Raise the dead – and the roof – in Dinosaur Island makers’ über-metal game Dead Man’s Cabal

No-one likes a dead party – that is, unless you’re a necromancer and dealing with the deceased is how you like to kick it.

Dead Man’s Cabal is all about resurrecting the departed to give your party some life, and as you might expect from a board game featuring 3D skulls, bones, pentagrams and a cow skull ossuary, it looks as metal as the Tin Man at a Megadeth concert.

Behind the game is Daniel Newman, designer of wallet-sized card game Ahead in the Clouds and its sequel Feat on the Ground, who teamed up with Dead of Winter, Wasteland Express Delivery Service and Dinosaur Island co-creator Jonathan Gilmour to craft the ‘mid-weight’ gameplay over the last two years.

Driving the strategy is an action selection mechanism that lets players pick one action for themselves and another for the entire group, making not just what but when you obtain bodies, skulls and runes, and ultimately resurrect your deceased companions, central to driving up your own score without handing opportunities to your rival necromancers.

Dead Man’s Cabal will be coming out next June from Dinosaur Island studio Pandasaurus, which Gilmour recently joined as head of game development.

You can expect to play the game in 45 to 90 minutes with two to four people – hopefully meaning you don’t need to raise the dead to find players.