Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal at House on the Hill: 2^nd Edition

Publisher: AvalonHill (2010)

Players: 3-6

Play Time: 30 min – 2 hrs

Genre: Board Game, Strategy, Horror, Co-op

Price: $49.99

Gather a few of your gaming friends and sit down for a game that never plays the same way twice. Betrayal at House on the Hill has a lot of parts and can be quite daunting for those playing it the first time, but once they get the hang of it there's a lot of fun to be had. The game was created by Bruce Glassco and the first edition won the Gamers Choice Award at the Origins Game Fair in 2004. It consists of twelve different explorers for the players to control, all with unique statistics in Speed, Might, Sanity, and Knowledge. Those explorers are tasked with exploring an old house. The ground floor and upper level are open to the players at the onset of the game, with the basement becoming accessible through a variety of ways. There are a total of 44 total rooms possible in the house, laid out at random as rooms are explored. Most of the rooms have a special feature, either a condition for entering/leaving, an item hidden in the room, and event that is triggered upon discovery, or an ominous Omen.

Items are pretty self-explanatory. Most of them are there in order to help your character in combat or exploration. These are the primary way your character increases in power as the game goes on. Most of them can be given to other players, some are expended after a single use, and later on they can be stolen. Events are creepy things that happen upon entering a room. Sometimes they're good, increasing statistics are conferring items to the player, and sometimes they're bad, reducing statistics, trapping an explorer until they're able to free themselves, or otherwise impeding the players' progress. The real danger comes from the Omens. These are cards that on face value are generally very beneficial to the player; companions, powerful weapons, large stat boosts, and more. In small doses they're a good thing. Every time an Omen is drawn though the player who draws it must make a Haunt roll. The roll most be greater than the total number of Omens on the table, if it's not the game takes a dramatic turn; from cooperative exploration to, most often, murderous predation.

After an unsuccessful Haunt roll the players consult one of the included books, the Traitor's Tome, to determine the identity of the traitor. Depending on the room that was responsible for the Haunt, the Omen that was drawn in that room, and occasionally the Haunt revealer, one of fifty different scenarios is indicated to be that game's Haunt. Aside from two scenarios without a traitor, this mechanic will pit one of the players against the rest in a unique confrontation. The traitor consults the aforementioned Traitor's Tome while the forces of good get their instructions from Secrets of Survival. The best way to tackle this part of the game is to separate the two parties and go over the scenario and its dangers and conditions for victory before reconvening and continuing the game. It's important to remember that all of the information shared in one book may not have been included in the other, so be careful with what you say, you could be inadvertently sharing too much with your enemy.

For me this is where the game really shines. There are so many different Haunts that the game never feels stale. There are Haunts involving Voodoo, demon lords, dragons, lycanthropes, one inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray and more. Some of the scenarios do have a bit of an issue with balance, they're either too easily won by the Survivors or the Traitor, but for the most part they're challenging fun for both sides. The only real complaint with this aspect of the game is that it can be a little jarring to stop the game for ten to fifteen minutes, read a new set of rules, form a strategy, and then get back to the game. Try to look at it as an opportunity for everyone to take a rest room break, freshen up a drink, get a snack, and get back to it.

As you can imagine, this type of game involves a lot of pieces. Aside from those already mentioned there are almost 150 tokens intended to represent any of the variety of beasties the Haunt might unleash on the world. It can be quite a task to sort through all of those tokens to find the ones you need for a specific Haunt. Another issue with the pieces are these tiny plastic clips intended to be used to track each players' statistics on the sides of their player card. The clips fit very loosely on the card and come dislodged if someone closes a door on the other side of the house too vigorously. We've used bobby pins in the past to accomplish the task that those clips fail so miserably at. Small paper clips would also do the job, and I've been intending to pick up a bag of tiny clothespins to try.

Conclusion: Once you can overcome the rather steep learning curve Betrayal at House on the Hill will provide you and your friends with hours of entertainment. Although it's not a game for neophyte gamers, casual players will get the hang of it after a game or two. The sheer number of options make even your practice sessions fun. Just find a substitute for some of the lesser quality pieces and avoid the headache of trying to remember if that last Hideous Shriek drove you insane or if you're still in the fight.

Rating: 8/10