With witchcraft and occultism going mainstream in a big way, it’s a good time to be a fan of the mystical and macabre. Case in point: if you’ve ever wanted to play Go Fish with an occult and folk horror-themed deck, you can now do so.
Hellebore, a zine and small press that explores British occultism in history and fiction, has released a game called The Magical Card Battle of Britain. In terms of actual gameplay, the game is pretty easy: in the “Magic Families” mode, each player tries to gather as many matching sets of cards as possible. In the “Magical Card Battle of Britain” mode, each player tries to score the highest number of points based on each card’s attributes.
So, yeah, it’s not a super complex game. You won’t spend a lot of time scrutinizing lots of arcane rules or building super strategic decks. Really, it seems like the game is just a creative way of exploring some fascinating aspects of British occultism, and I’m okay with that!
The 36-card deck is divided into nine families: occultists, scholars, charmers, enchantresses, witches and witchfinders, cliques, ritual objects, visions, and magical sites. Some cards, like occultists, are real people. There’s a card for the infamous Aleister Crowley, the ceremonial magician who founded Thelema. Aleister’s stats in the game include a 7 in infamy (accurate) and a 3 in mystique (I’d rank him higher). Other cards, like charmers, are based on fictional characters, like Lord Summerisle from The Wicker Man (2 in spell casting and 7 in persuasion, both spot on).
Some of my other favorite cards include Dion Fortune, one of the early 20th century occultists who helped shape modern Wicca and witchcraft, and the Hand of Glory, an old spell that used the pickled hand of a criminal to supposedly open doors and paralyze people.
I’m crossing my fingers that Hellebore releases an expansion pack someday. After all, there’s plenty more magic and folk horror out there to choose from—in fact, Hellebore explores some of it in its Guide to Occult Britain. Plus, I bet some enterprising witch out there could use this deck for divination. If they want a figurative or literal Wicker Man showing up in their life, that is.
(featured image: British Lion Films)
