This game was Gifted to us by Charming Games Collective via the UK Board Game Review Circle on Instagram in exchange for an honest review.
All thoughts and opinions are our own.
7.1
What is Doom Cat?
Doom Cat is a roll-and-write game for 1–6 players, designed by Dylan Coyle and published by Charming Games Collective. In Doom Cat, you play as a magic user trying to bind demons with sigils — unfortunately, your cat keeps stealing your dice and knocking over candles. Doom Cat runs in about 30 minutes, and it’s equal parts mischievous, magical, and maddening — perfect for a cozy but chaotic game night.
What's in the box?
Doom Cat is split into three levels (Apprentice, Adept and Archmage) each contained within its own box and getting progressivily more challenging.
Each box contains:
- 2 Dry Erase Pens
- 3 Dice
- 9 Sigil/Goal Cards
- 3 Sigil/Familiar Cards
- 1 Campaign Log
- 1 Rulebook
The theme and artwork are delightful. You’re a magic user trying to complete a ritual, only for your mischievous cat to keep knocking over your candles and messing with your sigils. It’s light and silly, but it comes through clearly in both the mechanics and the art. Every card features charming, distinctive illustrations by Lailamon; whether it’s a goal, familiar, or sigil. The dual-sided design is also a clever touch that helps keep the game compact without compromising variety.
The component quality is great too. The cards are sturdy, the pens write clearly and wipe off easily – everything feels built to last. We’ve had our fair share of dry-erase frustrations with other games, but Doom Cat’s materials work really well. Our only small gripe is the triple rulebook and dice situation — but that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent package.
How to Play Doom Cat
Setup
To start a game of Doom Cat, first choose your goal cards — these determine how you’ll score points. You can pick them randomly or follow one of the suggested combinations in the rulebook for a balanced game.
Each player then gets two Sigil cards and a dry-wipe pen.
Turns
On your turn, one player rolls the three dice and places them where everyone can see. All players then choose two of those dice and draw a line connecting the matching numbers on one of their Sigil cards.
The remaining die is written at the top of that same card. You’ll then cross out a matching number on the Sigil — that candle can’t be used again.
Play continues for fourteen rounds, with everyone building their own web of sigils. If you write the same number at the top of a card twice, that number becomes wild and can represent any number for the rest of the game.
Scoring
At the end of the game, tally up your points based on the goal cards you selected at the start. Goals can reward intersections (where lines cross), unique numbers, or other clever patterns.
Add up the scores from both your cards — the player with the highest total wins.
Our Thoughts on Doom Cat
The Kickstarter campaign for Doom Cat has ended, and as of now there’s no confirmed retail release. At its original Kickstarter price point, the game did feel a little expensive for what’s in the box. We were very fortunate to be gifted the complete boxed set, which allows play for up to six players. Each individual box includes two dry-erase pens, its own set of dice, and a rulebook — which is generous, but arguably unnecessary when bundled together. While we’ll never complain about extra dice, it might have been more cost-effective (and eco-friendly) to release Doom Cat as a single box with everything included, rather than three smaller ones. We definitely don’t need three rulebooks!
Setup, however, is lightning fast — just choose your goal cards, hand out two sigil cards and a pen per player, and you’re ready to go. That simplicity makes Doom Cat very welcoming to newer players, though we did find that the rulebook could be clearer in a few areas. We ran into a couple of edge cases during play that weren’t covered or were open to interpretation, leaving us to make our own calls. The rulebook does a great job explaining the basics, but a few examples or clarifications would make the experience even smoother.
Once you get going, though, Doom Cat really shines. The gameplay is straightforward — roll the dice, choose your actions, and move to the next round — but there’s plenty of satisfying decision-making packed into that simplicity. For a light roll-and-write, there’s more strategic depth here than you might expect. It’s technically a multiplayer solitaire game, as there’s no direct interaction, but we still found ourselves chatting about our choices throughout. Even though everyone’s working on their own puzzle, it sparked conversation and laughter — which, honestly, is part of the fun for us.
Rob also tried Doom Cat solo and found it worked surprisingly well that way. It’s the kind of game you can happily play on a quiet Sunday morning with a cup of coffee — quick to set up, relaxing to play, but still engaging enough to make you think.
Because the rounds move so quickly, you’re never left waiting long or feeling disengaged. Before you’ve had time to overthink your last turn, the dice are rolled again and you’re right back in it.
Where Doom Cat truly stands out is in its replayability. With so many goal cards, familiars, and sigil combinations, no two games ever feel the same — unless you deliberately set them up that way. We love games that feel fresh every time, and Doom Cat delivers that in spades. We tend to randomise everything — our goals, familiars, and sigil cards — and that unpredictability makes each session feel like a new puzzle. Granted, if you dislike randomness, this may not be your favourite aspect. But for us, it’s part of the charm, adding a fun layer of chaos to an already whimsical theme.
With it's unique art and theme of a cat wreaking havoc on your ritual, Doom Cat is as fun to look at as it is to play. Great componenets, clever dual-sided cards and quality materials make it a standout — just mind the fussy rulebook.
Overall, Doom Cat packs a surprising amount into its small box. Its approachable gameplay, quick setup, and variety of goals give it impressive longevity for a light roll-and-write. It’s one of those games that’s easy to pull out, simple to explain, but still rewarding to master — and we can absolutely see it becoming a regular in our game night rotation. Rob, especially, will likely be summoning Doom Cat solo for a long time to come.
Rob 7 - Jess 7.2
💡 Looking for more chaotic critters? Check out our book review of Remarkably Bright Creatures.
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