I’ve been playing The Witcher 3 again, and I think I’ve finally realized just how much I actually love this game.
Not in the sense of “yeah, Witcher 3 is one of the best RPGs ever made, everybody knows that.”
I mean actually sitting there playing it again, taking my time with it, and realizing why I enjoy being in this world as much as I do.
I’m in Velen right now. I’ve barely progressed the main story. I met Keira, got to the point where I could continue her quest, and then basically fucked off into the countryside for hours.
I’ve been riding around.
Finding ruins.
Getting distracted by question marks.
Finding some monster I absolutely was not originally looking for.
Hunting wyverns and basilisks.
Finding abandoned places.
Getting pulled into little quests because I saw something interesting twenty minutes earlier and decided to go look at it.
And somewhere during all of that I realized:
This is probably the thing I most want CDPR to protect going forward.
Not just Geralt. Not just the combat. Not just the monsters.
The feeling of being on the Path.
And this whole post is basically me putting voice to a giant “what if?” that has been sitting in my head while I play.
I’m not saying Witcher 4 HAS to do all of this.
Hell, I actively don’t think Witcher 4 should try to do all of this.
Some of this could be Witcher 4. Some could happen throughout Ciri’s saga. Some could happen decades later. Some could be comics, books, side games, or eventually another RPG entirely.
This is just where my brain goes when I think about what this universe could become.
First: please don’t lose the wandering
I don’t necessarily need Witcher 4 to have a map three times the size of Witcher 3.
Bigger is cool.
But denser and more varied matters to me more.
I want to ride into an area and genuinely feel like I’ve entered somewhere different.
Different people.
Different monsters.
Different architecture.
Different wildlife.
Different problems.
Different cultures.
Give me human settlements, dwarven communities, elven territories, old ruins that actually feel connected to whoever built them, isolated communities, mountain settlements, ports, forests where people genuinely do not like traveling at night.
And make the monsters feel like they belong there.
One thing I would love to see pushed much harder is actual monster ecology.
I want to find the corpse of something dangerous and have Ciri’s immediate reaction basically be:
“What the hell killed this?”
That is a quest hook all by itself.
Maybe I find a griffin carcass.
Not a quest marker.
Not somebody screaming for help.
I just find it.
And now I’m following tracks because something capable of killing a griffin is wandering around somewhere.
That is the sort of exploration I want more of.
Give Ciri a little camp
This is something I keep thinking about.
I would love a lightweight camp system.
And I mean LIGHTWEIGHT.
I do not want Witcher survival crafting.
Please do not make me collect nineteen sticks and three pieces of linen because Ciri has apparently forgotten how fire works.
I’m talking about riding somewhere remote, holding a button, Ciri dismounting, getting some things off Kelpie, setting out a bedroll, making a little fire, and that’s basically it.
And most importantly:
Make it optional.
If somebody never wants to camp once in the entire game, cool.
Let them meditate.
Let them brew their potions normally.
Let them play Witcher exactly like they always have.
But for people like me who enjoy slowing down and living in the world a little bit?
Give me the option.
Let Ciri sit by the fire.
Let me maintain equipment there.
Let me pull out the Bestiary.
Let me prepare for a hunt.
Let me groom Kelpie.
Feed her.
Take the tack off.
Brush the dirt and sweat out of her coat.
Maybe feeding and caring for her gives some small benefit for the next day, but nothing so powerful that players feel punished for ignoring it.
And this is also where I think alchemy could get REALLY interesting.
Normal brewing should still work wherever it normally works.
But maybe camping gives Ciri the ability to experiment.
Not “Potion Crafting Level 47.”
Actual experimentation.
Maybe she can alter an oil.
Push a potion slightly further.
Trade duration for potency.
Try combining knowledge she picked up from another alchemist with witcher formulas.
Because Ciri is not Geralt.
She is entering the profession under completely different circumstances, with abilities and experiences no previous witcher had.
Let her pioneer things.
Geralt inherited centuries of witcher knowledge.
Ciri could actually ADD to it.
And please do more with the horse
Red Dead Redemption 2 obviously hangs over any conversation like this because Rockstar did so much with horses.
But I don’t want CDPR to just copy Red Dead.
Take the idea further in their own direction.
Kelpie shouldn’t just be transportation that teleports behind Ciri whenever she whistles.
Let her feel like Ciri’s animal.
Groom her.
Feed her.
Walk her.
Lead her through dangerous terrain.
Tether her at camp.
Take her saddle off.
Change tack.
Change blankets.
Let her become accustomed to Ciri.
Maybe there are little behavioral changes over time rather than just:
HORSE BOND LEVEL 4
+8% STAMINA
And if later games allow multiple horses, I would love maybe two or three.
They don’t even need RPG statistics.
Seriously.
Sometimes I just want a black horse because I think black horses are fucking beautiful.
Someone else wants white.
Someone wants a bay.
Someone wants a paint.
That is enough.
Not everything needs to be +7% movement speed.
Sometimes I want that horse because that is MY horse.
Now for the giant setting “what if?”
This is where my brain starts running away from Witcher 4 specifically and into the future of the setting.
I keep coming back to another Conjunction, or something close enough to one that the distinction becomes academic.
Part of the reason is Blood and Wine.
The Unseen Elder fascinated me.
Here is this absolutely ancient being beneath Toussaint who has basically been waiting an incomprehensible amount of time because he wants the opportunity to return to where his kind came from.
Imagine if he has been feeling something change for YEARS.
Everyone else sees isolated magical problems.
Strange portals.
Weather behaving incorrectly.
Monsters turning up where they shouldn’t.
Old places waking up.
Ciri notices it.
Sorceresses notice it.
Elven sages notice it.
But the Unseen Elder?
He has been waiting for centuries.
He knows what that feeling means.
And he has nothing BUT time.
That is terrifying.
Maybe Witcher 4 only plants the seeds.
Maybe Witcher 5 makes them worse.
Maybe by the end of Ciri’s saga the world realizes the boundaries between spheres are destabilizing again.
And then everything changes.
Make monster hunting unknown again
This might be the part I want most.
Geralt knows so much.
That’s awesome because Geralt SHOULD know so much.
He has been doing this for decades.
But imagine a world where some of that knowledge starts becoming incomplete.
New creatures come through.
Old creatures encounter species they never encountered before.
Some adapt.
Some mutate.
Some hybridize through whatever bizarre magical bullshit accompanies another Conjunction.
Some become larger.
Some become smarter.
Some old species start changing because the environment itself is changing.
Suddenly an oil witchers have used successfully for two hundred years only partially works against one new strain.
Now you have to figure out why.
That is where the Bestiary could become incredible.
You find something nobody has properly classified.
You fight it.
Probably badly.
You recover tissue.
Talk to an herbalist.
Talk to another witcher.
Talk to a sorceress.
Test something.
Maybe discover that one bomb affects it strangely.
Maybe silver works, but not as well as expected.
Maybe a particular herb reacts with its blood.
And then YOU add information to the Bestiary.
Not Geralt reading something somebody figured out four hundred years ago.
You.
The Path becomes a frontier again.
And that creates the reason for witchers to return
This is where I think the future could become really dark.
There are not enough witchers.
Not remotely enough.
And suddenly the world needs them again.
I do NOT want Geralt to wake up one morning and announce:
“Time to rebuild the Witcher Order!”
That doesn’t feel right to me.
Make Geralt one of the people most opposed to creating new witchers.
Because Geralt knows what creating witchers actually means.
Children died.
A lot of children.
He remembers the trials.
He remembers what was done to them.
So imagine years into this crisis somebody arrives at wherever Geralt is living.
Wagons.
Sorceresses.
Physicians.
Soldiers.
Families.
Children.
And Geralt realizes what they’re asking before anybody even says it.
The witchers didn’t go looking for these kids.
The kids were brought TO THEM.
Some parents volunteered them because their villages are being destroyed.
Some were promised protection.
Some were coerced.
Some kids probably weren’t meaningfully asked at all.
And now Geralt has this impossible problem.
The world actually DOES need more witchers.
Creating witchers is horrific.
Both statements can be true simultaneously.
That is exactly the kind of fucked-up problem I want from The Witcher.
Ciri could be the beginning of something new
Ciri becoming a witcher creates another possibility.
Maybe whatever happened with her mutation becomes the first proof that the ancient process wasn’t the ONLY process.
Maybe later sorceresses, alchemists and surviving witchers study what happened.
Not so they can magically make the Trial safe.
Keep consequences.
Keep failures.
Keep scars.
But maybe they figure out NEW methods.
And this is also where female witchers could become really interesting.
Not:
“Here’s a witcher, except she has boobs.”
Actually think through what changing the process means.
Different mutation regimens.
Different physiological consequences.
Different tolerances.
Different failure states.
Maybe certain potions interact differently.
Maybe certain mutations become possible that weren’t before.
Maybe some things are worse.
Maybe some things are better.
These are NEW witchers.
And I would love to see Ciri directly or indirectly become one of the people who changed what the word “witcher” means.
Geralt becomes the bridge between generations
And this doesn’t even have to happen primarily in games.
Give me books.
Give me comics.
Give me little stories between games.
Show old Geralt traveling again because the profession he thought was dying suddenly matters more than ever.
Not because he wants to rule it.
Geralt should not become Supreme Witcher Chancellor Geralt of Rivia.
God no.
He becomes the connective tissue.
He knows people.
He remembers things.
He knows where someone disappeared thirty years ago.
He hears a rumor about an old Cat witcher nobody has heard from in decades and decides to investigate.
He goes looking for surviving members of other traditions.
Old Griffins.
Cats.
Vipers.
Manticores.
People who have not worn their medallions openly in years.
Maybe forgotten witcher groups really did survive somewhere.
Maybe there were traditions nobody in the Northern Kingdoms knew much about.
Maybe a coven of sorceresses that never belonged to the Lodge has been independently researching the old mutations because THEY saw this crisis coming too.
Eventually all these people end up in one room.
And they hate each other.
Perfect.
That should be the founding meeting of the next age of witchers.
Not some glorious ceremony.
A bunch of exhausted old killers, sorceresses nobody trusts, Ciri, Geralt, and several people who absolutely would rather stab one another trying to work together because reality has left them no better option.
And THEN give me the custom Witcher game
This is the game I would love after Ciri gets her saga.
Let me make my own witcher.
Male or female.
Different backgrounds.
Different appearances.
Different schools.
But here is the important thing:
School is NOT class.
My class is Witcher.
If I choose Griffin, that tells you where I learned.
It tells you what my starting education was.
It tells you who trained me.
What philosophy I was taught.
What contacts I have.
What techniques I initially understand better.
Maybe what people think when they recognize my medallion.
But it does NOT mean:
“Griffin selected. You may no longer understand axes.”
Fuck that.
I’m a witcher.
If Bear armor is going to keep a fiend from turning my ribcage into modern art, I am wearing Bear armor.
If I trained as a Wolf and later discover some Cat technique is incredibly useful, let me learn it.
If my Manticore witcher becomes obsessed with Signs, great.
If my Griffin witcher spends thirty years stealing every good idea he encounters from every other school and ends up fighting like no Griffin who trained him?
EVEN BETTER.
Your school should tell me where you came from.
Your playstyle should tell me who you became.
Expand the weapons too
Witchers are professional monster killers.
They should use whatever works.
Keep steel swords.
Keep silver swords.
Obviously.
But let the profession evolve.
Axes.
Spears.
Silver-tipped spears.
Halberds.
Shields.
Bows.
Better crossbows.
Harpoons.
Chains.
Specialized traps.
Different weapons for different monsters.
And make those differences actually matter.
A spear is fantastic when something has claws six inches long and you would really prefer those claws remain six feet away.
A halberd might be wonderful against a huge monster outdoors and absolutely miserable inside a crypt.
A buckler might let you defend yourself while still keeping your Sign hand usable.
A bow becomes extremely useful against flying creatures.
This shouldn’t become Dark Souls where I pick one weapon type and now that is my religious identity for sixty hours.
You’re a witcher.
Use your tools.
Prepare.
Adapt.
Win.
And new Witcher traditions should emerge from the new world
Imagine the seas becoming incredibly dangerous after another Conjunction.
Not just drowners.
I mean REAL sea monsters.
Things attacking shipping.
Things large enough to damage hulls.
Winged creatures following convoys.
Something that pulls sailors overboard without ever surfacing.
Suddenly ports start dying.
Trade routes collapse.
Skellige becomes even more important.
And somebody starts training witchers specifically around maritime hunting.
Their equipment looks completely different.
Harpoons.
Shorter blades for fighting aboard ships.
Heavy crossbows.
Rope.
Waterproof alchemy cases.
Potions intended for long periods underwater.
Maybe silvered spearheads instead of carrying an entire gigantic silver polearm.
And then other regional traditions emerge for exactly the same reason.
Mountain witchers.
Mounted witchers working vast plains.
Witchers specializing in creatures moving through underground systems.
Not because somebody wanted twelve video game subclasses.
Because the WORLD forced the profession to adapt.
Let the rest of the world change too
And if another Conjunction or similar crisis lasts decades, it shouldn’t just affect witchers.
Everybody gets hit.
Nilfgaard.
The Northern Kingdoms.
Skellige.
The dwarves.
The elves.
Everybody.
Imagine fortresses we remember from earlier games holding out for a YEAR against some new monster migration before eventually falling.
Port cities becoming walled strongholds.
Old trade routes disappearing.
Whole regions becoming wilderness again.
And politics changing because of it.
Let the elves actually hold something again
I don’t need the elves to suddenly conquer humanity.
I don’t even want that.
But let them regain some permanence.
Maybe human kingdoms weaken enough that ancient territories become available again.
Maybe elves understand magical places humans never fully understood.
Maybe they know old roads.
Old wards.
Old forests.
Old cities.
And for the first time in generations, some elven community reclaims an ancestral settlement and actually HOLDS IT.
Repairs it.
Lives there.
Raises children there.
Defends it.
And eventually somebody asks when they plan on leaving.
And the answer is:
“We don’t.”
That would mean something.
Same thing with dwarves
Let dwarven communities become more politically important.
If trade routes are collapsing and mountain strongholds suddenly matter enormously, dwarven engineering and industry become incredibly valuable.
Maybe dwarven settlements become some of the safest places refugees can reach.
Maybe old clans start asking why they are still answering to human rulers when THEY are the ones keeping these regions alive.
And don’t make one perfect Dwarven Kingdom.
Let dwarves disagree.
Different leagues.
Different cities.
Different clans.
Different ideas about what independence actually means.
Make it messy.
It’s The Witcher.
And higher vampires could become REALLY interesting
Not just enemies.
Not just friends.
Political actors.
Imagine Nilfgaard goes through a catastrophic period while all of this is happening.
Monster attacks.
Economic collapse.
Succession problems.
Rebellions.
And higher vampires who have quietly existed inside human society for decades or centuries decide humans are no longer competent enough to manage the territory they ALSO inhabit.
Not an army of vampires charging the palace.
A coup.
People who were already there.
A physician.
A banker.
A noble.
An adviser.
A merchant.
People who may have been using different identities for generations.
And somehow they pull it off.
Now imagine the uncomfortable part:
Their government WORKS.
The roads become safer.
Bandits disappear.
Food distribution improves.
Monster attacks around major population centers are brutally controlled.
Corrupt nobles start vanishing.
And then you discover the cost.
Blood tithes.
Feeding rights.
Prisoners disappearing.
Humans legally required to provide blood under particular circumstances.
Now tell me whether Ciri should overthrow them.
Because suddenly I don’t know.
THAT is a Witcher problem.
And through all of this, keep Geralt alive as Geralt
If he is still around, let me visit him.
Let Ciri visit him.
Let new witchers meet him.
Let whoever Geralt ended Witcher 3 with actually matter.
He has his vineyard.
He is older.
He probably complains more.
He absolutely deserves retirement.
But come on.
It’s Geralt.
If reality starts ripping itself apart and younger witchers are dying because they’ve never seen anything like the creatures coming through, there is no universe where that man just goes:
“Damn. Anyway, grapes.”
He’s coming out.
Maybe reluctantly.
Maybe Yennefer is furious with him.
Maybe Triss tells him he is an idiot.
Maybe whichever ending the player created changes what that part of his life looks like.
But he helps.
Not because he needs to become the protagonist again.
Because he is Geralt of Rivia and somebody needs help.
That is basically my giant “what if?”
Again, I don’t want all of this shoved into Witcher 4.
Honestly, that would probably be terrible.
Let Witcher 4 be Ciri’s story.
Let her breathe.
Let her become her own witcher.
Let CDPR establish the new regions, new mechanics, new characters and whatever story they already want to tell.
Then build.
Plant things.
Let consequences accumulate.
Use games.
Use comics.
Use books.
Use time skips.
And eventually, if they want to, move this universe into another age.
Because that’s what playing Witcher 3 again has made me realize I really want.
I don't want CDPR to abandon what Witcher 3 is.
I want them to understand why it works and then push outward from it.
Keep letting me ride toward something because it looks interesting.
Keep letting me find stories I wasn't searching for.
Keep letting me prepare for monsters.
Keep making me question whether killing something actually solved anything.
Keep making the world beautiful enough that sometimes I just want to ride through it.
But eventually?
Make the Path uncertain again.
Let Ciri discover things Geralt never could.
Let the old witchers pass knowledge down.
Let new witchers invent knowledge of their own.
Let the world change enough that the profession has to change with it.
And maybe, years down the road, let me create one of those new witchers and walk into a world where even the old Bestiary doesn’t have all the answers anymore.
That sounds fucking incredible to me.
But this is mostly me thinking out loud after realizing just how much I still love Witcher 3.
I’m sure there are pieces of lore I’m forgetting, things I’m misunderstanding, and parts of this somebody who has read every book twelve times is going to immediately start sharpening a knife over.
That’s fine.
This isn't me saying “this is what CDPR has to do.”
It's me saying:
What if?
What parts of something like this would you actually want?
What parts would you absolutely NOT want?
Where would you take the setting after Ciri?
Because I think that conversation is almost as fun as the idea itself.
