The creator of last year's cult hit RPG The Necromancer's Tale is back with The Lich Wars, a storybook RPG that follows 30 years of undead botheration

Psychic Software has unveiled The Lich Wars, a standalone prequel to their 2023 RPG The Necromancer's Tale. The new game adapts the prologue of the original into a full narrative experience, blending choose-your-own-adventure mechanics with RPG elements such as skills, stats, and evolving relationships.

The Lich Wars casts players as a musketeer navigating two major conflicts—the titular Lich Wars—over a 30-year career, with three main narrative paths. The game features character death and the possibility of undeath, alongside regular non-lich wars, set against a backdrop of gothic and romantic themes.

The game’s plot explores early romantic and gothic themes, including technological anxiety, war ethics, and the mental toll of dark magic. It is set in an alternate-history world where science and magic collide, with courtly intrigue and alchemy-driven chemistry shaping the narrative.

Visually, The Lich Wars combines hand-drawn illustrations with unfurling paragraphs, alongside maps and tabletop-style 3D elements. The story spans much of the alt-history kingdom of Rulsthen near Venice and extends across Western Europe, including the Great Northern War and the War of Spanish Succession.