# Summoning Games **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 24, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807 "2011-03-24T04:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/1 "2011-03-24T04:08:12Z")
I’m in the odd mood for a game that revolves around summoning, my current mood is more action oriented, but feel free to mention anything (i.e. Pokemon could count since you’re basically summoning the Pokemon you catch). My only requirement is that either the game revolve around summoning in a large way, or at least have a playable character dedicated to summoning/controlling/taming large amounts of monsters, creatures, or items. A beast master class or game isn’t IDEAL but it could fit, depending on how it’s implemented. As for “action oriented” summoning games, I’m thinking of things such as: Lost Kingdoms/II (Gamecube title, was one of my favorites) Folklore (PS3) But again, feel free to mention turn based ones as well. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/2 "2011-03-24T04:30:56Z")
Overlord is kind of a puzzle oriented summoning game (from 2007) with action elements. It’s five bucks on Steam now, and there’s a demo. You summon a few dozen little minions to do all of your fighting, ransacking, and general heavy lifting for you. Well, you can jump in a fight, too, but it’s generally more efficient to point at an enemy and say “kill that”. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/3 "2011-03-24T04:37:37Z")
Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game–and potentially a large moneysink, but involves summoning creatures and doing battle. The original Everquest was an mmorg with a Beastmaster class, also had Mages, Necromancers, and Shadowknights with summonable pets, and had an Enchanter class that could charm lots of different monsters for disposable pets. I dunno if that game even exists anymore. Think EQ2 is still limping along. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/4 "2011-03-24T05:07:58Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Overlord is kind of a puzzle oriented summoning game (from 2007) with action elements. It’s five bucks on Steam now, and there’s a demo. You summon a few dozen little minions to do all of your fighting, ransacking, and general heavy lifting for you. Well, you can jump in a fight, too, but it’s generally more efficient to point at an enemy and say “kill that”. I never really finished that game, but I wouldn’t really consider it a “summoning game” since (if I recall correctly), all the summoning was done at one or two set points in every level, it was more of a resource management pseudo-RTS. Also, it didn’t really have the “scope” summoning usually entails, you only summon, what, 4 creatures? Lots of them, to be sure, but I didn’t feel like I was really doing anything special. That’s not to say it’s not a good game, but I feel calling it a “summoning game” is looking at it in a really surface way, I’d in no way compare Overlord summoning to D&D summoning, Final Fantasy Summoning, or even Magic: The Gathering Summoning, all of which either have a ton of different creatures with different utilities, or else a few REALLY DAMN IMPRESSIVE creatures. I suppose it’s not right of me to call it “not a summoning game” since you do summon things, but I don’t really feel that it has the same feel as playing a SUMMONER, just a big bad who uses minions who conveniently happen to be summoned, if that makes a lick of sense to anyone but me. > [@Oakminster](#): > > Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game–and potentially a large moneysink, but involves summoning creatures and doing battle. > > The original Everquest was an mmorg with a Beastmaster class, also had Mages, Necromancers, and Shadowknights with summonable pets, and had an Enchanter class that could charm lots of different monsters for disposable pets. I dunno if that game even exists anymore. Think EQ2 is still limping along. I went to a Magic tournament with my girlfriend and friend once, it was interesting but it seems like it takes way too much life investment (not just money, but the time spent practicing, learning about combos and cards, etc) for me. It’s fun to enter a (non-draft) tournament or buy a few packs and construct a deck on occasion and lose horribly, but it’s not a game I’d really “play.” ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/5 "2011-03-24T14:04:19Z")
Good old Diablo2 has the necromancer class. If you haven’t played it ever, give it a whirl. It should be mega-cheap and would be worth it just for a brief single-player runthrough. ---
**Author:** ![badlyburnttoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@badlyburnttoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badlyburnttoast)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/6 "2011-03-25T05:56:54Z")
Sacrifice: ([http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/sacrifice](http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/sacrifice)) (or [Sacrifice on Steam](http://store.steampowered.com/app/38440/) if you prefer steam, but it costs more) Basically it’s a 3rd person action type game, you control a summoner who… summons an army and support it with various magic spells, and try and kill the other guy’s army so you can capture the souls from his units and use them to summon more of your own. it’s quite old (2000) and I don’t know if it will run on win7 (it ran fine for me on XP). Probably no-one plays multiplayer anymore either (though single player is fairly replayable). I absolutely loved it when it was new and I dusted it off a little while back for another round and it had held up decently enough. Plus, it’s only $6. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/7 "2011-03-25T06:14:33Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Good old Diablo2 has the necromancer class. If you haven’t played it ever, give it a whirl. It should be mega-cheap and would be worth it just for a brief single-player runthrough. And a skeleton summoning Necromancer is simply unbeatable… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/8 "2011-03-25T14:33:16Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Good old Diablo2 has the necromancer class. If you haven’t played it ever, give it a whirl. It should be mega-cheap and would be worth it just for a brief single-player runthrough. > [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > And a skeleton summoning Necromancer is simply unbeatable… > > Joe However, make sure you have the Iron Maiden curse and the Earth Elemental summon before you get to the first boss (who wipes all your skellies with one area of effect attack). ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/9 "2011-03-25T16:22:28Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > However, make sure you have the Iron Maiden curse and the Earth Elemental summon before you get to the first boss (who wipes all your skellies with one area of effect attack). What? Earth Elemental? Wrong game? ETA : I guess you mean clay golem, on second thought… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/summoning-games/575807/10 "2011-03-25T16:30:59Z")
Yeah, been a while since i played it; Clay Golem. I do specifically remember having to go back and grind another level because I hadn’t gotten Iron Maiden the first time I hit what’s her face and saw all my skellies hit the floor within 2 seconds.