Betrayal at House on the Hill
Encyclopedia
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a board game
published by Avalon Hill
. Players all begin as allies, exploring a haunted house
filled with dangers, traps, items and Omens. As players explore the mansion, new room tiles are chosen at random; accordingly, the game board is different each session.
The game consists of two phases, the initial Exploration phase and the Haunt phase. At the start of the game, each player selects a character and sets the meters at the starting values. The "house" starts with a main, upper, and lower floors placed on separate areas of the game table; the main and upper floors are immediately connected by a staircase, while the lower floor remains unconnected until certain room tiles, event cards or other actions allow a connection. On each turn, the player can move through a number of rooms equivalent to their current Speed. If the player moves through a door where no room has been placed, they draw a room tile from the stack until they draw one that matches the current floor they are on. The tile is placed as best to match the current door layout of adjacent rooms. If there is an Event, Item, or Omen icon on the newly-placed tile, the player draws the respective card and follows its instructions. Event cards often require the player to make a roll against one of their skills to avoid damage or gain benefits. Item cards provide equipment the player can use, drop, and trade with other players. Omen cards also generally provide items, but come at a price - after drawing an Omen card, the player must roll six dice, and if this roll is lower than the number of Omen cards that have been drawn, the Haunt phase starts. Unless otherwise specified, drawing a card and performing that action ends the player's turn. Otherwise, the player can continue to move through other rooms; icons for cards on existing rooms are ignored. Some room tiles have specific instructions that must be followed when moving through the room such as making a skill check to exit the room without taking damage.
Once a player has triggered the Haunt phase, special tables in the game's rulebooks are used to determine which Haunt is used based on what room and Omen triggered the Haunt, and who the "traitor" is; though often the traitor is the one that triggered the Haunt, it may be another player. At this point, the player that is the traitor leaves the room; he reads through his specific Haunt goals and rules from one book, while the other players read their victory rules and conditions from a second book and discuss plans to deal with the traitor. Haunts are based on numerous horror
scenarios, such as zombie
s, cannibals, dragon
s, vampire
s, 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; neither side is forced to reveal any new abilities or victory goals, but they must explicitly state what moves they are doing in the game to the other players.
After the traitor rejoins the players, gameplay proceeds similar to the Exploration phase, except that all traitor players play after the other players have moved. In addition to Exploration, players may now attack the traitor or any other creatures they may control, and vice versa; damage here generally requires the players to move their stat meters down a number of steps depending on the combat results. Death generally occurs when any one of the player's character meters drops to the lowest position, but the Haunt may alter the rules on this. The game is over when either the players or the traitors achieve their victory goal.
Betrayal at House on the Hill won the 2004 Gamers Choice Award for Best Board Game.
The 1st edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill is no longer in print.
The 2nd edition for Betrayal at House on the Hill was released October 5, 2010.
Errata
Reviews and commentary
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
published by Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
. Players all begin as allies, exploring a haunted house
Haunted house
A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property...
filled with dangers, traps, items and Omens. As players explore the mansion, new room tiles are chosen at random; accordingly, the game board is different each session.
Gameplay
Betrayal consists of a deck of room tiles (marked to indicate which floors, upper, ground, or basement, they can be placed at on their backs); three sets of cards for Items, Events, and Omens; six different character plates, and a number of tokens to represent the players and various monsters on items. Each character plate has two possible characters that can be played though represented by the same token on the board; the characters have 4 meters that are used to track the character's current Might, Speed, Knowledge, and Sanity values with marked starting positions for each. These meters are not linear; losing a point of Might, for example, may not alter the actual value of Might but still brings the player one step closer to death. The game also includes special dice which only have 0, 1, or 2 pips on each side.The game consists of two phases, the initial Exploration phase and the Haunt phase. At the start of the game, each player selects a character and sets the meters at the starting values. The "house" starts with a main, upper, and lower floors placed on separate areas of the game table; the main and upper floors are immediately connected by a staircase, while the lower floor remains unconnected until certain room tiles, event cards or other actions allow a connection. On each turn, the player can move through a number of rooms equivalent to their current Speed. If the player moves through a door where no room has been placed, they draw a room tile from the stack until they draw one that matches the current floor they are on. The tile is placed as best to match the current door layout of adjacent rooms. If there is an Event, Item, or Omen icon on the newly-placed tile, the player draws the respective card and follows its instructions. Event cards often require the player to make a roll against one of their skills to avoid damage or gain benefits. Item cards provide equipment the player can use, drop, and trade with other players. Omen cards also generally provide items, but come at a price - after drawing an Omen card, the player must roll six dice, and if this roll is lower than the number of Omen cards that have been drawn, the Haunt phase starts. Unless otherwise specified, drawing a card and performing that action ends the player's turn. Otherwise, the player can continue to move through other rooms; icons for cards on existing rooms are ignored. Some room tiles have specific instructions that must be followed when moving through the room such as making a skill check to exit the room without taking damage.
Once a player has triggered the Haunt phase, special tables in the game's rulebooks are used to determine which Haunt is used based on what room and Omen triggered the Haunt, and who the "traitor" is; though often the traitor is the one that triggered the Haunt, it may be another player. At this point, the player that is the traitor leaves the room; he reads through his specific Haunt goals and rules from one book, while the other players read their victory rules and conditions from a second book and discuss plans to deal with the traitor. Haunts are based on numerous horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
scenarios, such as zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s, cannibals, dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s, vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
s, 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
Werewolf
A werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
). The exact goals for both the other players and the traitor differ for each possible Haunt; neither side is forced to reveal any new abilities or victory goals, but they must explicitly state what moves they are doing in the game to the other players.
After the traitor rejoins the players, gameplay proceeds similar to the Exploration phase, except that all traitor players play after the other players have moved. In addition to Exploration, players may now attack the traitor or any other creatures they may control, and vice versa; damage here generally requires the players to move their stat meters down a number of steps depending on the combat results. Death generally occurs when any one of the player's character meters drops to the lowest position, but the Haunt may alter the rules on this. The game is over when either the players or the traitors achieve their victory goal.
Versions
Because the original rules are sometimes unclear or indeterminate, extensive errata has been released and made freely available (see below).Betrayal at House on the Hill won the 2004 Gamers Choice Award for Best Board Game.
The 1st edition of Betrayal at House on the Hill is no longer in print.
The 2nd edition for Betrayal at House on the Hill was released October 5, 2010.
External links
Official sites- Wizards of the CoastWizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
's official 1st Edition Betrayal at House on the Hill webpage - Wizards of the CoastWizards of the CoastWizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
's official 2nd Edition Betrayal at House on the Hill webpage - Avalon Hill's Betrayal at House on the Hill forums
Errata
Reviews and commentary