Steven Rhodes: Let’s Summon Demons

My Thoughts

As a big fan of horror films, I was thrilled to be playing this game. It was so quirky, and so much fun! With characters like Damion and Carrie, also less recognisable ones like Rosemary. I just loved these little homages to the films I love so much. It goes without saying that the artwork was fantastic, like with Steven Rhodes other games. It’s frustrating at first, as it starts off with just the luck of the dice roll, but as you move on it gets much more tactical. From the cards you pick, to how you shape your next move. It was a game that despite its simplicity, left us wanting to play again as soon as we finished. I am very much looking forward to playing this game with some of my horror friends very soon. I also loved the uniqueness of having large round playing cards instead of the bog-standard rectangular ones.

How To Play

There are two types of cards, demon cards and demon worshipper cards. There are also soul tokens and 2 dice. To play the game, each person starts off with 5 souls and 3 un-summoned demons. The stack of demon worshipper cards goes in the middle and the top 5 cards get turned over. The aim of the game is to have 3 summoned demons and 10 souls in your supply. There are 3 moves you can make each turn, and you can do them in any order. A – roll the dice; this is something that must be done each turn. B – buy a demon worshiper card for the cost of 3 soul tokens. This is not a compulsory action. C – summon a demon. Sacrifice 3 of your demon worshippers to the discard pile to summon one of your demons. This also is not a compulsory action.

Demon Worshipper Cards

These cards have several parts to them. First, there is the card name. The card name sometimes has a “sweet” or “rotten” before it. The text box tells you what the card does when activated. The activation number, the card, is activated when the combined total of the dice is equal to the number rolled by any player and the boy, girl or animal symbol. These cards can do various things when activated, from giving you souls, stealing souls from other players, and even giving you the opportunity to receive new demon worshipper cards. There are also candle cards. These cards are special as they have 2 activation numbers, and also cannot be discarded or stolen from other players. 

Demon Cards

The demons are, of course, much more powerful than the demon worshippers! They have effects such as “for each of your animals, steal a soul.” or “search the demon deck for any demon, then summon it immediately for free.” there’s even one that lets you win the game immediately when activated. The other difference between the demon cards and the demon worshipper cards, apart from their power, is that where the demon worshipper cards can be activated by any dice roll that happens in the game, the demons can only be activated on the player’s turn.

Is It Fun?

Let’s Summon Demons is a short, fun game that is unlike any game I’ve played before. The quality of your fun all depends on your luck at the beginning of the game. If you can spend your initial souls to get a good card with an activation number that frequently appears in the rolling of the dice, (ideally a 6, 7 or 8) then you can be off to a good start and keep gaining enough souls to keep the momentum of the game moving forward. On the other hand, if you begin the game and get stuck with a bad card, you may find that you start to lose your enthusiasm a little. If this does happen then luckily the game is short and it’s not long before you start your next round. Just don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed in the next game. Hopefully, the dice and cards will favour you this time.