Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal At House On The Hill is one of my favorite games to pull out and play with friends or to introduce them to this type of exploration board game. I've gifted it several times and taken it to several friend's homes that have all loved the game play. ~~It is very easy to learn and teach~~ What makes this game so fun is that it is different every time. In addition to that, it has an unknown traitor once the haunt begins. With that said, even if you play the same haunt, it can be very different each time because each traitor and hero has a different play style and strategy. ◘ Exploration: The game begins with the adventurers standing in the entryway of the house. Like and good horror movie the group splits up to explore on their own, discovering omens, items, and events along the way. Some players may want to expand the house as large as possible before the haunt begins, and some may want to keep the house smaller. It depends on the group. For every omen discovered, a haunt roll must take place, the player rolls six dice and must roll higher than the number of omen cards on the table. With normal dice, this would be no problem. However, the dice for Betrayal at House on the Hill are not normal. Some sides are blank and it only goes up to 2. Once someone rolls less than the number of omen cards on the table, the haunt begins. ◘ The Haunt: The haunt is the meat of the game, the real objective of the game. Depending on who failed the haunt roll, where they were at in the house, and the last omen cared drawn, the traitor is revealed in the rule book that says "DO NOT READ." The traitor then removes themselves from the room to read about their new powers and objectives, while the heroes remain in the room to discuss their strategy to beat the traitor. •• Why does the game appeal? •• This game is so appealing I think because every time you sit down, it's a little different. Every character differs even from game to game. You might discover the same rooms over and over, but theyre never in the same order and they always have different rooms attached to them sometimes even false doors. It seems like a lot at first, but it doesn't take long to set up and the game can go on as long or as short as you want it to. On top of that, the traitor is different every time and it creates a fun dynamic for the group playing because sometimes its the most innocent person that turns into the traitor and you end up learning about their traitorous side. •• Rules, arguments, and complexity •• The rules are simple, but occasionally, there's room for interpretation, which can make it fun because then it turns into the house rules. The rules really aren't complex and I think the room they leave for interpretation allows each person that buys and plays the game to really make it their own. Some things aren't specifically said, like can this ghost use the elevator, well then the owner or the players can decide the likelihood of a ghost using an elevator or requiring the stairs. •• Who is this game for? •• The game really is for anyone that enjoys that sense of adventure. I've played it with die hard board game fans and they loved it and I've played it with people that are new to board games and usually only played games like Cards Against Humanity. It can be fun for everyone. •• How many players do I need? •• It really depends, I've played with 4, 5, and 6 players. I think the 6 player mark was my favorite. but 4 is a really good sweet spot. When there are 6 players, it begins to feel like there's a lot to keep track of, but it is fun nonetheless because there is so much going on and you uncover the board a lot faster! •• Do I need the expansion? •• Eventually, you could buy it. However, that being said, play the original as much as possibly before you start to get bored of it. In my opinion, that will take ages. •• Conclusion •• At the end of the day, this is usually the game I reach for when friends come over to play games. It has been my favorite for a while and I will always recommend it to people looking for new games.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a horror style board game. While complicated, it is a fun and exciting game whose varied and random nature insures that no two games are the same. Betrayal makes an excellent gift for people who enjoy board games and who are also horror movie lovers. Through the use of creepy, unsettling imagery and subject matter, it gives players a sense of fear or dread that would be felt by characters in such movies. The relief of finding a weapon in an item card can be instantly reversed into the dread of knowing that it will be no help against the monster in the next room. It does a very good job of emulating a person trapped in an old horror or slasher movie the likes of “Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Amityville Horror,” but in the end is still a well designed board game. While the game features standard issue monsters and mad scientists to elevate the level of spookiness and unease, it is the betrayal of one of the players in the group that ultimately makes the game a winner. It then becomes a strategy game of survival against a player that had previously been working as a team member. The new dynamic shifts the game from one of friendly exploration of a haunted house to one of strategy and intrigue as the players are now pitted against a common foe that was once one of their own. A non-static gameboard allows the game to be new at every outset of play. This keeps the game fresh and interesting. Like a good horror movie, sometimes strategy has nothing to do with success and you have to rely on luck. Random event cards do an amazing job keeping players on edge during the slower start of the game when luck has to be on your side more than strategy. Comparing the game to a horror movie, the event cards become the scary unsettling moments that occur just short of the monster or killer actually arriving on screen. This works heavily to the game's biggest advantage: fear. The randomness of being forced to explore an unknown area and not knowing what is coming next works well in keeping the game’s creepy nature. Betrayal is complicated to grasp for new players, but it is easy to improve the more you play it. Strategy and game theory will begin to emerge. I have played this game several times and improved each time. There are problems to the game such as the complex storylines and some vague rule issues. Overall, Betrayal at House on the Hill is a fun and exciting game that due to inherently being randomized is never the same twice. ----Scott House

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a fantastic game made by Wizards of the Coast. Gameplay starts with each player choosing a survivor - six survivor tiles with a different version of the character on each side makes for twelve to choose from - and placing them in the central hallway. From there, players explore the house by going through doorways into unexplored rooms, revealing rooms from a stack of tiles and spooky events that do everything from slowing them down to gaining powers or items. In fact, everything in this game is straight out of a horror show - whether you're hearing shrieking voices, choking on grave dust, or being buried alive, Betrayal at House on the Hill is easily one of the creepiest board games you'll ever play! The real fun begins when the Haunt starts; some rooms contain Omen cards, and every time an omen is revealed, six dice are rolled. If the total showing is lower than the number of omens that are showing, the Haunt has begun! The Traitor's Tome is referenced to see which haunt is being played out (there are 50 in all), and the identity of the traitor is revealed. Since no one knows who the traitor is until this point, you might have been helping them all along! The traitor leaves the room and flips to the appropriate page in the Traitor's Tome to see what they're supposed to be doing, and the rest of the players look through the Survivor's Guide to see what their new objective is. It would be unfair to reveal any of the haunts here, but I will say that you'll wind up doing all sorts of insane things to fulfill your win condition, whether you're the traitor or one of the survivors. With fifty different scenarios and a house that's different every time you explore it, Betrayal at House on the Hill has a lot of replay value. Sure, you'll eventually start to recognize the Haunts...but that takes a lot of playing time, and even if you know what's going on, that doesn't mean you can do anything about it! Two things to keep in mind: 1) This game is not for younger children. Most of the themes are spooky and might frighten the little ones, so treat this games as PG-13. It's especially important to keep this game away from toddlers and infants, as many (most) of the game pieces could be choking hazards. 2) The components are a little questionable. Almost everything is cardboard, which means the game is subject to warping if stacked a certain way. Furthermore, there are endless tiny pieces; get several small sandwich bags and separate the tokens by type, or prepare to spend several minutes hunting every time you need one. Those two caveats are hardly anything that should keep you away from this game. With a high level of replayability, creative and engaging scenarios, and a social dynamic that can't be ignore, Betrayal at House on the Hill earned its second run by being a fantastic game that's difficult to ignore.

I absolutely love this game. It is a very luck intensive game, but the variety is pretty fun. Each map you've played and each scenario is different from your previous games. If you go to the traitors tome and look up which scenario you're playing and you've already played it before you can just pick a different one that occurs in another room you've discovered(so you don't repeat). The time varies significantly from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. It does take a while to get the hang of the game, and for the first two games you'll constantly be looking in and out of the rulebook. Also it is really easy to play with two players as well(just have each person have two characters and when a haunt occurs the person who controls the traitor transfers the non traitor character to the other person). I just love that this game is so different from any other I've played. The only disappointment is the black stat markers as other reviews have noted. They are far to loose and will slip off when you move them on the card. There are several quick fixes to this. We saw this was happening and just used sticky notes with arrows pointing towards the number, moving the sticky pad as the stat changes transpired. You could also try paper clips. Or laminating the cards so they are thicker/write on them with dry erase markers. Just an observation but you will need a very large surface area to play on(think dining room table not coffee table). We've played 5 different scenarios. Here is a review of Each Scenario 1. Haunt #5- I was a teenage Lycanthropy - 5 stars- detailed review below 2. Haunt #9- Dance of Death/fiddler- 3 stars - There was no traitor and everyone lived and won. 3. Haunt #10- Family Gathering - 4 stars- The house was fairly big and managed to make this pretty easy to win with only a single hero dying. 4. Haunt #14- Stars are right- 5 stars- Came down to the last turn with the Traitor barely edging out the heroes who were 1 turn away from winning themselves 5. Haunt #47 - This was the first scenario we played and several of the rules were misplayed. It looks like if it was played correctly it would have been a lot of fun. POSSIBLE SPOILERS! Haunt 5 detailed Review I loved this map. It looked so helpless from the start for the heroes, but it came down to the end. We didn't have the gun or the silver bullets and the Werewolf and dog were right next to the room where we could search for the revolver. We quickly headed to the basement and managed to unlock the room where the silver bullets were made, and passed the knowledge check for the silver bullets. We quickly handed them off to the flash who made a mad dash for the room where he could search for the revolver...unfortunately he failed! The werewolf and the dog quickly ran him down and bit him until he was bloodied and weak. He managed to pass his sanity check and search for the revolver...unfortunately he failed again. He hobbled out of the room and flipped over a new tile. It was the mystic elevator. He rolled the dice(a zero) fell to the basement and took two points of damage(1 die roll) which killed him. So instead of being a werewolf he died a martyr to the cause. We explored another room seeing as we had a little time and managed to draw the crystal ball. The werewolves were on our trail and in the basement. We took the mystic elevator around the house dodging the werewolf and the dog occasionally exploring a new room or two until we found the vault. We managed to acquire the revolver and combined them with the flashes silver bullets(his lifeless body was also on the trip with us ala weekend at bernies) so as the dog and the werewolf approached we lucky feathered our silver bullet out of our gun and into the heart of the werewolf...but wait ... the werewolf rolled an 8 and dodged. Then little zoey sacrificed herself so that Brandon(our hero with the gun) could shoot at them again. Brandon manages to take down the werewolf this time and retreat one more time to the basement. However the dog takes the slide down and manages to land in the basement with brandon. The dog attacks brandon, but he manages to defend himself and remain unharmed. Brandon then shoots the dog with the silver bullet to win the scenario.

This game is a lot of fun, but it is hard to learn. The directions can be somewhat confusing-especially if you are new to the game. It is so much easier to have someone who knows how to play to explain it to you as you go! I'll do a quick synopsis to demonstrate: One of the difficult parts to learn was what "The Haunt" and "Monster Roll" was. The haunt is basically where the game changes. The monster roll is the turn of the monster (whatever monster is activated) during the haunt. Basically, you & your group enter a haunted house. Roll the dice to see how many rooms/steps you take. You start off with just the entryway-you "discover" rooms as you go. This means you grab a board piece that corresponds to whatever floor you are on and add it to the board where you are. Once you enter a room, some will have a symbol on the room & it will direct you to pick up a card & read/follow the directions on it. It's best to discover as many rooms as possible before the haunt is activated. *The haunt is activated by a dice roll. During the haunt: One person will take on an extra role of being the monster. The other players will try to defeat the monster. See? Not too hard, but unless you read the whole booklet very carefully, you might not understand fully. It took 3 of us fumbling thru one game, then kinda knowing what we were doing during the second. Then we some-what mastered it on the 3rd round. It is ok with just 3 players, but way more fun with 4 or more! It has a great re-play ability to it. Each time things will change-rooms, monsters, items you have, etc. Overall, this is a great game. It has a learning curve in the beginning, but you can catch on quickly after that. Like I said, having at least one person to help the others walk thru it, makes it way more fun & easy to learn! It's not a quick game-if you take your time & especially if you are new, it will take at least an hour to play! We paid $31 + tax for it and it was worth it. Hopefully, they will make a new addition with easier to understand directions. I'd also like to see it take longer to activate the haunt. It is fun exploring the rooms & lots of times we only have a few before the haunt!

I heard a gaming blog say that this is one of the largest board games out there. I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. We have to play this at the dining room table, as a standard coffee table would be far too small. The object of the game is to explore a haunted house and build the house. As you move through doorways on your turn, you randomly pick a room tile to represent the room that you are entering. Each room will have an Event (something good or bad that causes you to roll, draw an item, move to a different room of the house, etc.), Omen (usually an object that can help), or Item. There are rooms that can boost your character's skills. The goal of the game is to explore the house, collecting items and improving your character before the "Haunt" starts. Once it does one or more of the players will turn "Traitor", leave the room, and read their individual objective in a different book. The remaining players will read their instructions. When the traitor comes back (with their individual secret rules), the game continues as a vs. game. The game can get tense and there are several of the objectives that have some unclear instructions. Be ready to "house rule" a few unclear items. It is not a deal-breaker - in a game this complex there is likely to be some errors that were uncaught by editors and play testers. To add to the game, get the Widow's Walk Expansion, but I have noticed that the haunts in the expansion are a little too intense for my 9 year old. For a more youth-friendly game try "Betrayal at Mystery Mansion", a Scooby Doo themed game that is similar, but less complex. I will say that it is intended to be a cooperative game; however, players tend to get suspicious after a few games and don't really help out each other because of the risk that the person that they are building up will at some point turn traitor. The secrecy of the rules can cause some angst if you are not comfortable with the group you are playing with. Despite its flaws, this is one of our go-to games for game night. We have not gotten through all of the possible haunts and even if you are at risk of repeating one, there are alternate rules that allow you to randomly select a haunt you haven't played. Most of our games range between an hour (speed game) to an hour and a half, though you could get up to two hours, depending on how quickly the haunt starts and how complex the situation is. I would certainly recommend.

It’s my first board game, and I was worried that it would be too scary or creepy after seeing some comments on the. “Pentagrams” or “Saitanist” cards. I was also concerned about wether it would be too difficult to pick up. But It ended up being an amazing purchase. To provide some background details, I personally gets easily scared by all ghost related scary movies. I understand where some of the religious concerns came from, but after playing it myself I believe it’s nothing more than being fitting to the game’s horror theme. It is definitely not an excuse to get people to chant spells or join cults. And the level of horror briefly resembles an entry level scary movie. But if that is still a concern, I’d recommend getting Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate instead. The game was fun! And the level of horror is flexible! It’s not too scary if you’re playing with a group of friends lights on after dinner. But you also have the option to turn off all the lights and play the game with spooky background music. The replay-ability of the game is also great, so far we’ve played 7 haunts and every haunt Feels like a different board game. It took a while for us to figure things out on our first round, but it becomes smoother as it goes. It is my go to board game every week now. And I plan to purchase the expansion pack after we go through a half of the haunts. As for the cons of this game is that the parts of the character cards are easily scratched or damaged. However, I believe there are a lot of fan made resources online to fix these problems. Also, with only 6 character cards(12 different characters in total) my friends and I very quickly wanted more character options. We also hope that there would be more expansion packs coming along.

There are some serious flaws with this game. The premise that 3-6 people would enter an abandoned (seemingly) house that looks as creepy as the one on the box is insane. There is no way anyone could ever pay me enough to step foot inside this house. The idea that the people could ever be convinced by anyone to go somewhere like that by themselves with no cell phone reception (or food!) is just crazy talk. Pretending to be any of these characters is too much of a stretch when the first axiom is that they entered this death trap. These people are suicidal idiots. Real Review: We love this game. It's fantastic. We had some hiccups the first couple of times we played because we had trouble reading the rules, for instance we didn't understand that you end your turn immediately when you get an Omen (on reflection, this is very obvious, but we trusted the 18 year old to interpret the rules for us...so it's our fault). There are still some places where the rules could be clearer. I will have my partner update this review with them when we get the chance. In those instances, we generally play the house rules version (we just pick which way we think would be most fair to play and do that). One thing to keep in mind is that while the game is actually pretty quick, the part where the secret books are used to understand the scenario can take a long time (10+ minutes) for people to get on the same page. We played once with 4 couples and sending a couple to be the traitor took awhile, but having 6 people decide on a strategy took at least 15 minutes (minimum), so keep that in mind, especially the first few times you play. Another critique would be that the writing is hit or miss; some of it is really fantastic, and some is very lame (probably like this review?). It seems like there were a few writers but maybe no editor to check for consistency/quality. I think this would also really benefit from a few contests where Betrayal makers could curate the best scenarios and post them online as printable booklets that we could use once we've played through all 50 scenarios. Overall, the game is excellent. I highly recommend it. While pricey, it's not any more than you would spend on any other top-notch board games. It's my new favorite.

It’s a really good game that is just about always played whenever we have guests over. Highly entertaining for a long period of time. Was a little difficult to learn at first but easy to get used to. Have yet to play the same situation twice, but it says there are expansion packs for when that finally happens. Highly recommend for people that enjoy exploration and strategy games.

No doubts that this is counterfeit, so don't worry. Learning curve is moderate, prefer if someone who has played guides the group. If not, no worries. Game is a mix of strategy, adventure, horror, and exploration. Good story/lore elements to sink into the mood.

J'ai acheté ceci pour mon fiancé comme cadeau de Noël. C'est un jeu vraiment cool et divertissant !! Il existe environ 50 scénarios différents et même des extensions, ce qui est excellent car vous ne vous ennuierez pas rapidement. le jeu semble compliqué au début, mais une fois que vous avez compris, c'est très amusant! Je ne suis pas surprise que cela figure dans la liste des meilleurs jeux de société des États-Unis! Je recommande!!

Juego cooperativo durante gran parte de la partida, y luego se puede transformar en un juego asimétrico con un traidor. Muy divertido que gusta a casi todo el mundo: misterio, roleo, cooperación, mapa variable con losetas y 50 aventuras distintas. Un único inconveniente, está en inglés y hay que tener cierto nivel para ser capaz de leer la aventura. Cuando hay un traidor, este se tiene que ir fuera a leer solo la aventura que le toca jugar, por lo que hay que tener al menos un nivel medio de inglés. Se puede solucionar, y si hay alguien con un nivel bajo, este nunca podrá ser el traidor, no es lo ideal, pero es una solución si te apetece probarlo y en tu grupo de juego hay gente que no tiene mucho nivel.

This is a great game from 3-4 people although you can play it for up to 6. Fantastic fun as a party game, as partway through the game one of you becomes a betrayer and versus the rest of the players. Well balanced and lots of variety