Gloomhaven, 2nd Edition (PREORDER)

This game is amazing. It gets under your skin, you think about it when you aren't playing it. It's an enormous amount of content that easily justifies it's price. Play unfolds fairly slowly, with it increasing substantially with more players, but it's still a game you can play a session of in an afternoon rather than needing an entire day. As a legacy game, it changes as you play, meaning you are rarely doing the same thing twice. And the core gameplay mechanics are excellent, packing strategy into every decision. There is the perfect amount of luck involved, with misses and critical hits being rare and really having an impact on the game state, but not occurring so often that you feel like you're winning or being beaten by randomness alone. The campaign is a revelation. Ever so slowly, you unlock new areas, characters, items and abilities. Your character gets better, and the game adapts by increasing it's difficulty, but in a fair way that makes the difficulty curve feel smooth. That is, after the first few missions. The second scenario in particular is brutal, and I would advise almost everybody to play it on easy unless you are already familiar with the game from playing it elsewhere. This game on easy is still hard, and I don't feel any shame in playing it that way. The mechanics of opening boxes and envelopes when you hit certain achievements, of adding stickers to show areas you've unlocked and cards you've enhanced is bizarrely satisfying. This is a game that revels in the mechanics of games, that takes inspiration from video games and DND which themselves were influenced by board games. It sits powerfully amid a crop of tabletop games that couldn't really exist at any time before now. It's not particularly easy to learn, but it's also not totally inscrutable. Honestly, if you have played a lot of video games you are going to be pretty comfortable here. I probably wouldn't try and teach this to my dad, or my 10 year old niece, but I also don't think it's totally beyond their ability to understand. Gloomhaven demands your time and attention, it's not a game you learn in 5 minutes and play in 30. It's a game that you will spend a few hours learning during your first missions, but that process is itself enjoyable as you grow to understand the way the parts fit together. It's a game I read about online, it's a game I watch videos of people playing. It has pulled me in like only DMing DnD and playing Magic the Gathering have, where the game itself is just the central point of a larger whole, where you discuss and analyze the game and try and get better. It's been a unique experience that I've loved, and I'm probably only 20% through the campaign. I don't know if I'll finish it, I may lose interest eventually, but it's been worth every penny for the time I've put in. Gloomhaven has quickly become one of a few games held up as the gold standard, and it's going to be that for a long time I expect. It seems to change what is possible for a tabletop game, and we all get to benefit from how that will influence things in the future. Basically, it's really good. Buy it maybe.

My husband and I are continuously shocked by how obsessed we are with this game. We want to play every week, for 6+ hours a week. It is just SO GOOD. It's so interesting, and so immensely satisfying to play. There are so many levels of success, and choices to make, and adventures to go on. Truly, we have never been so addicted to a board game as we are to this one. We felt like we got our money's worth after 4 scenarios - and there's like a hundred to go! I will say, we wish the pieces were a little sturdier. One of our group of 4 had an accident spill — no biggie, it happens — but we were surprised by how immediately the pieces and cards absolutely disintegrated. It's like there's no even mildly protective coating on the cardboard. Luckily the creators are amazing, and getting replacements is a breeze. This game is definitely not for those who love quick, easy, simple games. Set up is a beast. We use a simple baggy and small container system to speed it up - pictured - but even still, picking a scenario and getting it all set up for 4 players can take a good chunk of time. Depending on how complicated the scenario is, anywhere between 5 -20 minutes. For us at least, it's usually no big deal because while one person is setting up, others can shop in the store or set up their individual character areas or grab a snack or whatever. I'm heavily debating fabricating my own chest / tackle box or sorts to contain this game, however. It just takes up a LOT of space when you want to play, to be able to spread the baggies out to easily grab what you need, set up the scenario and enemies, set up character areas, setting up the board and various decks you'll need, etc. However, the game is so incredibly worth it. So well done — so much so that while we play this version with 4 people, we bought Jaws of the Lion two weeks later because we wanted to play more often with just the two of us. And we'll definitely be getting Frosthaven when it comes out. I cannot recommend this game enough.

This is an awesome game. We got it to wean our kids (Elementary and Middle) off screens during Covid lockdown and stay home times. It’s too hard for them to play alone (recommended for age 14+), but as game-savvy kids, they easily understand powers, abilities, attack combos etc, so they can play with an adult or older teen. It’s interesting enough for my partner and I to enjoy it too. The kids really get into the mood of being a character fighting through a dungeon and the story elements are great. Pros: 1- endless non-repeating play. Apparently around 150hrs, with expansion packs. 2 - fun storyline and quests. 3 - really good for family game night fun with about 90 minutes’ play each time. 4 - Makes the kids worry about missing a chance to level up: more family playing time and fewer ‘sit-outs’. Cons: 1 - hard to start. This game is really hard to start playing. Lots of bits. Lots of extras needed or desirable (see below). 50-page rule book. Allow yourself at least two hours to get ready for first play. 2 - Setup and clean up time is quite long (but see below on this). 3 - Only 4-player, but you can ignore this if you use the App. Hints and tips: 1 - buy a 6x4 photo multi-box organizer for the characters. There are many. They unlock as you play and they all have their own kit or ‘tuck box’. Lots to lose. 2 - consider ‘sleeving’ some of the cards as they get shuffled a lot. 3 - get Gloomhaven Helper by Esoteric Games. It tracks much of the gameplay manually, but eliminates lots of the shuffling, calculating, tokens and ‘remembering’. Clean up is so much quicker! Also, if you want to play 5 people, you can take the Monster attack modifier deck and use it for a character. 4 - download the sinisterfish.com gloomhaven tracker sheet. This lets you track which scenarios you unlock and then complete. The game board only tracks ‘found’, not ‘completed’ scenarios. 5 - go on YouTube and watch a few starting Gloomhaven videos. This will really help you follow what you’re meant to do. The rule book does not contain a ‘starting the game’ section as such, so it’s v. confusing unless you’re a D&D pro. 6 - Starting out: you start the game in Gloomhaven. Go to the ‘starting a character’ section of the rule book first. Do a City quest. Then do a Road event before you reach and start playing scenario 1. You start with 30 gold, or the items listed. Take the items, don’t bother with the gold! We’re so excited about Gloomhaven. Have fun!

Really can't recommend this game enough. Do you want to be a psychic rat that stabs and mind controls your enemies? How about an outcast rock elemental that slams his enemies through things? What about a mechanized gnome with bombs, traps and a flamethrower? Gloomhaven is heavy, theres a lot of components and its -very- long but if you're looking for the perfect blend between a video game rpg, a deck building board game and d&d, this is it. While there's a lot to it, theres never too much, the game concepts are handled so elegantly that really anyone can pick it up with some practice and there's plenty of helper apps on the app store to help with token and character management. You can play solo using two characters at a time or with a group of up to four, no dungeon master required but plenty of immersion just the same. The game is a string of chosen scenarios many of which you won't or can't see in one play through which are strung together by a simple narrative and random event cards that impact the world and add flavor to your adventure. Each time you unlock a new scenario you add a sticker to the 'world map' board, allowing you to explore somewhere new. After awhile your characters 'retire' unlocking a new class, of which there are 20'ish I believe. Persistent character levels, item cards, ability cards and ability upgrades allow you to grow more powerful and customize to your hearts content as the adventure unfolds. I'm blown away by the world building and just how darn fun it is to play this game. Every scenario has you visiting somewhere new, making unique choices and fighting something new and in a way where you thought you were good and knew how to play, then you get slapped in the face and have to try again. You're looking at over 100 hours of choose your own adventure, build your own character and get lost in this world goodness. I didn't think it was possible to get this experience out of a tactile medium like a board game but here we are. Worth every penny. If you're up for the challenge and experience, do NOT miss this!

Pros: - Endless content and replayability - Requires a lot of strategy, synergy, communication with team, and understanding your class - Comes with EVERYTHING you need to play (besides pencils) - Easy to setup once you get all of your pieces organized - Very detailed and visually appealing (if you like dark fantasy) - Much easier to learn than D&D, Pathfinder, etc. You can probably learn nearly everything it takes to play within an hour. In comparison, it took me about 3 days to learn D&D by myself, and I still don't even know if I'm playing that correctly. - Ruleset is pretty clear when comparing other tabletop RPGs, meaning there aren't many caveats to worry about - Definitely getting your money's worth (I put myself into more debt buying it, and I don't regret a single penny) - Failing to complete a scenario is OK, because you still get your XP and Gold and can replay the scenario until you can beat it without any real penalty. - Combat is pretty straightforward, but gets very dynamic due to the variables of monster damage, range, movement, and defenses. This keeps the game interesting and different through each scenario you play. - Easy to pick back up each game session - Much cheaper than D&D (you don't need a $30 PHB for each player, dice, third-party miniatures, battle grid, DM Guide, Monster Manual, and other QoLs) - Speaking of QoL, the game has a lot of quality of life to make the game flow much smoother and to keep track of everything going on. Cons: - You might want to take an hour or two when you first buy the game to separate all of the tokens, tiles, monsters, etc. into their own respective Ziploc bags. You can keep most of these items aside, because each scenario tells you what you will need for it ahead of time. - You can technically only have ONE campaign going at a time per copy of the game. This can be a significant issue if you have some players that can only make it to game night less than 100% of the time. However, new characters join and old characters retire throughout the campaign so people can sort of join in whenever they want. - The game is HARD. Not as in "hard to understand" but as in "hard to complete an encounter unless you really think about every possible outcome of your action". This is a good thing IMO, but can be a turn off if you're trying to play with children or people who can't commit to learning strategy. - Due to the sheer amount of tokens and other cards you will want to have within arm's reach, you will need a larger table or area to play. - There's not as much "Role-Playing" as other RPGs, but there are a handful of decision making encounters in cities and on the road where you can choose what best suits your character's alignment, race, and class. You will spend more time in combat than anything else. ---------------------------------------------- "2 hour setup everytime" is literally false. If you organize your pieces (as you should with any tabletop game), each scenario takes MAYBE 10 minutes max to setup. You can grab tokens as you go. If you wanna dump everything into a pile of cardboard, yeah it's gonna take 2 hours to skim through everything and find what you need. I bought a box of Ziploc bags for $3 and keep everything organized with these, pulling them as we go through the campaign. Eventually I will buy a legit organizer box but it's in no way necessary. To people complaining about the amount of pieces and unnecessary cards, tokens, etc. that you rarely use IS WHY THE GAME IS SO GOOD.

I was super hesitant to pull the trigger on Gloomhaven and boy am I glad I did. The TL;DR is this is an absolutely fantastic game and well worth the money. While it's a tough sell given the high price tag, think of it more like getting a base game plus 10 DLC with it. The developer could easily have made the base game and sold 80% of the content in here as add-ons later, but as is you're getting easily 100+ hours of fantastic gameplay. I won't go deep on the game 101, but generally this is a persistent RPG deck-builder + tactical grid combat system. Your character persists between sessions and grows as you complete more of the story throughout the campaign. It's akin to any RPG video game. The only difference between this and something like X-Com or FF Tactics, is you control a single player rather than a team or squad as you make your way through "dungeons". There's also loads of customization options for your character. Between card choice in your deck, unlock-able/findable/purchasable items and equipment, and level up choices, there's plenty to custom tailor your play. It balances player agency and style with character mechanics very well requiring you to adjust to new situations/deck choices without sacrificing your play style. The combat mechanics themselves are balanced between RNG and strategy, but even the probability of what attack modifier card you'll pick next plays into the strategy. I never felt completely betrayed or out of control with the randomness of events. My fate still felt firmly in my own hands and my demise was solely attributable to my own poor decisions. The only real flaw of the game is the shear number of pieces that come with it. While it's overly impressive how many cutouts and tokens and map tiles and whatnot come with the game, there's a real need for organized piece storage (hence why you see so many $80+ organizers out there). For those that don't want to spend that kind of scratch on something to hold pieces, I'd recommend doing what I did and using the foam packaging materials to make makeshift piece holders. It takes a bit of time, but it's easy and cheap to use a box cutter to make your own holder. Granted not everything will fit back in the box when you're done, but it'll make gameplay muchhhhh more enjoyable if you can find things easily. The only other suggestion I have is to use a companion app for battle tracking. There are fantastic ones out there (a simple Gloomhaven search will bring them up in the App Store if you're an iOS user). Dealing with multiple monster cards plus all the things you have to track between rounds would be a herculean administration task if you're using the included pieces. If you really want the full on analog experience and don't mind it, by all means, but for me the free app is a necessity to keep the game loops at a comfortable pace without sacrificing the core analog experience. If you have a friend or two that also enjoys longer campaigns and weekly sessions (think D&D or MTG), you won't be disappointed with Gloomhaven. Solo play is also great if you don't know any other cool kids that want to reserve 2-3 hours a week for game night. Guessing if you're looking at this page and reading the reviews, you should probably just pull the trigger and purchase it. No regrets.

1. This is the heaviest game box I've ever owned, and I have over 60 board games. It has concepts that are not all that hard to learn. Reviews had me to expect a steep learning curve. But, I was surprised to find it was a moderate learning curve. The biggest problems were these: First, the rules are presented in two different spots. Like any game, the introduction of the concepts precedes the details of the rules. But, in this case, the rules of game play leave out important details and require cross referencing with other parts of the rule book in 1 to 2 other spots to fully grasp what is going on. Fortunately, an online search engine allows quick answers to vague gameplay concepts. Second, as mentioned above, some of the concepts need more explanation than the rules provide. They are a bit vague. Again, an online search engine fills in the gaps really easy, directing you to blogs and discussions. Once you get a feel for the game, it is easy to remver the rules and even appreciate their originality and design. For instance, the system for how characters become exhausted. 2. It is a generally fun game, if you like a fantasy D&D-like RPG. It is not easy to win. I generally take 3-5 attempts to win a scenario. What keeps me coming back is the character building and unique play with different heroes. 3. It is expensive and not to be taken lightly. I picked it up for $80 on Black Friday here and that is extremely cheap. But, it is likely to last you a long time. 4. Some may call this a Legacy game. It has elements of it. Some cards have a picture of it being torn up to show it is no longer in the game. The rules describe it as "removed" from the game. There are apps that make it easy to save each party's specifics to allow more than one game to be going on. And with 100 scenarios, with different choices to be made and different heroes to play, it is not a game that can't be played again. Of course, with an expansion of its own and a sequel in the works, you probably won't be playing it through twice for many, many years. 5. I have read that it is inspired by Tolkien's LOTR. This is highly unlikely. It is inspired by D&D with a touch of Steampunk interspersed. 6. A great solitaire game! You play as two characters. It's supposed to be easier to play this way and it has a modified table for monster levels to compensate. I haven't found it an easy game to win at all, so I'm unsure of whoever thought it necessary to think that way. 7. I am only disappointed that it follows the D&D heritage too closely. It made its own path in so many ways making it an original game. Unfortunately, with monsters and heroes using the same mechanics as D&D, it gave up the title of unique it could have had. I wish it had done everything possible to keep a distance from D&D. More players might be influenced to try out a game that forged its own lore by itself. Things such as Imps, Demons, Living Bones, and animated corpses distract from what otherwise is a unique game.

Do you like RPG's (be it video game or pen and paper)? Do you like board games? Okay then, easy enough, buy this game. The only criticism/warning I have, is that it is very complex. There is a whole lot to keep track of, there are a ton of rules to ponder over, and even months into playing, you may suddenly realize you've been playing something the wrong way. This game is NOT easy to learn, and it is not quick to set up or play. What you get for your effort though, is perhaps one of the best gaming experiences available. The story is fun, the character progression is interesting and customizable, the depth is staggering, and if you have a friend or two who are willing to put the effort in along with you, you will spend hundreds of hours enjoying this exceptionally well crafted game. A wonderful value when you look at it as cost per hour of entertainment. If you want to "get your feet wet" before investing in the big box, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is only $30-40, and also acts as a prolonged tutorial for the game, while being a fun, if shorter, experience in and of itself. There is also a version on Steam that can help you learn the in's and outs of gameplay, though it's early access, and doesn't follow the same story line as this game currently (the campaign from the core game is set to be released late 2021 as of writing this).