Lawyer Up: Witch Trial (2021)

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Lawyer Up: Witch Trial recreates a courtroom consumed by hysteria, where justice is secondary to influence and public bias. One player leads the Prosecution, seeking to execute three witnesses. The other plays the Defense, struggling to prevent a full-scale witch hunt until the Prosecution runs out of cards.

Before the trial begins, both players draft cards into their decks through a shared Discovery phase, burying some evidence and shaping the legal tools available for the entire game.

Each witness is called in sequence and questioned through a tense back-and-forth. Players take turns playing Evidence, Arguments, and Procedures, chaining symbols that match the witness’s bias to build Influence. Timing matters: objections can shut down key arguments, sidebars can steal the Judge’s favor, and procedures linger, waiting for the right moment to fire.

When questioning ends, Influence is compared. The winner uses the difference to sway Bias—pulling public opinion from the Mob or pushing it onto witnesses. If a witness accumulates too much bias, they are executed immediately instead of being claimed.

Every witness reshapes the trial. Influence resets, decks thin, and the Judge’s favor changes hands. The game ends when the Prosecution executes a third witness, or when cards or witnesses run out and the Defense survives.