A few months ago I covered the demo for a small indie project by the name of The Necromancer’s Tale from Psychic Software. Well, enough time has passed that the full game has released to a positive reception on Steam.

The Necromancer’s Tale is a fantastic small scale RPG, with a heavy social focus (though there is a good amount of combat as well). While most RPGs with a magic focus tend to make said magic very powerful and out of this world, The Necromancer’s Tale is much more small scale by comparison. Very, “hidden wiccan in the 1600s” stuff, if you played the demo you’d know that your first spell isn’t a firebolt or a lightning shock, but rather making a very mundane home cure in a pot on a stove using a recipe you found in an old book.

Of course, the word “necromancer” is in the title, so things will definitely get higher scale and more macabre. In fact, the background of the game covers a war a generation before the game’s setting, led by a lich and his legions of undead, so there’s definitely room for larger scale magic, but it’s great to see the humble beginnings of a sorcerer, and how boiling a scarf in fragrant water can eventually lead down a path of darkness if you choose it to.

As I said, The Necromancer’s Tale is a social RPG, and I imagine you don’t HAVE to become mustache twirling evil, but there is definitely a moral ambiguity there that the setting and the characters demand and you’ll definitely be delving into the arcane arts one way or the other. All the magic in the world (or this specific world, rather) isn’t going to stop you from getting a bullet between the eyes if people find out you’re practicing the dark arts, so secrecy and social maneuvering while you build your power base are paramount here.

If this sounds interesting to you then please be sure to buy The Necromancer’s Tale on Steam, released just yesterday. It’s even 10% off in celebration of its recent release, so there’s no better time than the present to visit the ghosts of the past!