Learn more about The Necromancer's Tale:

Build Your Party (and Raise Them Right)

Gathering and maintaining your minions in The Necromancer's Tale

A Necromancer Origin Story

In The Necromancer’s Tale, you play as a minor noble in the 1700s, initially carefree and privileged, but gradually dragged into black magic and necromancy. It’s a necromancer origin story structured around an arcane spellbook that comes into your possession.

The acquisition, deciphering, and implementation of rituals and spells is a big focus in the game: the process itself and the effect it has on your sanity is central to the plot.

As the game progresses, revelations about the past and the politics of the present provide the motivation to draw you forwards through the spellbook. By about one-third of the way through, you will be raising your first skeletons, then using them as protection as you delve into caves, catacombs and forests to find the ritual items you need.

The ritual which awakens zombies is a big break-through by the mid-game. As well as equipping them, you’ll find yourself acquiring rituals of repair to keep your undead party in fighting shape. You need to build a mini-army of 10-15 minions to get you through the mid-game combats, and you’ll need to keep them hidden from the townsfolk who (largely) suspect little, so far....

The open-world offers lots of side content, some of which will allow you to acquire battle magic spells separate from the rituals of your spellbook, and to summon and enslave some daemons and a wraith.You may also get involved in the chemical-reanimation of a patchwork body, and add a more sentient party member.

Combat-Mode and Story-Mode

Although building your “party” is central to the game, it is more narrative-driven than combat-driven overall (400k words of narrative/lore, and 180+ unique NPCs). You can play in “Story Mode” if you wish, which allows you to skip the turn-based combats themselves and have them auto-resolved based on the calculated combat-rating of the two opposing forces.

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The Necromancer's Tale will be released in July:

Coming July 2025: Embark On The Journey Through The Necromancer's Tale

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The Necromancer's Tale will be a part of the London Games Festival on April 3rd & 4th 2025.

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Couchpotato spotted a new video for The Necromancer's Tale:

Necromancer's Tale: Where Colourful Characters Hold the KEY to Surprise

Couchpotato spotted a new roadmap for The Necromancer's Tale:

Release Roadmap

Fans and supporters, we are resetting the game release date and this announcement contains a full status update including the rationale for the new date. A huge thank you to the team who have at this point implemented over 350,000 words in the game narrative, over 180 unique NPCs, a robust combat system, and an incredible city and environs.

The bulk of game content is now in place, and has been heavily tested from a bugs point of view, but we need some more time to do playthrough testing, balancing, and content tweaks. Please continue to report bugs in the demo, in particular the specific places where you find you can run through walls - this has been an ongoing challenge since we implemented and continue to improve free-movement with WASD/joystick control. We would like to say a huge thank-you to our supporters who continue to help us improve overall quality.

We want to ensure we release the game to our highest achievable standard and trust therefore that your patience will continue as we endeavour to bring you the best experience we can.

Narrative
We have implemented over 350,000 words in the game narrative, with about 25,000 words left to write. Books, lore, and journal notes are complete and add about 25,000 more, bringing the game to around 400,000 in total. This has been a huge undertaking over the last 4 years, involving a writing team of 8 part-time writers/editors.

Characters
Over 180 unique NPCs are now in the game, playing major and minor roles in the game plots, as well as many having their own sidequests. Almost all have partial voice-acting, from our 25 voice actors.

Combat
The combat system is core-complete, having undergone some major revisions in the last 2 years. A few battle-magic spells and crafted battle-potions remain to implement- these generally require knowledge that you pick up while exploring dungeons, forests and ruins.

Open-World
The over-world is complete, including the city and its environs (forests, cemeteries, canyons). Building interiors are complete, as are most of the underground and arcane areas (caves, crypts, catacombs, realms of the dead)- some small underground regions remain to complete.

Dates & Release Plans

Development
End-2024: Core content complete - main quests and sidequests.
Feb 2025 Controllers & Steam Deck finalising & certifying.
March 2025: Completion of voice and ambient sound.
April 2025: Completion of additional narrative and open-world side content.
May 2025: Completion of Battle-magic and Potions.

Testing
Balancing (trust and tension systems, skillchecks, combats) to run Feb-May 2025.
Coverage playtests to run Feb-April 2025.

Release
May 2025: Release-Announcement Trailer
May 2025: New Demo (with unseen content)
June 2025: Steam NextFest
Late June/early July 2025: Game Release.

You can check out the The Necromancer's Tale on Steam:

The Necromancer's Tale - Steam Scream Fest

The Necromancer's Tale Uncovered

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Farflame spotted two new videos of The Necromancer's Tale:

The Secret Strategy of Romance, Seduction, and Deviousness

Unleash the Power of Darkness and Raise Skeletons and Zombies

Couchpotato spotted a dialog example in The Necromancer's Tale:

Meet the Orphans in The Necromancer's Tale: a rag-tag gang with their ears to the ground

This Is What Game Development Actually Looks Like

Couchpotato spotted some gameplay of The Necromancer's Tale:

Solve the murder mystery in a seance with the dead man himself

Mortismal Gaming checked out The Necromancer's Tale:

Check Out: The Necromancer's Tale

Couchpotato spotted a new trailer for the isometric RPG The Necromancer's Tale:

The Necromancer's Tale - Trailer June 2024

Daveyd spotted that a demo for the story-rich RPG The Necromancer's Tale is available for download:

The Necromancer's Tale

The Necromancer's Tale is a narrative-driven top-down RPG where you play the role of a minor noble in the 18th Century, drawn into the Dark Necromantic Arts as you seek knowledge and revenge. Great power awaits... along with the weird, the morbid, and a gradual descent into madness.

Before you lies a great spellbook, filled with powerful rites of death and reanimation. Can you decipher the pages and master its arcane rituals without losing your mind or being strung up by the townsfolk? Your progress will require great determination, cunning and secrecy.

The Necromancer's Tale is a story-rich game, in which you converse with 150+ NPC characters, each with their own portrait art. You will investigate, negotiate, coerce and flatter in order to progress your aims. The game's Trust system means that your choices - even in conversation - really matter. If the townsfolk's trust drops too low, you will find your choices are affected - if it drops further still, you will surely be tried in court and hanged, or lynched by a frenzied mob.

The game involves tactical turn-based combats between you, your allies and your undead minions - versus a range of enemies, natural and supernatural. Our unique combat system, involving 300+ critical hits, draws on tactical games which we have released as far back as 1995.

The Necromancer's Tale is set in an alternative-history Kingdom near Venice and the Adriatic Sea, in 1733. This is a time at the cusp of rational thought and superstition; science and magic. The world is dark and dangerous; courtly intrigue collides with black magic even as chemistry emerges from alchemy.