Welcome to the first issue of the RBG, where every so often we take a look at a different selection of games. Sticking with Nerd Bacon’s Halloween theme, the RBG will be analyzing an exploration big box game filled with mystery and murder. Also, quite possibly demons and spirits. It’s time to check out our first horror themed adventure, Betrayal at House on the Hill.

Designers: Rob Daviau, Bruce Glassco, Bill McQuillan, Mike Selinker, Teeuwynn Woodruff

Publisher: Avalon Hill (1st), Wizards of the Coast (2nd) 

Genre: Adventure, Horror, Exploration

Number of Players: 3-6 Players

Release Date: 2004 (1st), 2010 (2nd)

Difficulty: Medium

SCORE: 7.5 / 10

Have you ever wanted to be apart of your own horror B-movie? Now you can! You are one of six friends exploring a dark and creepy mansion one evening. As you explore the titular House on the Hill you slowly lose your mind as you uncover items and the ever mysterious omens lurking around every corner. Once enough omens have been found, you will be faced with another grim predicament. Will you be able to save your friends and escape the House on the Hill, or will your body be thrown into the chasm below to open up the gates of Hell? It’s up to you to find out.

The mansion begins with only three rooms, each room serving as a landing for each level of the building. As you move each turn you can discover new rooms by going through unblocked doors, further expanding the bleak mansion. Be wary though, as more often than not you will be faced with a grim fate as you move from room to room. Players need to explore each level relatively quickly, as the second part of Betrayal, “The Haunt” can begin anytime after one omen has appeared. It all depends on how your compadres are at rolling dice. This will serve as the first round of play, known as the “Exploration Phase”.

Come on in..

Once you enter a room, a number of different events can happen. These occurrences typically fall into four categories: items, omens, events, and on-tile challenges. The item tiles are fairly simple, as they indicate that your character found an item that could be helpful later. The omens are “Haunt” specific items, causing chaos and forcing the player to make a “Haunt” roll. Items that typically fall into this category are a medallion, a crystal ball, and a madman, just to name a few.  I will go in depth on these later in the “Haunt” section.

We have found the Blood Dagger! Mwahahaha!

Now events and on-tile challenges can easily hinder your character during both stages of the game. For example, an ever popular event card is the “Light’s Out” card. “Light’s Out” causes the character’s flashlight to run out of batteries, limiting the character’s speed to one until you meet up with another player to exchange for a new set of batteries. The on-tile challenges, however, affect your character in a different way. These challenges force the player to make a stat test roll and reach a minimum number to pass. The results differ per tile, but can consist of: allowing you to pass through the room, not to fall to the story below, take damage, or open the vault for awesome items. These challenges can be completely optional if you can avoid them.

As you move around and explore the house, you will begin to find mysterious omens lying around. Every time one of these omens are discovered, the discovering player must make a “Haunt” roll. These rolls consist of eight dice in which the player must roll a larger amount than the number of omens that have been discovered. Sure this sounds easy at first, as it is decently simple to roll more than four across six dice. The more omens that are uncovered, the harder it becomes, the more the suspense builds.

This world is just a stage, and all these pawns are merely players…

Now who makes up the cast of this B-movie? You have six different models to choose between, but have twelve characters to pick from total. Each character card has an A and B side one side per character. These cards are a nifty feature as it resembles the A and B characters in a film. I like to think that it is for A-roll and B-roll, but it is your choice on how you would like to interpret it. Here is the cast available for any variation of the game, including their stats:

M = Might, SP = Speed, S = Sanity, K = Knowledge

• Ox Bellows: Football player. 5 M, 4 SP, 3 S, 3 K
• Darrin “Flash” Williams: Track star. 3 M, 6 SP, 3 S, 3 K
• Heather Granville: High school sweatheart. 3 M, 4 SP, 3 S, 5 K
• Jenny LeClerc: College student. 4 M, 4 SP, 4 S, 3 K
• Father Rhineheart: Priest. 2 M, 3 SP, 6 S, 4 K
• Professor Longfellow: Professor/Drunk. 3 M, 4 SP, 3 S, 5 K
• Peter Akimoto: Teenage boy. 3 M, 4 SP, 4 S, 4 K
• Brandon Jaspers: Computer geek. 4 M, 4 SP, 4 S, 3 K
• Vivian Lopez: Film aficionado. 2 M, 4 SP, 4 S, 5 K
• Madame Zostra: Gypsy. 4 M, 3 SP, 4 S, 4 K
• Zoe Ingstrom: “Innocent” Little girl. 3 M, 4 SP, 5 S, 3 K
• Missy Dubourde: Child swimmer. 3 M, 5 SP, 3 S, 4 K

Each character has different base stats in the four main categories: might, speed, sanity, and knowledge. These categories can be found on the outer edge of the character card, with the base stat in green. These attributes can change based on events, specific room consequences, or items/omens, so small sliders are provided to place along the edge. You need to pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses of each character, since each scenario can depend on a different skill. I have found that sanity is often the most important for both the player and the traitor, as many key late game items can allow you to fight with sanity instead of might. This can easily level the playing field, even though they are relatively balanced at the start of the game.

From an online demo version, yet the best picture.

Alright, so you failed a “Haunt” roll. Now this is where Betrayal gets exciting. Once a “Haunt” roll fails, we take a look at the corresponding omen and the room where it was discovered. We open the two accompanying books labeled “Traitor’s Tome” and “Secrets of Survival”, to figure out which game to play. The “Haunt Revealer” reads the first book which outlines the rules for the second round. Who will be the traitor? This is where you find out who you exactly can trust among your the other players.

This evil yet awesome bastards of books.

The “Haunt” is the main reason Betrayal has so much replayability. There are many different stories that can take place as a result of the “Haunt”, containing wizards and vampires or demons and evil spirits. Now which story you play is just the luck of the draw. To give you an idea of the variety of “Haunt” stories, these are my three favorite ones I have played so far. Also, it was only a mere coincidence that I was the traitor in each one.

• Haunt #9: “The Dance of Death” – The players must stop the spirit of a lone fiddler from playing his music through the use of the Holy Symbol omen. Does not begin with a traitor but a player can become one due to a failed sanity check. (Loss)
• Haunt #12: “Fleshwalkers” – The players must destroy their evil twins. If the player is killed, they can still control their twins to murder the other players. No traitor. (Win)
• Haunt #42: “Comes the Traitor” – The heroes must prevent the traitor from murdering one of them and sacrificing their corpse to open the gates of Hell. The traitor is immortal. (2 Wins)

To tie everything up in a nice little bow, Betrayal is one board game that should be in every tabletop gamer’s inventory. Not only does it crank up the suspense once the first dice is rolled, the game is designed to change every time to give you an entirely new experience. The “Haunt” story guides allow you just enough framework that, if you would like to tell your own story, you have the tools. Betrayal is a perfect short big box game to fit into your next gaming adventure.

Anyway there you have it, the first issue of the RBG! Interested in more tabletop games like Betrayal? Be sure to watch out for the next issue and follow my Bacon Bits for a sneak peak at what the next issue might hold. Be sure to also check out everything else Nerd Bacon has to offer over in Beyond Bacon.