Book Club February 2026*
Necromancer Heretic from Junk Food Games
What you need to play:
- The Necromancer Heretic source material
- A deck of standard playing cards
- Pen/pencil and paper/audio recorder
This review of Necromancer Heretic continues the book club review catch-up project I'm working through. Necromancer Heretic was our February 2026 book club selection. This was another book club pick that everyone enjoyed. Since it was February, I wanted to choose something that would be thematic for Valentine's Day and Necromancer Heretic, a solo adventure, where you are attempting to bring your lover back from the dead really fit that bill. This is a quick, and in my opinion, a very sweet game. It is great for newcomers, as it only uses a deck of cards and has a very simple playthrough loop. It also comes in at a very reasonable price point, in October 2026, it's about the same as two gallons of gas.
Necromancer Heretic is a little tome, just under 30 pages, and includes art from Feral Indie Studio. The mallard green and blush pink color way add a bit of whimsy that I really appreciate. It contains the Human Made symbol and a no-AI disclaimer, which is always appreciated. The intro reminds its players that you can always change the tone of your adventure to something less intense. I went full bore and tried to be as ridiculous as possible, which is a common trait of mine. The game play is similar to 21 or blackjack, you start with a hand of five cards, three "guard" cards, and draw/discard piles. If you break or not, determines who gets the point, you or the guard. I felt like this lent a sense of urgency and moved the game along nicely. The How to Play section is very reasonable and easy to follow and contains all the "Gotchas", and it gives you the special abilities for each suit. You can exchange a heart card to mitigate damage (very cute). Once you hit five points, the game ends and you are reunited with your lover. If you bust, the guard comes for you and the ritual is incomplete.
One of the things that Book Club Members (BCMs) and I agreed on, was that the Gameplay Examples were really helpful. We often find ourselves lamenting the lack of a playthrough loop/flow chart/etc., in the solos we play, so this was a feature for us. We all liked the past/present/future mechanic and didn't have a lot of complaints. There were a few folks who thought it was a little cheesy, but that's okay, love can be silly. We all liked that once you are finished with the card loop, there is an opportunity to add more story to your adventure. I took advantage of this aspect, but you don't have to in order to enjoy the game. You are also welcome to create a backstory, which could add some interesting twists to how you respond to the prompts. All in all, BCMs liked this game, maybe not as much as I did, but this one was fun for all of us.
Book club decided that this one didn't have as much potential for replay as some of our solos do, there weren't any BCMs that played through more than once. When I was getting ready to write up this review, I thought about playing through again, but ran out of time. I might play it again in February, and see how a year between sessions changed my opinion. If I end up doing that, I'll add my thoughts to this post.
Final thoughts: Just about the best price point for the game; very fun to play, you can be as sassy as you want and you can journal as much or as little as you want, so it's a very flexible game; it's pretty to look at and the art moves the story along; BCMs all enjoyed this pick and would also recommend it; not a lot of reason not to pick this one up!
Can you complete the ritual before the guards catch up with you?
* This review was published well after the book club event.