Review: Pagan – Fate of Roanoke

Introduction & Overview

To Mayor Biggs. Regarding your letter about the appearance of a witch in the village of Roanoke, I hereby accept the task entrusted to me. If your conviction holds, that is, that the suspects number fewer than a dozen, my recommendation is to subject them all to the trial tests. In a situation like this, a certain amount of collateral damage is to be expected. However, I will honor your wish that the innocent be spared, whenever possible. What a powerful witch, such as the one you portray, is doing in a place like Roanoke is beyond me. However, I assure you that her days are numbered. I trust that all your resources will be at my disposal. Sincerely, Samuel Crowe, Witch Hunter. Anno Domini 1587, August 20th.

This is the premise of Pagan: Fate of Roanoke, designed by Kasper Kjær Christiansen and Kåre Storgaard. First published in 2022 by Wyrmgold GmbH following a successful crowdfunding campaign in an English version. The artwork is illustrated by Maren Gutt (Drachensachen, Robin of Locksley).

It is published in Spanish by Maldito Games (it is quite language dependent). It accommodates 2 players, with a recommended minimum age of 14 and an approximate playing time between 30 and 60 minutes. The MSRP is €40. A review copy of the Spanish version from Maldito Games was used for this review.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 25×25×6 cm (a small square box similar to boop.), we find the following components:

• 120 Cards (62.5×88 mm):
  • 50 Hunter Cards
  • 50 Witch Cards
  • 18 Villager Cards
  • 2 Player Aid Cards
• 3 Hunter Action Pawns (cardboard)
• 3 Witch Action Pawns (cardboard)
• 1 Hunter Board (cardboard)
• 1 Witch Board (cardboard)
• 2 Action Boards (cardboard)
• 3 Village Boards (cardboard)
• 1 Enchantment Board (cardboard)
• 30 Secret Tokens (cardboard)
• 20 Favour Tokens (cardboard)
• 30 Clue Tokens (cardboard)
• 9 Evidence Tokens (cardboard)
• 2 Influence Dials (cardboard)
• Rulebook

How to Play

Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an asymmetric two-player card game in which one player takes on the role of a witch living in a village and the other plays a hunter tasked with uncovering her identity. Players alternate turns in which they can perform three actions. The hunter attempts to discover who the witch is by exonerating villagers (drawing from a deck of innocent villagers; if the deck runs out, the hunter wins) or eliminating villagers (if the hunter eliminates the villager who is the witch, they win immediately). The witch, on the other hand, wins if she manages to complete a ritual by activating her character after accumulating a specific number of tokens on them, or if the hunter wrongfully eliminates three innocent villagers. On each turn, the active player has three actions, which can be used to activate villagers (potentially placing tokens on other villagers or on potions in the witch’s case) or on their player board. Cards have an influence cost and come in various types for each side. The hunter can recruit allies, play locations that provide new action spaces, play events, or attach investigative cards to villagers to benefit themselves or hinder the witch. The witch, meanwhile, can play familiars (which empower one of her three actions each turn), potions (which she can brew and trigger when convenient), events, or enchantments (which hinder the hunter’s efforts) or complete the ritual that allows her to win the game (requiring enough accumulated favours).

Key Concepts

Let’s begin with one of the fundamental elements of the game: the Villagers. These are represented by cards displaying a faction (defined by the background colour and a subtitle beneath the villager’s name) and an effect. Villagers act as action spaces, and on each turn, players can visit them to resolve their effect. Additionally, each villager allows players to deploy tokens (secrets for the witch and clues for the hunter) onto other villagers.

Both sides manage a set of two types of tokens. On one hand, Secrets and Favours for the witch, and on the other, Clues and Evidence for the hunter. Secrets and clues are placed beside villagers, representing the level of influence or knowledge that each side holds over them. Evidence and favours represent the consolidation of that influence. The hunter uses evidence to exonerate villagers, while the witch needs favours to empower villager effects and, ultimately, complete the ritual.

Villagers are arranged on the Village Board, which consists of three pieces, each with three spaces. Each piece corresponds to a faction, so the three villagers belonging to that faction are placed on that board section. Each villager slot has two slots (top and bottom) to attach the hunter’s investigative cards. Inside the board, above and below the card slot, there is space to place tokens (clues, secrets, and favours).

Additionally, the villagers are represented in the Suspect Deck. Each villager has a card showing their illustration, name, and faction background colour. This deck is shuffled at the start of the game, and the player acting as the witch draws one card to determine her secret identity. The remaining cards identify which villagers are innocent. Through a specific action, the hunter can draw cards from this deck to rule out suspects, winning the game outright if the last card in the deck is drawn and the witch is uncovered.

Each player has three Action Pawns (white for the hunter and black for the witch). These pawns are placed on villager cards or on available action spaces in the player’s play area (player board and, for the hunter, location cards). Action pawns remain in place, blocking those spaces until the start of the player’s next turn (though certain actions allow the opponent to free an occupied villager). Notably, one of the witch’s action pawns features an animal icon associated with familiar card effects, allowing the witch to trigger the effect of an active familiar in her play area in addition to resolving the chosen action.

Beyond visiting villagers, players can trigger various effects through their Cards. Each player’s deck contains four types of cards. For the witch, there are events (resolved and discarded), enchantments (ongoing passive effects that hinder the hunter or benefit the witch), potions (cards onto which tokens must be accumulated before their effect can be triggered later for free), and familiars (which empower one of her actions). For the hunter, there are events, locations (which create dedicated action spaces for own use), allies (ongoing passive effects requiring upkeep), and investigative cards (which attach passive effects to villagers, benefiting the hunter or hindering the witch). Each card displays an icon in its top-left corner indicating its type along with its influence cost. Enchantments display in the bottom-right corner of their artwork the cost required for the hunter to banish them.

The primary resource in the game is Influence, which players track on dedicated dials. When playing cards or paying upkeep costs, players spend influence by rotating the dial down. To gain influence, players must take specific actions.

Enchantments are managed on the Enchantment Board. This board has space for up to three active enchantments at any given time. They are played from left to right, meaning each additional enchantment incurs an extra influence cost indicated on the corresponding slot.

Each player has two Player Boards: one for organizing played cards (potions and locations in the upper row, familiars and allies in the lower row for the witch and hunter, respectively), while the action board doubles as a reference sheet. Players can place action pawns on basic action slots to resolve those actions.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Place the village boards in a row between the two players.
2. Place the villagers onto the village board spaces according to their faction.
3. Shuffle the suspect deck and place it facedown to one side.
4. Place the enchantment board on the opposite side.
5. Each player chooses a side and takes a player board, an action board, tokens (favours and secrets for the witch; clues and evidence for the hunter), an influence dial (set to value 2), 3 action pawns, and their deck of cards (shuffled and placed nearby).
6. The player taking the role of the witch draws the top card from the suspect deck in secret to discover her hidden identity, placing the card facedown in her play area.
7. Each player draws 3 cards to form their starting hand.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Pagan: Fate of Roanoke takes place over an indeterminate number of alternating turns, beginning with the player controlling the witch.

On each turn, the active player proceeds through the following phases:

1. Upkeep. During this phase, the active player retrieves their action pawns, freeing the spaces they previously occupied. Additionally, any upkeep effects on active cards that apply to the player are resolved. The hunter must pay upkeep for their allies using influence; if unable to pay the required amount, any ally whose upkeep cannot be met must be discarded. Finally, if the player holds more than seven cards in hand, they must discard down to the hand limit now.
2. Actions. In this phase, the player resolves three actions (with the exception of the witch’s very first turn, in which she only receives 2 actions) by placing each action pawn on an available space. These spaces can be villagers (provided no other pawn occupies them) or player board action spaces (including locations for the hunter).

Once all three actions are resolved, the turn passes to the opponent. Action pawns remain on their spaces.

The available actions are:

• Visit a Villager. If the villager is unoccupied by an action pawn, the player places one of their pawns and executes the following steps:
  1. Investigation. If an investigative card attached to the villager applies to the active player, resolve its effect now.
  2. Secrets and Clues. If the witch is active and the villager has 3 or more secret tokens, she may convert 3 secret tokens into 1 favour token (this can be done up to twice, i.e., 3/6 secrets for 1/2 favours). If the hunter is active and the villager has 3 or more clue tokens, he gains 1 evidence token from the supply (placed into his personal supply, not on the villager, where the clue tokens remain).
  3. Distribute Tokens. Each villager allows placing secrets (if the witch is active) or clues (if the hunter is active) on villagers belonging to a specific faction. If multiple tokens can be placed, they may be distributed among villagers of that same faction. If the witch is active, she may alternatively place these tokens on her incomplete potions.
  4. Activate Villager Effect. The player resolves the printed effect on the villager card. If the witch is active and the villager has at least 2 favour tokens, she may resolve the villager’s effect a second time.
  5. Familiar (witch only). If the witch used her familiar action pawn and has at least one familiar card in play on her board, she may now resolve the effect of one of these familiars. If the familiar has an empowered ability, she may pay the required resources to trigger the empowered version instead.
• Basic Action (player board). The player chooses to gain 2 influence, draw a card, or play a card.
• Ready a Villager (player board). The player discards 1 secret (if witch) or 1 clue (if hunter) from a villager to remove an opponent’s action pawn from it (returning it to their supply).
• Drink a Potion (witch). If a potion on her player board has accumulated the required number of secret tokens, the witch may trigger its effect. Afterwards, the card is discarded and the secrets return to the supply. This does not consume an action (no action pawn is placed on the potion) and potions can also be consumed during the upkeep phase.
• Complete the Ritual (witch). If, at the start of the turn, the villager concealing the witch’s identity has 3 or more favour tokens and is unoccupied by an action pawn, the witch may complete the ritual. Completing the ritual on the exact turn the villager gains its third favour is not permitted.
• Activate Location (hunter). The hunter places an action pawn on an unoccupied location card in play and activates its effect. Some locations require paying a cost to resolve the action.
• Banish Enchantment (hunter). The hunter places an action pawn on an active enchantment and pays the cost indicated on the card to discard it. Any remaining enchantments slide to the left.
• Exonerate Villager (hunter). The hunter returns 3 evidence tokens to the supply and draws the top card from the suspect deck, inspects it secretly, and places it facedown into his exonerated pile.
• Raid a Villager (hunter). The hunter places an action pawn on an available villager and returns 3 clue tokens from villagers of that same faction (from that villager or the other two) to remove 1 favour or all secrets from that villager.
• Eliminate Villager (hunter). If all villagers have at least 1 clue token and the target villager has at least 3 clues and is unoccupied, the hunter may place an action pawn on them to eliminate that villager. At this moment, the witch must announce whether this villager is her secret identity. If not, the villager card is flipped face down (it is no longer available) and all associated tokens are returned to the supply.

Game End

The game can end in several ways:

• The witch wins immediately if:
  • She completes her ritual.
  • The hunter eliminates a third innocent villager.
• The hunter wins immediately if:
  • He eliminates the villager concealing the witch’s identity.
  • He empties the suspect deck.

Variants

Scenarios. The game includes several scenario cards that specify the set of villagers to be used and introduce slight rule modifications affecting gameplay.

Deck Construction. The game launched alongside several expansions that expand the card pool. In customized play, each player builds a 50-card deck. Each deck must contain at least 10 cards of each card type and no more than 2 copies of any single card.

Personal Opinion

Today we are taking a close look at a game that arrived on the scene making serious waves. So much so that its first Spanish print run sold out in a matter of days, carried by strong momentum and backed by reputable endorsements—most notably from my dear friend Clint Barton (from Vis Lúdica). Let us see, then, how wonderful Pagan: Fate of Roanoke truly is.

The premise is gripping. We find ourselves in Roanoke, a small settlement located on the island of the same name off the coast of North Carolina. The locals have witnessed strange occurrences with only one plausible explanation: a witch lurks among them. In desperation, the mayor contacts a renowned witch hunter to unmask her and end her reign of terror.

Each player steps into the shoes of one of these two roles. On one side, the witch aims to complete a ritual before her identity is uncovered. On the other, the hunter will use every tool at his disposal to track down the villager hiding behind potions, enchantments, and familiars.

Mechanically, the game is driven primarily by hand management and a race dynamic, as both contenders try to reach their win condition before the other. On each turn, the active player resolves three actions, with visiting villagers being the core loop and the primary engine driving this race forward. Each villager provides an effect when visited and, crucially, allows placing tokens on other villagers. The hunter places clues, while the witch places secrets. The hunter’s clues allow him to collect evidence whenever he visits a villager with 3 or more clues, whereas the witch converts secrets into favours, which remain on that specific villager—unlike evidence, which goes into the hunter’s personal supply and is not tied to any villager.

The witch’s goal is to complete the ritual or trick the hunter into eliminating three innocent villagers (the latter being quite difficult). To complete the ritual, she must gather three favours on the villager hiding her identity. If, at the start of a round, that villager has all three favours, the witch can visit them to complete the ritual and claim victory. The hunter’s objective is to uncover the witch’s identity before this happens, either by exonerating the remaining villagers or by eliminating the correct suspect.

This sets up a cat-and-mouse dynamic where the witch tries to accumulate favours on her chosen villager without raising suspicion, requiring her to distribute tokens across the village so the hunter cannot easily deduce the target. To reinforce this bluffing element, villager actions are empowered when they have two or more favours. This keeps the hunter guessing whether the witch is placing favours on a villager simply because their duplicated effect is potent, or because that villager is indeed the witch.

Meanwhile, the hunter scatters clues to gather evidence. Every time he accumulates three evidence tokens, he can take the exonerate action, drawing a card from the suspect deck to rule out an innocent villager. This suspect deck serves as the true game clock: as the hunter seeds clues across the board, his evidence-gathering engine accelerates, eventually allowing him to gain three evidence tokens in a single turn and exonerate on the very next one.

Thus, the fundamental game loop revolves around accelerating your own token placement across villagers while simultaneously disrupting your opponent’s momentum. As mentioned earlier, Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an asymmetric design, not only in its win conditions but also in the card types available to each role. Of the four card types in each deck, only events (one-shot, play-and-discard effects) are shared conceptually. The remaining three types are permanents deployed to specific play areas.

The witch plays potions (event-style effects that require token accumulation before triggering for free), familiars (which empower one action per turn), and enchantments (ongoing cards that hinder the hunter or boost the witch).

The hunter, on the other hand, plays locations (dedicated action spaces for his own use), allies (passive continuous effects requiring a recurring upkeep cost), and investigative cards (attached directly to villagers, helping the hunter or penalizing the witch whenever either player visits them).

This is a clever way to implement asymmetry. When you break it down, each card type on one side mirrors a counterpart on the other, with subtle differences defining their flavor. The witch’s enchantments mirror the hunter’s investigative cards: both provide ongoing passive effects, but investigative cards attach to specific villagers (relying on player visits to trigger) and usually remain for the rest of the game, whereas enchantments apply globally and continuously until the hunter pays a cost to banish them.

Familiars mirror allies (occupying the bottom row on both player boards). The difference is that familiars augment a specific action each turn, while allies provide constant passive benefits at the cost of influence upkeep at the start of each round.

Finally, potions mirror locations, though here the distinction is wider. Potions are powerful one-off effects that require charging with tokens to trigger for free, while locations provide additional, dedicated action spaces for the hunter beyond the basic options and the villagers.

Ultimately, gameplay boils down to reaching your win condition before your opponent does, with cards serving to boost your own actions and suppress the opponent’s engine, either continuously or through key bursts. And here lies my first critique of the game: despite being a head-to-head card battler, direct player interaction is relatively low. Beyond the deduction layer, players mostly disrupt each other by clearing a token or discarding a card. The strongest form of direct interaction comes from blocking action spaces when pawns remain on villagers. To be fair, heavier direct conflict might feel anti-thematic, as the hunter does not know who the witch is and direct attacks against her identity would undermine the premise.

This leads to the second shortcoming: the game can easily fall into repetitive action loops. At the start of a turn, a player retrieves their three action pawns and is free to assign them right back to the exact same villagers. This often forces the opponent to spend actions freeing up blocked villagers just to break the cycle.

My third critique is that card effects do not feel as distinctive or varied as one might hope. That is not to say playing cards is unimportant, but you will often feel that playing one card versus another in your hand yields very similar overall results. This stems from the core loop: spreading tokens across villagers to acquire higher-tier tokens (evidence for the hunter, favours for the witch).

Again, do not misunderstand me: card play is crucial, and neglecting your cards guarantees defeat, as they generate essential tempo and synergies. However, I found myself wishing for splashier, more distinct effects.

At this juncture, titles like Watergate (here is its tocho-review) come to mind. It also presents a tense race toward asymmetric goals, but in my view, Watergate is tighter, more immediate, and significantly more thematic (drawing heavily on historical events and figures). Still, it serves as a helpful reference point for the style of game we are dealing with.

What I view as a drawback might be a virtue for others: Pagan: Fate of Roanoke does not demand encyclopedic knowledge of its card pool. It is a tactical game focused on process-of-elimination maneuvering across villagers rather than mastering intricate card combinations. Watergate demands deep familiarity with the deck to hit peak tension (typical of card-driven designs like Matthias Cramer’s).

Having laid out the flaws, let us finish on a high note. Despite these shortcomings, Pagan: Fate of Roanoke remains an engaging design. The back-and-forth tension and escalating stakes across rounds are thoroughly rewarding. While certain strategic patterns are difficult to avoid—such as the hunter seeding clues on every villager to maintain the threat of an elimination, or the witch diversifying tokens to avoid giving herself away—the clean mechanics (influence management, clue/secret conversion chains, and worker-style action pawns) keep the pace brisk and elevate the psychological mind games.

Another comparison worth drawing, albeit on a much larger scale, is Star Wars: Rebellion (here is its tocho-review), which shares a nearly identical deduction dynamic: a deck containing all possible locations from which one secret card is drawn, with the hunter (the Empire) systematically depleting the deck to tighten the net. Beyond that core mechanism, the two games are quite distinct—Rebellion offers a cinematic, thematic experience, while Pagan: Fate of Roanoke pushes theme somewhat to the background in favor of token-efficiency gameplay.

Nevertheless, both references (Watergate and Star Wars: Rebellion) highlight similar mechanical DNA. If you enjoy both, Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is very likely to earn a spot in your collection. In terms of replayability, however, the base game sits a half-step behind those titles for the reasons discussed. This is where the mini-expansions and the big-box expansion, Beyond the Palisades, come into play. The mini-expansions are worthwhile only if you plan to invest serious time into the game, as they focus on custom deckbuilding and synergy exploration. If you intend to play only casually, the mini-expansions are entirely skippable.

As for Beyond the Palisades, it is strictly for die-hard fans. It replaces the villager roster and both full decks, introducing an additional resource, gloom, which accumulates on cards to trigger delayed effects. It is an intriguing concept, but overall it adds considerable complexity, with more convoluted villager actions that slow the gameplay down. If your plan is to keep the game in regular rotation alongside other titles, it is by no means essential. If you plan to table it every week, it will eventually serve to shake experienced players out of their comfort zone.

Turning to production quality, the crowdfunding heritage shines through: high-grade cardstock with a crisp linen finish and excellent snap (sleeving is highly recommended, both due to card handling and because the pronounced texture makes shuffling stiff). The cardboard tokens and boards are notably thick and well-pressed. The rulebook is clearly structured and unambiguous. My main criticism regarding the retail edition is that the manual emphasizes scenarios and interchangeable villager sets, even though the base box includes only one villager set and the first two scenarios. Players might easily assume mini-expansions contain new villagers and scenarios, which is not the case, leaving a section of the rulebook irrelevant for base-game owners.

Visually, the game excels, featuring a distinctive American comic-book art style that pulls you straight into the atmosphere. The villager portraits are wonderfully characterful—each looking more suspicious than the last—supported by a generous amount of unique card art. On the downside, the iconography is somewhat small, ornate, and busy, which can cause minor confusion during initial plays (though players will quickly adjust).

And let’s wrap this up. Pagan: Fate of Roanoke is an engaging asymmetric card game that pits two players in a tense race to achieve their objectives. I appreciate that the asymmetry is nuanced, reflected in how each side pursues victory and how their card types function rather than through disparate core rules. Because both sides share a similar operational framework, learning and switching roles is smooth and accessible. The psychological duel, even when leaning into predictable patterns, creates an entertaining, high-tension experience. While a touch more direct interaction would be welcome (even if theme-straining) and certain blocking loops can slow the pace, it remains an easy recommendation for fans of deduction mechanics and head-to-head card games alike. For all these reasons, it earns a…