Betrayal at House on the Hill Review by Jabberwock
Every now and then, you need a break from brain-burning games of collecting wood and sheep, or figuring out who is the weak link and needs to be fed to the zombies, or whether you should have a wizard or a giant spider in your army. And then you need something that will not sate your appetite for ‘meaty’ gaming, but just want a sugary snack of a game. That’s when you reach for Betrayal at House on the Hill (BAHOTH).
The game is like a guilty secret among gamers. “Betrayal…?” you might say. “Oh, you mean the random one – with the cards and dice, right? I may have heard of it…” When all the time you have a craving to play more of it when you serious gamer friends aren’t looking – and they probably have the same craving too!
OK, so the game itself is a 3-6 player romp through a spooky house Scooby-Doo style. “Let’s split up – that way it won’t get us so bad!” Each player takes on the persona of an explorer in the house, complete with flashlight, and moves through the house, drawing random tiles when they go through an unexplored doorway to see what’s there. There is no explanation of why these guys are doing this – at least not yet…
The characters are represented by painted miniatures, and cover the spectrum of classic haunted house explorers – you have the know-it-all professor, the “ickle girl”, the tough guy jock, the psychic lady, the annoying kid, and the knows-how-to-handle-herself young lady. Each character card is double-sided, so you have some leeway within these tropes to personalise your character.
The house is built using tiles as you explore, and the thick card tiles are very atmospheric, producing a spooky – if not very realistic – house layout as you go. When a character first enters a room, more often than not, they will need to draw a card to see what happens, and then possibly have to roll dice to find the outcome. For example, the “rorriM eht ni egamI” card has your character facing a reflection of himself from another time, who writes on the mirror “pleh lliw sihT”, and reaches through the glass and hands you an item. “A spider the size of your fist lands on your shoulder … and crawls into your hair.” The character needs to make a Speed roll to brush it away, or may be bitten and take damage. These cards are to be read out, so everyone knows what is happening. It is all very atmospheric, and totally random.
During the game, Omen cards can be drawn, which can be items or followers (my favourite being the Madman, who increases your Might (as he helps you in fights), but decreases your Sanity (as he constantly distracts you with insane ramblings)). As Omen cards are drawn, a ‘Haunting’ roll must be made, and the more Omen cards that have been drawn, the more likely the ‘Haunting’ will begin. And then the game takes a nasty turn…
You see, one of the players is actually a traitor, attempting (usually) to kill all the other players (henceforth known as Heroes). Now the backstory gets filled in, and we find out why these guys are actually at the house – whether they crashed their car and need somewhere to stay, or were deliberately lured up here by the traitor – the players now look in a book at a certain page (determined by the specific Omen drawn, and which room it was drawn in) to see what to do next. There are fifty scenarios that could be played through, and this is the best and worst part of the game…
You see, the original ‘Traitor’s Tome’ and ‘Secrets of Survival’ were not especially well-written. There was a little bit of an outcry as a lot of the scenarios were difficult to understand and follow, or even outright broken! Thankfully there are updated versions on Avalon Hill’s website that answers a lot of questions. And a FAQ. There is still some difficulty in following the scenarios through, but some liberal interpretations and some common sense will usually see you through.
(I can’t go into any more details about scenarios, otherwise you wouldn’t get the enjoyment out of being surprised by them. But some are decent, some are poor, and some are pretty average. Like I’ve said – the game is random through and through.)
The winner is usually random. It kind of depends where everyone is when the Haunt is revealed, and what stuff they have, and how injured they are. All of which is also dependant on luck and happenstance. There are rooms that send you flying through the house at a moment’s notice, and cards that transport you to another floor, and various other things that basically remove a lot of careful planning and tactics moot and pointless. So the Heroes could be spread willy-nilly through the house, and be easily picked off one-by-one as the Traitor stalks them slowly. Or the Heroes might already have the Mystic Whatsit that kills the bad guy, or be in the right place to cast the de-summoning spell to rid the house of evil. And then some bad rolling might make all of that pointless and the Heroes still lose. Or win. (Depends on what you were expecting.)
Summary
Presentation: The game is packed with goodies, from well-painted (mostly) figures, solid and effective room cards that give the house a gloomy atmosphere, and slightly-larger-than-normal event, item and omen cards that seem to be putting up with a lot of grief without showing much wear and tear. The only minor gripe is that the monsters and other items in the game are represented by little chits with ‘bat’ or ‘book’ or whatever written on them. They kind of break the ambience a little bit, and are a bugger to find in the box (there are a gazillion of these little things!). 8.6/10
Clarity of Rules: When a game needs a large FAQ to properly explain it, then the rules aren’t very good. And when they had to replace the main part of the stuff in the box with revised ones on the net, then you get the impression that things are not great. But at least they are doing something about it, and listening to people’s comments. There are still little rules that might be hard to remember, but generally it’s a pretty basic game. The rulebook could be clearer, though. 5.9/10
Game Length: Generally speaking, it’s all done and dusted in about an hour. Things rarely drag, and there is always something going on – especially after the Haunt is revealed. There si very little downtime, as turns are over nice and quickly (generally), and the descriptive comments and graphics set the mood nicely and keep everyone involved. 8.8/10
Value: It’s actually pretty expensive for what it is, and may put some people off. All I can say is, if you are a fan of cheesy horror movies, then you fifty in the box for the price, along with some cool figures and cards, and a whole shed-load of little cardboard chits. Make your own mind up. 7.7/10
Overall: As a fan of horror movies myself, the whole ‘exploring a creepy house on a hill’ theme is quite exciting for me. And yes, it is a total random luck fest, but the fun with this one is in the journey, not in the destination. The creepy atmosphere and the unsettling events, coupled with the shock and sudden revelation of a betrayer in our midst is one that gets my pulse racing, and gives me the urge to play again! 8.2/10 (not an average)
The game is like a guilty secret among gamers. “Betrayal…?” you might say. “Oh, you mean the random one – with the cards and dice, right? I may have heard of it…” When all the time you have a craving to play more of it when you serious gamer friends aren’t looking – and they probably have the same craving too!
OK, so the game itself is a 3-6 player romp through a spooky house Scooby-Doo style. “Let’s split up – that way it won’t get us so bad!” Each player takes on the persona of an explorer in the house, complete with flashlight, and moves through the house, drawing random tiles when they go through an unexplored doorway to see what’s there. There is no explanation of why these guys are doing this – at least not yet…
The characters are represented by painted miniatures, and cover the spectrum of classic haunted house explorers – you have the know-it-all professor, the “ickle girl”, the tough guy jock, the psychic lady, the annoying kid, and the knows-how-to-handle-herself young lady. Each character card is double-sided, so you have some leeway within these tropes to personalise your character.
The house is built using tiles as you explore, and the thick card tiles are very atmospheric, producing a spooky – if not very realistic – house layout as you go. When a character first enters a room, more often than not, they will need to draw a card to see what happens, and then possibly have to roll dice to find the outcome. For example, the “rorriM eht ni egamI” card has your character facing a reflection of himself from another time, who writes on the mirror “pleh lliw sihT”, and reaches through the glass and hands you an item. “A spider the size of your fist lands on your shoulder … and crawls into your hair.” The character needs to make a Speed roll to brush it away, or may be bitten and take damage. These cards are to be read out, so everyone knows what is happening. It is all very atmospheric, and totally random.
During the game, Omen cards can be drawn, which can be items or followers (my favourite being the Madman, who increases your Might (as he helps you in fights), but decreases your Sanity (as he constantly distracts you with insane ramblings)). As Omen cards are drawn, a ‘Haunting’ roll must be made, and the more Omen cards that have been drawn, the more likely the ‘Haunting’ will begin. And then the game takes a nasty turn…
You see, one of the players is actually a traitor, attempting (usually) to kill all the other players (henceforth known as Heroes). Now the backstory gets filled in, and we find out why these guys are actually at the house – whether they crashed their car and need somewhere to stay, or were deliberately lured up here by the traitor – the players now look in a book at a certain page (determined by the specific Omen drawn, and which room it was drawn in) to see what to do next. There are fifty scenarios that could be played through, and this is the best and worst part of the game…
You see, the original ‘Traitor’s Tome’ and ‘Secrets of Survival’ were not especially well-written. There was a little bit of an outcry as a lot of the scenarios were difficult to understand and follow, or even outright broken! Thankfully there are updated versions on Avalon Hill’s website that answers a lot of questions. And a FAQ. There is still some difficulty in following the scenarios through, but some liberal interpretations and some common sense will usually see you through.
(I can’t go into any more details about scenarios, otherwise you wouldn’t get the enjoyment out of being surprised by them. But some are decent, some are poor, and some are pretty average. Like I’ve said – the game is random through and through.)
The winner is usually random. It kind of depends where everyone is when the Haunt is revealed, and what stuff they have, and how injured they are. All of which is also dependant on luck and happenstance. There are rooms that send you flying through the house at a moment’s notice, and cards that transport you to another floor, and various other things that basically remove a lot of careful planning and tactics moot and pointless. So the Heroes could be spread willy-nilly through the house, and be easily picked off one-by-one as the Traitor stalks them slowly. Or the Heroes might already have the Mystic Whatsit that kills the bad guy, or be in the right place to cast the de-summoning spell to rid the house of evil. And then some bad rolling might make all of that pointless and the Heroes still lose. Or win. (Depends on what you were expecting.)
Summary
Presentation: The game is packed with goodies, from well-painted (mostly) figures, solid and effective room cards that give the house a gloomy atmosphere, and slightly-larger-than-normal event, item and omen cards that seem to be putting up with a lot of grief without showing much wear and tear. The only minor gripe is that the monsters and other items in the game are represented by little chits with ‘bat’ or ‘book’ or whatever written on them. They kind of break the ambience a little bit, and are a bugger to find in the box (there are a gazillion of these little things!). 8.6/10
Clarity of Rules: When a game needs a large FAQ to properly explain it, then the rules aren’t very good. And when they had to replace the main part of the stuff in the box with revised ones on the net, then you get the impression that things are not great. But at least they are doing something about it, and listening to people’s comments. There are still little rules that might be hard to remember, but generally it’s a pretty basic game. The rulebook could be clearer, though. 5.9/10
Game Length: Generally speaking, it’s all done and dusted in about an hour. Things rarely drag, and there is always something going on – especially after the Haunt is revealed. There si very little downtime, as turns are over nice and quickly (generally), and the descriptive comments and graphics set the mood nicely and keep everyone involved. 8.8/10
Value: It’s actually pretty expensive for what it is, and may put some people off. All I can say is, if you are a fan of cheesy horror movies, then you fifty in the box for the price, along with some cool figures and cards, and a whole shed-load of little cardboard chits. Make your own mind up. 7.7/10
Overall: As a fan of horror movies myself, the whole ‘exploring a creepy house on a hill’ theme is quite exciting for me. And yes, it is a total random luck fest, but the fun with this one is in the journey, not in the destination. The creepy atmosphere and the unsettling events, coupled with the shock and sudden revelation of a betrayer in our midst is one that gets my pulse racing, and gives me the urge to play again! 8.2/10 (not an average)
posted by David Plank at 1:03 PM
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