Schemata Games

Warrior exorcists, sent by the puritanical secret society, The Magisterium, are invading a hidden temple of Asmodee, the ancient god of Lust and Wrath.

One player directs a cadre of Slayers to destroy all who oppose their religious doctrine. And the other directs a coven of Demons to possess the invaders, and enable their deity's escape.

Despite the mythological theme, Demons is fundamentally an abstract game inspired by three venerable abstracts. It borrows its premise and asymmetrical setup of opposing pieces and objectives from the Norse game of Hnefatafl. It adds dice believed to determine action in some of that game's lost variants. And although these dice determine possible movements, as they do in Backgammon, strategy more heavily outweighs chance in play than it does in that ancient game. It steals the capturing mechanic of the 19th-century English game of Reversi (AKA Othello).