Title: Board Game Review: Betrayal at House on the Hill
Author: Pyro
Recovered Author: Pyro
Published Date: 2015-10-27
Original URL: https://geeknode.co.za/2015/10/board-game-review-betrayal-at-house-on-the-hill
Wayback URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170914134129id_/http://www.geeknode.co.za/2015/10/board-game-review-betrayal-at-house-on-the-hill/
Recovery Confidence: high

- Pyro

- 2 years ago

- 4 0

The night is dark and you have no idea where you are. You curse silently at yourself for not asking for directions at the gas station you passed a while back. As you exit the forest into the clearing a flash of lightning illuminated the ruined house. Strange noises come from behind you in the forest and you decide to approach the old abandoned house. You signal your friends to follow you. WAIT! was that someone in the upstairs window? Lightning cracks overhead. Just a trick of light you tell yourself as you approach the front porch. Rotten wood crack underfoot as you mount the stairs to the front door. The rusty hinges of the old door squealed like fingernails on a dusty chalkboard as you slowly pushed it open. You all enter the house torches raised shining towards the grand staircase that leads upstairs. BAM! The door slams shut behind you and resists all attempts at being opened.

Welcome to the House on the Hill.

Game Overview:

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a Horror strategy game designed by Bruce Glassco for 3-6 players (ages 12+) published by Avalon Hill (Wizards of the Coast).

Betrayal at House on the Hill won the 2004 Gamers Choice Award for Best Board Game .

In Betrayal, each player takes control of an explorer who will be investigating a creepy run down house. Starting out as a co-operative game everyone does exactly what they aren’t suppose to do… Split up. You explore the house room by room building up (or breaking down) your character traits. Each time you discover a new room you might find something new… or something might find you. At a certain point in the game (as the title states) one of your erm… “friends” turns traitor and triggers a scenario called a haunt. When the haunt starts the traitor more often than not becomes hell bent on defeating his former friends and the heroes need to stand together and survive the horror. The game becomes a fight between the Heroes and the Traitor – often to the death.

Game Components:

This game has a lot of components, like seriously, A LOT! 149 small situational cardboard tokens that is used throughout the game. The room tiles and cards are great quality and I haven’t had any issues with those. The biggest issue I have with the game is the Character Cards. You keep track of your character’s stats on the pentagonal card with plastic clips that are moved a lot through the game. Unfortunately these plastic clips are useless and you lose track of your stats unless you do what I did and wedged unsightly pieces of paper behind the character card to keep the plastic pins in place. Some of my character cards are damaged on the edges because of this. Luckily technology is on our side and smart people actually created a Smartphone app which everyone can use to keep track of their character scores. Betrayal Helper by Nacho Lopez is the best one I’ve found so far. Only available on the Google Play store.

How To Play:

Everyone gets to choose a character, each character card has 2 sides with different characters and different attributes. Physical Traits are Speed and Might (Speed for movement and Might for Attack Power) Mental traits are Sanity and Knowledge (Used for various check rolls). Your character can die if one of their stats reaches the skull symbol on the Character Card. (Before the Haunt is revealed nobody can die, after the haunt is revealed though it is a different story.

Everyone starts with their plastic figurine in the Entrance hall and the game begins! Your character can move a number of spaces equal to your Speed in any direction you choose to explore new areas in the house. You can head upstairs or try to look for a way to get to the basement (because that is the safest place in any haunted house right!?) Once a room is discovered a tile is drawn from the deck corresponding to the floor you are on and you need to draw a card (if applicable) corresponding to that room. This can either be an Item, Event or Omen Card.

Item cards has items that help you and give you an edge in the game boosting certain traits etc.

Event cards are the things that happen to you in the room, the roof might collapse, there could be blood all over the place or you might discover a hidden passage. Usually you have to do an attribute roll in these cases. (If you need to do a Sanity Check of 4+, you have a look at the current level of your Sanity Trait. If you have a Sanity of 3 you take 3 dice and roll, the results on the dice need to be 4 or more for you to pass.) The catch in this is that these dice aren’t your regular 6 sided dice. They have 2 blank faces, 2 faces with a value of 1 and 2 faces with a value of 2. This makes it entirely possible to roll NOTHING at the worst possible times (I know this all too well).

Omen cards are the cards that you dread receiving. Every omen card pushes you closer and closer to the haunt and the revealing of the betrayer. After each Omen card that is drawn that player must make a Haunt Roll (dum dum duuuuum). The haunt roll is a 6 dice roll, if you score less than the total amount of omen cards on the table the Haunt commences. (The Omen cards has mostly useful equipment on them assisting you in the game.)

The game handles the Haunts perfectly. You have a Haunt Chart that cross references the Omen card received and the room it was discovered and gives you a haunt number you need to look up. This is where the game really kicks off. The Haunt number states who the Betrayer is and they receive the Traitors Tome and is Shunned to another room while the heroes plan their tactics for survival with the Secrets of Survival book. (The haunt revealer isn’t always the traitor. The person with the highest specific trait could be chosen as betrayer). There are 50 different scenarios that can take place.

The Betrayer knows what he needs to do to win but doesn’t know how the heroes are equipped to deal with him and vice versa. The Heroes and Betrayer continues the game as set out by the 2 manuals and applicable haunt until the winner(s) are declared . I don’t want to spoil anything but haunts are based on numerous horror scenarios, such as zombies, cannibals, dragons, vampires, the house itself, or almost any other monster imaginable. Some goals allow for the traitor to convert other players to traitors as well (such as fellow werewolves). The exact goals for both the other players and the traitor differ for each possible Haunt and neither side is forced to reveal any new abilities or win conditions.

Positive Nodes:

- You can play the game over and over without it being the same ever again.

- The suspense this game delivers puts me in the shoes of my poor little hero trying to survive against all odds.

- Co-operative haunts are also available where nobody is the betrayer and its is everyone against the house.

Negative Nodes:

- The plastic clips on the Character Cards could have been done better

- First time players find being the betrayer very intimidating

Second Opinion:

Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of those must have party games. As Pyro mentioned above, it really does change everytime you play it with such a huge variety of Betrayal scenarios. Best of all, you can finally see what your friends would be like if they one day decide to stab you in the back! *insert evil laugh here*

Bonus: Check out the below video to see geek icon Wil Wheaton and friends play Betrayal at House on the Hill on Geek & Sundry’s Tabletop.

The night is dark and you have no idea where you are. You curse silently at yourself for not asking for directions at the gas station you passed a while back. As you exit the forest into the clearing a flash of lightning illuminated the ruined house. Strange noises come from behind you in the forest and you decide to approach the old abandoned house. You signal your friends to follow you. WAIT! was that someone in the upstairs window? Lightning cracks overhead. Just a trick of light you tell yourself as you approach the front porch. Rotten wood crack underfoot as you mount the stairs to the front door. The rusty hinges of the old door squealed like fingernails on a dusty chalkboard as you slowly pushed it open. You all enter the house torches raised shining towards the grand staircase that leads upstairs. BAM! The door slams shut behind you and resists all attempts at being opened. Welcome to the House on the Hill. Game Overview: Betrayal at House on the Hill is a Horror strategy game designed by Bruce Glassco for 3-6 players (ages 12+) published by Avalon Hill (Wizards of the Coast). Betrayal at House on the Hill won the 2004 Gamers Choice Award for Best Board Game. In Betrayal, each player takes control of an explorer who will be investigating a creepy run down house. Starting out as a co-operative game everyone does exactly what they aren't suppose to do... Split up. You explore the house room by room building up (or breaking down) your character traits. Each time you discover a new room you might find something new... or something might find you. At a certain point in the game (as the title states) one of your erm... "friends" turns traitor and triggers a scenario called a haunt. When the haunt starts the traitor more often than not becomes hell bent on defeating his former friends and the heroes need to stand together and survive the horror. The game becomes a fight between the Heroes and the Traitor - often to the death. Game Components: This game has a lot of components, like seriously, A LOT! 149 small situational cardboard tokens that is used throughout the game. The room tiles and cards are great quality and I haven't had any issues with those. The biggest issue I have with the game is the Character Cards. You keep track of your character's stats on the pentagonal card with plastic clips that are moved a lot through the game. Unfortunately these plastic clips are useless and you lose track of your stats unless you do what I did and wedged unsightly pieces of paper behind the character card to keep the plastic pins in place. Some of my character cards are damaged on the edges because of this. Luckily technology is on our side and smart people actually created a Smartphone app which everyone can use to keep track of their character scores. Betrayal Helper by Nacho Lopez is…

Board Game Review: Betrayal at House on the Hill

Board Game Review: Betrayal at House on the Hill

2015-10-27

Pyro

Total - 8.5

85
8.5

With Halloween fast approaching I can see this game moving to the top of my game box for the time being as the theme is perfect for this time of the year. With over 50 haunts, 12 different characters, endless possible house layouts and different betrayers this game has real value for money as the replayability is through the moldy roof!

User Rating: Be the first one !

9

“It’s intriguing how the Haunts are determined by the players and they are not predictable. Overall a very exciting game” – Mooshyash

“Betrayal is a great game to play with a good group of friends. As a first time player, I really enjoyed what I got to experience. I would most definitely recommend it.” – Darryl [ ITF Gaming ]
“Great game!! Can go on for hours and you won’t get bored. Especially if you are the betrayer… mhuahahahaha” – Monique

“Erhmegerd! I love this game. Have to say one of my favourite boardgames” – Zeli

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Pyro

Guest Contributor - Tabletop at Geek Node

Pyro is a rambling pyromaniac of unknown origin who has a burning passion for all things fire related. (And board games). Controller by day gamer by night. He turns caffeine into reviews.

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Article Tags:
Avalon Hill · Betrayal at House on the Hill · Halloween Boardgame · Wizards of the Coast

Article Categories:
Games · Tabletop Game Review
