Spell Death

Spell Death is a word-based game in which you build a deck from the alphabet and fight demons in a city that has stopped reading. Draw 7 letters, each printed on a paper stock that determines its effect, then spell words to deal damage, apply a status or block an incoming attack. The art deco setting is accompanied by foxtrot, jazz, tango, torch songs and maqam music.

The city and its demons

Humans have lost “The Word,” and demons have taken over, shut down the presses and made humanity their illiterate, morally bankrupt slaves. Each run is a new day that repeats the same day, with the streets of the Ink Quarter arranged differently each time. On the way to neighborhood bosses, you can take safer or riskier routes and stop at the Printhouse or the Speakeasy.

Killing a demon frees the body it wore, but the demon can leave and find another. Each demon has a hidden true name. You discover it by spelling words that share its letters and seeing which letters stick, then spell the name to banish the demon.

Spell with letters

There are no ability cards: you spell words, awaken spells and use letters printed on different stocks. Each stock changes what its letters do; for example, iron letters block instead of dealing damage. Most stocks cost Ink, while some Devilish stocks demand something more.

What you can find

• Lettercasters: Four, each with its own way to spell and deal damage.
• Neighborhoods: Four, from the Ink Quarter to the Placeless.
• Lexicon spell effects: 136 to find, awaken and carry into a fight.
• Paper stocks: 25 that change how your letters behave, for better or worse.
• Events: 43 that can help or harm you.
• Legal words: Nearly 200,000.
• Descension levels: 20. At the top level, bosses stop arriving alone and stop caring what you spell; you must also banish a few fools on the way up.