Betrayal at House on the Hill analysis.

Introduction:

Hello! This week we played Betrayal at House on the Hill. Betrayal at House on the Hill is a very interesting and unique game in the sense that it a game match is played in two phases.

The Game:

The object of the game in the first phase it to explore a haunted mansion together with the other players, you can find different items in rooms which can be used to defeat the traitor in the second game phase. No one knows who the traitor is until the second game phase, not even the traitor himself.
In phase two a few different things can happen in the second phase depending on which room the player was standing in and what omen he or she triggered it with. The player might turn into a monster, or create monsters that will haunt you. The player might not even turn into a traitor at all and then you need to all work together as the house turns against you.

Players:

Before the game starts, each player gets to choose which character that they want to play. There are 12 different characters to choose between, but only six character pieces. Each character has two versions of themselves which you can play. Each player can only play as one character per game session. There are four different four different Traits: Speed, might, knowledge, and Sanity. These traits are divided up into two different categories, physical traits, and mental traits. Speed and might are physical traits, while knowledge and sanity are mental traits.
Depending on what level you are in a trait, you get to roll varying amounts of dice for checks in that stat. Some characters are very athletic and have high numbers in speed and strength, but don’t have much sanity and knowledge. Other characters have low speed and strength with high sanity and knowledge. There are some characters which have a balance between the two.

Speed: The speed stat is used to determine how fast you can move through the house, you get to move through one extra room for each point you have in speed. Speed is also used for some room based events, for example to exit one room you need a certain amount of speed or you wouldn’t make it out in time and you would lose a point in strength.

Might: The Might stat is mainly used to make physical attacks, while attacking either with a player or a monster. When you make an attack against something or someone, you get to roll one dice for every point in might you have. The might stat was also used for certain rolls in some of the rooms in the house.

Knowledge and Sanity: The Knowledge and Sanity traits are primarily used during events that require the player to make a trait-roll in either knowledge or sanity, but there are certain conditions in the game that will let you use sanity or knowledge instead of might to make an attack. This is called a mental attack and unlike a physical attack it targets sanity and knowledge.

Combat:
Combat is calculated with the attacker taking rolling the number of dice equal to his or her might value, and then adding the results together. The defender does the same thing. The results are later compared. Whoever gets the highest number wins and gets to steal an item from their opponent or choose to inflict damage to them instead.
Some attacks can rely on sanity or knowledge instead of might. These attacks are called mental attacks. Mental attacks are not possible against all monsters seeing as some of the monsters are missing mental attributes entirely.

Cards:

Item Cards can help you or make the situation worse. It can add or remove stats for the player carrying it. Whenever a player enters a room with the item symbol, the player picks an item from the item card pile.

Omen cards are usually treated as items, with few exceptions. Among the omen cards there are some companions you can find, and there are some items and some events. You can be bitten and have to roll to see how much damage you take. After you drawing an omen card, you have to roll a number of dice to see if the next phase – the haunt – will begin or not.

Event card are picked up from the event card pile whenever a player steps into a room with an event happening in it. The first player who enters the event room draws the card. You can fall through the floor down to the basement, and take physical damage. Most of the events have immediate effects, requiring the player to make trait-rolls to avoid physical or mental damage, or requiring them to discard items. Others have an effect which the player carries around with them for a while.

First Phase:

The “exploration” phase. During the first phase of the game you are supposed to explore the house. You search through different rooms with things in them. The house has three different floors. There is an upper floor, a ground floor, and a basement. The board starts out small. The play area expands as players explore more and more rooms. The object of the game in phase one is to create a bigger play area, and to strengthen your character with the items that you find. No one can die in this phase.

Second Phase:

The “haunt” phase. Whenever a player picks an Omen card, the player has to make a Haunt roll at the end of their turn. The number of dice thrown is equal to the number of players in the game, and if the player making the Haunt roll throws a number that is less than the amount of Omen cards in play, the Haunt phase will begin. The player that threw the dice then becomes the Haunt revealer, and the Haunt revealer then opens the Traitor’s Tome on the first page to see what Haunt has been revealed. Depending on what room the Haunt revealer is standing in, and what Omen it was that was just picked, a Haunt is decided, and a Traitor is revealed. It isn’t necessarily the Haunt revealer that is the traitor.
The traitor gets the traitors handbook, telling the traitor what to do to be able to win the game and how to do it.
In phase two a few different things can happen in the second phase depending on which room the player was standing in and what omen he or she triggered it with. The player might turn into a monster, or create monsters that will haunt you. The player might not even turn into a traitor at all and then you need to all work together as the house turns against you.

Core mechanics:

We talked about what we thought the core mechanics where within the group. It is a bit difficult to pinpoint the core mechanics seeing as how there are two different phases in the game.

I think that it is very hard to pinpoint the core mechanics in this game, since the game is very different between playthroughs. There are a lot of components that make up this game, as well as the game being divided up into two different phases. I think that moving around the house and exploring the different rooms to be a very core mechanic of the game. By exploring the house you find items, omens, and triggering events meanwhile you are doing this you are also essentially building the playfield. Without exploring the different room you can’t trigger the second phase.

Most interesting system:

The most interesting system was without of doubt the haunt system. It really juxtaposes the Exploration phase which is slow paced and relaxed, with the Haunt phase which is faster paced and suddenly you can die!
The game has a very high replay factor. The play area is essentially randomly generated. You have no idea of the shape of the house. You have to actually explore the house for yourself. You discover the rooms in different locations and at different times from session to session.
There are also MANY different versions of the Haunt phase. Depending on which room the player was standing in and what omen he or she triggered it with. There up 40-something different haunt phases. Exploring the different rooms and layout is a lot of fun too.

Worst system:
I didn’t particularly like the fact that all of the characters had different starting stats. I don’t think it was a very good design choice. Certain characters were very overpowered and almost guaranteed a victory from the very start. Players also started snowballing very easily, you could either become overpowered very quickly or suddenly become very gimped. The more skill checks that you couldn’t complete made the future ones even harder.

Target audience:

The target audience for this game is suggested for people at the age of 12+. I would say that I don’t completely agree with this suggestion as the game’s systems and mechanics are rather simple. The story might be a bit complex, but there are simple instructions on each card. The reason why I think that the age suggestion is 12+ is that the game’s story can be a bit violent and gory, not visually, but in the text.

Summary:

A super fun game which has random level generation, exploration combat and TWO phases. The game also sports a really fun story. I would absolutely play this game again with a bunch of friends. I might even suggest it for our next game night.