This card-based RPG adventure pits a reluctant witch against Slavic demons

A new gameplay trailer for Black Book arrived during the Guerilla Collective showcase today, and it's chock full of demons. Black Book is a card-based RPG and adventure game hybrid, set in a world where mythological creatures live alongside humans.

The story concerns a young sorceress named Vasilisa, who would rather get married than become a witch. Her plans, unfortunately, change quite a bit as her betrothed meets a terrible and mysterious death, and Vasilisa sets out to find the fabled Black Book—a demonic tome that can grant the wish of anyone who uncovers its seven seals.

Hunting for an evil book to bring someone back to life sounds like a dangerous proposition, and the trailer shows a lot of card-based combat encounters with monsters based on Slavic folklore. But it's an adventure game, too, and players will engage in conversations with people they meet in the countryside, as well as solve puzzles and complete side-quests.

Vasilisa can also collect and manage her own flock of demons, but it sounds like that has some dangers as well. "Send demons to do your bidding, but be careful—idle demons will torture you if you don’t find them something to do!" reads the Black Book page on Steam. Anyone who has had a bored pet chew on their hand can certainly sympathize.

Black Book is planned for release sometime in 2021.

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Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.