Dive into TGs #3: Betrayal at House on the Hill

One of my favourite games of all times is actually Betrayal at House on the Hill! This is an adventure RPG-like game that has SUPER HIGH replay value. I'll elaborate more on that after I explain the mechanics of this game.

This is how the game box looks like. This game has TWO editions and this one here is the 2nd (newer) edition. It has various text fixes and extra stuffs compared to the first edition.

Note1: You may click on the images for a larger and clearer picture!

Introduction
The essence of the game is this:
You play as ONE of the six adventurers trapped in a mansion (or house, as per the title) and you begin exploring the house, triggering events and collecting items as you go. After a while, you realize one of you is actually a traitor (hence, betrayal) and all the others will then try to either defeat the traitor or escape of the mansion.

The game has TWO phases - Exploration Phase (EP) and Haunt Phase (HP).

1. In EP, you explore the mansion (by flipping tiles), trigger events (that may harm or help you) and/or collect items. During this phase, no one can die from any form of damage.

2. In HP, one of you is revealed as a traitor and you will be thrown into a scenario based on a certain requirements. There are over 50+ scenarios that may happen, and each scenario features different monster(s), different goal(s) and different survival condition(s). Players can now actually DIE! *YES!*

There are TWO main reasons why I really love this game.
1. The fact that each time you play this game, the mansion is shaped differently. How does that work? You usually only start the game with THREE tiles opened.

(a) The 3-roomed tile (Grand Staircase, Foyer, Entrance Hall)

(b) The upper landing tile

(c) The basement landing tile

All characters start in the ENTRANCE HALL room on the 3-roomed tile. As they move, they open up rooms randomly, based on which floor they are on (ground floor, upper floor, basement)! Some rooms can only be on certain floors, while some others can be on any floors, so the map of the mansion will ALWAYS BE DIFFERENT!

The back of each tile will let you know which floor it can be opened on.

Why is this important? That's because certain scenarios make use of specific rooms! This makes winning the game MUCH harder if you hadn't discover them! ;)

2. The fact that there are over 50 different scenarios to play makes every single game session SO EXCITING!

Based on the guide books (1 for the Traitor, 1 for the Survivors), the scenarios range from Vampire, Cult, to Alien. Survivors' choices are usually to escape from the mansion or killing the monster (or some other stuffs). I am not going to elaborate on the scenarios because it'll be a huge spoiler for you guys! Remember NOT to read the books for no reason unless you love spoilers! =D

Now how do you arm yourself for the soon-to-happen betrayal? The characters are based on two main categories of stats: Physical and Mental. Each stats can be divided into two parts. Physical contains Might and Speed; while Mental contains Knowledge and Sanity. Each of the stats has different uses throughout the game: Might (and sometimes Sanity) for fighting, Speed for moving, and Knowledge for solving problems/riddles.

Throughout the game, you will open tiles that have certain symbols on them (on the lower right corner). These symbols are either a swirl (Event), a bullhead (Item) or a raven (Omen).

Most room tiles come with a symbol on the lower right indicating which card to draw. Drawing a card usually also means stopping movement for good for that turn.

The back design for the three types of cards!

Events are things (usually creepy ones) that happen in the mansion as you explore. Things that can happen will require you to do some dice rolls based on certain stats which may or may not result in an increment/reduction of the stats. Some other events will allow you to gain an item, sabotage other players (my favourite bit!) or even discover hidden mechanics of the mansion!

Items are... well, items. They can be accessories, magical tools, weapons or armors that may help you defend yourself during the HP. There aren't a lot of items for you to pick up (and generally in a game, you probably won't pick up all the items), but the items really make the game much more fun to play!

Omens are special items. They can be weapons, tools or even companions! The only down-side of drawing an Omen card is that you have to make something called a Haunt roll which determines if the Betrayal (Haunt) happens now. If it does, the game jumps into the second phase; if it doesn't, the game continues as it is!

So you saw about 6 characters up in one of the photos above, eh? What are the differences?

Each character has TWO sides for you to choose from, both sides have different "Starting Stats". In fact, each character has different starting stats! You can choose based on whether you like to move faster, solve problems much easier or hit harder (and etc xD).










Making any "rolls" in the game involves using the unique dice provided in the game set! These dice have two sides of 0, two sides of 1 and two sides of 2; with a maximum of 8 dice! As you play the game, you'll know why there are that many dice available. =P

The game also features a whole lots of tokens to represent many things, such as monsters, mansion mechanics, items, bosses and environmental changes. Most of these are used only when the HP begins but it's good to get familiar with them so you don't have to frantically search for them during the game!

Review

Pros:
1. I've mentioned this before but this game possesses an absolutely high replay value. The differences in mansion design, interaction between characters, scenarios and game progress makes the game all the more interesting!

2. Set up is simple. It usually takes only 5 minutes to get everything ready, provided that you stored everything nicely!

3. Looking at the amount of players and mechanics involved, one game can be surprisingly FAST! The shortest game I've played was about 30 minutes with 4-5 players; the longest game was probably about 1.5hours! The games are on average 1 hour long so for an RPG-type of game, this is a pretty good duration!

Cons:
1. Even though the game can be played with only two, a minimum of 3 players makes the game a little bit more fun and balanced. Playing the game with TWO players may result in the game being in favour of one side depending on which scenario you get.

2. As you can see above, the game involves a lot of tokens during the HP, which makes things a little complicated. I personally don't find this a problem, but some of my friends do find it annoying.

3. The next con isn't really a problem to me, but many find it hard to play this game because it involves A LOT OF READING. The items and omens need to be read to learn of their effects, the events need to be read to know what's going to happen, what should you do, what will happen after whatever you need to do, etc. Even during the HP, the traitor needs to read the traitor's tome to know what s/he should do, while the survivors read the secrets of survival.

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Having said that, my rating for this game is 8.5/10. Aside from the absurd amount of tokens, the reading bit has always turn many of my friends off from the game.

Do try the game out! =)

Note2: You may use the images if you need to for non-commercial purposes, but do credit me/attach a link to  my site! Thanks! =)

Dive into TGs #2: The Three Kingdoms (三国杀国战 San Guo Sha Warring Kingdoms)

Now you might be thinking, why do I have TWO posts on San Guo Sha (SGS)? In my last post, I mentioned that there are several play styles/game modes for SGS. The one introduced and reviewed in [Dive into TGs #1] is the Classic version. This version, however, is known as Warring Kingdoms (国战).

Introduction

The blue box on the left contains the Warring Kingdom set of cards.

Note1: You may click on the images for a larger and clearer picture!

The Warring Kingdoms mode is different from SGS Classic in terms of the roles the player play. In Classic, everyone has an Identity and has a goal to achieve. In Warring Kingdoms, you play as a Kingdom and your goal is to defeat/vanquish all the other Kingdoms! (Hence the name...). The game play is essentially the same as Classic with a few additional Warring Kingdoms exclusive cards.

Top: New cards specially for the Warring Kingdoms mode; additional Weapons, Life cards.

Bottom Left: The exact term is Careerist (野心家) but it doesn't sound right. I'll call it the Solo. You'll know why later. =P

Bottom Right: Characters you can play!

So aside from new cards, what else are new? Some rules has been implemented to make Warring Kingdoms  more fun and exciting!

1. You play as TWO characters instead of one, but the rule is, BOTH these characters have to be from the same Kingdom! There are 4 Kingdoms you can play as: Shu (蜀), Wei (魏), Wu (吴), Qun (群).
• You play with your characters HIDDEN unless you reveal it at the beginning of your turn, or you activate his or her ability(ies)! Meaning, no one knows which Kingdom you belong to until you reveal your character!
• If you and another player belongs to the same Kingdom when you reveal your characters, you guys are a team and you win by disposing the others! However, only X amount of players can be in the same team! X is HALF of the total number of players (rounded down). If you have 4 or 5 players, you can have 2 of the same Kingdom to be in a team max.
• So what happens if there is a third one in the example in number 3? Well s/he becomes the Solo. His/her winning condition becomes "to eliminate every other Kingdom and be the last one standing". Solos don't team up, they remain Solo no matter how many Solos there are in a game!
2. The maximum health you can have becomes the addition of the two characters you have: 2+1 = 3, 2+1.5 = 3, 2+2 = 4, 2+2.5 = 4, 2.5+1.5= 4. If you have 0.5 extra health, you get to draw an extra card from the deck when you reveal both your characters!
3. Some characters have "Perfect Combo". If you notice, some of the character cards above has a small name printed on the bottom right of the artwork, right above the textbox. That's the name of the character who is the Perfect Combo for the character with that small name.
• When you play with Perfect Combo characters, you get to do ONE of these when you reveal both your characters (for the first time): Either draw 2 cards Or recover 1 HP, pretty cool!

That's about all the new things for SGS Warring Kingdoms mode. I really LOVE playing Warring Kingdoms compared to the Classic version!

Take a closer look at the characters! =) Their design is slightly different from the Classic ones!

Even the back of the cards are different!

The Classic's cards and their backs - (L>R) Play cards, Character cards,  Identity cards.

Warring Kingdoms' backs - (L>R) Play card, Solo card, Character card.

Review

I would say the exact same comments as the SGS Classic, but let's not do that. xP

Firstly, SGS Warring Kingdoms excel in terms of Strategy. You need to choose characters who complement each other really well in order to play to your optimum strength (whether to survive, to defend, to attack or to conquer). The planning begins from character selection, where you have more control over compared to SGS Classic.

Secondly, picking the best time to reveal your character. You only get two chances: At the beginning of your turn, OR when you need to activate their skills. You can't just flip it open any time you want! This really affects a lot of things, such as whether you can survive (since if you reveal yourself and you are surrounded by people of other Kingdoms, they will almost certainly focus fire), or if you would be killed by an ally accidentally! Some characters combination require more thoughts in terms of activation, because if you activate at the right time, you may have the chance to eliminate all enemies within that turn.... provided that you survived till then!

Finally, the beautiful designs! I personally prefer the card designs and back designs for the Warring Kingdoms' cards more than the Classic's. Aside from the fact that both the backs for the play card and the character card are black, I think they did a good job with the card template design! Not to forget that they added characters that does not/have yet to exist in the Classic version!

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However, there are still some cons to this set of game. Aside from it being in Mandarin (mentioned in the last post), it has WAY lesser cards compared to the Classic. The deck easily run out, and the same cards will come around again and again. Given, the Warring Kingdom is a newly launched game mode aged less than a year old, there are lesser expansions and SP (special cards) available. 

Some like the artworks of the characters for the Warring Kingdoms set, but some doesn't. Mostly because they "cartoonify" many of the cards, making them much more "cartoonish" than their Classic counterparts (if they have one). Some improved, but mostly deteriorated in quality.

The coming point isn't really a con, because it's for the balancing of the game, but you might want to be careful when you play Warring Kingdoms IF you have been playing Classic for a long time. Some characters may have the same ability, but have been modified to make him/her less imbalance. Be careful not to make mistakes in the game! =)

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I would rate it a 7.5 over 10, because even though there are some cons, to me these cons have really little impact to the overall game play and game experience I had with this game. If you wish to buy this game, you may not be able to find this in Malaysia. You gotta search for it on the net! ^^

Happy Gaming!

Note2: You may use the images if you need to for non-commercial purposes, but do credit me/attach a link to  my site! Thanks! =)

Dive into TGs #1: The Three Kingdoms (三国杀标准版 San Guo Sha Classic)

Hi guys! I am back with my new BLOG site! Since recently I'm pretty into Tabletop Games (TGs), I've decided to introduce TGs to anyone who reads my blog whenever I come across nice and interesting ones! Today I'm going to start with one of my latest addition to my growing collection of TGs -- The Three Kingdoms (三国杀 San Guo Sha, SGS). My friends from University introduced this game to me one day when I went over to their place and I fell in love with it!

Introduction

The red-colored tin box is the Classic SGS Gameset, along with its expansions (the two packets on the right of the box). The blue box on the right is another game mode for SGS, I will talk about that some time later.

Note1: You may click on the images for a larger and clearer picture!

Cards from the Box! Properly sleeved. =)

SGS is a Chinese card game that can be played by 2 to 10 players! Though, the the gameplay for 2-4 players differs significantly from the more than 4 players' play style. This game has a similar game concept to Bang! except that it is slightly more complicated, has some extra mechanisms and is generally more challenging.

(Image obtained from Analog Games)

Some of you may have played Bang! before, it's simple. You have a Sheriff who aims to kill all the Outlaws and Renegade; a Deputy who assists the Sheriff in his/her task; Outlaws who win by killing the Sheriff; and the Renegade who wins by slaughtering everyone else (with the Sheriff being the last to die). 

 The "Identity Cards" - (L > R) Lord, Loyal Official, Rebel and Traitor

In a game with 5 players or more, you play with Identities. In essence, the Lord and Loyals want to get rid of the Rebels and Traitors; Rebels want the Lord dead; Traitor wants to be the person who stands alone after killing the Lord last.Throughout the game, the only identity known to the others is the Lord, all the other identities remain as a secret until the player dies in the game. You get rewarded for killing the Rebel (no matter who you are); but you get a huge penalty if you kill your Loyal Official as the Lord.

 These are Basic cards used in the game. The top 3 cards are "Kill/Slash 杀 Sha" where if it hits whoever you use it on, you take down 1 health from the player. The different type of Kill cards only differs in terms of the element they possess - Normal, Fire or Lightning. 

Cards at the bottom are Evade 闪 (to avoid being damaged by the Kill card), Peach 桃 (to heal yourself by 1 health; or to heal any player on the verge of death by 1 health) and Beer 酒 (to increase your Kill damage by 1, or to heal yourself by 1 health when you are on the verge of death).

These are instant Magic cards - cards with special effects that happens immediately. Some require all other players to play a certain Basic card or they get dealt 1 damage; some heal everyone by 1 damage, some allow you to obtain/discard cards from other players - they come in various forms. There are some rules that may be applied to them, you will learn them as you play.

These are delayed Magic cards - cards that are played to have special restricting/damaging effects but will not happen until some time later.

You gotta be equipped if you are going out to war! You have a variety of Equipments to choose from - weapons (with different effects), armors (again, with different effects), and mounts (horses). If you noticed, the horses come in pluses (+) and minuses (-). This is used to increase/decrease distance between you and other players. 

In this game, there's distance between players and in order for you to Kill or use certain Magic cards, you need to be able to reach your target. Weapons (for Kill cards) and -Horses (for both Kill cards and Magic cards) allow you to reach a faraway target, while +Horses allow you to be slightly safer from those effects.

So who do you play as? You get to pick from a draft of a minimum of THREE choices. They are all categorized according to the nation they belong to -- Shu (蜀), Wei (魏), Wu (吴), Qun (群). Though this categorization is not important in this game mode. 

The cards with small comma-looking jade below are the Life cards. They show you what is your maximum health (you cannot recover past this value) and for you to keep track of your health.

Each character has comma-like jades on the top left of the card to show how much maximum health s/he start with and can have! Each also has its own special ability, be it to draw extra cards, to counter attack somebody, to give cards away to allies, etc. All the characters are specially designed to have abilities that reflect their true personality as per the history of The Three Kingdoms. In fact, I learned a lot about characters I never heard before after playing this game, all thanks to the explanation of a very knowledgeable friend -- Flame Kho (also the one who introduced this game to me! =P).

Review

This game is a great filler to times when you are with friends and you don't know what to do! Each match could easily take up to an hour (30 minutes minimum unless something really epic happens...)! In addition, this game is a game that integrates both Luck and Skill. You need luck to see what cards you and/or your opponents draw; but you also need to know when to play/keep what cards to best maximize your chances to win! 

In general, this game is really worth it -- its replay value is very high! There are tons of character to choose from, tons of characters that work wonders with others! So, you can keep trying to find the best supporter for the Lord as a Loyal; or best Rebels that can help each other! The creativity of the designer to have the abilities be related to the history of each character is a brilliant move as well! It's like a game that tells you a story while you play it! Another good point of this game is that the cards in the expansions are definite. It's not like a collectible card game where you might have different cards when you buy different expansions. 

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There are two big drawbacks to this game. First, it's in Mandarin. That means if you don't know the language, you probably don't want to play it. I say 'probably' because I know this game is played in the Western countries as well, but you just gotta learn the effects or have someone who knows them teach you! Secondly, you can't really get the complete set in Malaysia. I had to order it from China because the one sold in Malaysia lacks some of the expansions.

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Overall, I'd give it a 7.25 over 10. Some points are lost because as the expansions emerge, some of the abilities become slightly confusing or just pure bad, to the point that they have to fix them after and release new versions/explanations of the same character.

If anyone of you want to try this game, let me know!! I would love to teach you and play with you guys! That's all for SGS! 

Note2: You may use the images if you need to for non-commercial purposes, but do credit me/attach a link to  my site! Thanks! =)