A new tabletop board game set in the Witcher universe called The Witcher: Old World, has started and already reached the goal of a Kickstarter campaign. The Witcher franchise is constantly growing, starting from the novels and short stories written by Andrzej Sapkowski. Eponymous witcher and protagonist Geralt of Rivia has grown in popularity worldwide since the Polish author's works were adapted into a video game series by CD Projekt Red, and later an episodic series by Netflix.

There has already been a pen and paper tabletop adaption - The Witcher Role-Playing Game - but The Witcher: Old World appears to be a more traditional strategy board game. It is a collaborative effort between Go On Board and CD Projekt Red. Players will choose one of five witcher schools to be a part of, then travel around the Continent hunting monsters and battling other players.

Related: Witcher: Blood Origin Can Reveal The Tragic Backstory of Witchers 

According to The Witcher: Old World's Kickstarter, the game takes place long before the events of the novels and video games, in a time closer to the Conjunction of the Spheres, expanding the Witcher story to an era when monsters more freely roamed the Continent. This is the only way all five witcher schools could be functioning entities, since they are almost entirely defunct by the time Geralt rose to prominence.

The Differences in The Witcher: Old World's Setting

Geralt the witcher 3 smoky background

Although Geralt of Rivia is nearly a century old in the novels, video games, and series, the Conjunction of the Spheres happened over a millennia before the events depicted. The Conjunction was a cataclysmic event that effected many planes of the multiverse, resulting in magic and many dangerous monsters being introduced to the Continent. The horrific species of beasts that appeared disrupted the civilizations of the time, and created the need for witchers - mutated monster hunters.

Five witcher schools rose to prominence in the region of the Continent where all the Witcher narratives take place - Schools of the Cat, Bear, Griffin, Viper, and Wolf. These will likely be the schools that the playable witchers in The Witcher: Old World will be a part of. Geralt was mutated and trained by the School of the Wolf, though by the time the novels and video games take place, there are only a few witchers from the school left.

The Witcher: Old World will depict a time on the continent when witchers weren't so widely scorned and nearly extinct. In fact, if all five schools are operational in the board game, then witchers will be quite necessary, being routinely hired to hunt and kill monsters that are terrorizing local populations. It was only after civilization had sufficiently recovered centuries after the Conjunction that the mutated witchers became feared and their strongholds assaulted. The Witcher: Old World will give players a glimpse at the heyday of monster hunting on the continent, long before Geralt of Rivia was even born.

Next: The Witcher: Why Netflix’s Geralt Is More Like The Books Than The Games