PAGAN: Fate of Roanoke

[DrClick]

Welcome to Roanoke, 1587. The colony's small, the paranoia’s large, and someone’s definitely up to no good. Is it the quiet villager with a pet toad? Or the charming hunter who seems just a little too into interrogations?
Pagan: Fate of Roanoke has landed, bringing all the tension, bluffing, spell-flinging, and witch-hunting drama of colonial America, minus the actual historical tragedy.

In Pagan, it’s a two-player game of asymmetric deduction. One of you is the Witch, working in secret to perform a grand ritual that will return the land to nature and make squirrels your eternal minions.
The other is the Witch Hunter, whose idea of a productive day includes snooping, accusing, and maybe tossing someone in a lake just to see what happens.
The Witch hides among nine villagers, using spells, potions, charms, and a disturbingly competent familiar to gather the secrets needed to complete the final ritual.
Meanwhile, the Hunter tries to figure out who the Witch is and stop the ritual by, well… publicly ruining their day.
You both have your own 50-card decks, action pawns, and a burning desire to be the most dramatic person in 1587.
 
A clever game of cat-and-broomstick with massive replayability you can learn and play now on BGA:
https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=paganfateofroanoke
 
There's a lot of people to thank and credit here for making it happen on our platform: The game designers Kasper Kjær Christiansen and Kåre Storgaard, The Wyrmgold publishing house and the three developers that coded it: trojanrabbit, Galeelox & kratos9786.
 
That's your Wednesday release, still part of the SUMMER OF GAMES calendar.
See you around for more exciting games.
Until then, take care and play fair!

[Huatiak]

See you in a game session <3

[Arnetto]

Unfolds slowly but worth the time - great theme and interesting deduction mechanisms. Rich art and theme. Thank you for implementing! ♥︎

[timborocksloud]

This is my all time favorite 2 player game! I'm soooo excited! BGA rules worlds!!

[GerryGerman]

Agree to all my previous speakers, very interesting game!

To the developers: Cards seem very small - can you make them bigger or add a raster scale to enlarge the board?
And it was / is lagging as I played it an hour ago.

[Ackter]

Well someone's a big fan of Chris Bourassa aren't they?

[Miriam_R]

Am I the only person who feels like this game premise is in very poor taste?

[MackMook]

Am I the only person who feels like this game premise is in very poor taste?

That depends... are you Canadian and is the Witch-hunter from the US? (j/k!)

[insomniii]

Am I the only person who feels like this game premise is in very poor taste?

I get where you’re coming from—historical tragedies can be sensitive subjects. At the same time, board games often draw on dark chapters of history to create tension, drama, and even reflection.

For example, Black Orchestra centers on carrying out plots to assassinate Hitler, with event cards referencing the atrocities of the era. Freedom: The Underground Railroad puts players in the role of helping enslaved people escape. These are serious topics, yet those games are widely respected because they handle the subject matter thoughtfully and give the gameplay real weight.

The Salem witch trials were over 300 years ago, which adds some historical distance. As long as the game doesn’t mock the victims or trivialize what happened, I wouldn’t consider it in poor taste. It may or may not have the same educational value as those other titles, but using history—even grim history—as a backdrop isn’t automatically exploitative.

That said, taste is personal. If the theme doesn’t sit right with someone, that’s valid too. For me, the important question is whether the game treats its subject respectfully rather than using suffering for cheap laughs.