any level of Dexterity or Strength to be used, thus no MinMaxing is needed.
* PVPBalanced: Averted, as many aspects of the fighting mechanics (at least before the introduction of unrealistic combat maneuvers from expansions) are TruthInTelevision. Instant kills, shooting from ambush, fast bleeding, breaking the arms of opponents, ''cutting them off'' with your own weapon... the amount of dirty tactics that [[NoSavingThrow are actually impossible to block or counter]] is really long. And all of them are encouraged.
* RainOfArrows: The first thing that will inform you of being ambushed by dryads and [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat probably the last thing your character will see]]. It's also possible to loose a few arrows in a single round using special combat maneuvers. With proper perks you can target them all as you wish.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: ''Armed combat'' is under Dexterity, while ''Shooting'' and ''Throwing'' are Perception-based skills, so this trope tends to be played very straight with dedicated melee fighters.
* ReadTheFreakingManual: A constant battle in the Polish [=RPG=] community around this system and its approach to mechanics and probability basically boils down to people who did read the manual and those who skipped everything besides the basic fighting rules.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Players of different systems often criticize the Witcher's fighting mechanics for being unrealistic. [[SarcasmMode Obviously, there is no way you can die after just two chops from a battle axe, or by having a crossbow bolt shot right in your face! That's totally unrealistic!]]
* RedLightDistrict: Novigrad has one, fashionably called the ''Red Quarter''.
* RegeneratingHealth: One of the main ways to heal is waiting and resting under some basic medical care [[RealityEnsues for a few days or weeks]].
* RetCanon: Since Zerrikania is barely mentioned in the saga, let alone described, the article about it takes all the aesthetics (and their implications) from the TV series, where they were introduced for more exotic flavour.
* RevengeBeforeReason: The Trait ''Vengeful'' forces player to act like this. Unlike other temper-related traits, there is NoSavingThrow against such antics.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Scoi'a'tel show up in the expansion about Nilfgaard. True to their other appearances, they are AlwaysChaoticEvil [[FantasticRacism elven]] [[MasterRace supremacists]], whose official agenda is the total genocide of humans and any non-human race that wants to coexist peacefully. Unlike dryads, they are portrayed without any pity or remorse.
* RidiculousExchangeRates: StatGrinding is heavily affected by DiminishingReturnsForBalance. For starters, you can't earn more than a grand total of thirty Points per whole scenario (which is a prize for the best player in the party - usually you end up with around 20 or even below) and you must pay everything up-front, which doesn't sound that bad. But:
** Stats take ''fifty'' times your desired level ''and'' all previous levels in Points of Proficiency. So upgrading someting from 1 (and you can't have less than 1 in statistics) to 2 is ''100'' Points. Hoarding any higher numer of Points is simply inefficient and wasteful, so rising your stats beyond 2 (rememer that the scale for Stats is 1-5) is pretty much impossible. More - you can't rise them by more than a single point at a time and you must find an excuse why your character became better in that field, which is progressively harder to do with higher Stats.
*** It's hand-waved in the rules that it takes a really long time and lots of training to actually improve your body or mind, hence the price and justification.
** '''Nothing''' beats combat maneuvers and high-end spells. Combat maneuvers cost ''ten'' times their usage price in [[{{Mana}} Combat Points]], so learning some basic stuff is around 20-30 Points of Proficiency, while all high-end moves and flashy actions are as far as ''[[UpToEleven 150 Points]]'' - that's right, [[UpToEleven the cost of upgrading your Statistics]]. Spells get fixed prices in Points of Proficiency, with basic spells around 25 and high-end ones at 100. In both cases you must first find an NPC or some form of manual that will teach you new stuff, which is not as easy as it sounds in this setting and usually costs ''a lot'' of money.
** During character creation, each subsequent level of skill or Statistic costs more, in similar fashion to later StatGrinding. It's generally considered more reasonable to start with more skills on lower levels than land directly in the middle of CripplingOverspecialization territory.
* RaisedByNatives: [[ParentalAbandonment Sometimes humans abandon their children]] in or close to Brokilon. If it's a girl and survives until she's found, the dryads will take her and raise her as one of them. If it's a [[{{Gendercide}} boy...]] (Dryads also actively kidnap young girls and teens for their ranks.)
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: Quasirats are at least in size of a chicken, are hairless, have huge incisors and tend to eat regular rats for dinner. Or unlucky drunkards. [[SwarmOfRats Swarmed]], [[ZergRush they can overwhelm]] even a seasoned character.
* TheRoleplayer: True to its subtitle, the game is written in such a way as to encourage this type of behaviour. Many actions require the players to act like their characters in a given situation or to give a demonstration (like casting spells). First expansion introduced Points of Personality, granted for deep roleplaying, that are the only way to get perks.
* RuleZero: The only rule authors insist on following.
* RulesConversions: Many players of systems based on d20 tried this, some of them even on an official level. None of these conversions are even remotely close to being playable, thanks to LoadsAndLoadsOfRules, which the original game is averting by default. There were also many attempts to change fighting mechanics, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules with similar outcomes]].
* RunOrDie:
** [[DeadlyEuphemism "Fighting"]] anything that can fly without powerful spells and a few rangers with ImprobableAimingSkills gives you two options - waiting to be [[TheManyDeathsOfYou caught/swallowed whole/burnt/torned apart/smashed/lifted and then dropped/clawed]], or running for your life. (Preferably quickly.)
** In the case of dryads' ambush, running is as good as standing your ground, because [[SubvertedTrope you're toast, anyway]].
* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining:
** Depending on their choice, players can pick various disadvantages during character creation for additional Stat Points. Those disadvantages include things like Film/ForrestGump idiocy, [[TheVoiceless inability to talk]], ''or'' having a MotorMouth. Then there are starting advantages, which cost you your Stat Points, so your overall pool of Points will be lower after picking things like [[ImprobableAimingSkills Hawk-eye]] or NervesOfSteel.
** Inverted with ''Uneducated'' trait - it gives you 2 more Stat Points... for a sizable amount of Skill Points.
** Dryads are a race of {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s with {{Stealth Expert}}ise, ImprobableAimingSkills... and nothing more. They are really awesome in their field, but outside of it they are even less competent than the average human child. They have literally NoSocialSkills, both in-universe and by the game mechanics.
* SaintlyChurch:
** The cult of Melitele. The whole church and its priests are an {{Expy}} of the Red Cross, and the only outright good religion in the whole setting.
** The Cult of Freyja can be also noted, but it's rather small (limited to a single archipelago), and in many aspects similar to that of Melitele.
* ScaryScorpions: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gigascorpions]].
* ScratchDamage: Subverted. Armoured humanoids and creatures can simply shrug away some attacks and weapons. In fact, wearing full plate armour with a shield can [[DamageReduction soak up to 9 damage]], while regular weapons have d6 damage roll, so unless attackers are very strong or skilled, they will do nothing.
* ScrewYouElves: The Game.
* SecretCircleOfSecrets: Being a ReligionOfEvil, The Cult of Coram Agh Ter had to turn into a conspiracy.
* ShapeshiftingSeducer: [[SnakePeople Lamias]] are capable of turning into CuteMute girls... then they [[ScaledUp scale up]] and eat unlucky adventurers. Devourers (''Zjadarki'' in Polish version) don't have to be mute, and tend to be ''very'' beautiful when disguised as young women.
* ShapeshifterBaggage: [[{{Doppelganger}} Doppelgängers]] can change their shape and mass as they please, even if their true form is that of a midget. Hell, they can also replicate clothes and equipment. Golden dragons are even more extreme, since they can take ''any'' form they wish, while being the size of barn. Lamias in their human guise are about half of their original size. Meanwhile, spells allow you to turn into something smaller or roughly the same size as the original form.
* ShieldBash: If learned how to do, it's as efficient as using a regular weapon, dealing d6 damage and with a chance to knock over your enemy. When combined with a perk allowing a second attack, [[GameBreaker/TabletopRPG it's devastating]].
* ShownTheirWork:
** When discussing armour and how it works by the game mechanics, a subchapter is dedicated into explaining how armour should be worn and how much time and work it may take to put it on or off. It even notes how coats of arms are fitted on armour.
** Part of the fluff about Nordlings discusses many stereotypes associated with TheDungAges. On the other hand, [[{{Plagiarism}} it was ripped from a book about this subject]].
* SilverHasMysticPowers: Your best friend against all kinds and types of monsters immune to normal weapons. Some spells and magic artifacts require silver for different purposes. ''Working'' defensive charms against curses are made of silver. Shapeshifters lose their powers when in contact with silver.
** The last one can be exploited whenever character suspect someone to be a shapeshifter - just toss him or her a silver coin.
* Myth/SlavicMythology: A huge inspiration for more than half of the creatures, even more so than in the books. It's almost single-handly responsible for OurMonstersAreDifferent.
* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration: Deliberate Integration. Some things (like witchers' capabilities) would end up as completely game-breaking if Perfect Integration would be used.
* SlidingScaleOfTurnRealism: Round by Round. There is also a clear distinction between rounds (no longer than 10 seconds) and turns (six rounds), which becomes ''very'' important when the duration of special effects is given.
* SoftWater: Present or averted, depending on the height characters fall from and the depth of the water. After a certain height is reached, nothing will help.
* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: More open-minded humans will usually behave like this towards non-humans.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: Subverted. Witchers and dryads start with one of the best weapons. Nothing stops other characters from buying exeptional stuff whenever they have money for that, or getting it by any other means. Or just crafting it by themselves.
* SpaceFillingEmpire: Kaedven. Since the saga hadn't discussed how big it was, the authors used it to fill a sizable chunk of the map. It's simply big - the population is small, the land is mostly pristine forest and its political power is average. Many areas are under Kaedven rule simply because there is no-one else around to claim them.
* SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome: Witchers are supposed to be rare. Even more rare than dryads out of their forest. Cue fights between players who should be witchers in their party -- [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything there is a whole section in the chapter on storytelling devoted to solving this problem]].
* SpeciesLoyalty: Humans' hat, which is their main power and reason why they are dominant - whenever someone or something is threatening them, they put all their issues aside and band together to face the dangers. To a lesser extent it also covers dwarves - they might be your best PrivateMilitaryContractors, OnlyInItForTheMoney, but don't expect from them to fight their own kind.
* {{Splat}}: Races are close to this. Each gets its own starting skills. Some of them are the same for all races (like 1 point in ''Unarmed combat'' or ''Throwing''), while some are race-specific (like dryads' 3 points in ''Shooting'' or witchers' 2 points in ''Knowledge: Monsters'')
* SquishyWizard: You will end up with one if using MinMaxing. Really, not worth it. Not to mention that ''Spellcasting'' and ''Armed combat'' are both Dexterity-based skills, so being a good mage is an open field for becoming a MagicKnight.
* StanceSystem: One of optional rules covers offensive and defensive stances for fighters. They have mutually exclusive effects, so defensive rise Defence of your character, but makes attacks harder, while offensive lowers difficulty of Hit Rolls, but unfortunately also for your enemies. If used correctly, they can be completely [[GameBreaker game-breaking]].
* StatGrinding: The only way to improve the skills and statistics of your character is to invest Points of Proficiency into them.
* StateSec: Since Novigrad is [[TheTheocracy run by clergy]] of the Eternal Fire, town guards are this combined with an inquisition. ''Very'' strict and brutal, which makes them universally hated, but at least the streets are safe(ish).
* StayInTheKitchen: Sexism is something of a norm, but the extent of it ranges from race to race. Almost all of the women in human and dwarven (but then [[DeliberateValuesDissonance it's a forge, not kitchen]]) societies are expected to stay in the shadow, doing gender-related roles of their race. Other races treat genders more equally, while dryads are a OneGenderRace of {{Action Girl}}s. Mages have it much easier, since their trade is far more important and respected than their sex. ActionGirl characters, particularly those non-human, will raise a lot of interest in rural and backward areas.
* StillbornSerial: The second edition was in its early drafts before even all supplements for the first one were released and everything was going smoothly. In early 2003 there was even a small convention held by the team responsible for the game and... the publisher went out of the gaming bussiness soon after.
* StockNessMonster: Turtledragons are big turtle-like creatures with very long necks. When they are swimming, usually only the top of their shell and head is above the water's surface, giving them the characteristic silhouette.
* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Painfully averted. Targeting anyone in a fighting group leaves plenty of room for friendly fire or accidental hits - such shots and throws are not only harder than normal, but scoring fewer successes than needed means the projecticle ''still'' hits, only someone else.
* SufferTheSlings: Slings are on the weak side of damage - they use d3+1 for their damage roll (for comparison, next are javelines with d6 and short bows with 3d3+1). Which is at the same time balanced with being the only ranged weapon dealing fixed damage equal to twice the Strength of the slinger, making it the ideal choice for UnskilledButStrong characters. Slings also surpass the ranges of all throwing weapons and smaller crossbows.
* [[SurplusDamageBonus Surplus Success Bonus]]: Every time your hit[=/=]skill rolls end with more successes than needed, you can use them to enchance the final effect, be it more damage, lower cost of [[{{Mana}} Combat/Arcane Points]], better healing result, extended time of the spell effect, and so on. It can be really devastating when combined with [[CriticalHit criticals]].
* SuperDrowningSkills: Averted. Lack of the ''Swimming'' skill simply makes any attempts very hard. Of course entering deep water in armour is practically suicidal.
* SuperWeaponAverageJoe: [[TruthInTelevision Crossbows work this way]] for anyone not blind and with just basic ''Shooting'' skill. If you are lucky or aim well, you can take down anything human-sized with a single bolt.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Witchers' medallions detect magic and thus monsters when they are around. Cats can be used to find otherwise too-weak-to-detect [[PlaceOfPower Places of Power]].
* {{Synchronization}}: Hamadryads with their trees. If either of them is hurt or killed, so is the other. Oh, and [[CantLiveWithoutYou they can't leave Brokilon because of this]].
* TailSlap: Often combined with a natural kind of BewareMyStingerTail.
* TaughtByExperience: Your character can learn new combat maneuvers and spells by observing, analyzing, and then going through trial and error. It still costs you [[ExperiencePoints Points of Proficiency]], requires a few tests based on different skills and stats, and takes much more time than normal training, but it removes the need for a teacher or manuscript to learn from.
* {{TeleFrag}}: Inproper or instable teleports may kill you in different ways. Sometimes people emerge in pieces. Sometimes they emerge in the wrong spots, like underground, high in the sky, or in the middle of the ocean. In the worst cases, they don't emerge at all.
* {{Telepathy}}: Possible by magic of different kinds.
* TeleportersAndTransporters: A magical version of them, ranging from unreliable ancient artifacts, to very stable links created by specialized mages.
* TeleportInterdiction: There are many rules about opening a proper and reliable portal. First of all, their maximum safe range is around 100 kilometers - any further distance will hurt the accuracy of the teleportation. It's better to use "hook" for opening a portal. Hook is any object or person related with the place you want to travel, ''but'' if it's poorly chosen you may land in a completely different spot. Portals, even if closed, leave a trace that can be used to reopen the gate.
* TentacleRope: Kelpies can do one thing to attack - tie and drown or at least strangle their victim.
* TheTheocracy: The Cult of Eternal Fire in Novigrad.
* ThisBananaIsArmed: For a skilled combatant, anything they can lift turns into a weapon. Actually, for unskilled ones, too.
* ThunderboltIron: Witchers' swords (those meant to kill humans) are made of meteorite iron and are in InfinityMinusOneSword territory.
* TortureAlwaysWorks: Defied. The effectiveness of tortures is rather low. They take a lot of time, tend to require some specialised equipment, and it's very easy to kill the interrogated person, even for a skilled TortureTechnician. Meanwhile, the skill ''Browbeating'' allows you to gather the same informations by sheer intimidation.
* TotalPartyKill: Most of the real-world predators, especially when in packs. Anything bigger than humans. Anything more numerous than your party. [[TorchesAndPitchforks Angry peasants]] tend to be more dangerous than a freaking dragon thanks to [[ZergRush sheer numbers]].
* TrainingFromHell: Witchers spend many years in excruciating training before they leave Kaer Morhen. It's not even clear if an unmutated human could survive that ordeal.
* TransformationIsAFreeAction: Averted. Transformations of any type ''always'' take enough time to react and sometimes even interrupt, even if it will be a single round. The problem usually arises if you are noticing it [[InvoluntaryShapeshifter from a first-person perspective]].
* {{Troperiffic}}: Just look on this list. And tropes exclusive to [[Literature/TheWitcher saga]] are not included.
* {{Uberwald}}: [[IThoughtItMeant No, not Brokilon]]. Sodden, the land now held by Cintra, combines thick forest, infamous Miechun's Morasses and Angren Marshes with infestations of all kinds, types and sizes of man-eating monsters. It's not helping that in the past the region was regularly pillaged by Skellige pirates and now often changes ownership, leaving dozens of ruins - perfect nests and burrows for monsters. The place is seen as so dangerous that even witchers don't want to take [[DeadlyEuphemism "jobs"]] out there. Oh, and south of Cintra is [[GratuitousGerman Erlenwald]], which pales in comparison to Sodden, but it doesn't need to be protected by law as a royal forest - people simply ''don't want'' to poach [[EverythingTryingToKillYou there]] by themselves.
* UniversalSystem: As long as the setting is low-tech or with really primitive firearms, {{TabletopGame/The Witcher}} is just about perfect.
* TheUnpronounceable: Deliberately invoked with the names of Zerrikanians for laughs. But there is also a very simple principle of shorting them into three-letter long forms, containing a single consonant and the suffix "ea", so Alreaenerle becomes Rea and Alveaenerle will be Vea. Yes, they are not only nigh-unpronounceable, but very similar.
* UnskilledButStrong: Strength is calculated into bonus melee damage - flat for unarmed combat and twice the Stat for weapons. In the case of weapons, the sheer force of impact is usually more dangerous than where it hits.
* UpToEleven: The normal scale of Stats is from 1 to 5, and 5 is aptly listed as "Legendary". Cue some creatures [[ThisIsGonnaSuck having certain Stats at 6]].
* UrbanSegregation: Novigrad is divided into few quarters. The segregation is quite strict and enforced by the ruling clergy, thus [[RedLightDistrict the Red Quarter]] holds everything immoral: brothels, banks... and non-human citizens.
* VirginPower: In-universe there is a centuries-long debate if virgins can or can't use magic. Common people believe they can't, while mages neither deny nor confirm the superstition. It's up to players to decide, as [[ShrugOfGod the source book left the question open]].
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Golden dragons and [[{{Doppelganger}} doppelgängers]] can change their form and size as they please. Lamias can turn into CuteMute girls, while devourers can take the form of [[DualAgeModes young women or harmless old ladies]]. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Some vampires]] can morph into different creatures. If the character agrees to be turned into something, the difficulty of a spell is ''much'' lower.
* WalkingTheEarth: Witchers are doing this constantly, looking for monsters and pay.
* WarGod: Refreshingly absent. Kreve is the god of expansion, but not warfare. People from the [[HornyVikings Skellige Isles]] worship Freyja, [[MartialPacifist goddess of beauty and fertility]]. And the cults of dragons from Zerrikania are about wisdom and respect.
* WarIsHell: The conflict between the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard looks like a competition for the most horrible war atrocity between Nordlings, imperial forces, and elven commandos. Whole regions are razed to the ground, sizable parts of the known world are turned into no man's land, summary executions are the only form of justice in place and most of the armies scavenge and[=/=]or pillage for food.
* WeakButSkilled:
** With higher fighting skills comes lower difficulty, allowing you to get more [[SurplusDamageBonus surplus successes]]. Each of them can be translated into a fixed 3 points of additional damage.
** Characters created with high Intellect are a meta-example. Higher Intellect provides more Skill Points during character's creation, allowing them to buy and train higher levels of more skills, but to rise Intellect you must first take those Stat Points from other Statistics.
* WeaponOfChoice: ''Specialisation'', one of the perks, allows player to choose a single type of weapon (swords, axes, daggers, bare fists, short bows etc.) as their weapon of choice. Such weapons always deal 2 points more damage, difficulty during attacks is lowered, and combat maneuvers are less costly to use.
* WeHelpTheHelpless: Witchers and priests of some religions are this by trade... not all of them for free, to be honest.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman
* WhenTreesAttack:
** Oak-Creatures are rare, quasi-sentient [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin oaks]] which are usually peaceful and stationary, but will defend themselves if someone tries to chop them down. And since they [[OhCrap look like regular oaks...]]
** Inverted with dryads. They are not trees or even plants, but can blend so well with their background that what even a keen observer assumed to be a birch or willow was in fact a stealthed dryad.
* WhipItGood: The expansion about dryads introduced whips. Then the expansion covering Novigrad turned it UpToEleven with spiked whips (lifted directly from a short story) and combat maneuvers for them.
* {{Whoring}}: With [[MinmaxersDelight the supplementary material]] from expansions, it's entirely possible to create starting characters able to take down anything on their way without the need for any StatGrinding or effort. That includes taking down ''[[TheWorfEffect a dragon]]'' [[OneHitKill in one strike]] with a starting schmuck. The source book goes on [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything considerable explaination why it's bad, breaks all the fun for the rest of the players, and how it will derail any kind of scenario beyond repair or will to continue]].
* WizardsLiveLonger: Or at least they preserve their bodies in their [[VainSorceress mid-twenties]] or [[WizardClassic early fifties]].
* WizardingSchool: There are at least three such institutions: the [[OneGenderSchool girls-only]] Aretuza in Redania, the [[OneGenderSchool boys-only]] Ban Ard in Kaedwen (half the known world away), and an unspecified university somewhere in Nilfgaard, probably [[GenderIsNoObject coeducational]].
* WorstAid: Healing difficulty is proportional to the amount of [[HitPoints Vitality]] the patient is lacking. If unsuccessful, the attempt will harm the character for d3 damage, to show the incompetence of the healer. So at below 4 points in Healing, it's often better to do nothing besides dressing the wounds (which can be botched ''too''), rather than risk killing the character or undoing the last day of treatment.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Naturalized dryads will fight humanity to the death... while [[TragicHero being brainwashed human girls and women]].
* YouCantFightFate: No matter which type of character creation was used by players, they must roll for characters' Fate. The outcome is checked in a predefined chart and noted in the character sheet. Story-tellers should use the Fates of players' characters during their adventures and to define outcome of different events.
* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters:
** For the average human being, dryads are a monstrous race of AlwaysChaoticEvil women, kidnapping young girls for their ranks and being an obstruction for prosperity. From the point of view of druids, more enlightened people and their own they are the personification of GaiasVengeance and the last defense of Brokilon, an eons old forest every neighbourhood kingdom wants to chop down for profit.
** Averted with the Scoi'a'tel. Their open goal is the total eradication of humanity (the dominant race) and every other race that is not supporting their "effort". The brutal and sadistic methods that they apply aren't helping their cause either. Non-humans hate them as much as humans, especially since the actions of Scoi'a'tel often lead to retribution in the form of pogroms on completely innocent non-humans.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Wiedzmin_gra_wyobrazni.jpg]]

There are also no classes nor premade professions, but each race gets certain starting skills (and most of them are repeating, as everyone has some basic knowledge about fist fight or talking) and most of the races have minimal, maximal, or both kinds of caps on their stats, [[HumansAreAverage except for humans]].

* AnyoneCanDie: This system is a hard punch for anyone who is used to PlayerCharacters being MadeOfIron. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis You. Will. Die. A lot.]] Most basic weapons in the hands of average enemies can deal enough damage to take a quarter of your hit points with a single blow. [[TheManMakesTheWeapon In hands of professionals, the same weapons can kill you on the spot]]. And that's without even mentioning monsters - they deal enough damage to kill a character even with a mediocre roll.

* AntiCavalry: Pikes and polearms by default. Magic barriers and some signs may be used to create invisible force-fields, breaking any possible charge and scaring horses in the process. The combat manoeuvres''Break charge'' may be used to stop any kind of charge, including that of cavalry.
* AntiMagic: The sign ''Heliotrop'' can block any form of offensive magic as well as concentrated sound-waves. Witchers are advised to use it from a safe distance — it tends to create a small explosion when the spell's energy is deactivated.

* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Elves ''insist'' that they don't fight nor kill their own kin. The fact that Scoi'a'tel kill without the blink of an eye every elf they arbitrarily label as a RaceTraitor is only a tip of the iceberg of hypocrisy.

* AdmiringTheAbomination: ZigZagged and {{inverted}}. Zerrikania has a cult of dragons as its religion, paying them respect for their power and wisdom. Other countries and most of intelligent races treat dragons as mindless monsters razing countryside and hoarding treasures that should be rightfully taken by some noble dragon-slayer. This leads to ''serious'' CultureClash. [[PerspectiveFlip And since dragons are really intelligent creatures with no intention for harm]], you can guess the rest.

* AlternativeCalendar: It's somewhere during the 13th century of the Age of Man... counting from unspecified event, most likely [[TheMultiverse the Conjunction of Spheres]]. [[FutureImperfect Humans themselves have no idea]] why their calendar works this way. The oldest written down event is their arrival to what's now the Northern Kingdoms somewhere during the year 764.

There are also no classes nor premade professions, but each race gets certain starting skills (and most of them are repeating, as everyone has some basic knowledge about fist fight or talking) and most of the races have minimal, maximum or both kind of caps on their stats, ([[HumansAreAverage except for humans]]).

* ActionGirl: By default, [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Zerrikanian Faithel warriors. The latter were introduced directly as a result of complaints about all the limitations of playing as dryad and their lacking flexibility.

Certain stats are calculated into sub-stats, like Construction being determining HitPoints, or Strength how much your character can actually carry.

The mechanics are based on d6 and derived from it d3 and d2. [[TheSixStats There are nine stats]] divided into two sections: six physical (Construction, Movement, Strength, Perception, Dexterity and Agility) and three more or less mental (Intellect, Will and Savoir-vivre, the last being combination of generic Charisma and overall presentation). Each statistic (except Movement) has certain skills attached to it, like Alchemy and Economics being listed under Intellect or Acrobatics being listed under Agility. Both stats and skills range from 1 to 5 (skills can also be at 0). The higher the stat, the more d6 you use, e.g. 3 Strength means you grab 3d6 for rolls based on it.

There are also [[LuckManipulationMechanic Fate Dice involved in success tests]]. If your stat is 1, you only use Fate Dice. Any higher amount adds additional dice. Fate Dice are used as a critical success and failure meter, with 1 being a critical failure and 6 working as critical success.

Certain stats are derived into sub-stats, like Construction being calculated into HitPoints or Strength into how much your character can actually carry.

These simplistic mechanics, while often criticized by [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] players, were intentional. As the title implies, it is a ''game of imagination'', putting heavy emphasis on story-telling and pure fun, while both source books and later additions heavily discourage using mechanics as the sole way of controlling and judging players actions. Also, the GM is called [[InsistentTerminology "story-teller"]] (''bajarz'' in Polish), to put further emphasis on story instead of dice rolls.

And even when mechanics are used in combat, they are still dynamic and fast-paced. Aside from regular attacks, players can use called attacks targeting certain body parts (with increased difficulty) or use special combat manoeuvres... if the character knows any. It also happens to be one of the few tabletop [=RPGs=], where even a small skill increase makes your character very visibly stronger in said field, as higher skills means lower difficulty and that means more successes during throws, which can lead to (much) higher damage, lower mana use, or automatic success in some trivial tasks.

There are no levels, so the game is basically based on very slow and difficult StatGrinding. Why is it difficult? Thanks to its mechanics, [[AnyoneCanDie even the strongest character can die]] after 3 to 4 hits from regular thugs (while being able to kill them in one, which is the trademark of witchers and well-trained rangers), not to mention monsters, powerful magicians and [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mobs]]. The game designers have taken a lot of pride and pleasure from such balance in fighting mechanics. And to grind your skills and stats you use your [[InsistentTerminology Points of Proficiency]], which are a mix between ExperiencePoints and Skill Points.

There are also no classes nor premade professions, but each race gets certain starting skills (and most of them are repeating, as everyone has basic knowledge about fist fight or talking) and most of races have minimal, maximum or both kind of caps on their stats ([[HumansAreAverage only humans don't have such caps]]).

The game was first released as a "demo" pocket edition. Being a teaser, it only covers the bare basics of mechanics and contains a simple example scenario. Then the actual source book arrived, giving detailed descriptions of mechanics, expanded combat maneuvers, a spell and prayers book, ''[[{{Infodump}} massive]]'' [[WordOfSaintPaul chapters full of information about the setting]], a [[MonsterCompendium monster book]] and a hefty chapter full of advice for story-tellers. Later, two expansions were released: the first was a description of [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]] and a supplement to the basic rules (covering art of MinMaxing, new fighting moves and new kind of magic based on PsychicPowers), and the second was premade scenario for a CloakAndDagger campaign with only minor tweaks in mechanics.

After those, a short-lived periodical called ''"White Wolf"'' was released. In fact, the whole "periodical" part was a marketing campaign to bring more attention toward the system. ''"White Wolf"'' lasted only three issues: one covering [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Brokilon, [[TheLostWoods their]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou forest]], one about [[LandOfOneCity Novigrad]] and one about spies, secret agencies and diplomats. It was [[RiddleForTheAges never stated clear]] if ''"White Wolf"'' was cancelled because the authors run out of ideas, or because [[TroubledProduction MAG Publishing House, resposible for the whole system, was facing financial problems and was slowly leaving the RPG business]]. Aside from all those direct expansions, magazine ''"Sword and Sorcery"'' - also owned by MAG - was printing articles [[WorldBuilding even further expanding the game setting]], giving handfuls of advices for story-tellers and providing a few scenarios.

There is also a semi-official expansion, which covers the world a century before Witcher's Saga, as a tie-in to a short story about Geralt's parents. It was intended to be released on official level, but after cancellation it ended up being released for free by its author.

* WeaponOfChoice: ''Specialisation'', one of the perks, allows player to choose a single type of weapon (swords, axes, daggers, bare fists, short bows etc.) as their weapon of choice. Such weapon always deals 2 points more damage, difficulty during attacks is lowered, and combat maneuvers are less costly to use.

** Averted with the Scoi'a'tel. Their open goal is the total eradication of humanity (the dominant race) and every other race that is not supporting their "effort". Brutal and sadistic methods they apply aren't helping their cause either. Non-humans hate them as much as humans, especially since the actions of Scoi'a'tel often lead to retribution in the form of pogroms on completely innocent non-humans.

** With higher fighting skills comes lower difficulty, allowing to get more [[SurplusDamageBonus surplus successes]]. Each of them can be translated into fixed 3 points of additional damage.
** Characters created with high Intellect are meta-example. Higher Intellect provides more Skill Points during character's creation, allowing to buy and train higher levels of more skills, but to rise Intellect you must first take those Stat Points from other Statistics.
* WeaponOfChoice: ''Specialisation'', one of perks, allows player to choose single type of weapon (swords, axes, daggers, bare fists, short bows etc.) as weapon of choice. Such weapon deals always 2 points of damage more, difficulty during attacks is lowered and combat manoeuvres are less costly to use.

** Oak-Creatures are rare, quasi-sentient [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin oaks]] which are usually peaceful and stationary, but will defend themselves if somoene will try to chop them down. And since they [[OhCrap look like regular oaks...]]
** Inverted with dryads. They are not trees or even plants, but can blend so well with their background that what even a keen observer assumed to be a birch or willow was in fact stealthed dryad.
* WhipItGood: Expansion about dryads introduced whips. Then expansion covering Novigrad turned it UpToEleven with spiked whips (lifted directly from short story) and combat manoeuvres for them.
* {{Whoring}}: With [[MinmaxersDelight the suplemented material]] from expansions it's entirely possible to create starting characters able to take down anything on their way without need for any StatGrinding or effort. And by everything it means taking down ''[[TheWorfEffect a dragon]]'' [[TheWorfEffect in one strike]] with starting schmuck. The source book goes on [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything considerable explaination why it's bad and how it breaks all the fun for the rest of the players and how it will derail any kind of scenario beyond repair or will to continue]].
* WizardsLiveLonger: Or at least they preserve their bodies in [[VainSorceress mid-twenties]] or [[WizardClassic early fifties]].
* WizardingSchool: There are at least three such institutions: [[OneGenderSchool girls-only]] Aretuza in Redania, [[OneGenderSchool boys-only]] Ban Ard in Kaedwen (that's half of known world apart) and unspecified university somewhere in Nilfgaard, probably [[GenderIsNoObject coeducational]].
* WorstAid: Healing difficulty is proportional to amount of [[HitPoints Vitality]] the patient is lacking. If unsuccessful, the attempt will harm character for d3 damage, to show the incompetence of healer. So below 4 points in Healing it's often better to do nothing beside dressing the wounds (which can be botched ''too'') than risking killing character or undoing last day of treatment.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: Naturalised dryads will fight humanity to their deaths... while [[TragicHero being brainwashed human girls and women]].
* YouCantFightFate: No matter which type of character creation was used by players, they must roll for characters' Fate. Outcome is checked in predefinied chart and noted in character sheet. Story-tellers should use Fates of players' characters during their adventure and to define outcome of different events.

** For average human being, dryads are monstrous race of AlwaysChaoticEvil women, kidnapping young girls for their ranks and being an obstruction for prosperity. From point of view of druids, more enlightened people and their own they are personified GaiasVengeance and last defense of Brokilon, eons old forest every neighbourhood kingdom want to chop down for profit.
** Averted with Scoi'a'tel. Their open goal is total eradication of humanity (a dominant race) and every other race that is not supporting their "effort". Brutal and sadistic methods they apply aren't helping their cause either. Non-humans hate them as much as humans, especially since actions of Scoi'a'tel often lead to retributions in form of pogroms on completely innocent non-humans.

* VirginPower: In-universe there is centuries long debate if virgins can or can't use magic. Common people believe they can't, while mages don't deny nor confirm this superstition. It's up to players to decide - [[ShrugOfGod the source book left the question open]].
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Golden dragons and [[{{Doppelganger}} doppelgängers]] can change their form and size as they please. Lamias can turn into CuteMute girls, while devourers may take form of [[DualAgeModes young women or harmless old ladies]]. [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Some vampires]] may morph into different creatures. If character agrees to be turned into something, the difficulty of spell is ''much'' lower.
* WalkingTheEarth: Witchers are doing this constantly, looking for monsters and pay-day.
* WarGod: Refreshingly absent. Kreve is god of expansion, but not warfare. People from [[HornyVikings Skellige Isles]] worship Freyja, [[MartialPacifist goddess of beauty and fertility]]. And cults of dragons from Zerrikania are about wisdom and respect.
* WarIsHell: Conflict between Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard looks like a competition for the most horrible war atrocity between Nordlings, imperial forces and elven commandos. Whole regions are razed to the ground, sizable part of known world is turned into no man's land, summary executions are the only form of justice in place and most of armies scavenge and[=/=]or pillage for food.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Players of different systems often criticize the Witcher's fighting mechanics for being unrealistic. [[SarcasmMode Obviously, there is no way you can die after just ''two chops'' from a battle axe, or by having a crossbow bolt shot in your face! That's totally unrealistic!]]

* ShieldBash: If learned how to do, it's as efficient as using regular weapon, dealing d6 damage and with a chance to knock over your enemy. When combined with perk allowing second attack, [[GameBreaker/TabletopRPG it's devastating]].

** When discussing armour and how it works by game mechanics, a subchapter is dedicated into explaining how armour should be worn and how much time and work it may took to put it on or off. It even notes how coats of arms are fitted on armour.
** Part of the fluff about Nordlings discusses many stereotypes associated with TheDungAges. On the other hand, [[{{Plagiarism}} it was ripped from book about this subject]].
* SilverHasMysticPowers: Your best friend against all kinds and types of monsters immune to normal weapons. Some spells and magic artifact requires silver for different purposes. ''Working'' defensive charms against curses are made of silver. Shapeshifters loose their powers when in contact with silver.

* Myth/SlavicMythology: A huge inspiration for more than half of creatures, even more so than in the books. It's almost single-handly responsible for OurMonstersAreDifferent.

* SlidingScaleOfTurnRealism: Round by Round. There is also a clear distinction between rounds (no longer than 10 seconds) and turns (six rounds), which becomes ''very'' important when duration of special effects is given.
* SoftWater: Present or averted, depending on the height characters fall from and depth of water. After certain height is reached, nothing will help.
* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: More open-minded humans will usually behave like this toward non-humans.
* SortingAlgorithmOfWeaponEffectiveness: Subverted. Witchers and dryads start with one of the best weapons. Nothing stops other characters from buying exeptional stuff whenever they have money for that or to get it by any other means. Or just craft it by themselves.
* SpaceFillingEmpire: Kaedven. Since the saga didn't discussed how big it is, the authors used it to fill sizable chunk of the map. It's simply big - the population is small, the land is mostly pristine forest and it's political power is average. Many areas are under Kaedven rule simply because there is no-one else around to claim them.
* SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome: Witchers are supposed to be rare. Even more rare than dryads out of their forest. Cue fight between players who should be witcher in their party -- [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything there is a whole section in the chapter on storytelling, devoted to solving this problem]].
* SpeciesLoyalty: Humans' hat, which is their main power and reason why they are dominant - whenever someone or something is threatening them, they put all their issues aside and band together to face the dangers. To a lesser extent it cover also dwarves - they might be your best PrivateMilitaryContractors, OnlyInItForTheMoney, but don't expect from them to fight their own kind.
* {{Splat}}: Races are close to this. Each got it's own starting skills. Some of them are the same for all races (like 1 point in ''Unarmed combat'' or ''Throwing''), while some are race-specific (like dryads' 3 points in ''Shooting'' or witchers' 2 points in ''Knowledge: Monsters'')

* StanceSystem: One of optional rules covers offensive and defensive stance for fighters. They have mutually exclusive effects, so defensive rise Defence of your character, but makes attacks harder, while offensive lowers difficulty of Hit Rolls, but unfortunately also for your enemies. If used correctly, they can be completely [[GameBreaker game-breaking]].
* StatGrinding: The only way to improve skills and statistic of your character is to invest Points of Proficiency into them.
* StateSec: Since Novigrad is [[TheTheocracy run by clergy]] of Eternal Fire, town guards are this combined with inquisition. ''Very'' strict and brutal, which makes them universally hated, but at least the streets are safe(ish).
* StayInTheKitchen: Sexism is something of a norm, but the extent of it ranges from race to race. Almost all of women in human and dwarven (but then [[DeliberateValuesDissonance it's a forge, not kitchen]]) societies are expected to stay in the shadow, doing gender-related hores of their race. Other races treat genders more equally, while dryads are OneGenderRace of {{Action Girl}}s. Mages have it much easier, since their trade is far more important and respected than their sex. ActionGirl characters, particularly those non-human, will rise a lot of interest in rural and backward areas.
* StillbornSerial: Second edition was in drafts before even all suplements for first one were released and everything was going smoothly. In early 2003 there was even a small convention held by team responsible for the game and... the publisher went out of gaming bussiness soon after.
* StockNessMonster: Turtledragons are big turtle-like creatures with very long necks. When they are swimming, usually top of their shell and head is above water surface, giving them characteristic silhouette.
* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Painfully averted. Targeting anyone in fighting group leaves plenty room for friendly fire or accidental hits - such shots and throws are not only harder than normally, but scoring less successes than needed means the projecticle ''still'' hit. Only someone else.
* SufferTheSlings: Slings are on the weak side of damage - they use d3+1 for damage roll (for comparison, next are javelines with d6 and short bows with 3d3+1). Which is in the same time balanced with being only ranged weapon dealing fixed damage equal to twice the Strength of slinger, making it ideal choice for UnskilledButStrong characters. Slings also surpass range of all throwing weapons and smaller crossbows.
* [[SurplusDamageBonus Surplus Success Bonus]]: Every time your hit[=/=]skill rolls end with more successes than needed, you can use them to enchance the final effect, be it more damage, lower intake of [[{{Mana}} Combat/Arcane Points]], better healing result, extended time of spell effect and so on. It can be really devastating when combined with [[CriticalHit criticals]].
* SuperDrowningSkills: Averted. Lack of ''Swimming'' skill makes simply any attempts very hard. Of course entering deep water in armour is practically suicidal.
* SuperWeaponAverageJoe: [[TruthInTelevision Crossbows work this way]] for anyone not blind and with just basic ''Shooting'' skill. If you are lucky or aim well, you can take down anything human-sized with single bolt.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Witchers' medallions detect magic and thus monsters when they are around. Cats may be used to find otherwise too weak to detect PlaceOfPower.
* {{Synchronization}}: Hamadryads with their trees. If either of them is hurt or dies, so is the other. Oh, and [[CantLiveWithoutYou they can't leave Brokilon because of this]].
* TailSlap: Often combined with natural kind of BewareMyStingerTail.
* TaughtByExperience: Your character can learn new combat manoeuvres and spells by observing, analyzing and then going through trial and error. It still costs you [[ExperiencePoints Points of Proficiency]], requires a few tests based on different skills and stats and takes much more time than normal training, but removes the need for a teacher or manuscript to learn from.
* {{TeleFrag}}: Inproper or instable teleports may kill you in different ways. Sometimes people tend to emerge in pieces. Sometimes they emerge in wrong spots, like underground, high in the sky or in the middle of ocean. In worst cases they don't emerge at all.

* TeleportersAndTransporters: Magic version of them, ranging from unreliable ancient artifacts to very stable links created by specialized mages.
* TeleportInterdiction: There are many rules about opening a proper and reliable teleport. First of all, their maximum safe range is around 100 kilometers - any further distance will hit accuracy of the teleportation. It's better to use "hook" for opening a portal. Hook is any object or person related with place you want to travel, ''but'' be it poorly chosen and you may land in completely different spot. Portals, even if closed, leaves a trace that can be used to reopen the gate.
* TentacleRope: Kelpies can do about one thing to attack - tie and drown or at least strangle their victim.
* TheTheocracy: Cult of Eternal Fire in Novigrad.
* ThisBananaIsArmed: For skilled combatant, anything they can lift turns into weapon. Actually, for unskilled too.

* TortureAlwaysWorks: Defied. Effectiveness of tortures is rather low. They take a lot of time, tend to require some specialised equipment and it's very easy to kill interrogated person, even for skilled TortureTechnician. Meanwhile, skill ''Browbeating'' allow to gather the same informations by sheer intimidation.
* TotalPartyKill: Most of real-world predators, especially when in packs. Anything bigger than human. Anything more numerous than your party. [[TorchesAndPitchforks Angry peasants]] tend to be more dangerous than freaking dragon thanks to [[ZergRush sheer numbers]].
* TrainingFromHell: Witchers spend many years on excruciating training before they leave Kaer Morhen. It's not even clear if unmutated human could survive that ordeal.
* TransformationIsAFreeAction: Averted. Transformations of any type ''always'' take enough time to react and sometimes even interrupt, even if it will be a single round. The problem usually arise if you are noticing it [[InvoluntaryShapeshifter from first-person perspective]].

* {{Uberwald}}: [[IThoughtItMeant No, not Brokilon]]. Sodden, land now held by Cintra combines thick forest, infamous Miechun's Morasses and Angren Marshes with infestation of all kinds, types and sizes of man-eating monsters. It's not helping that in the past the region was regularly pillaged by Skellige pirates and now often changes ownership, leaving dozens of ruins - perfect nests and burrows for monsters. The place is seen as so dangerous that even witchers don't want to take [[DeadlyEuphemism "jobs"]] out there. Oh, and south of Cintra has [[GratuitousGerman Erlenwald]], which pales in comparison to Sodden, but it doesn't need to be protected by law as royal forest - people simply ''don't want'' to poach [[EverythingTryingToKillYou there]] by themselves.
* UniversalSystem: As long as the setting is low-tech or with really primitive firearms, {{TabletopGame/The Witcher}} is just perfect.
* TheUnpronounceable: Deliberately invoked with names of Zerrikanians, for laughs. But there is also a very simple principle of shorting them into three-letter long forms, containing single consonant and suffix "ea", so Alreaenerle becomes Rea and Alveaenerle will be Vea. Yes, they are not only nigh-unpronounceable, but very similar.
* UnskilledButStrong: Strength is calculated into bonus melee damage - flat for unarmed combat and twice the Stat for weapons. In case of weapons, the sheer force of impact is usually more dangerous than where and what hit.
* UpToEleven: Normal scale of Stats is from 1 to 5, and 5 is aptly listed as "Legendary". Cue some creatures [[ThisIsGonnaSuck having certain Stats at 6]].
* UrbanSegregation: Novigrad is divided into few quarters. The segregation is quite strict and enforced by ruling clergy, thus [[RedLightDistrict the Red Quarter]] holds everything immoral: brothels, banks... and non-human citizens.

** Dvimerite, lifted from saga. A rare metal which nullifies any kind of magic and harms magic users. Mages are advised to stay as far as possible from it when casting spells - side effects range from severe nausea to painful death.

* PoweredByAForsakenChild: There is an old technique of using children, who are magic-sensitive, but unable to cast spells as Sources - basically a living amulet full of easy to access magic power. It's rarely practiced in times of the game setting. [[ValuesDissonance Not because of moral impact]] - it's simply not that effective. You must first find that special child, [[TheLoad drag it with you all the time]] and it [[PowerDegeneration won't live very long]]. Not to mention most of Sources have [[PowerIncontinence no control over magic]], but can [[SuperpowerMeltdown accidently use it...]]
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Dwarves have well-earned reputation of reliable mercenaries, fighting for humans and[=/=]or the highest bidder. Unless it would require from them to [[ThickerThanWater fight their own kind]].
* ProHumanTranshuman: Witchers are picked as boys, mutated with magic and toxins that could kill entire population of small town and then [[TrainingFromHell trained and educated for many years]] into [[TheHunter monster hunters]]. Then they spend rest of their lives protecting humanity from all kinds of beasts for [[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike meager pay]] [[DudeWheresMyRespect and almost]] [[UngratefulBastard no respect...]]
* PersecutedIntellectuals: Since all kinds of intellectuals, be them scientists, mages, well-trained priests or druids usually preach such silly things like gender equality, democratic rule, protection of enviroment or that all races are equall and should work together, they are treated as lunatics at best. If they don't have good connections or wield some power themselves, things usually end up nasty for them, with exile being the least concerning.
* ProtectiveCharm: Amulets and charms are one of few ways to increase defences against magic. Witchers' medallions may also count, since they can detect magic and monsters, alerting wearer in advance.
* PsychicNosebleed: That is if someone is ''lucky'' during psychic attack.
* PsychicLink: Any character can develope one ''with a horse'' thanks to MundaneUtility. Psychics tend to develope such links with people they know, met or like. Or just random strangers.
* PsychicPowers: They don't look ''that'' strong... until someone MindRape your character.
* PunctuationShaker: Elder Speech, the language of elves, runs on this. It's inherited from [[Literature/TheWitcher the saga]] to players' frustration, as it renders any attempt of more deep roleplaying impossible or outright [[TheUnpronounceable unpronounceable]].

** Witchers. They got almost twice [[{{Splat}} starting skills]] than other races. One of their skills, Knowledge: Monsters, allow them to fight all non-natural creatures with better results. They start with one of the most powerful melee weapons. They got innate defences agains all kinds of magic attacks. They can use Combat and Arcane points interchangeably. [[TheHunter Happens when you are mutant created and trained to kill monsters capable of smashing you into pulp with a single strike]]. The authors encourage the "one witcher in team" approach, or at least "one at a single time".
** To lesser extent, dryads. Just like in the books, they are capable of stealth in almost any situation and got absurdly high starting ''Shooting'' skill - [[{{Splat}} just for the fact they are dryads]]. They will also track you even faster than witchers. Oh, and their starting bow is ultimate weapon for rangers. Sure, the damage and range are just above average, but unlike other high-damaging bows it doesn't require any level of Dexterity or Strength to be used, thus no MinMaxing is needed.
* PVPBalanced: Averted, as many aspects of fighting mechanics (at least before introduction of unrealistic combat manoeuvres from expansions) are TruthInTelevision. Instant kills, shooting from ambush, fast bleeding, breaking arms of armed opponents, ''cutting them off'' with your own weapon... the amount of dirty tactics that [[NoSavingThrow are actually impossible to block or counter]] is really long. And all of them are encouraged.
* RainOfArrows: First thing that will inform you about being ambushed by dryads and [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat probably last your character will see]]. It's also possible to fire few arrows in single round using special combat manoeuvres. With proper perk you can target them all as you wish.

* ReadTheFreakingManual: A constant battle in Polish [=RPG=] community around this system and it's approach to mechanics and probability basically boils down to people who did read the manual and those who skipped everything beside basic fighting rules.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Many players of different systems often critisize Witcher's fighting mechanics as being unrealistic. [[SarcasmMode Obviously, there is no way you can die after just two chops from battle axe or by having crossbow bolt in your face, that's so unrealistic!]]
* RedLightDistrict: Novigrad has one, fashionably called ''Red Quarter''.
* RegeneratingHealth: One of the main ways to heal is waiting and resting under some basic medical care [[RealityEnsues for few days or weeks]].
* RetCanon: Since Zerrikania is barely mentioned in the saga, let alone described, the article about it takes all the aesthetics (and their implications) from TV series, where they were introduced for more exotic flavour.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Trait ''Vengeful'' forces player to act like this. Unlike other temper-related traits, there is NoSavingThrow against such antics.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Scoi'a'tel show up in expansion about Nilfgaard. True to their other appearances, they are AlwaysChaoticEvil [[FantasticRacism elven]] [[MasterRace supremacists]], whom official agenda is total genocide of humans and any non-human race that want to coexist peacefully. Unlike dryads, they are portrayed without any pity or remorse.
* RidiculousExchangeRates: StatGrinding is heavily affected by DiminishingReturnsForBalance. For starters, you can't earn more than grand total of thirty Points per whole scenario (which is a prize for the best player in the party - usually you end up around 20 or even below) and you must pay everything up-front, which doesn't sound that bad. But:
** Stats take ''fifty'' times your desired level ''and'' all previous levels in Points of Proficiency. So upgrading someting from 1 (and you can't have less than 1 in statistics) to 2 is ''100'' Points. Hoarding any higher numer of Points is simply inefficient and wasteful, so rising your stats beyond 2 (rememer that the scale for Stats is 1-5) is pretty much impossible. More - you can't rise them by more than single point at a time and you must find an excuse why your character become better in that field, which is progressively harder to do with higher Stats.

** '''Nothing''' beats combat manoeuvres and high-end spells. Combat manoeuvres cost ''ten'' times their usage price in [[{{Mana}} Combat Points]], so learning some basic stuff is around 20-30 Points of Proficiency, while all high-end moves and flashy actions are as far as ''[[UpToEleven 150 Points]]'' - that's right, [[UpToEleven cost of upgrading your Statistics]]. Spells got fixed price in Points of Proficiency, with basic around 25 and high-end at 100. In both cases you must first find an NPC or any form of manual that will teach you new stuff, which is not that easy as it sounds in given setting and usually cost ''a lot'' of money.
** During character creation, each subsequent level of skill or Statistic cost more, in similar fashion to later StatGrinding. It's generally considered more reasonable to start with more skills on lower levels than land directly in the middle of CripplingOverspecialization territory.
* RaisedByNatives: [[ParentalAbandonment Sometimes humans abandon their children]] in or close to Brokilon. If it's a girl and survives till being found, dryads will take her and rise as one of them. If it's a [[{{Gendercide}} boy...]] Dryads also actively kidnapp young girls and teens for their ranks.
* RodentsOfUnusualSize: Quasirats are at least in size of a chicken, are hairless, have huge incisors and tend to eat regular rats for dinner. Or unlucky drunkards. [[SwarmOfRats Swarmed]] [[ZergRush they can overwhelm]] even a seasoned character.
* TheRoleplayer: True to it's subtitle, the gama is written in such way to encourage this type of behaviour. Many actions require from players to act like their characters in given situation or to give a demonstration (like casting spells). First expansion introduced Points of Personality, granted for deep roleplaying, that are the only way to get perks.
* RuleZero: The only rule authors insist to follow.
* RulesConversions: Many players of systems based on d20 tried this, some of them even on official level. None of such conversions are even remotely close to being playable, thanks to LoadsAndLoadsOfRules, which original game is averting by default. There were also many attempts to change fighting mechanics, [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules with similar outcome]].

** [[DeadlyEuphemism "Fighting"]] anything that can fly without powerful spells and few rangers with ImprobableAimingSkills gives you two options - waiting to be [[TheManyDeathsOfYou caught/swallowed whole/burnt/torned apart/smashed/lifted and then dropped/clawed]] or running for your life. Preferably fast.
** In case of dryads' ambush running is as good as standing your ground - [[SubvertedTrope you are toast anyway]].

** Depending on their choice, players can pick different disadvantages during character creation for additional Stat Points. Those disadvantages include things like Film/ForrestGump idiocy, [[TheVoiceless inability to talk]] ''or'' having a MotorMouth. Then there are starting advantages, which cost you your Stat Points, so your overall pool of Points will be lower after picking things like [[ImprobableAimingSkills Hawk-eye]] or NervesOfSteel.
** Inverted with ''Uneducated'' trait - it gives you 2 more Stat Points... for sizable amount of Skill Points.
** Dryads are race of {{Scarily Competent Tracker}}s with {{Stealth Expert}}ise, ImprobableAimingSkills... and nothing more. They are really awesome in their field, but outside of it they are even less competent than average human child. They have literally NoSocialSkills, both in-universe and by the game mechanics.

** The cult of Melitele. The whole church and its priests are an {{Expy}} of the Red Cross. The only outright good religion in whole setting.
** Cult of Freyja can be also noted, but it's rather small (limited to single archipelago) and in many aspects similar to that of Melitele.

* ScratchDamage: Subverted. Armoured humanoids and creatures can simply shrug away some attacks and weapons. In fact, wearing full plate armour with shield can [[DamageReduction soak up to 9 damage]], while regular weapons have d6 damage roll, so unless attackers are very strong or skilled, they will do nothing.

* ShapeshiftingSeducer: [[SnakePeople Lamias]] are capable of turning into CuteMute girls... then they [[ScaledUp scale up]] and eat unlucky adventurers. Devourers (''Zjadarki'' in Polish version) don't have to be mute, while they tend to be ''very'' beautiful in their disguise of young women.
* ShapeshifterBaggage: [[{{Doppelganger}} Doppelgängers]] can change their shape and mass as they please, even if their true form is that of a midget. Hell, they can also replicate clothes and equipment. Golden dragons are even more extreme, since they can take ''any'' form they wish, while being in size of barn. Lamias in their human guise are about half of their original size. Meanwhile, spells allow to turn into something smaller or roughtly the same size as the original form.

* TheMultiverse: The Conjunction of Spheres, a magical event that happend around 1300-1400 years before the setting, suddenly placed in this world monsters, magic... and humans. It's not entirely clear if elves arrived during the Conjunction or not.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Witchers as {{NPC}}s. Dryads, especially when stealthed. Most of monsters. It's easier to list what you don't necessary run away from.

* NoArcInArchery: Averted. It gets progressively harder to hit even a stationary target with increasing distance. Few of combat manoeuvres for bows use the arc actively for the advantage of archer.
* NoHuggingNoKissing: Dryads don't develope any relationship with males that are impregnating them, treating it as procreation and nothing else. At least some of them outright rape still alive lumberjacks and hunters.
* NoNameGiven: As in books, the actuall landmass the whole game is set is not referred by name in-game. For convenience it's called "the Continent" in source book rules.
* NoSavingThrow: ZigZagged. There are no typical saving throws, but during bleeding or drowning (or more specific - running out of oxygen) players must do roll for their Construction and ''Vigour''. If the throw is failed, their characters will instantly die.
* NoSell: While wearing three layers of armour is heavily penalized, hardly anything remotely human can deal damage to such target. On the other hand, most of monsters and even normal predators don't have this problem, tearing or squishing the armour with it's wearer inside. Some monsters themselves are big and strong enough to simply shrug away attacks.

** Typical and heavy crossbows deal enough damage [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill to kill a human being]] ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill twice]]'' [[OneHitKill with single bolt]], after which [[CoolButInefficient they take a whole round to reload]]. But you will be glad to have one or dozen of them when facing dragons or other monsters that can soak "standard" damage without even noticing.
** ''Vigour'', the only skill listed under Construction, is almost passive. The only thing it does is lowering difficulty for [[HeroicSecondWind save throws when character is dying or taking disabling amounts of damage]], so you will be grateful for every point of it when facing real threats. Same applies to ''Cold Blood'', only for scary and stressful situations - failing rolls of it will render your character into state of panic or [[AxCrazy psychotic fits]]. It's considered as good choice to create a character with at least 2 points in ''Cold Blood''.
* NotSoDifferent: Humans and elves. Both races are almost enirety made out of jerks, bastards and monsters. Both treat every other race with smug smile of superiority, almost always undeserved. First thing both did after arrival to the Continent? Starting a war with local population. Elves like to use every opportunity to point out how barbaric humans are, glossing over their own equally horrific deeds. Meanwhile, humanity is over-jealous for many elven traits, be it longevity, beauty or magic powers. Which leads to constant conflicts, pogroms and wars.
* NothingUpMySleeve: Mini-crossbow is designed to be used like this.
* ObviouslyEvil: [[OmnicidalManiac Scoi'a'tel]] are written in such way to make it clear for just about every player there is nothing noble in their cause or methods.

* OneGenderRace: Dryads - race of hot {{Action Girl}}s. Their offspring is ''always'' female thanks to bizarre genetics.
* OneHandedZweihander: Averted as one of core rules. Two-handed weapons are two-handed weapons, end of topic.
* OneManArmy: Stats of [=NPC=] witchers sum up around 80-90 Stat Points. Meanwhile, with all possible MinMaxing you can't start with more than 44 Stat Points and rising them takes forever.
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Intellect, hands down. In a skill-based system it controlled your starting poll of Skill Points - including the ones you'd spend for your fighting skills. If you want to play as melee, hand-to-hand fighter or use magic of any kind, Dexterity is this. On the other hand, Perception is used during shooting, to determinate who attack first, [[CaptainObvious to spot and hear things]], used for dodging and crossbows by themselves are the most powerful weapons in game. Unlike the later editions of GURPS, all Stats cost the same.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted in normal situations and played with under drugs. Going below half of maximum Vitality starts to pile up more and more penalties. If that wasn't enough, taking sufficiently high damage to limbs may render them limp or broken. Taking too much and they are [=bite/cut/torn=] off or smashed into pulp.
* OrderVersusChaos: Since monsters are unnatural creatures that came to this world during magic event known as [[TheMultiverse Conjunction of Spheres]], they clearly represent Chaos. Witchers are humanity's response to those monstrosities, so nominally they represent Order. Nominally, because HumansAreTheRealMonsters and are much worse than all those creatures combined.
* OriginalPositionFallacy: Lower ranks of Coram Agh Ter worshippers tend to fall under this, since they are usually some bored nobles or equally bored rich merchants, looking mostly for thrill in worshipping [[ReligionOfEvil new]], [[EldritchAbomination exotic]] [[GodOfEvil deity]].

** OurDragonsAreDifferent: There are dozens of dragon-like creatures and then we got actual dragons (more than 5 different species of them). They like to hoard treasures in their caves. Dragons are intelligent creatures and ignore humans and other races, but will get aggressive when they want to get some riches. All of them are NoSell when in combat and able to rip whole party in amount of rounds equal to number of party members. Or one, [[SplashDamage if they stand too close]]. Aside from conventional attacks they can use magic to different degree and all utilise telepathy (hence the superstitions that dragons know all languages).
*** White dragons from Far North breath ice instead of fire.
*** Black dragons are native for marshlands and like to lounge in the mud, hence their coloration. They spit acid able to corrode any known metal.

*** Green dragons are the most popular species. They breath stream of chlorine, so it's effectiveness can be affected by wind and topography. Getting inside their lairs is almost guaranteed way to suffocate.
*** Golden dragons are ShroudedInMyth species able to polymorph as they please.

** OurElvesAreBetter: They are long-lived, pretty, and skillful, and have developed a sophisticated culture, but they're not that much better in terms of morality. To top that, they are DyingRace suffering the fate of Rome, with humans playing the role of barbarians adapting their culture, or perhaps Celts ran over by the Romans (with Boudicca and all). There is a distinction on "free elves" and "the rest". The free ones are living in the wild on stolen scraps (because farming is [[TooDumbToLive below their dignity]]), while the rest stays in their ghettoes or try to integrate with other races.
** OurGnomesAreWeirder: They're good craftsmen, possibly better than dwarves at certain precise and complicated tasks, or those requiring theoretical expertise. Dwarves make excellent swords, but best swords in the world were gnomish. They are said to be aboriginal species.
** OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Thanks to few dashes of Slavic folklore, aside from typical western mermaids (human torso with fish tail) and nymphs (they dwell in the sea), there are also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka rusalki]] (think about sweet-water nymphs), [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vodnik_(mythology) vodniki]] (think about impish tricksters with a knack for drowning pranks) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topielec utopce]] (think about ghoulish creatures drowning anything they catch). Not counting utopce, all the rest are intelligent races, with friendly and playful nature.
** OurVampiresAreDifferent: Where to start with? First of all, blood is like alcohol for them. There is also a clear difference between the 'low' and 'high' vampires. The lowly ones are no different from monsters and basically look like giant humanoid bats, while the high ones are the more familiar vampires, who can happen to be [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire quite nice and friendly folks]]. Religious symbols do nothing to them and most of the 'high' vampires easily tolerate sunlight. They don't need blood to survive, but it's simply tasty and strengthen them. There is some sort of middle ground, as creatures like Bruxa are intelligent, but concentrate on sucking blood. Either way, when facing anything else than low ones, run like hell, as they are NoSell to most anything and will drink your party dry in no time.
** OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: "Lycantropy" is a curse and a disease at the same time. Immunity to normal weapons and stock [[FantasticFragility weakness toward silver]] are in place, but you still can [[MundaneSolution just hack them to death]]. They turn into beast only during three nights of full moon and are unaware of their actions during that time or even about the whole thing at all. Also scent of aconite is said to repel them. While called "lycantropy", it covers many different species spliced with humanoid posture.

* ThePaladin: Witchers are deconstruction of everything related with such characters.
* PathOfInspiration: Cult of Sun Disc from Nilfgaard. Being a state religion of TheEmpire has a lot to do with this.
* PerpetualPoverty: Witchers tend to get paid barely enough to sustain themselves for a while.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Novigrad is a city-state of immense wealth, that holds half of the world's economy in it's grip. But after all, it's just a single city with comparably small population.
* PlayerParty: The authors advise to never play below three players. On the other hand, they discourage combining your party by countering weaknessess and lacks of players' characters.
* PlotArmor: Mechanics are designed in such way that it's extremely easy to implement or take it off, depenging on requirements of the scenario. The authors advise to use or subvert it for giving either heroic feeling or atmosphere of uncertainity.
* PointBuildSystem: This or random-generated stats. It's players choice which one they want to use. In the point-buy system the near-to useless Movement costs the same as the most powerful stat - Intellect. The first expansion added disadvantages and advantages influencing directly the amount of Stat Points players have on their disposal.
* PoisonedWeapons: {{Blowgun}}s by themselves deal mere 1 damage (a slap in face can't deal less than 2). The poison is what makes them so formidable.
* PoliceBrutality: The aforementioned lamia whip is used by Guards of Eternal Fire, the police of Novigrad, as standard equipment for subduing crowd. It's entirely possible to maim or kill with a single strike of it. If that wasn't enough, lamias are ''illegal'' to be used all over the world, [[{{Hypocrite}} Novigrad included]].

** Dvimerite, lifted from saga. Rare metal which nullifies any kind of magic and harms magic users. Mages are advised to stay as far as possible from it when casting spells - side effects ranges from severe nausea to painful death.

* LoadBearingHero: The picture neatly placed next to the paragraph on how Maximum Weight works contains a human male holding ''collapsing cave roof'', while an elven maiden is crawling between his legs to retrieve a fancy-looking cane from the rubble.

* MadeASlave: Nilfgaard is using slaves on regular basis, so even debtors can end up being sold on slave market. GladiatorGames included.
* MadeOfIron: Witchers in their fluff. Technically speaking, they must start with at least 3 points in Construction, giving them extra Vitality and being more than many players would usually put in this stat.
* MagicKnight: Witchers are those by trade - they are [[TheHunter created to fight monsters]] with swords and simple telekinetic spells known as ''signs''. Also any mage who wants to survive in this world should arm himself and learn to use his weapon.

* MagicalGesture: Almost all spells require some degree of gestures, to the point where ''Spellcasting'' is Dexterity-based skill. By contrast, most of them don't need any [[EyeOfNewt special component]] and half of them are [[MagicalIncantation wordless]].
* MagikarpPower: All skills works under this principle:
** Difficulty of rolls is lowered by the skill, so with single point it's almost good for nothing, while at 4 and 5 standard actions are automatic success without even need for rolls whatsoever.
** All fighting and magic skills provide 2 Combat or Arcane Points for each level of related skill, being the easiest way to get more of them. And the Points themselves can be used to further enhance your hit rolls.
** Melee fighting skills not only allow to hit your enemies with ease, but also makes it harder for them to hit your character. With measly level 3 of ''Unarmed'' or ''Armed combat'' your character is virtually immune to attacks of random mooks.
** With ''Alchemy'' at 1 your character knows that ice, steam and water are all the same. By 5 he or she is one step from creating PhilosophersStone.
* {{Magitek}}: To the point where such mundane things like weatherproof capes are created with magic.

** In Northern Kingdoms, all adepts of [[WizardingSchool Aretuza and Ban Ard]] pledge their allegiance to Council and Capitule. Council is parliament-like institution, while Capitule is made from most prominent mages, leading and governing the rest. Wizards and sorceress are ''expected'' to be completely loyal. Council and mages as individuals have very strong ties with politics, local courts and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking precious stones industry]]. Bigger towns and cities are almost guaranteed to held a resident mage as part of it's governing body.

* MalignedMixedMarriage: Since the game world's dynamics are based on FantasticRacism, inter-racial marriages are completely out of question, being a guaranteed way to get killed by angry mob during next pogrom. Or before there even is a pogrom.
* ManEatingPlant: Kelpies, which look for unexpecting victim like floating sea-weed. Their whole body is mass of fast-moving vines, attacking en mass and drowning or suffocating their prey.

** In general, damage made by weapons (both from rolls and fixed part of it) is relatively low when compared with bonus damage coming from higher Stats and skills. For example, a witcher or a professional soldier will deal about twice as much damage as a random mook, using exactly the same sword. And that's by just whacking someone with the sword, without any finess or purpousefully-aimed attacks.
** It's entirely possible to single-handly beat small pack of heavy armed thugs with a stick (not a staff, but ''a stick''), as long as your character is good in ''Armed combat'' and with enough Agility to naturally dodge incoming blows.
** Projectile-based weapons deal puny damage... unless shots are aimed for heads, unarmoured body parts and other weak points, which of course requires being a well-trained ranger in the first place.
* {{Mana}}: Two kinds of it. Combat Points are [[CaptainObvious used... well, for combat manoeuvres]] and aiming, while Arcane Points are used during spellcasting. Witchers got relatively high pool of both and as {{Magic Knight}}s, they can use both types for combat actions and casting their signs.
* ManaPotion: Inverted. Only witchers have access to anything remotely close to such potions, allowing them to regenerate part of their Arcane Points in no time. It's only a secondary purpose of those elixirs and they are ''extremely poisonous'' for anything not mutated to withstand their toxic effects.
* MartialPacifist: You probably expect that people from Skellige Isles, as [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of vikings, will have an {{Expy}} of some warrior god from Myth/NorseMythology? Wrong. They worship goddess of beauty and fertility, while kicking asses left and right.
* MassHypnosis: Very hard and costly, but possible to conduct.
* TheMedic: While there are no restrictions about skills and everyone can serve this role:
** [[PlantPerson Hamadryads]], a subspecies of dryads, are very proficient in herbalism and healing, both conventional and magical, as they are exceptionally connected with nature. They've got those skills from their {{Splat}} for free, but they [[PowerAtAPrice can't leave Brokilon]].
** Mages trained in [[WizardingSchool official universities]] take obligatory courses in alchemy, herbalism and healing. Creating character with graduation as background forces player to buy those skills on appropriate levels, seriously lowering available poll of Skill Points.
* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Just like in source material, shamelessly deconstructed. The deconstruction is at it's highest in ''On Their Majesties' Secret Service" expansion, which deals with espionage in [[Film/JamesBond Bond-esque style]].
* MenstrualMenace: While {{Virgin Power}}s are not entirely clear subject (check below), it's at least agreed upon in-universe that one can't use magic before "gaining an adult body".
* {{Metagame}}: Since fighting mechanics are so transparent, players may deduct without trying or even ''desire to do so'' Stats and Skills of enemies.

** Spell ''Triangle within triangle'' is this, combined with HulkingOut and PowerUpgradingDeformation. It permamently increase it's subject's Strength and Construction by 1, while reducing Intellect and Agility. Not to mention changing into over-muscled parody of it's former body.
** If botched or [[{{NightmareFuel}} purpousefully failed]] ''Artifact compression'' will turn someone into inanimate object with ''no'' way to turn back.
%%* MightyGlacier: Dwarven {{Splat}} requires from player to take at least 3 points in Construction, while their Movement is capped at 3.

* MinmaxersDelight: Introduced in first expansion, as you can now raise amount of Stat Points during character creation by picking disadvantages raging from obesity to [[HairTriggerTemper going berserk for no real reason]] or buy powerful buffs by lowering amount of Stat Points you got. Or do both.
* MinMaxing: Leading directly into CripplingOverspecialization and GlassCannon characters. You can either create character just above average or real badass in single stat and skill.
* MonsterCompendium: It spans for almost 1/5 of whole source book.

* MoralMyopia: Just about ''every race'' has it's version of What Measure Is a Non-My-Own-Race.
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Strigas have ''three sets'' of them. If that wasn't enough, zeulgs are a bulbous piece of meat that hosts tentacles and huge mouth equipped with dozens of sharp teeth. Said tentacles have hooks that look conspicuously similar to teeth.

** If ''Artifact compression'' is used in it's most standard version, subject of the spell will turn into a tiny, crude figurine made of material used for compression.
** Lamias can hide their snake-like body with ease. What will always reveal them is forked tongue, fangs instead of teeth and inability to create other voices than hissing.
* {{Multishot}}: One of the most critisized combat manoeuvres added in expansions.
* TheMultiverse: Conjunction of Spheres, magical event that happend about 1300-1400 years before the setting, placed in this world out of sudden monsters, magic... and humans. It's not entirely clear if elves arrived during Conjunction or not.
* {{Munchkin}}: The system is designed in such way to discourage this behaviour. Sure, the rules are simple and easy to abuse, but not without [[CripplingOverspecialization certain]] [[GlassCannon consequences]] or a lot of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower time and work]] invested in your character.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: When combined with aiming and sufficiently high skill, basic attacks of any form allow to pull things so spectacular that special combat manoeuvres looks just drab and boring in comparison. Then there is shield & weapon combination, which looks dull and hardly creative, yet thanks to (more or less) realistic approach to combat manoeuvres it's both practical and [[NoSell really]] [[ShieldBash spectacular]] [[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe in]] [[RealityIsUnrealistic action]].
* MundaneUtility: Self-sharpening swords, weatherproof capes, bracelets that makes horse come to you no matter how far you are, flying brooms and carpets, hats of invisibility...
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Standard behaviour of humans, which other races have hard time to understand.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Averted. Hastly used tortures are almost guaranteed way to kill interrogated person, not to mention providing barely any information.

* JavelinThrower: Javelines are relatively weak, dealing damage of regular melee weapon and at limited range, ''but'' unlike most of other ranged weapons they can be also used in melee combat.
* KillItWithFire: Excluding some dragons and vampires, there is not a single creature in this world which is resistant to fire. And even they don't like being set on fire.

** Cockatrice is turkey-sized mix of lizard and pheasant, looking mostly like the latter. Doesn't sound intimidating? If you aren't careful, it will sneak on your back and peck your kidney or spine. With single strike. One success more than required and it will reach vital organ with it's peck, dealing additional 3d6 damage and another d3 from bleeding each round. It's enough to kill or incapacitate a character. To makes matters worse, it has enough ''Sneaking'' skill to easily ambush your character, lowering defences to almost nothing and thus having it even easier to strike a killing blow.
** Echinopses are almost like porcupines. The only difference is that they can shoot few of their spines for very short distance. If those spines hit anything, they break and migrate deeper. It's not only painful, but also requires ''an operation'' or magic healing to remove them. Untreated it will eventually kill your character.
* KnightTemplar: More [[ChurchMilitant militant]] priest of Kreve are like this.

** Scoi'a'tel percieves themselves as such. The truth is [[OmnicidalManiac complicated]].
** Nordlings' different resistance groups during war with the Nilfgaard Empire, ranging from thugs posing as such to full-scale guerilla divisions made of [[TheRemnant remnant armies]] from conquered countries.
* LadyLand: [[UnreliableExpositor Depending who you ask]], Zerrikania might fall under this or not. By Nordlings' standards, it's a tyranny of {{Straw Feminist}}s, but given Nordlings' [[StayInTheKitchen attitude toward women]] and [[IrrationalHatred anything different than their own culture]], it's obvious they are wrong. From the point of view of other races and Zerrikanians themselves, it's nothing more than a centuries long tradition, with no opression toward men or gender favourism involved. The subject also divided players. Some of them point out that since the article was written by woman, it clearly must be StrawFeminism. Other just shake their heads in disbelieve of such accusations. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Let us leave it as it is]].
* LadyLegionnaireWear: [[MsFanservice Archer]] drawn in section devoted to bows wears one. By game mechanics, they work just like any other leather armour covering legs.
* LampshadeHanging: Together with AsYouKnow they are advised by authors as a way of cueing players about all the stuff their characters should be aware of thanks to their Stats or skills, regardless how improbable, ridiculous or simply made up those things are.
* LandOfOneCity: Free City Novigrad is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. There are also numerous small states and backward areas that have single city, resembling the way how Italian city-states worked. The term "city" by itself is often very generous.

* LeadTheTarget: Not doing so provides absurdly high penalty for hitting running creatures (humanoid or not) and cavalry. There is even a special combat manoeuvres designated for leading your targets, which nulls all possible penalties, but also takes a round to use.
* LeanAndMean: Elves are slim and ephemeral, while tend to be utter jerks or plain monsters more often than not.
* LesCollaborateurs: That's how [[WhatAnIdiot Scoi'a'tel]] treat any non-human race that peacefully coexist with humans. [[SarcasmMode Because it's better to]] [[BullyingADragon bully humanity]]. [[IgnoredEpiphany Not that it previously put elves on brink of extinction or something...]]
* LethalJokeCharacter: Halflings. Small, pudgy humanoids, acting somewhat childish and with well-earned reputation of gluttons. They've got severe cap on maximum Strength and Movement. But beware when they start throwing things. Or use slings. Or when you have to to actually [[{{Acrofatic}} hit one]].
* LieToTheBeholder: Illusions of all sorts work this way.
** Unless it's [[OurDragonsAreDifferent a dragon]] or [[CatsAreMagic a cat]] - they can't be tricked by mere illusion.
* LightIsGood: Or at least it repel some of monsters and wild animals.
* LighterAndSofter: The source book and most of the setting is like this toward [[Literature/TheWitcher the saga]]. Many things are toned down, while others are turned up to create more [[AdventureFriendlyWorld adventure-friendly environment]]. But there is also the [[DarkerAndEdgier expansion about Nilfgaard]]. It's players' choice which version they prefer. The adventures, obviously, were patterned after Sapkowski's short stories, often being [[FracturedFairyTale deconstructions of the fairy tales]].
* LightningBruiser: Witchers' {{Splat}} requires from player to take many Statistics on minimal level, creating durable, fast and able fighter in the process. Combined with skills granted for free, they land in PurposelyOverpowered category.
* LimitedLoadout: Strength is calculated into Carry Weight and Maximum Carry. Taking more than Carry Weight will give serious encumbrance penalties and it's impossible to take more than twice the Carry Weight of equipment. Maximum Carry is considered as weight characters can lift above head level without suffering hernia, muscle strains and other injuries.
* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Averted. Part of it comes from the setting, part from game mechanics, but the most important factor was authors annoyance with such mechanics.
** In a sense, ''everyone'' is quadratic, since the difference of single point in any skill is well beyond linear profit.
* LineOfSightName: All of them are lifted from short stories and saga, so it's not fault of game authors.
* LivingOnBorrowedTime: Sufficiently high Construction and ''Vigour'' allow to live few rounds longer in certain situations. If your characters are really lucky, the mage in the party will be still alive and with enough Arcane Points to patch things up, allowing to survive the whole thing.
* LoadBearingHero: The picture neatly placed next to the paragraph about how Maximum Weight works contrains a human male holding ''collapsing cave roof'', while an elven maiden is crawling between his legs to retrive some fancy-looking cane from the rubble.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: The whole concept for the game came from idea of averting this trope and making the game as intuitive as possible, with as much story-telling involved as possible. It worked. It worked brilliantly.
* LoanShark: General rule of doing bussiness in Novigrad is to never, ''ever'' take a loan, unless it's a certified dwarven bank. [[RefugeInAudacity Or Pastry Credit Union "Torte"]].

** [[WizardsLiveLonger Mages are able to stave off aging]], to the point where life expectancy of average human wizard or sorceress is around 200 years.
** Thanks to their mutations, witchers will be still in their prime well over their 100th birthday, while looking not even half of their age.
* LowFantasy: So low it can easily pass as '''''[[WorldOfPhlebotinum 2]]''''' on MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness.
** On the other hand, the fighting mechanics are firmly in HeroicFantasy, at least when your characters managed to live long enough to rise their Stats and skills at level 4 or beyond. After that things like catching arrows, blocking numerous attacks with single move, disintegrating your enemies with mere look at them or shooting a rider off a galloping horse against the gale wind become a norm. [[TropesAreNotBad And it's fun]].
* LuckManipulationMechanic: You don't want to [[CriticalFailure get 1 on Fate Dice]], no matter what. On the other hand, critical success is sometimes the only way to actually do certain things if your character stats or skills are low.
** There is a small insurance during fights in case of critical failures or to enhance critical hit chance, but outside fight you can't do anything to prevent such failures. All you need to do is declare using Combat[=/=]Arcane Point during your Hit Roll and you can add it to the outcome to chosen dice, one point per dice. This may prevent getting 1 on Fate Dice, may give additional successes ''or'' turn the attack into critical.
** Traits ''Lucky'' and ''Jinx'' are all about this trope. ''Lucky'' makes every 5 on Fate Dice to work as a critical success, while ''Jinx'' makes every 2 a critical failure. They are ''not'' mutually exclusive and take or give the same amount of points during character creation, allowing to effortlessly pick both if you feel giddy.
** In short, what Stats you have don't really matter after level 3 or so - what matters is the Fate Dice.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Shields are extremely usefull. They are the easiest way to get higher physical defense ratings (other require either grinding your skill or stat), [[DamageReduction soak damage]] and are the only conventional way to block projectiles. They can also block certain spells and special attacks of monsters (but after the later they are usually destroyed).

* HouseRules: The authors heavily encourage this, pointing out that their game and rules can and sometimes even should be changed to enhance the gameplay. They also discourage doing everything by the book, since it can kill the creativity of both players and GMs.

* GoodPaysBetter: Averted, since the setting [[AWorldHalfFull is]] [[LowFantasy what]] [[FantasticRacism it]] [[GreyAndGrayMorality is]]. Creating an racist, bigoted outlaw with a HairTriggerTemper and a nasty knack for needless torture not only [[MinMaxing provides you with lots of additional Stat Points during character creation]], but such a character also perfectly fits in to the setting. On the contrast, playing as a goodie-two-shoes other than a KnightInSourArmor is an almost guaranteed way to get strange looks from [=NPCs=] and gives you no advantages.

* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Half-elves have it really hard, almost always between a rock and a hard place. Depending on mother's race, they are treated bad by either humans or elves. The latter are more pragmatic, as they seek as much offspring as possible and thus accept half-elves. Meanwhile humans treat them as [[KickTheDog yet another race of non-human freaks]], especially when elven heritage is highly visible.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Half-elves are the most obvious case. Dryads use human, elven and half-elven males for fertilisation, but the offspring is always dryad girl.
* HealingFactor: Downplayed, but still present for witchers. They don't magically heal on site nor regrown cut limbs, but as part of their mutations they can in certain circumstances or with proper care heal three times faster than normally. Given that the healing system runs on RealityEnsues and going back to full health can take months, this is ''quite'' a feat.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: Naturalised dryads are human women in their teens or almost adult when conditioned with Water of Brokilon and bam, they are dryads, with no or almost no recollection of their former lives. Then you realise they were kidnapped from some village or lumberjack camp right next to the Brokilon, so they will shoot down their own family in first given chance... that is, if their family wasn't killed already.
* HeroesPreferSwords: Inverted. Combat mechanics list four groups of melee weapons: knives and daggers, lighter weapons, regular weapons and two-handed weapons, with damage related to each group as a whole. Swords are in "regular weapons" and thus dealing d6 damage, but so are cutlasses, axes, maces, heavy clubs, short spears and [[ImprovisedWeapon many other things you can handle with one arm]].
* HiddenElfVillage: Duén Canell, known also as Place of the Oak. Heart of the Brokilon, "capital" of dryads. Getting there without their permission and escort is simply impossible.
* HiddenWeapons: Expansion covering espionage added two of them: mini-crossbow lifted from saga and [[RuleOfCool boots with hidden blades]].
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Averted for anyone who is not a witcher and ZigZagged for them. Healing process takes ''weeks'' under professional care and months without it. Eating food won't do you any good aside providing nutrition. The only expeption is witchers' immunity to most known diseases, which allows them to gorge themselves on rotting meat without any bad effects. They can also use their ''highly toxic'' elixirs to restore stamina and very small amount of Arcane Points, but that's all.

* {{Hobbits}}: You mean halflings? This race got traits both of Tolkien's hobbits and TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons' halflings. It's not helping that in Polish both halflings and hobbits can be refered to by the same word (''niziołki'') and that's how they are adressed.

** Humans start with ''Knowledge: Home area'', which provides them with additional informations about the surrounding area of their place of origin. This may range from topography of some woodland to configuration of streets in chosen city.

* [[HopelessWar Hopeless Fight]]: Dryads are waging one with humanity for decades, if not centuries. It's so hopeless that it can't be even called a war. It's clear for everyone how one-sided it is, but that doesn't mean dryads even considered [[DoNotGoGentle to go gentle]].
* HornyVikings: Humans that arrived to what's now Northern Kingdoms were clearly those. Skellige Isles are a nation that still lives by "the old ways", with means [[{{Pirate}} as]] [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy many]] [[ProudMerchantRace references]] [[BoisterousBruiser to]] [[BraidsOfBarbarism stereotype]] [[BeardOfBarbarism vikings]] [[BarbarianLonghair as]] [[StockCostumeTraits possible]].
* HorsingAround: Skill ''Riding'' is not about ability to ride - it's assumed that in given setting everyone can do that. Instead, it's used every time when rider is forcing mount to do something special, stupid or outright suicidal.
* HotBlooded: Calm dwarf? You mean the too drunk to react one?
* HouseRules: The authors heavily encourage such behaviour, pointing out that their game and rules can and sometimes even should be changed to enhance the gameplay. They also discourage doing everything by the book, since it kills creativity of both players and GM.
* HumanSacrifice: Coram Agh Ter has a reputation of demanding those. But not in the standard way, on altar's offering table, since he's god of sudden death.
* HumansAreBastards: Chapter devoted to describe humanity as a whole nicely sums it up in it's title - "Humans: Acquisitive and Brutal".

** Not counting two (or three if you ask dryads) exeptions, all countries are made and mostly populated by humans. Said countries tend to wage wars between themselves more often than not and hate each other guts. Then there is society as a whole, with nobles playing their own games of particularism and political deals are always under the shadow of [[TheMagocracy Capitule]], pulling strings to achieve more profit for mages. When Nilfgaard soldiers knocked to the borders of Northern Kingdoms, things get only more messed up.
** [[DyingRace Elves learned the hard way]] to never, ever mess with humanity as a whole. While humans ''are'' divided, they have also unprecedented racial solidarity, putting their race (or at least country) before anything else. But after the common foe is defeated, they start to wage wars between themselves ''again''.
* HumansAreWhite: Having HornyVikings as your ancestors tend to have this effect.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: We are dh'oine for elves and other users of Elder Speech.
* TheHunter: Witchers. They are rised and trained for one and just one purpose. Track, find and kill monsters that are dangerous to humans. That's also their actuall job.
* IShallTauntYou: One of combat manoeuvres in ''Unarmed combat'' is special kind of dodge. When it's successful, you make your opponent to look like clumsy and pathetic wimp.
* IWasQuiteALooker: ''All'' old priestesses of Freyja, since they are picked as teens by merit of their beauty and only the most beautiful girls presented during the initiation ceremony are chosen.

** The Cult of Coram Agh Ter. Expected, given the [[HumanSacrifice nature of the]] [[ReligionOfEvil religion]] and it's [[EldritchAbomination deity]].
** Within the small area under [[LandOfOneCity Novigrad's]] [[TheTheocracy rule]], there is only Eternal Fire. Praising any deity or preaching other religions is forbidden, or the local inqisition will get you.

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Averted. Not counting most basic {{mooks}}, dedicated rangers should have high enough Perception stat, ''Shooting'' skill or both, allowing them to effectively use their weapons. And don't forget about [[ImprobableAimingSkills dryads]].
* ImplacableMan: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Nosferates]] are practically unstoppable and unkillable. Even if you somehow "kill" them and ''chop into pieces'', they will still regenerate after few years or decades. Pray to be dead by that time, because they might [[BestServedCold come with a visit]].
* ImplausibleFencingPowers: Few combat manoeuvres, like taking down flying arrows.
* ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: Whips, both those made from vines by dryads and those spiked ones.

** 5 points in Shooting combined with few traits and perks lead to this. All you have to do is live long enough to get it all...
** Starting trait "Hawk-eye" alone grants such skills. Not only all rolls based on Perception (''Shooting'' is one of them) have lowered difficulty - distance penalties are also halved.
* ImprovisedWeapon: General rule of improvised weapons is very simple. If your characters can lift something and smack with it - it's a weapon. Be it a throwing crossbow, two-handed bench seat or nearby dwarf.
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: ''The Witcher: Game of Imagination by Andrzej Sapkowski'' is the full title of the game. Players and [[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher's]] fandom couldn't care less, since the game is [[FanNickname usually called]] simply ''Witcher'' or now ''Witcher - Game of Imagination'' to distinguish it from video games. Sapkowski's involvement at best was very limited - the only mention of him is the title and small note after page full of credits simply stating "Based on works of Andrzej Sapkowski". On the other hand, he worked for many years with MAG Publishing House and it should be noted he's well-know critisizer of ChooseYourOwnAdventure genre for it's lack of real freedom and supporter of WideOpenSandbox approach to Tabletop [=RPG=] instead of folowing stereotypes and archetypes. Which the game tried to implement as much as possible in it's rules and pre-existing setting. Sapkowski did write his own small RPG before.
* InitiationCeremony: Naturalisation of human girls into dryads can be treated as one and is downright horrific. After drinking Water of Brokilon, they fall into state of catatonia or convulsions for few hours, while their memories are wiped out. They experience vivid hallucinations for the duration of the process. It's not entirely clear if their memories are simply removed or are rewritten into those of a dryad.
* InhumanlyBeautifulRace: Elves. There are also dryads and mermaids. Few kinds of monster are capable to disguise themselves as such. Of those all mermaids are the least vicious ones.
* InsistentTerminology: Many. To name few: [[GameMaster story-teller]], [[HitPoints Vitality]], [[ExperiencePoints Points of Proficiency]], [[{{Mana}} Arcane Points]], [[PlayerParty hansa]] and many, many other, as was the custom in the 90s and still is in any Polish tabletop [=RPG=].
* InstantWakingSkills: Trait ''Light sleep'' allows player to roll ''very'' easy test of Perception whenever something produce conspicuous sound - single success is enough to wake up instantly.
* InterspeciesRomance: Half-evles that were not concived during rape came from those. Subverted with dryads - they use human, elven and half-elven males for reproduction, but it's just for procreation and without any feelings.
* InvoluntaryShapeshifter: For starters, [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent lycantropy]] works this way, with bad case of TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody. There are also spells dedicated into turning someone into other living being (albeit never bigger than original form... [[ShapeshifterBaggage smaller are somehow possible]]) or packing them into inanimate object.

** Druids' powers were vaguely defined in the game proper and never standardised - we never learned whether they use prayers like priests (as supported by the specific druidic prayer) or spells like wizards (supported by lore and some mentions in the text). Nor there is any [[TakeAThirdOption specific skill]] for them either.

* FailedASpotCheck: The game tries to avert this by putting emphasis on story-telling and discourage use of mechanics. But if you are RulePlaying...
* FallingDamage: The safe height your character can jump or fall from is not only listed, but also influenced by ''Acrobatics'' skill. Of course, after certain point, it will be an instant death for everyone. SoftWater is also affected, so not even it will reliably save a character.
* FanDisservice: Vicious and[=/=]or unintelligent humanoid monsters are not only described as butt-ugly. All of them got also appropriate pictures.
* {{Fanservice}}: Whenever it was possible or fitting, a picture of scandily clad or outright naked woman was placed. Some of them are for laughts (like the one under spell ''Teleprojection''), other are outright fanservice (like the naked wenches in the chapter about healing). Whenever an ActionGirl is drawn, chances are high that she will be also MsFanservice.
* FangsAreEvil: If anything looks humanoid, but sprout sizable or additional fangs - run like hell. Better not wait for full analysis what you are facing, because it might be too late.
* FantasticNatureReserve: Zerrikania, sort of. It's a safe haven for dragons (they are worshipped as deities) and Faithel warriors are dedicated into finding and bringing there dragons from the "barbaric west" - aka the Northern Kingdoms. Since it's country beyond the known world, there are also no witchers or their equivalent, thus monsters tend to be much more numerous. In fact, the mountain passes leading to Zerrikania being so heavily infested by all kinds and sorts of monsters is the chief reason why the country is barely known and [[ShroudedInMyth almost mythical]].
* FantasticRacism: One of the basic rules for world of Witcher is that every race is hated by other races. Humans are the most hated, as they are dominant. The only races not being driven by inter-racial hate are gnomes and halflings, but that doesn't stop ''others'' from prejudice toward them.
* FantasyCharacterClasses: Mostly averted. There are no classes and your character can end up as BunnyEarsLawyer or JackOfAllTrades and actually master of them all. The only exception is [=witcher/mage/priest=] combo, but it mostly comes from how those trades work in given setting, not actual game mechanics.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Lots, some retroactively made to Sapkowski's canon. It's actally hard to find something which is ''not'' one. Many of them borders on CultureChopSuey.

** Elves are somewhere between Celts run by Romans and Romans run by barbarians, with few dashes of Native Americans.
** Kaedven is cross of UsefulNotes/KievanRus and [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire early-medieval Germany]], SettlingTheFrontier for human civilization. It's more clear in remote areas than in civilized parts (2[=/=]3 of this ''huge'' country is covered with dense forest).
** Kovir-Poviss is something between Britain and Venice - powerful, yet mostly uninterested with affairs of other countries [[UsefulNotes/BritainVersusTheUK amalgam of small kingdoms and dutchies]] with powerful fleet and merchant marine. Winter capital ''is'' Venice with UsefulNotes/BritishWeather. Their main goal is to profit on high-sea trade.

** Mahakam is [[UsefulNotes/AllTheLittleGermanies industrialized Rhineland]] ihabited by dwarves, placed under the eponymous mountain chain.
** Redania is [[UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] - numerous and equal nobles hold power, cavalry is the best in the world, main source of income is exported grain and commoners are treated like private property, while halflings play role of foreign settlers in Commonwealth. Their king has a [[AerithAndBob vaguely Slavic name of Radowid]], and he's son of Queen Hedwig. Even it's coat of arms is very similar to Polish from times of the Commonwealth, while the book only said it's an eagle on red shield.
** Skellige Isles are blatant home of HornyVikings, with many references to Norse culture and terminology.

* FantasyGunControl: Exspansion about Novigrad introduced skill ''Artillery'' and GreekFire-like substance. [[FanonDiscontinuity Players deny it's existence]], while [[OldShame authors regret putting it in]].

* FearIsTheAppropriateResponse: Meta-example. When your [[PlayerParty hansa]] lacks witcher or at least powerful magician in his place, fighting monsters tend to be like this. Especially those immune to regular weapons.
* FeelNoPain: Witchers under their elixirs and everyone else under drugs, but it's more dangerous than helpful - characters may exceed their limits and end up with even more wounds. Oh, and pray for anesthesia when drugs start to wear off and your open bone fracture wasn't treated yet.
* FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence: Trait ''Race hater'' makes player's character like this. Unless a test of ''Cold Blood'' is passed, characters with this trait will lash, sometimes violently, against chosen race.
* FictionalHoliday: They are related either with important days in history or are religious events related with solstices, while there is no equivalent of free Sunday.
* FighterMageThief - mostly averted.

** There are many quotes lifted from short stories and saga, often as explanation from where authors took their idea. Some monsters were only mentioned in the saga, which led to the brilliant description of "ornitodrakon" - "This could've been an ornitodrakon(...)". There are also flavour examples in expansions, all of them being {{Shout Out}}s toward politics, history and pop-culture, both international and Polish.

* ForestRanger: Entire race of them, in archer flavour.

* FunctionalMagic + MagicAIsMagicA: Magic is described as operating on scientifically explorable principles, with reliable and repeatable effects of every action. Which gives many opportunities for [[MundaneUtility Mundane Utilities]]. Even if spell is cast in wrong way, the mistake will have roughtly the same result every time it's made. Rules like no resurrection or no time-travel are also in place.
** On the other hand, priestly prayers were poorly defined, and in essence were just a supplication to the deity - which could agree or not.

* GameMaster: That is [[InsistentTerminology "story-teller"!]]
* TheGMIsACheatingBastard: That's how [[RulePlaying Rule Players]] consider any GM who is actually playing by the book... and the book advises to rarely use mechanics and encourage story-telling instead of rolls - especially that the core rules of the game are mutually exclusive.
* GenderIsNoObject: Wizards and sorceress have the same rights and are treated equally, ''but'' they are trained in two [[OneGenderSchool gender-separated schools]], themselves apart by hundreds of miles. As you may notice, this only covers mages. Meanwhile, women are [[StayInTheKitchen clearly inferior in society as a whole]].

* GeometricMagic: Most powerful spells are in [[RitualMagic form of ritual]] and they require to drawn down a lot of diagrams on the ground.
* GladiatorGames: One of favourite form of entertainment in Nilfgaard.
* GlamourFailure: Applying silver on natural shapeshifters usually revert them into their true form, which tends to be butt-ugly. Or at least it will give them severe allergic reaction, which doesn't look good either.
* GlobalCurrency: Inverted. Every nation is issuing own currency, often with different scales and sub-units made of different materials of different purity. Which leads to serious mess when travelling between them. Banks are evaluating everything in denars - an unit of pure silver of certain weight, which is used as currency in international trade and to cover travelling cheques in local currency. That said, it's possible to pay bills in currency of other country, but requires someone to do the Math... or overpay.
* GoneHorriblyRight/[[GoneHorriblyWrong Wrong]]: The demo teaser version. The intention was to get more attention toward the game and provide a sample of unique, new and home-made game that can easily compete with imported ones. But since the franchise was at the peak of it's popularity, everyone knew the setting already, so no fluff was needed. The incredibly easy mechanics, based on [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment d6 dice]] that everyone can easily get didn't really needed much more to be fully playable. Oh, and the teaser as part of it's marketing campaign was [[{{Subverted}} subverting]] CrackIsCheaper by a tag-price of ''3 bucks'' for the book. The effect? The game ''did'' became highly popular, but the source book sold below estimated numbers, while the teaser run out of copies long before the official premiere of the game. Adding to that [[DidntSeeThatCOming rise of wide access to Internet in Poland]] and the source book ended up with more pirated copies than bought ones, even if it too subverted CrackIsCheaper.
* GoodIsNotNice: Witchers and Kreve's clergy are this trope personified, since both are dedicated into eradication of evil. With [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption brute force]] and [[KillItWithFire fire]].

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Most basic hand-to-hand combat boils down to this. Advanced combat manoeuvres involve lots of grappling, joint-locks, takedowns and kicking every part of body that [[CombatPragmatist can be easily broken]].
* GoodPaysBetter: Averted, since the setting [[AWorldHalfFull is]] [[LowFantasy what]] [[FantasticRacism it]] [[GreyAndGrayMorality is]]. Creating an outlaw, racist bigot with HairTriggerTemper and nasty knack for needless tortures not only [[MinMaxing provides you with lots of additional Stat Points during character creation]] - such character also perfectly fits in to the setting. On the contrast, playing as goodie-two-shoes other than KnightInSourArmor is almost guaranteed way to get strange looks from [=NPCs=] and gives you no advantages.
* GoodShepherd: Priestesses of Melitele and Freyja are those by default, as their religions emphasis compassion and goodness. Less [[ChurchMilitant militant]] priest of Kreve can also count.
* GroinAttack: As a combat manoeuvre for ''Unarmed combat''. Not only it deals bonus damage, but unlucky enemy must pass a test of ''Vigour'' or he will be knocked out for one round. Of course it works only on male opponents.
* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Humanity versus dryads. Since dryads [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman are not human]], protect a primeval forest that can be cashed in and tend to kidnapp girls to fill their ranks, humans treat them as monsters and gleefully kill whenever possible.
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Dryads get very high starting ''Shooting'' skill for free and are one of two races without any starting melee skill.

* CallAHitPointASmeerp: Vitality is divided into four stages: Healthy, Beaten, Wounded and Dying, each corresponding to a quarter of total HitPoints. Healthy and Beaten represents situation when character is out of fight or sustained some minor bruises during fist fight and are rather harmless. Wounded will makes your rolls progressively harder, while Dying seriously lowers your stats and skills and requires medical attention in short time or a character will die. Reaching 0 Vitality or below it is instant death. Armour [[DamageReduction soaks damage]], so it technically gives you additional points of Vitality for covered body parts.

* ChildSoldiers: Since dryads don't shy from kidnapping young girls and brainwashing them, this can happen. Then again, the "adult" age is 16 for humans in this setting.

* DamageReduction: Armour, both natural and crafted, works this way. If target is hit, the damage is reduced by certain value, depending on the type and/or layers of armour. Can lead to situation when no damage is dealt at all.
* DamageTyping: Sort of. Damage itself is just damage, but during hit rolls, there are two groups of defences with three subgroups in each: physical (hand-to-hand, weapons and projectiles) and magical (witchers' signs, magic and prayers).
* DarkerAndEdgier: While the source book and most of expansions are much more optimistic and less crap-sacked than [[Literature/TheWitcher Witcher's saga]], expansion about Nilfgaard is dialing everything bad and horrible UpToEleven, as it takes place DuringTheWar between Nordlings and Nilfgaard. Scoi'a'tel and marauders rampaging all around, abundant monsters, mages with more political power than ever before, famine, poverty, whole countries reduced into smouldering ruins... just name it.

* DeathFromAbove: If it flies, your character is a good candidate for it's dinner.
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: If your character can withstand counterattacks, it's entirely possible to beat someone or something to death with just bare hands or a stick. Or at least when enemy is unarmoured and[=/=]or small enough.
* DeflectorShields: There is a spell that stops projectiles. Witchers have two signs working this way - ''Quen'' can block projectiles and even smaller creatures, while ''Yrden'' creates impenetrable, stationary force field.
* DepletedPhlebotinumShells: Weapons coated or made of silver are extra effective against [[FantasticFragility all kinds of monsters]]. Sometimes silver is the only thing those creatures may be hurt with.
* DetectEvil: More in form of Detect Magic - witchers' medallions will start to vibrate when close to magic of any sort. Since all monsters are magic-related, it allows to detect their presence.
* {{Determinator}}: Starting advantage ''Tough guy'' allows character to ignore half of the penalties added for lacking [[HitPoints Vitality]]. Characters with trait ''Berserker'' have removed all Vitality-related penalties for the duration of their killing frenzies. Powerful enough ''Hypnosis'' spell may force people to do things otherwise unthinkable for them, but after doing so the spell is broken.

** More than quarter of the source book is dedicated to giving different solutions and sugestions for story-tellers, ranging from things like "Organising campaigns for dummies" to exploring many of high concepts of the game's world and their implications for players. This is ''very'' helpful for novice players, not only those starting with The Witcher, but with tabletop [=RPG=] in general.

** There is a lenghty, but light-headed and not condemning anyone chapter discussing different types of players and how their behaviour can enchance or spoil fun for rest of the team.
** As mentioned below, there is a whole chapter about solving [[SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome problem with amount of witchers]] - going by one of interviews, devs started writting that chapter before they even fully decided to create the game, to be sure the problem can be solved.
* DiscOneNuke: Witchers' ''starting'' swords. While one-handed, they are dealing damage of two handed weapons, ''and'' half of it fixed. Even in worst possible damage roll they still surpass any regular sword with maximum damage roll.

** Elves in their backstory factionised during initial contact with humans. [[DyingRace It didn't end well for them]].
** The main reason why Northern Kingdoms get beaten by the Nilfgaard Empire - they are numerous, they hate each other and it's much easier to pick on them one at the time. By the time they realise the implications of "not my bussiness" policy, third of them is under Nilfgaardian rule.
* [[DoNotRunWithAGun Do Not Run With A Bow]]: Using any type of projectile-based weapon while running increase the difficulty of hit rolls. Shooting while riding makes it even harder.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Halflings, but to be honest they don't even have to wear them - soles of their feet tend to be harder than shoes and seems to be immune to cold.

** Dryads are more or less aware what are their chances against the rest of the world. That doesn't mean they stop shooting down anything that cross what they consider as borders of Brokilon. And some of those places were deforested years ago...
** Scoi'a'tel are thinking they are fighting under this trope. The {{irony}} comes from realisation that new wave of pogroms agains elves emerged ''after'' [[WhatAnIdiot Scoi'a'tel started their so-called revolution]] - in source book elves are looked upon, but treated more or less fair. In expansion about Nilfgaard, where Scoi'a'tel commandos run all around, elves are treated as ''third''-rate citizens, in form of collective responsibility.

* {{Druid}}: Druidism is one of religions, with serious eco-balance preaching. Druids themselves have only few traits typical to other fantasy settings and are more closely to their real-life version. Sure, they take women to their ranks, choose new candidates from magic-sensitive people and the environmental message is added, but that's about all. No shapeshifting, no special orientation in healing, no AnimalTalk and especially ''no'' control over nature, since they consider it a sin. Think about it more like fantasy-counterpart Taoism than anything else. Oh, and they are usually nice to people. Unless said people are not nice to nature.

* DualWield: Penalized, but possible. With proper perks character can wield two regular weapons (without them, the weaker hand can only hold knives and lighter weapons) and penalties are removed.
* DumpStat: Movement. Dear God, Movement. The only thing it's used is for measurement how long distance character can travel during single round of fight (which is irrevelant, as sooner or later you will end in melee distance) and during travelling the world (which is irrevelant, as when riding or traveling by any other mean than on foot you use Movement of mount or vehicle). There are dozens of HouseRules to derive it from different Stats to save Stat Points.
* TheDungAges: In poorer kingdoms and remote areas at least. The info on life in Northern Kingdoms was [[{{Plagiarism}} directly taken from two books on medieval life]]. It should be noted that persona hygiene is on rather high level for given setting - public baths are common and Nordlings take a bath at least once per week, while washing some body parts daily. The problem arise with lack of any serious public sanitation, dung piling on streets (''if'' there is a street) and poor quality of water in more densely populated areas.

* DyingRace: Elves and dryads. It's easier to find naturalised dryad (which is well-disguised, [[HeelFaceBrainwashing brainwashed]] [[TykeBomb human girl]]) than actual born one.
* EarlyGameHell: The mechanics is intentionally imbalanced vis-a-vis starting characters. In their zone of competence they have about 50% to succeed in easy tasks. The expansions helped a bit, providing a material for MinMaxing and bunch of easy to gain perks, but for a ''long'' time your character will remain relatively underpowered outside the specific field picked up at the beginning.
* ElementalPowers: Mages regenerate their Arcane Points from elemental sources of different size. The bigger the source, the easier it is to overcharge - the effects ranges from nausea and nose bleed to YourHeadAsplode. Casting certain spells is easier after drawing from specific elements.

** Temerian Landsknechts - most disciplined troops from Northern Kingdoms, armed with {{BFS}} and acting like a single body on the battlefield. They are the only troops from North to be descibed with standard ''Tactics'' and ''Cold Blood'' skills, so they are unlikely to panic or run away.
** Troops of Nilfgaard proper are all like this, since they are using standing army with standarized equipment (including uniform and armour), well-organized logistics and are lead by professional officers, not random nobles.
* ElvesVersusDwarves: In the backstory, first thing elves did after landing on the Continent was declaring dwarves not worth living and started genocidal war with them. This equally maimed both sides and paved road for easier conquest for humans. Both races still hold grudge against each other. Dwarves also like to remind how elves started talking about "[[EnemyMine us, older races]]" only after humanity decided that there is no room for elves.
* EmotionSuppression: Witchers after meditation or under effect of some of their elixirs completely repress feelings. [[TheStoic Not that they have vivid emotional life to begin with]].

** Dryads and Scoi'a'tel agains humanity. Dryads are open with fact that in any other situation they would simply kill the elves, since they are not better than humans when it comes to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance nature preservation]].
** Dvarves [[SubvertedTrope are immune to this]] and whenever elves try to pull this against humanity, they coldly reply that elves only started talking about alliance ''after'' humans drove them near to extinction.
* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: In desolated, remote or semi-remote parts of the world everything is hostile.
* EvilPaysBetter: Most profitable disadvantages - those giving most Stat Points and those not crippling a character - require from player to pick some criminal or outright psychopatic background. It starts with having HairTriggerTemper, advance through things like RevengeBeforeReason or going into UnstoppableRage when someone wronged your character and ending with being a wanted outlaw chased in ''whole country'' or urge to kill everything around you after drawing blood.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Highest achievable level of Stat or skill, 5, is listed as Legendary. Reaching such level of any skill allows to pull standard and mildly-badass actions ''without a roll''. Legendary Stat grants you five dices for rolls related with that Stat, so even with ''zero skill'' you can pull some actions by sheer badassitude. That said, you still have a chance to fail.
* ExoticWeaponSupremacy: Inverted. While "overseas weapons" bypass any armour exept plate mail and thus can deal higher damage, customized melee weapons might have fixed bonus to damage (exotic got only d6 roll). Not to mention that exotic weapons are extremely rare and cost small fortune (especially true for bows).
* ExpandedUniverse: Source book is this toward short stories and saga. Then there are expansions toward source book, dealing with more detailed subjects.
* ExperiencePoints: [[InsistentTerminology Points of Proficiency]]

* EyepatchOfPower: You can create one-eyed character. While it makes rolls based on visual perception just a tiny bit harder, it also grants 2 additional Stat Points during character creation, making it really powerful bargain.

* CastFromHitPoints: When mages are casting spells beyond their current number of [[{{Mana}} Arcane Points]], the difference between required and available Points is taken from [[HitPoints Vitality]].
* CatsAreMagic: They can't be fooled with illusions. And their favourite spots to lie upon? [[PlaceOfPower Places of Power]].
* [[AnimalsHateHim Cats Hate Him]]: Witchers are driving cats angry, for unspecified reasons.
* ChainmailBikini: Defied. Source book treats armour as unisex. If some part of body is not covered by armour, it doesn't gain any protection. Even pictures in chapter about fighting mechanics gives few {{Action Girl}}s in proper, functional sets of armour. [[MundaneMadeAwesome They still look awesome]].
* CharacterAlignment: Inverted. There are no typical alignment, but there is [=Honor/Reputation/Adventure=] triangle in which players must put their characters. They are treated more as a compass for players and a way to judge their actions by story-teller than any actuall mechanics.
* CharacterCustomization: While the source book only discussed it, it wasn't till the expansions that there was any mechanics for traits, perks and other special feats.
* CharacterLevel: The game is build on aversion to such system, being more of StatGrinding.
* ChargedAttack: Players can use their Combat Points to enhance outcome of hit roll. The same rule applies to spells, prayers, signs and psychic powers, but Arcane Points are used instead. Witchers [[MagicKnight are unique]] and can spend Arcane Points as Combat Points.
* TheChewToy: Mercenary Svarte and wizard Perignon, example characters used to show mechanics in action, are treated almost like crash-test dummies, suffering AmusingInjuries in every single case that can end with [[FinaglesLaw something going wrong]].
* ChildSoldiers: Since dryads don't shy from kidnapping young girls and brainwash them, this can happen. Then, "adult" is 16 for humans in this setting.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Not only present, but also hits and shots aimed for head deal twice more damage by default.
** And aiming for eyes multiply the damage by three, often leading to instant death or [[EyeScream at least being incapacitated]].
* ChurchMilitant: Most of religions tend to head toward this.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: All kinds of prayers works this way. And the more people are chanting it, the stronger the effects get. On the other hand, [[FunctionalMagic spells]] don't require any faith and are not only more reliable, but usually also more powerful. Usually.

* TheCoconutEffect: The authors openly admitted that this trope is the only reason why armour add penalties to the wearer the way it does, e.g. plate mail is portrayed as heavy and constricting, in stereotypical [=RPG=] fashion. It didn't work - many players of other games ''still'' treat this system as "unrealistic" for [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks not following other typical]] tabletop [=RPG=] [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen fighting]] [[PVPBalanced mechanics]].
* ColdSniper: Dryads are ''entire race of those'', armed with bows.
* [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatism]]: A running theme of the fighting mechanics. You can fight with honour and die horrible death. You can use only flashy moves and exhaust yourself before all your enemies drop dead. Or you can just fight as dirty as possible, surviving the whole ordeal without breaking the sweat. Story-tellers are advised to rarely (if ever) use MookChivalry and make humanoid enemies as bastardly during fights as it fits.
* CombatTentacles: Zeulgs have four tentacles with hooks and suction cups, but [[ManEatingPlant kelpies]] are ''made of'' sentient tentacles, so there is always more of them than your character can chop down before being strangled.

** Subverted. While there is a language called "Common", it simply a language that humans use and not even all of them - people from Skellige use their own dialect, while Nilfgaardians and Zerrikanians use different variants of Elder Speech, language of the elves. Elder Speech itself is used in few different forms that are in similar relation with it as Romance languages are with Latin.
** Starting level of any language skill is usually 2 (in 0-5 scale). Which means that even if characters use some tongue as their own, it's the local version and nothing more. It won't cover pronunciation from other countries and regions, not to mention knowing subdialects or understanding more complex words. This issue is constantly stressed out in source book, expansions and articles written for the game to remind players and [=GMs=] how suspicious their characters can be by the sole merit of talking in different way than the locals.
* CompellingVoice: Starting advantage players can pick, which lowers difficulty of every possible test based on talking, from haggle and pillow-talk to diplomacy and leading troops into battle. Costly, but very effective for diplomat-type characters.
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Averted. Bolts from crossbows may have enough force to stick out on the other side of their target, ''after'' passing through cover.

** Most of combat manoeuvres for ranged weapons and some of signs used by witchers may count. But nothing can be compared with OneHitKill moves - they use more Combat Points than some characters can even have. For single attack. Which can be dodged. Or missed.
** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in case of spells. At first glance ''all of them'' are ridiculousy overpriced, often costing more Arcane Points that it's possible to have, turning spellcasting into highly inefficient playstyle. [[ReadTheFreakingManual But if you carefully read the rules]], they also state how high skill and additional successes during hit rolls reduce the intake of Arcane Points to almost nothing or at least to bearable amounts.
* CoolSword: Overseas blades, witcher's swords (both types) and those customized for the user.
* CorruptChurch: Cult of Sun Disc has shades of this, but Cult of Eternal Fire is the trope. [[TheTheocracy A church organization running]] [[LandOfOneCity biggest trading port and it's city]] in the known world, looking mostly for own benefits.
* CounterAttack: ''Riposte'', probably the [[GameBreaker most powerful]] combat manoeuvre for melee weapons is described as such. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation But you can declare using it whenever you want]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: DiminishingReturnsForBalance strikes in it's finest during character creation. Not counting [[{{Splat}} race-related skills]], rising anything beyond 3 points will cost you dearly, leaving almost no points for other skills. Rising too many things to level 3 will cost you dearly ''too''. So it's a player choice if he or she wants the character to be really good at certain thing and virtually ''nothing else'' or being more balanced, but without any distinctive abilities.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Averted in really painful way. The less [[HitPoints Vitality]] character has, the more penalties are added, as a way to [[RealityIsUnrealistic emulate effects of real injuries]].
** Although authors gave players a choice if they want to use this aversion as a rule, as it leads to HarderThanHard territory.
* CriticalFailure: Authors advise to be creative with their outcome, but never [[KillerGameMaster sadistic]]. There is no real mechanic for effect of such failures, so it's all up to the story teller. ''But'' there is a special rule allowing to still succeed in whatever character was trying to do, as long as there was enough successes on other dices to pull the action and additional two to cover 1 on Fate Dice.
* CriticalHit: Criticals in fight multiply the outcome of damage rolls by two (three when aiming for head). Criticals in general may allow to pull action that would be otherwise impossible to do with given Stat and skill level.
* {{Cult}}: Not counting druidism, none of religion or church organization have any official name, so they are referred as "cult of Place Name Of The God Here". Said that, Coram Agh Ter has '''[[SpellMyNameWithAThe The]]''' Cult, with all the nasty things you can imagine about worshipping EldritchAbomination. Not to mention being [[RealityEnsues prosecuted by law in all countries]].
* CurbStompBattle: Being ambushed by dryads is in-universe example. Monsters in size of elephant or bigger will stomp (some of them literally) PlayerParty if no tactical cunning is used by players. Single dragon can take down small army with ease.
* CursedWithAwesome[=/=]BlessedWithSuck: In any other setting witchers would have it good. Thanks to their mutations they age ''very'' slowly, being always in good health and perfect condition. Said mutations also gave them such inhuman feats like night vision or ability to control their heart rate, not to mention healing faster than anything else. On the other hand the same mutations provide them with often hideous traits (strange eyes and pigmentation, albinism, overgrowing teeth). Their job is [[TheHunter the worst possible]], with constant risking of life for [[PerpetualPoverty inadequate pay]] and [[DudeWheresMyRespect no gratitude]]. It's hard to measure their life expectancy, since it always ends in desolated ruins or stinking dumping sites, when they are finally overpowered by stronger monster.

* CycleOfRevenge: All racial problems are fuelled by this, but nothing can be compared with conflict between humans and dryads. Humans cut trees. Dryads scared them away. Humans cut more trees and hanged few dryads. Dryads killed all hunters in the forest. Humans went on small war with dryads. Dryads retaliated with [[ShootEverythingThatMoves killing everyone coming even close to Brokilon]]. Humans decided to burn down part of the forest. Dryads started kidnapping and [[HeelFaceBrainwashing brainwashing human girls for their ranks]]... On the other hand, races that decided to break the cycle and simply live together have it much easier.

During the late [[TheNineties 90's]] there was some real hype around ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' in Poland. The last part of the saga was released and the author had a deal for a TV series and a film. In addition, there was a small project to create a tabletop RPG game based on the saga. The tabletop game was the only one of the three to find success.

* AnyoneCanDie: This system is a hard punch for anyone who is used to PlayerCharacters being MadeOfIron. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis You. Will. Die. A lot.]] Most basic weapons in the hands of average enemies can deal enough damage to take a quarter of your hit points with a single blow. [[TheManMakesTheWeapon In hands of professionals, the same weapons can kill you on the spot]]. And that's without even mentioning monsters - they deal enough damage to kill a character even with mediocre roll.
* AnythingThatMoves: Being a product of DyingRace, elven sexuality descended into having as much procreation and conception as possible. It borders on ExtremeOmnisexual - when given a choice, they prefer going to bed or raping humans and getting half-elves in the process than not having children at all. Because the aim is to get kids, homosexuality and purely romantic relationships are treated as TooDumbToLive among elves.
* ApeShallNeverKillApe: Elves ''insist'' that they don't fight nor kill their own kin. The fact that Scoi'a'tel kill without a blink of an eye every elf they arbitraly label as RaceTraitor is only a tip of the iceberg of hypocrisy.

* ArcherArchetype: Dryads. They could be poster-girls of this trope played ''very'' serious.

** Overseas weapons bypass anything less than plate mail, while there is a combat manoeuvre allowing a character to bypass plate mail with any weapon. However this works only on crafted armour, not the natural armor of monsters.

* AscendedExtra: Every single monster ever mentioned (even if just by name) in the short stories or the saga is present in the source book, with description, stats, attacks and most of them - with picture.
* TheAssimilator: The Nilfgaard Empire, with political system designed to hold the vast empire together by both force and cultural means. Being (for given setting) very tolerant helps immensely.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: It's the only way to beat armoured opponents and bigger monsters. Dragons are extremely hard to take down, since the only body parts that can be effectively attacked are their eyes and the insides of their mouths. The skill ''Knowledge: Monsters'' is dedicated to figuring out the weak points of the monsters your character is facing.

** Whips can be used for very flashy combat manoeuvres like tripping over, disarming and strangling, but over such short distances that it's easier to just draw your sword or shoot your enemy from afar. They are close to useless against armoured enemies, most of animals and monsters.
** Exotic weapons bypass any armour except plate mail, but they also cost a small fortune and have only d6 damage roll, while normal weapons can be customised for the user to deal additional fixed damage and become easier to wield.
** Two-handed weapons deal 2d6 + twice the Strength of damage, but they require sufficient Strength and many combat manoeuvres are restricted for one-handed weapons. It is more practical to use a combination of a one-handed weapon and a shield, as this grants protection and the [[ShieldBash shield may be weaponised]].
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in case of mini-crossbows and lamias (whips with metal spikes all over their lenght). The first deal relatively little damage and have a very short range, but they can be hidden in wide sleeves and shoot two bolts in a single round - [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange right in your face]]. The other has the range limitations of other whips, but deals the damage of a two-handed weapon. And unlike other whips, it overcomes the problem with close-quarter fights, since the handle is a mace.

* BadassNormal: In world with powerful magicians utilising FunctionalMagic, mutated monster hunters, a few different non-human races with physical capabilities beyond those of humans, personified GaiasVengeance and [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou tons of monsters who can eat you whole for dinner]], playing as a human tends to give this feeling. Because you can and often ''must'' stand your ground against all of those. Fluff-wise, humans managed to literally beat other races into submission, having none of their perks and feats.
* BadassOnPaper: Applies to almost any type of character with inherited reputation. Witchers are feared for a reason, but they can die just like anyone else and are covered with countless scars and/or maimed by monsters that were ''this'' close from killing them. Still, in most cases their sole presence is enough to scare {{Mooks}} away or hold them back without doing more than taking sword out of sheath. Same applies to dryads - they are extremely dangerous, but fully aware that their main advantage is their status of TheDreaded. After all, they are just a handful of young women armed with bows and usually end their lives being hanged by angry mob or slained by some barely trained mercs. Mages usually don't try doing anything stupid. Even if they can burn the whole town to the ground with a single spell, everyone in the setting is aware that getting trampled by angry mob is much faster than burning it alive.
* BearsAreBadNews: You really, really, ''really'' don't want to fight them. They are the strongest of normal animals... and stronger than most of the monsters. A single bear can tear a PlayerParty composed entirely of grizzled veterans apart, one character per round. It says something when short from [[OurDragonsAreDifferent flying dragons]] and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent high vampires]], bears are ''the'' toughest creatures you may fight against. And they are much, much more common than the other two.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Cult of Freyja from [[HornyVikings the Skellige Isles]] takes this mindset to the logical extreme, since Freyja is the goddess of beauty and fertility. Her clergy is entirely made up of girls chosen for their looks and nothing else. It's assumed that if they are pretty, they must be chosen by Freyja to serve her and thus are good and innocent.
* BerserkButton: Some of the disadvantages you can pick during character creation have those. Your character can be [[RevengeBeforeReason vengeful beyond reason]], be extremely racist toward a certain race or just become AxCrazy when the blood is drawn.
* BigEater: Halflings are friendly and cuddly version of this trope. Then there are bigger monsters. And oversized arthropods.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Just to name few out of a rather big bunch there are gigascorpions in size of a cow, crab-spiders able to chop your leg with their pinclers and ygherns, centripedes measured in ''meters''. All of them are dangerous like hell, as they have strong carapace, most of them are poisonous and all of them are always hungry. Oh, and they are the only creatures immune to ChunkySalsaRule.

* BladeOnAStick: Two-handed weapons that are not [[{{BFS}} swords]] are all types and kinds of pikes and polearms.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Humanity is the only race that has any form of (often misguided and exploited) patriotism. Other races barely comprehend why some oppressed villagers are more willing to die for their kings and political interest of their country than minding their own bussiness, especially since HumansAreDivided.
* BoltOfDivineRetribution: You really '''don't''' want to piss off [[GodOfEvil Coram A]][[EldritchAbomination gh Ter]] or [[{{Cult}} his]] [[ReligionOfEvil worshippers]].

* BowAndSwordInAccord: Entirely possible, with mechanics designed to help doing so. The better the bow, the more required Statistics. Longbows require 3 points in Agility. Compound bows need that ''and'' 3 points in Strength. Each two points in Agility provides character with one more defence, so 3 is the threshold at which it gets harder to hit characters with ''any'' physical attack. And melee damage got fixed bonus from Strength (weapons got ''twice'' the Strength). So with minor investment in ''Armed combat'', archers can be deadly both on distance and in close quarters. Humans got it especially easy to do, since they've got 5 bonus points to skills during character creation, which can be only used on skills from their {{Splat}}. And ''Armed combat'' is one of them.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The extent of it and how much it's lasting depends on the process used for it:
** Mages can use ''Charm'' and ''Hypnosis'' spells. The first one turns it's target into very friendly toward caster. The second gives total control over it's target. Both can be broken by sudden sound, [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan pain]] or strong will and can't last for more than an hour.
** Witchers have the ''Aksji'' sign, which turns any creature friendly and obedient for a short while. Witchers can also use it on ''themselves'', making them more focused on given task and lowering difficulties of actions related with fulfilling it. ''Aksji'' can be broken by roll of the ''Concentration'' skill and lasts for a single turn in the basic version.
** Naturalised dryads are created by giving normal human girls the Water of Brokilon. Their memories of previous life are erased (some traces may remain) and they think about themselves as dryads. The effect lasts forever and is irreversable.

* BreadAndCircuses: The Nilfgaard Empire is literally using this over it's population, with GladiatorGames, [[NoDelaysForTheWicked doing everything on time]] and providing basic consumer products in reasonable prices. Who cares that half of those things came from pillage of the far North?
* BreakMeter: Played every possible way. Combat manoeuvres, especially those in melee, can affect defences of both target and user of that move. Most often using combat manoeuvres expose it's user for next round (because of ending up in bad position for blocking incoming hits or being surrounded by enemies). They can also increase defence of their target, making it harder to hit (try to reach two people with a single slash of sword). Usually more powerful moves do both. There are also defensive moves - they make it harder to hit your character, often exposing enemy in the process.
* BreakingTheBonds: Inverted to the point of a deconstruction. The spell ''Fire net'' bonds it's target and that's about all it does. Any attempt of movement will deal d3 damage. Breaking free? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero That's 2d6 damage]] - almost half of the maximum possible [[HitPoints Vitality]] an average character may have.
* BrownNote: [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Bruxas]] can utter a scream strong enough to make your ears bleed. Or [[MakeMeWannaShout knock you to the ground]] in close distance.

''The Witcher: Game of Imagination'' (Polish ''Wiedźmin: Gra Wyobraźni'') is a Polish Tabletop RPG set in the Witcher universe. It was released in 2001.

During late [[TheNineties 90's]] there was real hype around ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' in Poland. The last part of the saga was released and the author had a deal for a TV series and a film. In addition, there was a small project to create a tabletop RPG game based on the saga. The tabletop game was only one of the three to find success.

There was no real competition for the game on the Polish market during that time, as it was the first Polish system to combine certain elements: it was based on an established media property, it had its own unique mechanics, and it had a fantasy setting. It was also helped by hype as it was faithful to the source material. Lastly, its rules are extremely simple and user-friendly - it's entirely possible to successfully explain the entirety of the mechanics to a layman within five minutes.

All tests go by the same rule - certain actions have either a set difficulty or a difficulty which is derived from certain parameters. The difficulty ranges from 0 ("no sweat") to 9 ("heroic deed"). Skills lower the difficulty by themselves, e.g. the difficulty of opening a basic lock is 4 and if your character has 3 in ''Cracking'' the final difficulty is 1. Then you take amount of d6 equal to your tested stat (so in case of mentioned ''Cracking'' you take d6 equal to your Dexterity) and you must roll an amount of successes equal or higher to the difficulty. Success is any outcome higher than 3 on any given dice. This makes for the unintended effect of having high stats matter less - while high stat makes a success more likely, the higher-difficulty actions scale together with stats or even faster.

There are also [[LuckManipulationMechanic Fate Dice involved in success tests]]. If your stat is 1, you only use Fate Dice. Any higher amount adds additional dices. Fate Dice are used as a critical success and failure meter, with 1 being a critical failure and 6 working as critical success.

The simplistic mechanics, while often criticized by [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]] players, were intentional. As the title implies, it is a ''game of imagination'', putting heavy emphasis on story-telling and pure fun, while both source books and later additions heavily discourage using mechanics as the sole way of controlling and judging players actions. Also, the GM is called [[InsistentTerminology "story-teller"]] (''bajarz'' in Polish), to put further emphasis on story instead of dice rolls.

There are no levels, so the game is basically based on very slow and hard to do StatGrinding. Why it's hard? Thanks to its mechanics, [[AnyoneCanDie even the strongest character can die]] after 3 to 4 hits from regular thugs (while being able to kill them in one, which is trademark of witchers and well-trained rangers), not to mention monsters, powerful magicians and [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mobs]]. The game designers have taken a lot of pride and pleasure from such balance in fighting mechanics. And to grind your skills and stats you use your [[InsistentTerminology Points of Proficiency]], which are mix between ExperiencePoints and Skill Points.

There are also no classes nor premade professions, but each race gets certain starting skills (and most of them are repeating, as everyone have basic knowledge about fist fight or talking) and most of races have minimal, maximum or both kind of caps on their stats ([[HumansAreAverage only humans don't have such caps]]).

The game was first released as a "demo" pocket edition. Being a teaser, it only covers the bare basics of mechanics and contains a simple example scenario. Then the actual source book arrived, giving detailed descriptions of mechanics, expanded combat manoeuvres, spell and prayers book, ''[[{{Infodump}} massive]]'' [[WordOfSaintPaul chapters full of information about the setting]], [[MonsterCompendium monster book]] and a hefty chapter full of advice for story-tellers. Later, two expansions were released: the first was a description of [[TheEmpire Nilfgaard]] and a supplement to basic rules (covering art of MinMaxing, new fighting moves and new kind of magic based on PsychicPowers) and the second was premade scenario for a CloakAndDagger campaign with only minor tweaks in mechanics.

After those, a short-lived periodical called ''"White Wolf"'' was released. In fact, the whole "periodical" part was a marketing campaign to bring more attention toward the system. ''"White Wolf"'' lasted only three issues: one covering [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Brokilon, [[TheLostWoods their]] [[EverythingTryingToKillYou forest]], one about [[LandOfOneCity Novigrad]] and one about spies, secret agencies and diplomats. It was [[RiddleForTheAges never stated clear]] if ''"White Wolf"'' was cancelled because authors run out of ideas or because [[TroubledProduction MAG Publishing House, resposible for the whole system, was facing financial problems and was slowly leaving RPG bussiness]]. Aside from all those direct expansions, magazine ''"Sword and Sorcery"'' - also owned by MAG - was printing articles [[WorldBuilding even further expanding the game setting]], giving handfuls of advices for story-tellers and providing few scenarios.

There is also semi-official expansion, which covers the world a century before Witcher's Saga, as a tie-in to short story about Geralt's parents. It was intended to be released on official level, but after cancellation it ended up being released for free by its author.

* {{Acrofatic}}: Halflings are pudgy, to put it mildly, and hardly look dangerous; yet their Splat requires the player to take at least 3 points in Agility.
* ActionGirl: By default, [[OneGenderRace dryads]] and Zerrikanian Faithel warriors. The latter were introducted directly as a result of complains about all the limitations of playing as dryad and their lacking flexibility.
* AdmiringTheAbomination: ZigZagged and {{inverted}}. Zerrikania has a cult of dragons as it's religion, paying them respect for their power and wisdom. Other countries and most of intelligent races treat dragons as mindless monsters razing countryside and hoarding treasures that should be rightfully taken by some noble dragon-slayer. This lead to ''serious'' CultureClash. [[PerspectiveFlip And since dragons really are intelligent creatures with no intention for harm]], you can guess the rest.

* AggressiveCategorism: Probably biggest flaw of humanity and elves, as it fuels all their morally questionable actions.

* AncestralWeapon: [[MundaneUtility Self-sharpe]][[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ning swords]] cost quite a lot, but they also never wear out, so they are usually held by the same family for generations.

There is also semi-official expansion, which covers the world a century before Witcher's Saga, as a tie-in to short story about Geralt's parents. It was intended to be released on official level, but after cancellation it ended up being released for free by it's author.

* {{Acrofatic}}:Halflings are pudgy, to put it mildly, and hardly look dangerous; yet their Splat requires the player to take at least 3 points in Agility.

* MightyGlacier: Dwarven {{Splat}} requires from player to take at least 3 points in Construction, while their Movement is capped at 3.
* MindRape: With magic.