Scheming Witches: Anatomy of a Witch’s Scheme Card

The main objective in The Village Crone is to be the first witch to score 13 victory points. You score points by completing Witch’s Schemes valued at 1, 2, or 3 points, depending on the difficulty level of the objectives in the scheme.

In order to score a Scheme, all conditions on the card must be met in the same turn. Cards contain both Active and Passive Schemes. What’s the difference? Active Schemes must be completed by the Witch scoring the card, Passive Schemes may be met by conditions existing on the board or by the Witch scoring the card.

Let’s take a look at an example:
In the image below the Witch’s Scheme card contains two objectives, Summon the Lord to the Tithe Barn, and Make the Lord fall in Love with the Miller. Summoning the Lord is an Active Scheme that requires the Summoning Spell. Making the Lord Fall in Love with the Miller is passive and can be considered complete if the Lord is already in Love with the Miller on this Witch’s turn.

Active Schemes are identified by the diamond-shape bullet, bold text, and small caps. These objectives must be actively achieved during your Move and Cast Spells phase.

Passive Schemes are identified by the circle bullet. As long as the conditions on the board meet these objectives during your Move and Cast Spells phase you can score them. You do not have to be the Witch who made it happen.

Schemes on the same card must be completed on the same turn to be scored, but they do not have to be completed in the order they appear on the card. You can complete them in any logical order. If a specific type of action is specified (Summon, Bind, etc.) you must use that action, however, if a Scheme starts with “Get” you may use the means of your choice.

You may “stack” Schemes if they have similar or complimentary objectives and score more than one Witch’s Scheme Card at the same time.

Players should have three Witch’s Scheme Cards in their hands at all times. when you score a Scheme, you will replace it by drawing a new one. It does not have to be the same difficulty level as the Scheme you are replacing. For more details on Discarding a Witch’s Scheme Card or Completing a Scheme Card Out of Turn, see page 6 of the official rules. (You may download the Rules as a PDF, if you wish.)

Once scored, Witch’s Scheme cards are placed in public view so players can keep track of each other’s score.

Keep your unscored Schemes a secret from the other Witches behind your Book of Spells screen that doubles as a handy reference chart for spells, ingredients, incantations, and some helpful hints and rules reminders.

You will discover there are many ways to achieve your Witch’s Schemes in The Village Crone, so stay alert and cast creatively!