Published by House on the Hill magazine
Published by House on the Hill magazine
Enter the house with scarecrows and see our epic review of the issue ...
Take a deep breath before entering. It may be your last.
A crazy scientist, a weightlifting champion, a girl from a neighbor, an inconspicuous fortune teller and two creepy children walk around the city on a dark and stormy night. They seek refuge in the House on the Hill, and the warm lights promise a pleasant and safe place to wait before the storm.
As soon as they enter the house, the door snaps behind them and they get caught inside! They find no way out and have to walk down dark corridors full of dangers, signs and dark traps. To make matters worse, one of them will betray the traitor against the group and promise that no one will leave the house alive.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill is probably my favorite board game with horror and is a Halloween favorite in our family. Read below for our full overview of the issue in the house on the hill.
- Tile after tile, terror after terror, build your mansion with scary houses ...
- With 50 blood clotting scenarios, every trip to the house on ...
- Players must work together to survive the nightmare.
A brief overview of the issue in The House on the Hill
You will take control of 1 of the 12 characters and enter the house on the hill, a Vincent Price - a breathtaking mansion with haunts, where all kinds of horrors await. The game begins collaboratively where all the survivors explore the rooms and pick up the equipment before “Persecution” is revealed.
While researching house players, they try to build up their statistics and find objects without being cursed or damaged before “Persecution” begins and a traitor or monster tries to kill them.
Research
The game is divided into two phases - the exploration phase, the cooperative part of the game and the chase phase, where one of the players will become a traitor to compete for survival with other characters now called heroes.
Each game is random and there are 50 different scenarios, which gives the release a big repeatability factor. In addition, there are dozens of scenarios created by fans online, so you’ll find it twice as hard to play the same game.
Scarecrow
Each time the "Haunt" tile is revealed, the player will then roll six dice and if they do not move high enough, the real game begins. The game is then assigned to “Persecution” and someone, all or none, betrays the group. From there, it is now possible to win and end the game.
Haunt's can be anything from classic horror to downright stupid.
In this game, we met the undead, witches, serial killers, or simply tried to kill each other. No two games are alike. During one game, my mom turned into a crazy cat lady, while the rest of us shrunk to the size of a mouse and had to run away from the house on a toy plane.
Variations and extensions
first edition - No longer in print.
Second Edition - Currently available, released in 2010. This is the version most of you find and on which this review is based.
- Tile after tile, terror after terror, build your mansion with scary houses ...
- With 50 blood clotting scenarios, every trip to the house on ...
- Players must work together to survive the nightmare.
Widow’s Walk (extension) added 20 new room tiles, creating an additional floor (roof) for play, plus 30 new maps and 50 new haunts released in 2016. This is a major expansion of the game. Widow's Walk basically doubles the size of the original game by adding 50 new scenarios and enough tiles in the room and cards / items / signs to keep you busy for quite some time.
- Expansion. Requires Betrayal House on the Hill
- Compatible with all editions
- 50 new chases, 20 new tiles in the room, 30 new cards (11 items, 11 ...
Edition at Baldur's Gate - Dungeons & Dragons version, released in 2017. For those of you who don't know, Baldur's Gate is one of Dungeons & Dragons' fictional trading venues in the universe. It is the main venue in the world and actually works well with the release system.
Instead of exploring the mansion on the hill, you will explore the streets and alleys of Baldur’s Gate. Just as you might encounter anything in a research and development campaign, you may also come across Mindflayers, Beholders, and other monsters from outer space.
Check out our Full Review Before You Get Started!
- Material type: paper
A treacherous legacy features a prologue and a thirteen-chapter story that has been going on for decades and was released in 2018. The Legacy system is absolutely fantastic. My experience with older games has been the most fun in playing board games. Something about the persistent story with in-game upgrades makes me happy.
O The legacy system works so that each play has a different generation of the same family. So, every next game you play the next generation of lunatics who are stupid enough to walk around a scary mansion.
Interested in learning more about the legacy system? Check out our lineup of the best abandoned games out there!
- Attention! In the board games "Legacy" there could be every move of yours ...
- Discover the secrets of the iconic house in the 13th episode ...
- With 52 blood chases — including 13 that permanently ...
Unpacking the issue
I am quite impressed with the production value of the issue. There are a huge variety of scenarios, and each could use different tokens and markers, but don’t skimp. You won’t be using most of the markers right away, but it’s nice to see a themed variety that you can play with.
On top of all the chips you get very well made miniatures of the players. The war games and miniature crowd will scoff at the painting, but for those of us who are a little rusty in the artistic talent department, it’s nice to have a pre-painted miniature instead of a generic gray plastic model that we can play with.
The next thing you’ll notice is a lot of dice , but you’ll notice something weird about them. Instead of the traditional numbered six-sided cubes, Betrayal’s cube has two blank sides, two sides with one tap, and two sides with two taps. This means that whenever you have to make a roll, there is always the possibility of terrible failure and usually the possibility of glorious success. It definitely increases the tension.
At the end you will see several pentagonal plates with small black arrows. These show who your characters are and track statistics. You’ll soon find that after your first game, the boards are some of the worst designed in the history of board games.
How to play betrayal
There are two main stages to the game.
1. Research
v Research On stage, all the players are on the same team. You all foolishly decided to go out and enter the house on the hill. From here, each player will wander around and explore the rooms, trying to pick up items and increase their stats without getting too hurt.
While exploring the room, you will draw a random tile in the room and place it where your character moves. By doing this, you build a house layout that is different in each game. The only places that remain the same are the entrance / lobby / staircase, basement landing and upper landing. Each play will be completely different.
Here you can try and think strategically and build rooms that are easier to reach or harder to reach. You can also try to build an organized floor plan if your OCD does not allow the kitchen to be 5 rooms away from the dining room.
In addition to poor home design, how you arrange your house can greatly affect the game after Haunt. If the traitor or survivor has to go to two separate rooms and they are right next to each other, this will be a short closing game. If they are far apart and terribly difficult to reach, then someone gets the advantage. It’s all part of the fun.
For every new room you explore, there will be a symbol somewhere in the corner. The swirl symbol indicates the event card, the melodies indicate the Subject card, and the raven indicates the Omen card. Mention cards require Haunt's scroll.
Events
Drawing a swirl tile (event tile) completes your movement. Then pull out the event card and follow the instructions on the card. Sometimes they can be good, but usually you end up hurting yourself. The events cover the entire scale of terrifying tropes. In the end, you could be buried alive, faced with ghost children, or giant spiders could land on you.
Typically, you make a roll with a certain property and the greater the success, the more likely you are to get something good (element or stat boost). If something bad happens and you’re hurt, don’t worry too much. It is impossible to die before Haunt. You may enter the final game weaker than the other players, but it’s all part of the story.
items
The items are probably one of the best tiles you can land on, so there are of course only a few in the whole game. Element tiles allow you to immediately pull out an object card and then your movement ends. Item cards can range from weapons to medical kits, with liquid adrenaline, a music box and a lucky stone in between.
Ommens
Each Omen tile drawn pushes your game closer to level 2, Haunt. When exploring a room with a raven symbol, draw an Omen card and follow the instructions on it. It’s usually some sort of powerful artifact or item that brings you a bonus. Not all are great and some can even hurt you. Once the card is resolved, you must then make a Haunt roll.
Damn roll
After solving each Omen tile then make a scary roll. Anyone who has explored the room will take six dice and roll them over. The goal is to connect or exceed the number of Haunt open spaces. So, on Haunt’s first roll, you get six dice to roll at least 1. It’s weird, but it’s possible for Haunt to start in the first or second round.
2. Scarecrow
This is where the real game begins. This is the point in the game where almost anything can happen. To actually find out what to do, check out the “Traitors Home” booklet. On the first page is a chart that will tell you who will betray the rest of the group based on the last Omen room and the Omen map drawn.
The traitor can be anyone or anyone. That’s why it’s so interesting. Each scenario is different and the game can cover almost any horror we can imagine. There could be Vincent Price horror whodunit, classic monsters (werewolves and vampires) and even modern slashers like the Saw movies. They can be downright stupid and also scary.
I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll say I’ve played the game many times, and there are still some scenarios I haven’t played.
Your first game of betrayal
As with most games you play for the first time, you are likely to play incorrectly. I usually need a few games through the game before I figure out all the rules. When the game gets underway, it’s very easy to play. A lot of games seem to be a lot more intimidating and harder than the rules than they really are.
The first thing you will need to do is choose your character. There are 12 characters in total, but only 6 characters. If you turn the cardboard pentagons, you will see that each side is a different character with different abilities. For example, a red-colored player can choose Flash, which has a much higher speed, or Ox Bellow, which has a higher power. Each option is fine and has all the stats needed to play the game.
If you do a math , you will notice that the statistics are different for each character, but they all have the same number. I played games in which the physically weakest character could win because the script favored high mental qualities.
Advantages and disadvantages of betrayal
Good
The game is just fun and goofy. Like participating in a classic horror movie with all your friends. The theme is phenomenal and the repeatability of the game is impressive. I have owned the copy for a few years now and publish it a lot throughout the year, not just on Halloween .
The total value of production exceeds expectations. As I mentioned, you usually get a beautiful character that is a piece of gray plastic and no different from the next piece of plastic. The added task before coloring really contributes to the themed elements of the game and is a nice change you can see in the board game.
If you share the storytelling and social aspects of gambling, then this is a must. I honestly think this is a great transition game for new players as well. Many weirdos against the board game immediately think of Monopoly as the only choice of board games.
So if you manage to convince them to sit down in the Betrayal game, it usually shows them the light. I saw several of my shy friends come in and give some really scary voices to Professor Longfellow.
Bad
If you ask someone what they think about betrayal after their first game, there’s a good chance they’ll whine about how cool it was, and for good reason. It has such a wonderful blend of mechanics that it is completely unique.
If you ask someone what they think after playing a few games, some common mistakes start to appear. The game sometimes feels one-sided, which can go both ways. In some games, the survivors completely mow the monsters or there are two rooms in which they have to perform the ritual, right next to each other. In other cases, the monster can attack a mental trait and exterminated players with all weapons are completely powerless to stop it.
However, the most unforgivable aspect of betrayal is not balance. This is how you track the statistics of the players on the boards. The game has small plastic arrows that are supposed to sit along the edge of the board and point to the stat number. Theoretically, this is a wonderful way to track, but for all its great production value, they really skimped on it. The arrows do not fit on the board and with a light touch all your markers will fly. The arrows themselves aren’t even long enough to actually reach the numbers, so if it’s not completely focused on the number, the argument he said can come up when reviewing stat numbers.
There is an upgrade kit sold separately for carpets with signs that fix this problem by adding an integrated stat bike that won't fly off if you touch it.
Frequently asked questions about betrayal
With 50 scenarios and special rules in the game, the issue can sometimes seem very complicated. It usually takes me a few plays of any game before I play it 100% properly. Fortunately, the second edition clarified some of the rules, and Avalon Hill / Wizards of the Coast posted pretty in-depth frequently asked questions about things that don’t really make sense.
Frequently Asked Questions about the issue in House on the Hill - Wizards of the Coast PDF
If you’re still not sure about the rule, simply review the game and reschedule it until later when you take the time to figure it out. So the game doesn’t stop for 15-20 minutes while someone sits there and reads the rules.
If all else fails, send me a comment / message and I will help you find out.
Published by House on the Hill (TL; DR)
The edition is a fantastic game with great themed elements that make it perfect for Halloween or during the regular rotation of games.
Technically it has some flaws. Character cards never stay together, sometimes the game seems to pick the same players as the traitor, and some scarecrows can be one-sided.
Despite the technical flaws, I don’t think I ever left the game Betrayal disappointed or disappointed to the point that I wanted to write it off. If you’re like me and play board games to bring family and friends together, you’re going to have to really try to find a game that will beat betrayal.
Conclusion: a verdict?
The repeatability of the game is incredibly high. If you’ve played each script once, that’s at least 50 games before you have to go back and play the script again. There aren’t many games that claim that at least 50 games will be completely different.
In addition, the layout of the house in each game is different. If you really want to die for more, there are fan-created scenarios online, one major extension, one themed alternative to the Dungeons & Dragons world, and an abandoned version of the game.
That’s a lot of hours of sitting at the gaming table. And like I said, I’ve never left the table without a smile on my face.
- Tile after tile, terror after terror, build your mansion with scary houses ...
- With 50 blood clotting scenarios, every trip to the house on ...
- Players must work together to survive the nightmare.
We hope you enjoyed our review of the issue! What do you think of the issue at House on the Hill? Write a comment below and let us know your thoughts. We would love to hear from you!
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