Let’s Summon Demons sees players do just that.
Keep your kids and pets away.
What are little Johnny, Suzy, and Fido supposed to do when the suburban droll has them down? I know, Let’s Summon Demons! Whether you’re building sadistic synergies with the “rotten” kids or sharing the love with the “sweet” kids, only the savviest (and luckiest!) player–the best Demon Summoner–will walk away a winner!
Let’s Summon Demons Game Play
TL: DR Players roll dice and activate cards that have that number to gain souls to trade in for kids which can be traded in for Demons with 3 Demons needed for victory.
Theme
Never tried to summon a demon but I guess you need candles and souls right?
Setup
Shuffle and deal, that’s about it.
One issue is that the starting candle cards have the same backs as the cards that go in the block. The game was mixed up when we opened it so it took a while to search through and find that 5th candle.
Components & Artwork
I know the cards need to be round because of the Pentacle but it doesn’t half make things awkward. The demons didn’t need to be but I guess that once they did the kids and candles they just committed.
The soul tokens are tiny.
The art is based on those books for children from the 60s/70s/80s which is hilarious.
Ease of Teaching
Clearly very easy to teach.
Let’s Summon Demons Summary
This has the same core dice mechanism as Machi Koro, Space Base and Bad Company.
It’s much lighter and much quicker which is good as it doesn’t have the extra mechanisms that the other games have.
But, there are ways to collect certain kids or animals from the block to combo them up. Not just by spreading/focusing their numbers, but by having those that trigger more effectively when other types of characters are in play.
You also have to figure out when you will sacrifice them to get a demon into play.
So the game is less interesting than the games I mentioned earlier, but if you like this mechanism it is a good filler option.
Jesta ThaRogue