Board game analysis: Betrayal at House on the Hill™

By: Niklas Svantesson

Introduction

Betrayal at House on the Hill™ is a family board game for 3-6 players of ages 12 and up. The scenario is that a group of people decide to explore an old abandoned house, on a hill. Eventually, one of the players will betray the others. The game then becomes a fight between the Traitor and the rest of the players. However, the fight between the players can be quite different between play sessions, as there are a number of scenarios that affect what the goals the Traitor has. This also determines what goals the other players have as well.

The game

The components of Betrayal at House on the Hill™ can be divided into the following categories:

-Individual rooms, that together makes up the game board.

-Player avatars, represented by game pieces.

-Monsters, represented by tokens.

-Items, represented by cards and sometimes tokens.

-Omens, usually treated as items.

-Events, described on game cards.

Rooms

These make up the game board. Unlike most board games, the rooms are not all part of a large game board, but instead each room is game piece in its own right. Each room has at least four properties. First off they have names. The room’s names are important since they can affect the Haunt (described later).  Secondly they have a set number of doors. The doors determine how the room pieces can be fit together. Each new room that is added (discovered) to the game board must be connected with already existing rooms via its doors. Thirdly the rooms have a floor they are associated with, shown on the backside of each room piece. The floors are Upper, Ground and Lower. If a new room is discovered on the upper floor, then it must be associated with the upper floor in order to be added, otherwise it is put aside and another floor is drawn. Some rooms are restricted to only one floor while others can be placed on two or all of the floors. Finally, the rooms have a position relative to each other depending on how they are discovered.

Each room may have a number of properties in addition to those mentioned. First off they may have a symbol on them. There are three different types of symbols: and Event symbol, an Omen symbol and/or an Item symbol. A room may also have unique properties, for example a set of stairs enable transition between floors. Other rooms may require a player avatar to make a successful stat roll or suffer a penalty (more on stat rolls in the player avatar section).

Player avatars

Each player avatar is represented by a game piece and a character plate. The character plates have two characters each. Only one is in play at any one time. Each plate has a color that binds it to the game piece with the same color. Each piece has a position which is the room they are currently standing in. Each player avatar is owned by one of the players.

Each player avatar has four different stats: Might, Speed, Sanity and Knowledge.

The stats are divided into two categories: Physical (Might & Speed) and Mental (Sanity & Knowledge)

Physical Stats

Might

The Might stat is mainly used in combat. The more Might a player avatar have, the stronger they will be in combat.

Speed

Speed is mainly used to determine how far a player avatar can move. They can move through one room for each point of speed they have. At times, Speed is be used instead of Might in combat.

Mental Stats

Sanity & Knowledge

Sanity & Knowledge are mostly used for stat rolls (described below) but may be used for combat in certain scenarios or when certain items are in play.

All stats function as a form of health points. If any stat goes down to zero, represented on the character plate as a skull, the character is dead. All stats are also used when making stat rolls. These can be triggered by a room’s unique properties or the effects of a drawn card. Stat rolls means the player controlling the character takes a number of dice (specified by the event) and rolls them trying to get the same value as the stat being tested or lower. The dice are six-sided but with two sides for 0, two for 1 and two for 2 so they roll 0-2 rather than 1-6.

A player avatar may own any number of items and/or omens (which are usually treated as items). These items can be used, traded or dropped by a player avatar (more about this in sections about items and omens). Items and omens that are dropped can also be picked up by a player in the same room. There is no restriction on how many or few items/omens can be dropped or picked up, and there is no need to drop all items/omens owned or pick up all items/omens in a pile.

Player avatars may also engage in combat with one another or with a monster if they are in the same room. However winning a combat may allow a player avatar to steal an item from their opponent instead of dealing damage.

Monsters

When one of the players becomes a Traitor they may or may not receive control over a number of monsters, depending on which Haunt scenario is played. How a monster behaves and what attributes it has depends on the monster itself. For example some monsters may carry items while others can’t.

They do have stats, just like the player avatars, but not necessarily all four of them. For example some monsters, like Frankenstein’s Monster, only have physical attributes (Speed & Might).

Monsters do inhibit player movement however. If a player is in the same room as a monster, moving from that room will cost an extra move point. Monsters may or may not be hindered by players in the same room, depending on the monster itself.

Monsters cannot discover new rooms, unless specified. The monster’s movement patterns, as well as any actions they may take, are also different between each type of monster. For example, Frankenstein’s Monster has a speed value of 3 and always moves towards the closest non-Traitor hero.  The Snake Ouroboros however has two heads that each rolls a die for how many movement points they have each round. The movement is controlled by the Traitor player.

Card objects

The following components are all represented by game cards in one way or another: Item, Omen and Event.

Items

Items are objects that can be owned by a player avatar. Whenever they are collected the player controlling said avatar collects an item card that describes what it does. The cards determine the properties of the items, such as adding a certain number to a stat roll. An item is therefore represented by that card, which is usually kept by the player until it is used.

An item can at times also be represented by a token. If one or more items are dropped by a player, by choice or due to death, they stay in the room the player dropped them in. They are represented by an item pile token, placed on the room piece, in addition to being represented by cards. The cards themselves are set aside until they are picked up again.

Omens

Omens are like items except they also force the player avatar that first pick it up to make a Haunt roll at the end of the turn. The amount of omen cards picked up between players also has an effect on the Haunt roll (more explained below in the Haunt roll section).

Event

There is one final type of card called event. The event is an effect that is applied as soon as a player avatar collects the card describing it. Some event only have an immediate effect after which they are removed, however some of them have lingering effects and as such are kept by the player avatar until they no longer apply. Events cannot be dropped or traded.

Relationships

Rooms have no real relationship to one another other than that new rooms must be placed connecting to an already placed room via a door, and any other rooms in contact with the newly placed room also have to be connected via doors. Otherwise a new room is chosen.

 

Rooms have several potential relationships with a player avatar though. A room’s unique properties may give a player avatar an option to move between that room and another room that may not be directly connected, such as using a hidden passage. In some cases, this movement is forced.

Whenever a player avatar is first to enter a room with a symbol on it, it must draw a card corresponding with the symbol, for example if a player walks into a room with an Omen symbol on it that avatar’s player must draw an Omen card. If a player avatar’s player is forced to draw a card, any remaining that avatar has is discarded that turn.

A room may also force a player avatar to make a stat roll whenever said avatar wants to move out of the room. Usually the stat that is used in the roll is decreased if the test is failed, but movement is not hindered in either case.

If a player avatar becomes the Traitor they may ignore a lot of the negative effects a room might have on them as well as choosing if an event card that is drawn actually happens or not. This depends on the Haunt scenario though.

 

The relationships between the rooms and the monster are whole dependent on the type of monster and the Haunt scenario, for example some monster may not be affected by certain room’s unique properties that force stat checks. They may or may not be able to freely use the transition between rooms that is forced for the players. Some rooms may enable the players to win against certain monsters much easier than otherwise possible.

 

Player avatars that are in the same room may attack each other in order to steal items or inflict damage. The same goes for players and monsters in the same room.

Combat

Combat means that the attacker takes a number of dice equal to the might value and rolls them, adding the result. The defender then does the same and the results are compared. Whomever gets a higher total wins and may choose to either inflict damage or steal an item from their opponent.

If damage is inflicted it is usually inflicted as physical damage, and is equal to the difference in the values both participants rolled. If one roll 8 and the other rolls 6 then 2 damage is inflicted on the looser. Receiving damage means a stat is decreased the same number of steps as the amount of damage received. Damage may be divided between Might and Speed as the receiver wishes. For example the 2 damage may be taken as one point of damage each to Might and Speed or as 2 points of damage to one of them.

Attacks may sometimes rely on one of the other stats instead of Might. If an attack relies on Knowledge or Sanity, that attack inflicts mental damage, which is the same as physical only the damage is divided between Sanity and Knowledge instead of Might and Speed.

Mental attacks are not possible against all monsters as some of them are missing any mental attributes.

Items and Omens may come into play in combat in several ways. They may boost the attack of one player, they might enable a player to use one of the other stats and some items can transform physical damage to mental and vice versa.

The Haunt

Whenever a player avatar collects an omen card the controlling player must make a Haunt roll at the end of the turn. The player collects one die for each player in the game and rolls them, adding the results. If the results show a number lower than the total amount of Omen cards present in the game between all the players, a Haunt occurs.

That player then becomes the Haunt Revealer. The Haunt Revealer opens the Traitor’s Tome, a separate manual for this event, and looks up which haunt has occurred. This is determined by which room the Haunt Revealer is currently in as well as the name of the Omen card that was drawn last. This also determines who the Traitor is.

The Haunt Revealer takes the Traitor’s Tome and leaves the room. He or She will then read the instructions specific for the haunt that occurred, informing what the Traitor’s goals are, but not what the other players’ (now called Heroes) goals are.

The rest of the players stay and read their instructions in another manual called Secrets of Survival.

The game ends when either the Traitor or the Heroes reach their goal. The goals may or may not be to murder each other. Some Haunts have a hidden Traitor while others have no Traitor at all.

Core System

I consider the core of this game to be exploration of the mansion. It is through exploration that new rooms are added, Events occur, Items and Omens get collected. It is the exploration that eventually leads to a Haunt being triggered, but it also continues after the Haunt has been revealed.

Most interesting system

The most interesting system this game has is the Haunt as it has about 40 different scenarios that may play out, adding a lot of re-playability to the game. It also randomizes who the traitor is rather than having one player designated as the “Bad Guy” at the start of the game.

The fact that a haunt can take many shapes and also occur at very varying points in the game, though it becomes more likely as time progresses, means it is hard to prepare for and thus keeps the players on their toes.

Best

One of the best parts of the game is the dice. They are numbered 0-2 meaning a roll can potentially have no effect at all. For example and event may cause a character to lose one die of Might, but since 0 is a possible roll the player could be spared the penalty.

Another one of the best parts is the fact that movement is stopped once a card is drawn. This keeps a steady pace of exploration and also prevents individual players from accumulating a heap of Items and Omens.

Last of the best parts of the game is the many different haunt scenarios that can happen. This gives the game much variation between play sessions.

Worst

The stat changes can be very sudden and very strong, meaning a little luck could make one of the player avatars severely overpowered. This goes both ways as well, a little bit of bad luck could potentially leave a player avatar severely underpowered.

Target Group

The target group for this games is ages ranging 12 and up. I think this is pretty good since at a lower age the rules might be a bit hard to follow. Some maturity is also needed in a game where suddenly all other players are against you.

Summary

Betrayal at House on the Hill™ is a game that creates an exploration experience with horror elements through uncertainty and sudden betrayal. It does this very well and the fact that the mansion looks different each time as well as the unpredictable nature of the Haunt makes this game very re-playable.

Board game analysis: KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™

Introduction

KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ is a family board game for three to seven players. The goal is to murder a non-player character (NPC) by the name of Doctor Lucky. However you can only murder someone once so the player that gets to Doctor Lucky first is the winner. You cannot just walk up to the doctor and stab him though. There are severe restrictions in place that prevent you from even attempting a murder, and even then the other players have a chance to foil it.

The game

The components of KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ can be divided into the following categories:

-Individual rooms, that together makes up the game board

-Player avatars, represented by game pieces

-NPCs, also represented by game pieces

-Game cards

-Spite tokens

Game board / rooms:

The game takes place in the Lucky Mansion, which is represented on the game board (see picture below).

The board is made up of a set of rooms, corridors and stairs. Note that places like the winter garden are also counted as rooms as are the corridors and stairs.

The rooms are divided into two categories, named rooms and unnamed rooms. The named rooms are, as the name implies, named on the game board. The named rooms are, in turn, divided into rooms with a number and rooms without a number.

Each room also has a number of doorways. These doorways enable players and NPCs to travel from one room to another. They also provide line of sight through any number of rooms as long as a straight line can be drawn through them from the player avatar. The Gallery wall also provides line of sight but player avatars and NPCs cannot travel through it. 

Player avatars:

The game is played with a number of avatars corresponding to the number of players. Each player has ownership of one player avatar. Each avatar has its own image depicting one of the people out to kill Doctor Lucky. All seven different avatars are depicted below (as well as the doctor’s dog, an optional NPC).

The player avatars are all placed in the same room at the start of the game, the Drawing Room. Obviously this means that each room can contain any number of players (and NPCs as well for that matter).

The player avatars have one free move to make every turn. This can be used in the movement phase to move the avatar one step in any direction to the next room, provided the two rooms are connected by a doorway. This free move can be used before, after and in between any move cards and/or room cards played during the movement phase. Cards will be explained in detail later.

If a player avatar is alone in the same room as Doctor Lucky and no other player or NPC can see them, the player may make an attempt to murder Doctor Lucky.

In some variants of the game there is also a dog NPC present. Depending on the rule set used, a player whose avatar is the same room as the dog can either kill it as well. To attempt murder on the dog the two of them must be unseen by other players, but other NPCs can be ignored. The murder attempt is played out in the same manner as it is against the doctor.

NPCs:

In the standard variant of KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ there is only one NPC to speak of, the doctor himself. In some variants however there is an additional NPC in play, the doctor’s trusty dog.

Just as the player avatars, the NPCs are represented by their respective game pieces. These pieces also have images to identify which one is the doctor and which one is the dog. The dog’s avatar also has a somewhat smaller game piece.

The NPCs move between rooms at every player’s turn and can both be present in the same room. There is no limit on how many player avatars can be present in the same room as the doctor and/or his dog at the same time. The doctor and his dog don’t move the same way the player avatars do, nor do they move the same as each other.

The Doctor

The Doctor starts in a room randomly determined at the start of the game. After this he makes a move when any player has finished their turn. The doctor always starts in a named room with a number.

When he moves he goes to the room that’s next in numerical order. For example, if he stands in the room numbered nine he moves to the room numbered ten, skipping any unnumbered rooms between the two. Once the doctor has reached the room with the highest number, he moves back to the room with the lowest number. Rinse and repeat.

If the doctor is placed in an unnamed room or a named room without a number due to the influence of played cards he moves to the closest room with the highest number once it is his turn to move again.

If the doctor is in the same room as the dog and the dog has any number of tokens collected, the doctor removes all of the dog’s collected tokens. This happens before any player action.

The Dog

The doctor’s trusty dog has line of sight just as any player avatar and can prevent murder attempts if he is within sight if the Old Dog or Old Dog, New Tricks subset of rules are used, but not if the New Tricks subset is. If none of these are used the dog is not present in the game at all.

The dog starts in the same room as the doctor. The dog makes its move each time the doctor has moved on his own accord, i.e. if the doctor is moved because of a played card the dog remains in position until after the doctor has made his own move.

The dog will move towards the doctor taking the shortest route to him, however unlike the doctor the dog does not ignore unnumbered or unnamed rooms and must move through them. The dog moves one step (one room) at a time.

Game cards:

The game features four types of cards that the players can collect and play as input to the game and its systems. Cards are either present in a player’s hand, in a stack that players draw new cards from or in a discard pile where used cards are collected. Whenever the stack is depleted, cards placed in the discard pile gets reshuffled and made into a new stack.

The different types of cards are: Room cards, Murder cards, Move cards and Failure cards (shown below in that order from left to right).

Move cards

These can be played during the movement phase of a player’s turn. There is no limit on how many move cards can be used in the same turn. They can be used both after and before the free move or any room cards played during that turn.

Each move card played allows the player to move their player avatar or the doctor up to a certain number of steps. The number is indicated on the card.

Room cards

Just like the move cards, these can be played in combination with move cards and the free move during the movement phase of a players turn. There is also no limit on how many of these may be played in the same turn.

These cards can be used by a player to immediately move their avatar or the doctor to the room displayed on the card.

Murder cards

These cards can be used by a player who is making a murder attempt. Only one murder card may be played during the each murder attempt.

The murder cards affect the murder attempt by replacing the standard value on an attempted murder, which is one, with the number indicated on the card. Some of the murder cards have a second attribute however. They become even more powerful if the player using them is located in a certain room.

For example, a player using the “Crepe Pan” will have a murder value of three instead of one when making the attempt on the doctors life, however if the player avatar happens to be in the room named “kitchen” then the murder value is further increased to four.

Another example is the “Monkey’s Hand” which has a murder value of two normally, but eight if used in the Foyer.

Failure cards

Whenever a murder attempt comes into play all other players (the players not trying to kill the doctor at this very moment) can use the failure cards in order to foil the murder attempt. Each player can in turn play any number of failure cards. Each failure card has a value that, when played, is stacked against the murder value. If all the failure cards played have a total value equal to or exceeding the murder value, the murder attempt is foiled.

Unlike the other cards, used failure cards are not placed in the discard pile but are instead removed from the game.

Spite tokens:

These are tokens that a player can collect one of each time one of his/her murder attempt has been foiled. They can also be used by a player as input to the game and its systems.

Each player holds onto their spite token until they decide to use them in a murder attempt. If they choose to do so each spite token used in the murder attempt increases the murder value by one.

For example if the player attempting the murder uses the “Crepe Pan” for a murder value of three as well as two spite tokens, the total murder value becomes five.

If New Tricks or Old Dog, New Tricks are used the dog NPC may also collect spite tokens under certain conditions and these token may in turn be collected by a player.

Relationships

The different rooms have one relation to each other. If they are adjacent and there is a doorway connecting the two, it enables line of sight as well as movement between the two.

The rooms’ relation to the player avatars is that any player avatar that ends their turn in a named room may draw a card if no card was played or murder attempted that turn.

The numbered rooms’ relation to the Doctor Lucky NPC is that they determine the pattern of its movement behavior.

The named rooms have a relation to the room cards as it is the rooms’ name that determines the destination of the game piece affected by the room card.

The named rooms also have a relation to Murder cards. Some murder cards will be stronger when used in certain rooms, meaning a room’s name, if it has one, may affect the attributes of the cards effect.

The player avatars’ relation to each other is that they prevent murder attempts any time they are within line of sight of each other.

The player avatars’ relation to the Doctor Lucky NPC is that if one avatar is in the same room as the doctor, a murder attempt may possible.

The player avatars’ relation to the Dog NPC is the same as the doctors when using the Old Dog and Old Dog, New Tricks subset of rules. In addition, if New Tricks or Old Dog, New Tricks is in use, any failed murder attempt made by the player avatars makes the dog collect one spite token.

The Doctor Lucky NPC’s relation to the player avatars is that if the NPC finishes its own move in the same room as a player avatar, it immediately becomes that avatar’s player’s turn to play.

The Dog NPC’s relation to the player avatars’ is that if the New Tricks or Old Dog, New Tricks subset of rules is used, any avatar in the same room as the Dog NPC once it has finished its move, enable their player to trade cards for any spite tokens the dog might have. The dog can also prevent murder attempts if the Old Dog or Old Dog, New Tricks subset of rules is in use.

The move cards’ relation to the player avatars is that, when played, they enable extra movement for player avatar owned by the player that used said card.

The move cards’ relation to the Doctor Lucky NPC is that when played they enable the player to move the Doctor Lucky NPC a certain number of steps as they please.

The room cards’ relation to the player avatars is that, when played, they affect the location of the player avatar owned by the player that used said card.

The room cards’ relation to the Doctor Lucky NPC is that when played they enable the player to change the Doctor Lucky NPC’s location.

The Core System

In KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ the core system can be summed up by movement and murder attempts. The goal is to kill the (or one of the) NPC and this is achieved by making a murder attempt, without that the game won’t end.

But in order to even be able to make the attempt a player avatar must be in the same room as the NPC. This is achieved by movement. The NPC and player avatar attempting the murder must also be out of sight of everyone else. This is also achieved by moving.

Moving then also becomes a way for player to prevent each other from even attempting the murder by making sure they have line of sight into any room where a murder attempt may occur. This makes the gameplay more dynamic and challenging.

Most interesting Game System: Line of sight (LOS)

The most interesting system in KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ is the line of sight system. A summary of how line of sight is determined can be seen in the picture below.

What’s interesting with this system is that it gives players a reason to maneuver throughout the mansion as opposed to just racing for the doctor.

The layout of the mansion is also designed so that it is very hard to establish a line of sight into some of the rooms. These rooms are also a bit harder to get to meaning there is a tradeoff between waiting a few more turns to make the murder attempt and make sure that the other players won’t be able to prevent it.

Best

The best side of KILL DOCTOR LUCKY™ is the role of Murder cards, Failure cards and Spite tokens in the attempted murder system.

The fact that the murder attempt can fail means that the game won’t be over once someone manages to reach the doctor and be out of line of sight. However, the fact that Failure cards are removed from the game instead of placed in the discard pile, means that the game won’t go on forever.

That you can boost your murder attempt with Murder cards and Spite tokens means that you won’t necessarily have to wait until all failure cards are gone to win.

It also allows players to approach the killing of Doctor Lucky differently. One might make numerous attempts on the doctor’s life in order to build up spite tokens while someone else might be utilizing room cards and move cards in order to get themselves and the doctor of sight and into a room where a murder card is extra powerful. Maybe a player will try a combination of these.

Worst

The worst part of the game is the fact that the doctor gives extra turns to whomever happens to be in the room that he moves to. On several places on the board it is possible to move on to the next room and get an extra turn once again because that is the next room in the doctors path as well. Repeating this enabled some players to collect more cards then the rest.

In some occasions this could also mean that a certain player was skipped several times, not being able to act at all.

Target group

The target group is said to be 10+ according to the game rules and the manual. This is probably a proper age rating as younger players might have a hard time following the LOS system. The game also contains several fairly small pieces, like the tokens, that a younger child might swallow and choke on.

The art style of the is also somewhat comical and light hearted, despite the game being about murder, so I think the 10+ rating fits the game pretty well.

Summary

The murder attempt system and the LOS system work together with the game components and their relationships to create a game that is fairly easy to get into.

The restrictions placed on the murder attempt as well as the players’ ability to potentially foil any attempted murder means this game won’t be over all too fast.

However the buildup of Spite tokens as well as the eventual depletion of failure cards means that the game won’t go on forever either.

This makes the game achieve a balance between depth and time consumption.