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Players: 3-6
Playing Time: 90-120 minutes
If you ever wanted to play a board game that could make you feel like you’re walking through a haunted house, now you can. Betrayal at House on the Hill is just that game.
Just imagine that you and a group of friends have decided to explore a really spooky haunted house. You enter the house and discover each room, one at a time. Some rooms contain unusual but helpful items or omens, like the Spear of Silver. Some rooms contain a creature or event that will test your sanity, speed, might, or knowledge. If you pass the tests, you’ll grow in strength. If you don’t, you’ll weaken.
As you get deeper into the house, one of the players will become a monster. An event unfolds that will lead one of the players to betray all the others, and then the rules change. The event is different for every game, and there are 50 different scenarios that can occur. From that point on, it will take all of the other players to defeat the one player who’s become a monster—or they’ll be killed, one by one.
For example, in one scenario, when one player enters the room of the Silver Spear, it turns one of the other players into a Werewolf, who must hunt down all the other players and defeat them. Meanwhile, the player with the Silver Spear must find the Werewolf and kill it. One player could win, or several players could win, depending on any given scenario.
The fun is in the exploring. The rooms are always different, and the game changes rapidly. You never know what to expect—and the tension builds with the placement of every room tile and the draw of every event, item, or omen card.
The 50 scenarios are incredible. I didn’t want to stop playing until I had gone through them all. You get a chance to go up against all the classic monsters; Dracula, Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and more.
Betrayal at House on the Hill is designed beautifully, and all the elements come together especially well to bring the haunted house experience to your own living room. I would recommend this to anyone who loves exploration and unconventional game play—because this isn’t your typical Monopoly kind of game.
