Black Magic Ritual Kit and Witchcraft Ritual Kit (Avalon Hill, 1974)

Black Magic 1974

Black Magic 1974-2

Black Magic 1974-3

 

Witchcraft 1974

Witchcraft 1974-2

Witchcraft 1974-3

Witchcraft 1974-4

Witchcraft 1974-5

The commercial popularity of the occult was no longer in doubt after the film adaptations of Rosemary Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973), and the identification of witchcraft with the sexual revolution dates from Sex and the Single Girl (1962), by Helen Gurley Brown, and films like The Naked Witch (1961). In the following 10 years, much more was said, prompted more by male fantasy than reality, about “swinging covens.” At the same time, Playboy and Cosmopolitan (Helen Gurley Brown became editor-in-chief in 1965) had become cultural touchstones, and Hustler launched in 1974.

These two extremely rare items play on all of the factors listed above. Billed as “how-to” guides as opposed to games, they’re very rare and very pricey when they come around. Based on what I’ve seen—the outstanding male and female witch standees, for instance—role-playing seems to be involved. You can find lots of photos at Board Game Geek (here and here), thankfully. All we need now are scans of the respective “Manuals of Interpretation.” The kits are “based on the research of Dr. Brooke Hayward Jennings,” who doesn’t seem to exist outside of these two products.

1 Response to “<em>Black Magic Ritual Kit</em> and <em>Witchcraft Ritual Kit</em> (Avalon Hill, 1974)”


  1. 1 Mark G. April 19, 2016 at 9:32 am

    Some of this stuff reminds me of the “gaming gear” seen in the made-for-TV movie “Mazes & Monsters” with Tom Hanks.


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