Post originally by tetsujin28 at 2004-10-27 10:54:10
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...though taking place in only one location.
I had heard that there was a possibility of this coming out. Interesting that whilst many of the ideas(team play, the way that taking physical and sanity damage works) are almost identical, it's not put out by Chaosium.
It sounds superior in every way to The Hills Rise Wild (the last Lovecraft-flavoured boardgame), so I think I'm going to have to pick this up for my Cthulhu-besotten group.
Post originally by Conan at 2004-10-27 13:28:52
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Hehe
Having played it at least 5 times a week since my friend bought it, I can safely say that this is one AWESOME game. The best boardgame I have played in ages - each time you play it really feels like a different game.
Post originally by DrNilesCrane at 2004-10-27 13:54:20
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Great review!
The typos in the various senarios are frustrating especially if (when) someone who isn't rules-savy becomes the traitor, which happened several times this last weekend when my group tried it out and moved this game from the "great" to the "pretty good" category for us.
The game definitely could use a little--well, a LOT more editing, but is still worth the $40. I really hope Avalon Hill / Wizards comes out with a PDF of the Survivor's Guide and Traitor's tomb with the errata.
Post originally by Matthew S. Bondy at 2004-10-27 16:28:14
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I am personally a big fan of The Hills Rise Wild. I don't think there are many similarities at all: THRW! is more of a really light wargame, where this is more of an adventure game. Plus, THRW! is strictly comedic, whereas there's not many laughs at all in Betrayal.
But you're right, any Lovecraft-loving group would probably feel right at home with BaHotH (whose acronym sounds sort of like a Lovecraftian diety itself).
I have never seen Arkham Horror, though I have read about it on rpg.net. I might have to try it now.
Post originally by Matthew S. Bondy at 2004-10-27 16:30:50
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I'm still hoping they'll send loyal fans a new and improved, and by "improved" I mean "not misprinted" Underground Lake tile. Though I do sort of like our House Rule for it, which we stole from the Avalon Hill forums, where whoever uncovers the Underground Lake places it in the basement, and falls into it, taking 1 physical damage automatically (they have fallen, mystically, through the ground floor to get there, after all.
It's an easy game to make House Rules around when things like that come up, because you learn quickly that the physics of the place are all wrong to begin with.
Post originally by Matthew S. Bondy at 2004-10-27 21:46:48
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My group consists of a few people who wouldn't touch wargaming to save their lives, but absolutely love Betrayal. The main thing is, it's one of those games that you don't mind much who wins or loses, it's really just fun to play.
The Traitor needs almost no tactics. The Traitor has the advantage of numbers, higher powers, and knowledge.
The Heroes need as much strategy as they can get, though usually it's of a very simple sort: "You, with the awesome weapon, get the Bad Guy. You, with the high Knowledge, go try to make the potion in the Lab." It depends on the scenario, really. The real challenge to the Heroes is finding out just what the Traitor (and the monsters) are and are not capable of, so they can assess the threat and defeat it.
In one recent scenario, the Heroes were so scared of the monsters that they just sort of avoided them, which let the monsters win (their victory condition was to escape the house).
But it's just slightly more strategic than HeroQuest, really.
Post originally by Antonius at 2004-10-28 07:28:33
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>>>It sounds superior in every way to The Hills Rise Wild (the last Lovecraft-flavoured boardgame),
The only problem is that the two games are as similar in their meachanics and feel as an orange and an airplane, therefore any comparison between the two is useless, if not outright misleading.
A paper miniatures war game with a humorous take on the mythos and hillbillies has pretty few things to do with an exploration semi-cooperative boardgame which develops in a two-groups confrontation game while remaining serious all along.
Linear Mode
