Necromagis preview

The stench of decay fills your nostrils. Everywhere you turn death greets you, envelopes you. Corpses shamble and moan, undead terrors sent to test the sanity of any living being. Nightmarish monsters creep alongside them, hungry for battle or flesh. A true carnival of horrors. And these are your team, so imagine what your enemies must be like!

Necromagis is a card battle game for 2-4 players, which will be coming to Kickstarter soon. In it players take on the role of necromancers in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world. They will feed their minions, raise the dead and fight off other necromancers in an effort to be the last mage standing.

The creators of Necromagis, the team at Loft Goblins, sent us through a print and play version of the game to take a look at. It contained all the rules and cards.

Like a lot of card battle games, Necromagis revolves around the players’ deck. There are beginner rules using random decks, as well as drafting variations for more advanced players. But whatever type of game the players choose, the goal remains the same. If a players deck runs out at any time, they are eliminated.

Necromagis

In a players deck are Spells, Gear and Creatures. Spells and Gear provide effects or bonuses. Gear can be played immediately, while Spells require players to discard cards from their hand with corresponding sigils.

Creatures allow players to battle each other, and can be upgraded by feeding them cards from the players hand. Cards fed to creatures are placed inverted and face down under the Creature. Each card has an effect on it, inverted on the bottom of the card.

When the Creature takes a wound the next card fed to it is revealed. These effects are classed as either Wound or Reaction. Wound effects remain on the Creature until it is defeated, while Reaction effects are performed immediately then discarded.

All discarded cards go into the centre of the play area, and is called the Corpse Pile. The Corpse Pile acts as a secondary deck, allowing players to draw from it, rather than from their deck. Cards are added to the bottom of the Corpse Pile, meaning that players will need to cycle through the deck in order to dig up the most attractive cards.

Necromagis

The world Necromagis is set in is particularly interesting. Though the rules describe it as a fantasy setting, it doesn’t seem beholden to a particular genre. It is true that fantasy staples like orcs and off-brand beholders make an appearance, but there seem to be just as many sci-fi and horror influences injected into the cards and art.

I didn’t know anything about Necromagis when I first opened the PDF to take a look at the rules and cards. The premise didn’t initially attract me, but reading the rules and getting to understand the concepts of the game, I am quite surprised by the elegance of the mechanics.

It is a simple idea, to try to make your opponents deck run out before your own. But it is how the game facilitates this which makes it intriguing. The addition of a secondary communal deck, essentially built by the players as they play, is a great idea. It is not only thematic, but it seems like it would really make players think about what cards they are possibly providing to their opponents.

So too the act of bolstering Creatures by feeding them cards is a unique idea. Especially since these cards also act as additional wounds, and can provide little surprises for the players enemies as the effects are revealed.

Overall the gameplay looks like it is quite engaging, and the rules easy to learn. There aren’t a lot of elements to the game, so on the gameplay front it will probably be suitable for quite a broad age range. However the heavy horror influences will probably mean that a lot of people won’t be comfortable having their young children experience the game.

Necromagis

Keep an eye out for Necromagis, coming to Kickstarter around Halloween. You can learn more about it on the Necromagis website or Facebook page.

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