Witch Trial (game)

Witch Trial is a card game for three to seven players, designed by James Ernest and published by Cheapass Games in 2001. It treats the Salem witch trials as a light-hearted courtroom comedy, dressed in early twentieth-century style through reproductions of artwork by Charles Dana Gibson, the creator of the Gibson Girl. Players buy Suspect, Charge, Evidence, Motion and Objection cards from a line-up, pair a Suspect with a Charge to form a case, and take it to trial as prosecutor against a defender who volunteers or is chosen at random. A trial ends either in a plea deal that splits the court fees or with a roll of two dice standing in for the jury. In keeping with the Cheapass Games approach, the box holds only rules, a board and cards, and players supply their own dice and play money. The player with the most money when the deck runs out wins. The game was a finalist at the 2001 Origins Awards.