DEMONS
STRATEGY + CHANCE + DUALISM
Demons is a new and exciting game of strategy and chance. It was first inspired by the ancient Norse game Hnefatafl, but other games, myths, and legends have inspired its story premise, mechanics, and styling.
GAME MECHANIC
Demons is an asymmetric game requiring two battles between twenty-one Slayers and thirteen Demons. After the first battle, players must swap roles as Slayers or Demons. Despite the asymmetry of numbers and positions between the two sides, in testing, the chances of winning in either role were surprisingly even, as the most skilful players won in either role. However, swapping roles is the only way to decide an overall winner fairly.
Warrior exorcists are invading a hidden temple of Asmodee, an ancient god of Lust and Wrath, on their mission to kill, banish or imprison all who oppose their religious doctrine. One player directs this cadre of Slayers sent by a puritanical secret society, The Magisterium. And the other player directs a coven of Demons determined to defend their deity.
STORY PREMISE
The similarities between Hnefatafl and Demons are that they are both asymmetric games in which a piece representing a monarch must try to escape a surrounding army with the aid of their bodyguards. However, the layout of the board, the number and arrangement of pieces, and the fact that dice determine the range of possibilities of movement and action make Demons a very different and more exciting experience.
Although the range of possibilities in each turn comes by chance, players who consider strategy and use skilful tactics can mitigate misfortune and maximise opportunities.
Slayers win a battle when they capture and banish Asmodee. During the fight, they want to kill as many Demons as possible while avoiding being possessed by them.
Demons win a battle when Asmodee escapes the board through one of the six exits. During the fight, they want to turn as many Slayers as possible into Demons while avoiding being slain.
The title of Demons mentions dualism, as the game is a battle between two philosophically opposed groups, neither of which is completely good nor evil. The Slayers consider themselves to be on the side of light and order, but they oppress and destroy anyone who doesn't strictly conform to their beliefs and rules of behaviour. The Demons embrace darkness and chaos but support diversity, dissent, and debate. The game's battles can be imagined between supporters of totalitarian dictatorship and those of democratic anarchy.
Three dice, with colours identical to the tiles of the temple floor, determine what movements and actions are possible in each player’s turn. When players cast these, their colours are keys that enable their pieces to be moved to adjacent tiles and to either slay or possess their opponent. In a player's turn, each of the three keys may allow one move per piece for up to three of their pieces.
Slayers may slay, and Demons may possess by manoeuvring two pieces on either side of an opponent's piece (or pieces) in an unbroken straight line. If they are already in place, Slayers may slay up to three Demons in a player's turn, moving down the line - this is the only exception to the one move per piece rule. Demons, if they are already in place, may possess up to three Slayers in a player's turn
Slayers begin each game with a numerical advantage of twenty-one to thirteen. When Demons are slain, they are removed from the board, but when Slayers are possessed, they are flipped over to add to the number of Demons and can never be redeemed. It's possible for Slayers to kill every Demon before capturing Asmodee and it's also possible for Demons to possess every Slayer before Asmodee leaves the temple.
Despite the element of chance and the asymetries between the two sides, Demons is a game in which intelligent use of strategy and tactics will determine the winner.
For full explanations of the rules and advice on strategy and tactics you may either go to the Download page or watch the video.
STYLING AND INSPIRATIONS
BOARD COLOURS - The hexagonal tiles and dice have colours inspired by those used in medieval art and by the revivalists of Gothic art in the late 19th century.
THE ASMODEE SYMBOL - Around four thousand years ago, in the region that is now Iran, Asmodee was worshipped as a god of passionate emotions and a source of mathematical and creative powers.
This original design is inspired by modern depictions of demonic creatures and of kings and queens in ancient Egyptian and Benin art. Many stories attribute Asmodee with the power to shape-shift at will, so any form, bestial or beautiful, is possible.
In Christian myths, this horned deity is usually portrayed as a creature of evil. However, other myths present an intelligent schemer and amoral trickster on the side of libertarians against dictators. Consequently, rather than have an image that might inspire fear and dread, the deity's facial expression and the gesture of the hands are intended to be ambiguous: either sinister or benevolent.
THE VINE DESIGNS - Used on the box and the board, these are a steal, remix and extension of border designs created by the 19th-century English artist Aubrey Beardsley for his illustrations of the 15th-century story Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, published in 1893. These designs seem to have been inspired by designs around the text of The Nature of Gothic by John Ruskin, published in 1892.
DEMONS SYMBOL - This heptagram with a flower at its centre, has been used for thousands of years to represent a uniting of physical and spiritual realms of existence. It is often called The Horns of Asmodeus and was adopted by The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for use in their ceremonies.
In testing, we first used software simulations to see how the artwork would look to players with Protanopia and Deuteranopia. Then, we tested the accuracy of these simulations with real people. We found that as long as might look to c the lighting conditions were normal (we played in cafes and pubs during the day and evening), all the colour-blind players. we tested could readily match the faces of the Demons dice with their corresponding board tiles.
The mechanic of Demons relies upon players being able to identify colours quickly and accurately, consequently the players' ability to do so was an important consideration in the design process. Colour blindness, affects 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women, The two most common inherited forms are Protanopia and Deuteranopia, and people with these conditions cannot easily differentiate between red and green.
Beardsley was a friend of many of the members of an occult secret society, The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. This group, formed in London in 1887, celebrated Asmodee as a symbol of libertarian free-thinking. Alleged members included many famous figures in bohemian society: Nobel-prize-winning poet William Butler Yeats; women's rights activist, actor and director Florence Farr; Irish republican revolutionary Maud Gonne; authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and Bram Stoker (Dracula); notorious occultist Alistair Crowley.
SLAYERS SYMBOL - This encircled seven-pointed star is traditionally used by exorcists (Christians and others) to trap and banish demons. In ancient times, it represented the god of light and order, who was in eternal war with the god of darkness and chaos.
Launching Next
We're developing several new games, including multiplayer card games and cooperative board games. However, after Demons is launched and delivered to its sponsors, the first game I designed, Thieves, will be relaunched in the Autumn of 2025.
