Session Reports [possible spoilers]

[Zephyr]

In a similar vein to the Godstorm thread I started, I've put this up to let people tell about games of Betrayal they've played, although in light of the game's nature, I think it would be best if you stuck to mechanics and left the actual haunts to be discovered by players as they play.

If you still want to post some content that spoils some of the surprise for everyone, put up a spoiler warning.

Regardless, you should probably consider this thread a spoiler thread.

I was reconsidering posting this thread because of the way this game works, but I figured I might as well encourage people to talk about it.

-Z

[VID-IOT]

~SPOILERS...obviously~


Our second game of the evening turned out to be the most thrilling. I had taken the role of Brandon Jaspers, and exploring the house with me were Father Rhinehardt, Vivian Lopez, and Ox Bellows. Ox was busy exploring most of the upper floors while Rhinehardt and I took to the Ground floor. Vivian had managed to locate the mystic elevator and explored the basement. A few of the stat increasing rooms were discovered and I had also managed to find a few items of decent ablity. In the basement Vivian pulled the Mask omen card in the catacombs and set in motion the "Voodoo" Haunt.

OX was assigned the Glass Doll
Rhinehardt got the wooden doll being gnawed away
And my poor little Brandon was given the stone doll.

With no way to enter the basement, most of us agreed we were pretty much doomed. The other two survivors were taking stat damage each turn. I at least had a chance, but it got worse and worse every turn. Eventually I started taking massive damage when my rolls started failing on me.
in the mean time we searched frantically. The other two had found rooms that would inscrease the stats that were dropping for them. I however would be loosing a point in every stat and would soon be dead if I couldn't make my rolls. So while they stayed in place for the most part, I ran around the ground floor hoping for the graveyard.
Finally! Just as I was one bad roll away from dying I had located the Graveyard. The underground lake had already been discovered and checked by then (found on the upper floor due to the misprinted card) so based on the clue given my doll was indeed there. All it required was a successful roll to locate it, and then a successful roll to fight of the effects of the voodoo and I would be safe.
Vivian would likely not be coming after me, as she was basically waiting us out. She had been trapped in a room that would likely kill her as she exited, so instead she remained where she was. I had a chance to gain some life and equipment, then find access to the basement, kill Vivian, then get the other two dolls while my associates remained safe in the stat increasing rooms.

And all I needed to do was role a 2+ on my knowledge roll. I looked to Brandon's card and my jaw dropped. One dice. I could roll one single dice to locate my doll. I concentrated, prayed, then rolled. Bland side. The next round I sufficated and died. My flace planting into the very muck that my voodoo doll was sinking into.

We had to call the game a draw from there, as neither Vivian nor the other two explorers would leave their current rooms.

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #29 (Spoilers)

Yesterday I finally got to play this game. And I must say that I am impressed and had a great time. Even though I died both times.

Anyway here is a report from todays game.

Turn characters and order were as follows.

1) Ox
2) Missy
3) Heather
4) Vivian
5) Peter (Me) (Traitor)

The game started rather interestingly with alot of the events that place counters on the board being drawn. This time both the Upstairs and Basement seemed to fill up with tiles much faster than the main floor. The tower tile was probably the 4th placed and its event created a secret passage to the basement which will come into play later.

Turn 4 -- Missy triggered the Haunt. Haunt #29 Frankensteins Monster was triggered. Determining the traitor however was interesting as noone was playing Jenny so it fell throuh to highest Sanity which was a tie at 5 so it fell thru to nearest of the two highest sanity players to the left of the person that triggered the haunt. That eas me (Peter).

The Monster was placed in the proper room in the basement, which was directly next to the furnace. At this point in the game everyone but Peter (ground) and Missy (upstairs) were in the basement.

At this point Missy had her flashkight go out and was wandering the upper floor moving only 1 room at a time.

Turn 5 -- Ox was able to throw a torch at the monster and succeeded. He moved into the Mystic Elevator to get away and rolled the basement. The farthest away connection was 4 spaces.

When it came around to move the monster a 4 was rolled for speed and the monster reached Ox in the elevator. Ox was killed. We all decided that the monster should trigger the elevator, weither or not that was correct, it provided an extra element of chaos. The upstairs was rolled and Missy was starting to shake in her shoes...

Turn 6 -- Peter was able to use his Dog to grab the Dynamite from the room where Ox died.

Turn 7 -- The monster caught up to Missy. And Missy suffered the same fate as Ox.
Peter moved to the basement and killed Heather with the Dynamite. Leaving only poor Vivian to fight the monster.

Turn 10 -- After a few turns of manuvering Vivian confronted the Monster in the tower room, needing to survive the attack so that she could push the monster from the tower. When the dust from combat settled she took exactly the amount of damage that would kill her.

Peter and His monster lived happily ever after...

Traitor Wins

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/01/2004)

p.s. I was reading the report from VIT-IOT on the Voodoo haunt above, and from the notes i've seen in the FAQ thread the rooms that gives a stat bumps should be a one time deal not something that players can do every round.

[WotC_Doog]

Haunt #29 (Spoilers)
Turn 6 -- Peter was able to use his Dog to grab the Dynamite from the room where Ox died.Just wanted to add -- I was in this game, and Mark (as Peter) played the traitor very well. Peter's a little kid with not very good physical stats, but the combination of the monster and his Dog omen made him an item-collecting machine. The Frankenstein's Monster generally killed us heroes in one attack* -- which spread item piles all over the place. And the Dog is so speedy that Peter could wander around, out of range of direct attacks from us heroes (we should have gone after Peter first, in retrospect), and send his Dog to pick up the best item dropped by the most recently-pummeled hero.

This turned out to be crucial. After Ox went down, Peter used the Doggie to snag Ox's dynamite. Then when our hero team decided to put all our item-eggs in one basket -- in other words, when we gave Heather the Adrenaline Shot and Lucky Rabbit's Foot to give her a chance to push Frankie off the Tower -- evil little Peter was able to stroll by, dynamite her and dash our hopes. The last hero, Vivian, grabbed the roll-pumping items from Heather's body before Peter could, and headed to the Tower for a last showdown, but unfortunately she didn't survive the monster's first attack (8 dice PLUS 4 automatic pips??) and so couldn't use all the items to give it the fatal push.

This was our first game in which the board actually developed pretty well before the Haunt was triggered -- it came out very differently from games where the Haunt was triggered quickly, and was great fun. Maneuverability around the house was easy due to the Secret Stairs and Mystic Elevator already being discovered, there were lots of items in play due to the Vault room and the Safe event, and the traitor (as I mentioned) ended up having some scary abilities once he turned on us. Dog + big deadly Monster = bad news for the heroes!

* Although when Frankie attacked the 9-year-old Missy, he rolled badly and Missy rolled all 2's on her Might dice. She actually survived one attack... that's a tough 9-year-old. Sadly with her flashlight out she could only "escape" one square away and was pummeled to death the next turn.

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #50 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Ox
2) Father Reinhardt
3) Zoe
4) Jenny
5) Madame Zostra (Me)
6) Brandon (Traitor)

Turns 1-4 Were going along prety well despite and early web and debris encounter, however by Brandon's turn there were 6 omens in play and good old Brandon triggered the haunt. Haunt #50, A Little Nite Murder.

Turns out that we are all here for he reading of a will. But poor Brandon and the house's servants were excluded from the will. If we can survive the night we get our inheritance. If we all somehow die Brandon and the servants get the inheritance. Of course we had 10 turns till daybreak.

Turn 5 (1): Realizing that the best defense is a good offense, Father Reinhardt moved towards Brandon. Meanwhile the servants spent a round getting stunned due to some beefy rolls by the players.

Turn 9 (5): Brandon fell to the assault of the Father and Ox.

Turn 12 (8): We all had moved to the Larder and beefed up our Might*, stunning servants almost at will, however the servents began to get more frantic and eventually took down Ox.

Turn 14 (10): Morning came and the servants ended their assault. Two new gravestones, one for Ox and one for Brandon, were added to the cemetary.

I was sad to see poor Ox die. But 1/4 of an inheritance is certainly better than 1/5.

Heros Win

*Note: We allow you to sit in the stat buff rooms and gain 1 point every round. However as a house rule if we ever see that Voodoo doll haunt again, all the stat dolls are going to work like the rag doll.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/04/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #45 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Madame Zostra
2) Father Reinhardt
3) Darrin "Flash" Williams (Me)
4) Heather Granville (Traitor)

Turn 1-5: Nothing much hapening... the room tiles for the main floor and upstairs were filling out nicely, but noone went to the basement.

Turn 6 (1): The haunt was triggered on Flash's turn. The Haunt is #45 Tick Tick Tick and the traitor is Heather.


This haunt is interesting in that the traitor has hidden time bombs on us and we simply need to make a knowledge roll to difuse the bomb or possibly blow up if the roll is poor.

The traitor can trigger the explosives from the same or adjacent room on their turn. Oddly the traitor can't move while he works on a big bomb that will destroy us all. In our game he was in the mystic elevator which meant technically he could move around hunting us. Soooo.....

Turn 7 (2): In an attempt to thwart the plans of the bomber Madame Zostra moved into the elevator, attempted to difuse her bomb and failed, then attacked and killed the bomber, which in turn caused her to blow up... But the haunt wasn't over...

Turn 10 (5): Heather Difuses her bomb.

Turn 11 (6): Even though we didnt need to continue I wanted to see if I would die or not. But despite failing my difuse attempt Heather made it to me and difused it.

Besides the room where the traitor was when the haunt started two other things stick in my mind. First, noone explored the basement throught the entire game. Second, Because the roll top diffuse was Knowledge based everyone ran to the Library we were able to wait a few turns till we felt safe to try the diffuse attempt.

Heros Win

MJ
:)

P.S. If i'm the only one posting I'm going to looke like I spend all my free time playing. I know I can't be the only one... hehe

(Session Played 10/06/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #23 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows. This game was played just after the previous report and we simply flipped our character cards.

1) Ox (Me)
2) Jenny (Traitor)
3) Vivian
4) Professor Longfellow

Turn 1-4: Nothing of note. The game board filled out nicely on all 3 floors.

Turn 5 (1): Ox triggers the haunt but Jenny is the traitor. Well if you can call her that. She is killed by a tentacled beast that is now trying to kill us. Because i had the crystal ball when the haunt triggers it play a roll in the haunt.

Turn 6 (2): Ox uses the crystal ball to determine that the beasts head is in the Underground Lake. This wouldn't be so bad if the tile were correctly printed as a basement tile as you will soon see.

The rules text here doesnt say if the crystal ball can be used to retrieve the room you are rolling for for the head so we decided that it only told you what room not where it was. Since we didnt have that room yet, the professor searched the upstairs.

Turn 7 (3): Vivian was grabbed by tentacles and Ox moved towards her to help.

Turn 9 (5): Despite Ox's help Vivian dies. This leaves Ox in the basement searching for the spear or dynamite that are needed to kill the head if the professor ever finds it. Too bad its in the upstairs the way we play it.

Turn 13 (8*): The professor finds the head. Because the rules didnt state so earlier we allowed the traitor to hold off placing a 4th tentacle until a suitable room was placed. he placed it in the underground lake room.

Turn 16 (8*): The professor fails to fight off two attacking tentacles and is eventually pulled to his death on this turn.

Turn 21 (8*): After searching the basement till he finds the spear Ox found himself with a speed of 2 and at least 8 tiles from the underground lake. Fighting off tentacles he clawed his way up through the house till he finally lost a roll two rooms from the head. One space from the head he had one last chance to break free but he failed his might check and was pulled to his death.

Traitor Wins

The longest of the games we played. It required you to get intimate with the rules for movement and combat. I'm not certan we played tenbtacle placement right as we allowed the traitor to wait till a legal rooms were drawn after the haunt had bagan. If he were forced to place only in tiles that existed on the turn the haunt bagan it would have been a completely different game.

If the underground lake were in the basement where it belongs I would have hit it two tiles after the spear because the basement was prety full at the time and the heros would have won. Or if I had written off vivian as a loss and wen upstairs to try and find the spear or dynamite the initial tentacles wouldn't have been as much of an issue because of the distance thy needed to travel.

This game also saw the secret staircase placed with one end in the Mystic Elevator which from time to time would create a staircase that went to the same floor you started on. Definately fun.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/06/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #38 (Spoilers)
Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Zoe
2) Peter
3) Darrin (Traitor)
4) Vivian
5) Professor (Me)
6) Jenny

NOTE: We got ahold of a second copy of the game just to use for parts and printed a sticker with the underground lake front and put it on a basement tile. It worked very well and we couldn't tell it from the rest of the tiles. We also used the one use stat bump room rule for Library, Larder etc...

Turn 1: Everything went smooth with everyone filling out the ground floor and upstairs a bit.

Turn 2: This turn made it around to the professor where he promptly drew the 5th omen (Dog) and triggered Haunt #38. Darrin becme the traitor and placed 6 bats in the room (furnace) with the professor.

Our mission... perform 6 exorcisms... a few of the items/rooms that needed exorcising were in game... the Traitor however had the Ring.

Turn 3 (1): Peter was attacked by Darrin and won by two, we allow stealing items if you win on the defense or offense so he stole the ring (item omens treated as items). Vivian exorcised the book she was carrying (Exorcism 1). Only 1 new bat to contend with and a poor speed of 1 for them.

Turn 4 (2): Vivian exorcised the chapple (Exorcism 2) and Jenny exorcised the reserach lab (Exorcism 3) . Peter failed his attempt again. Bad roll for the traitor no new bats and speed 0 for the bats.

Turn 5 (3): Vivian exorcised the Library (Exorcism 4) and Jenny exorcised the pentagram chamber (Exorcism 5). Peter failed on the ring again. This time a roll of 2 for bats.

Turn 6 (4): The bats caught up to Zoe and she died. Peter failed on teh ring again but placed the secret passage in the exact right places. Bats have a speed of 4 this turn.

Turn 7 (5): Vivian was able to reach the crypt via the secret passage and succeeded in the final exorcism (Exorcism 6).

Heroes Win

As the professor I got away from the bats and explored what I could of the basement and ground floor. Eventually placing the last available ground floor tile. However I never uncovered a room or item that was integral to the plot except for having triggered the haunt.

This was sort of short and not as exciting as the other haunts but still quite a bit of fun as we still needed to uncover several of the room tiles in which to perform the exorcism. The low bat rolls to start the scenario helped the heroes quite a bit.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/08/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #11 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.


1) Madam Zostra
2) Missy (Me)
3) Professor
4) Heather (Traitor)


Turns 1 thru 6 went along a little rough. Although we has in the neighborhood of 9 items for our efforts and almost every ground floor tile explored we had all takes some damage and the professor was near death. On heathers turn of turn 6 she triggered the haunt (Haunt #11) and was also the traitor. A madman was about to start running aroun letting spirits in through the windows of the house. We just needed to perform 4 exorcisms to win.

Turn 7 (1): Missy was able to exorcise the book she carried (Exorcism 1) however the first of the spirits reached the Professor and finished him off.

Turn 9 (3): Madam Zostra exorcised the library (Exorcism 2). Missy attacks the traitor bringing him to withing aone point of her death, se flees into the mystic elevator on her turn.

Turn 10 (4): Madam Zostra exorcised the Chapel (Exorcism 3). And Missy exorcised the research lab (Exorcism 4).

Heroes Win

There was only 2 tiles placed upstairs at the end of this one but we did have a complete ground floor and I believe 8 tiles in the basement. It was the Mystic Elevator that allowed Missy to move to the basement and reach the research lab so quickly.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/12/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #18 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Ox (Me)
2) Missy
3) Heather
4) Brandon (Traitor)
5) Vivian
6) Professor

Turns 1- 3: The game started out with the upstairs and ground getting even attention. In the midst of turn 3 however Heather triggered the haunt (Haunt #18) by drawing the 6th omen (The Book) in the junk room. Making brandon the traitor.

This haunt involved bringing a special flower that Heather has tothe room where an evil plant sits and then making 3 knowledge rolls. This is all complicated by spores that float around and can cause some serious damage.

Turn 4(1): The players positioned themselves for a run on the plant room however the traitor decided that he was going to try and mess up our plans. He moved to attack Heather and succeeded in stealing the book doing 2 knowledge damage in the process. The spores moved only one space.

Turn 5(2): Heather moved to the plant room and made a knowledge roll (Knowledge Roll #1). The spores moved 2 spaces and 4 spores moved to the room with Ox. The professor used the gun and killed brandon.

Turn 6(3): Vivian moved the plant room and made her knowledge roll (Knowledge Roll #2). Ox took 4 dice of physical damage from the spores (rolling a 7) luckily he had the Skull and the damage spread out enough that he survived. Because of the Library raising his knowledge to 5 and the Adreneline Shot Ox used his superior intelect to make the third knowledge roll (Knowledge Roll #3) and win the game.

Heroes Win

The heroes had the upper hand this time as the traitor believed that he needed to steal the book based on the wording of the traitor book. And the fact that the house was still fairly small helped the heroes get to the plant room much faster. Top that all off with 3 total spaces of movement from the spores and you have the recepie for a hero win.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/13/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

I hope anyone who reads these enjoys seeing what happens in a session and has already played the haunt as it really is more exciting not knowing.

Haunt #28 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Ox
2) Missy
3) Father Reinhardt (Me)
4) Jenny
5) Vivian (Traitor)
6) Brandon

Turn 1: Player 6 (Brandon) actually triggered the haunt on the first turn. Haunt #28. In the upcoming FAQ the player with the highest Knowledge not the revealer is the traitor and the Demon Lord's stats are spd 1, might 7, san 7. The haunt was simple get to the Demon Lord and succeed in an attack twice. Well it seemed simple enough. The Ring was the trigger Omen and granted a bonus on sanity attacks.

Turn 2(1): Brandon attacks and fails dying in the process. Jenny picks up the ring and fails dying in the process.

Turn 3(2): Father Reinhardt picks up the ring and attacks the result is a successful attack on the Demon Lord. However he dies to the assault of 5 demons. Missy fends off a demon and makes it to the Demon Lord, she picks up the ring and succeeds at attacking the Demon Lord thus ending the game.

Heroes Win

This game was odd in that two players vissited all three floors of the house on their first turn. We had someone run upstrairs and get the elevator and roll the basement. And we had someone fall thru the floor, trigger the "walls" event and end up in the upstairs. The map wasn't very developed and was probaby the reason we died quickly but probably also the reason we won.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/15/2004)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #22 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Ox (Traitor)
2) Peter
3) Professor (Me)
5) Vivian
4) Jenny
6) Zoe

Turn 1-3: The main floor filled out prety fast and both the basement and upstairs were moving along prety well. Ox seemed to be having fun with the Coin and was buffing up rather well. Unlucky for us when we triggered the haunt (Haunt #22) Ox became the traitor.

This haunt coinsisted of the house falling into the Abyss and being sucked to hell. Starting in the basement house tiles began to colapse. One per player turn. In turn we needed to perform 6 exorcisms. Unfortunately we only had 5 of the rooms/items and one was already destroyed bacause the Abyss started there.

Turn 4(1): Jenny was the first to die but not by the colapse, she dropped an item that killed her out of spite... hehe... Zoe exorcised the Library (Exorcism #1) and Vivian exorcised the Chapel (Exorcism #2)..

Turn 5(2): Zoe exorcised the research lab (Exorcism #3) but was the second to die and was sucked into the Abyss when the room she was in fell away. Peter exorcised the book (Exorcism #4) and was killed by Ox shortly therafter.

Turn 6(3): The professor's Toy monkey attacked Ox but failed. The Abyss claimed the room Ox was in but he escaped to the same room as the Professor before the Abyss claimed that room taking the lives of Brandon and the Professor.

Turn 7(4): Vivian finds the crystal ball and sets the omen pile so that she can get the Ring when she next uncovers an open tile. The upstairs still has 2 omen tiles and event tiles available at this point. She exorcises the crystal ball before the turn ends. (Exorcism #5).

Turn 8(5): Vivian draws the ring and exorcises it (Exorcism #6). And thus ends the haunt.

Heroes Win

Well at least Vivian survived but that was a close one. I could see how this one would be an easy win for the traitor if the house were less filled out. It was also disturbing watching the people in the basement die because they were trapped in dead ends by the colapsing house. It was interesting that the players each actually selected the tiles that colapsed so that they had a way to use the Abyss to attack the traitor as well as try and manipulate the board. I was trapped on the maon floor with no way up to help Vivian or I wouldnt have colapsed the room both Ox and I were in. I had to give it a shot.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/15/2004)

[chad56s]

Haunt #44 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Madame Zostra
2) Professor (Me)
3) Heather (Traitor)
4) Peter

The first room on the ground floor turned out to be the coal chute and the explorer immediately found the vault in the basement but was unsuccessful in opening it. Being the smarty-pants professor, I decided to see if I could open it. I couldn't because I roll zeros a lot. The next explorer also decided to get greedy and Heather succeeded in opening the vault finding the rope and the blood dagger. "Uncool", we would later say.

So, now there are three explorers in the basement, but Heather later used her rope to climb back up the coal chute and I found the mystic elevator which wisked the professor away to the upper floor. I soon found the dog which would come in rather handy.

Eventually, the professor stumbled upon the medallion in the charred room which set off the haunt. Heather had been helping the house all along to rob us of what little youth we had left. Peter was the only one of the remaining heroes who wasn't in immediate danger of dying. Zoiks!

The professor tried and failed to complete the ritual in the charred room (again, because I roll zeros a lot) before Heather came in and stabbed him with her blood dagger. Things were looking grim. Luckily, the professor didn't age at the end of Heather's turn since he had the medallion. The others continued to explore hoping to find more of the rooms we needed to perform the ritual in.

On the professor's next turn, he succeeded in performing the ritual and quickly left before Heather stabbed him again. He also, in a fit of foresight, gave the medallion to his dog to deliver to Peter who was now in his thirties! Without his protection, old age caught up to the professor and he died at the end of the traitor's next turn. Way to sacrifice, teach!

Madame Zostra, in the meantime was on the brink of death, but Peter kept his youthful vigor and successfully performed the ritual three more times without getting killed by crazy Heather and her funky dagger.

Heroes Win.

If fewer of the ritual rooms had been discovered, this could have been much nastier as we slowly aged and died. However, the holder of the medallion ages relatively slowly, if at all, and if the holder is young (like Peter), he will actually get stronger instead of weaker. The traitor would do well to off these young heroes in a more efficient manner. Old heroes, on the other hand, are likely to die after a turn or two. The traitor didn't really enjoy this haunt much because he had nothing extra to do on his turns (no monsters to control, no extra powers, etc). His best option was to run around and try to kill the heroes. Another plus of this scenario was that it was very straightforward; no rule complications that confused anybody.





(Session Played 10/19/2004)

[grrtigger]

It was a lot of fun! We were skimming the rules as we went so there were a few things we had to correct along the way, but for the most part it went smoothly. We drew scenario #42 and I was the traitor! That was fun :)

= secret stuff below here =

*
*
*
*
*
*

#42: Invincible Traitor

Luckily for the traitor, other heroes were on the same floor and fairly close together. The Pentagram Chamber showed up soon after the haunt began, so it only ran four or five rounds. The main problem for the heroes was that once the statue was activated there wasn't much else for them to do because they couldn't attack or otherwise interfere with the traitor. They just ran and hid while the statue did its thing, which seemed to us was the only thing they could do.

Also, the text at the beginning of the heroes' description started with something like "you see the statue before you" ... but none of the heroes were in the room with the statue at the start of the haunt. We talked about it for a few minutes and decided to just assume that everybody knew what was going on, even though they were spread out in different rooms, but some clarification on this would have been nice. Did we miss something?

It was fun reading that I couldn't be attacked by the heroes, and I liked not knowing (until it happened) how the heroes had a chance of defeating the traitor. I ended up with the axe (great weapon!), and with a Knowledge of 8 I only needed one roll to win the scenario once everything else was taken care of. It was a close shave, though; the statue had my sanity down so it only needed one more round for the kill. Suspenseful to the last, just like a good horror movie should be :)

There were a few things in-game that that clicked in the game in a weird way to make it feel more story-like. My character picked up the Medallion early on, which made her (pre-haunt) immune to the effects of the three rooms that later turned out to be involved in her objective! It must have been destiny. Overall the "haunted house" stuff was a lot of fun; if we'd written down everything that happened each turn it would have made a pretty good story.

We're all looking forward to playing again, now that we know how the game works. Also looking forward to seeing the FAQ posted, which I don't see (yet?) on the AH website. Thanks for the really cool game, this is money well-spent as I can see us getting a lot of use out of this one. And I'll jump on the "we want expansions!" bandwagon right now as well. I like the sound of Betrayal at Ice Station Zebra ;)

[WotC_Mark]

Haunt #13 (Spoilers)

Here is a report from a recent session. The characters and turn order were as follows.

1) Vivian
2) Heather
3) OX
4) Missy (Traitor)
5 Father
6 Brandon (Me)

Turn 1-4: The main floor of the house started filling out prety well as did the basement. OX found the closet in the upstairs on turn 1 and did nothing but pull items from it till the haunt started.

The haunt was somewhat interesting. Missy fell asleep in the basement and it was our job to wake her up.

Turn 5(1): Brandon, The Father and Vivian all moved to wake up heather while Heather and OX moved towards the basement. Brandon succeeded in the first of 6 needed attempts to wake Missy, The father failed, but Vivian succeeded. The nightmares moved upstairs.

Turn 6(2): Brandon made his second successful attempt, the Father failed but Vivian ssucceeded. That brought the total to 4 of the needed 6 attempts. One of the nightmares escaped the house. Heather and OX tried to fight the nightmares, destroying one of them.

Turn 7(3): Brandon succeeded again but both the father and Vivian failed their attempts. OX was able to reach the sleeping Missy and was successful in waking her from her slumber.

Heroes Win

We allowed the traitor to roll the speed for the nightmares one more time just to see what would happen and the remaining nightmares would have escaped if they had one more turn. This was a close one.

MJ
:)

(Session Played 10/22/2004)

[JeffHannes]

This should make for an interesting session report... As the midnight hour of All Hallow's Eve approached, with my wife and daughter sound asleep, I decided to see how Betrayal played solitaire. I randomly selected four characters and set them down in order. I decided I would play the game to have fun, but also play each side to win. Pre-Haunt I'd do the normal explorer thing, and have the explorers help each other out when necessary. After the haunt... Well, I didn't know what to expect...

I'll post some more about my thoughts on solitaire play at the end, but since that will contain some minor spoilers I will say this much up front: I actually had quite a bit of fun. After the haunt started, the game was very tense and exciting, even though I was the only one playing. Perhaps I was lucky in that this was a scenario where the traitor for the most part played itself once the Haunt started, but if nothing else, it re-affirmed my opinion that the theme and story aspect is really what makes this game so great. You never know what twists and turns the game is going to take and you really get the feel that a story is unfolding as you play the game.

Read the end for my final thoughts on how the game played Solitaire. On to the session. The characters I ended up with were:

Madame Zostra
Brandon Jaspers
Father Rhinehardt
Darrin "Flash" Williams

And here is their story... This scenario contains spoilers for Scenario #22, although the first few paragraphs don't give anything away. (I clearly mark where you should stop reading if you don't want to read spoilers.)

It seemed like a safe enough place to wait out the lightning storm on their way back from Bingo night, but they should have paid heed to the warnings. The House on the Hill is no place to tread lightly...

Upon discovering their plight, trapped in the dark house, the explorers split up and began looking around. As they uncovered the rooms in the house, things were looking positive for most of the explorers. Brandon discovered a Book, and a later trip to the Library made him quite knowledgeable (6). And Father Rhinehardt, already quite sane, found the Holy Symbol and the Chapel, increasing his Sanity to 8. Meanwhile, Flash was racing around the house exploring and stopping to help his friends, like when Father Rhinehardt got stuck in the spider webs.

Things were not going so well for Madame Zostra who fell through the collapsed room into the basement. However, she found a secret stair leading up to the Chapel. After a quick trip up to recover some of her fragile sanity, Madame Zostra went back down to the basement to explore. If only the others realized what she was looking for...

Just as Father Rhinehardt uncovered the Holy Symbol in the Gallery, Madame Zostra made her way to the Pentagram Chamber. There she summoned forth the darkness of the Abyss, which began to tear away the house. The heroes scrambled to Exorcise the spirits from the house, and early on it seemed as if they would have little difficulty.

*** SPOILER ALERT *** IF YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE GAME'S EXORCISM MECHANIC YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING NOW.








Father Rhinehardt used one of his items to perform the first exorcism, while Brandon raced over to an upstairs room to perform the second. Realizing that opportunities to perform exorcisms would start to disappear along with the house, Flash used the Mystic Elevator to make a bold dash to the basement. Undeterred by the swelling of the Abyss, Flash raced downstairs in an attempt to exorcise the spirits before the rooms vanished. After failing in his attempt, he dashed out, leaving Madame Zostra behind. Madame Zostra ran after Flash, fleeing from the crumbling house. She debated attacking him with her mystic Spear, but decided she would be better off letting the Abyss perform her dirty work. Madame Zostra almost made it to the Mystic Elevator. Almost...

While searching for new rooms to uncover an item that would let him perform another exorcism, Brandon successfully performed a third exorcism using the Book. All Father Rhinehardt had to do was make it to the Chapel and victory would be theirs! But running up and down the stairs had tired him up, and he fell just one room short of reaching the Chapel. Not keeping up with his exercise regimen would prove to be costly...

As the layers of the house peeled away, Flash made one daring jump after another to get to the secret stairs, which he was then able to use to race upstairs behind. A mad Madame Zostra was left cackling behind him as the floor vanished beneath her and she faded into the Abyss. However, the damage was done. As the Abyss washed away the basement and moved to the ground floor, Madame Zostra made her presence felt from beyond the grave. The abyss began by devouring the Chapel--and stranding Father Rhinehardt in a dead-end room in the process--leaving the heroes with only two options to stave off the Abyss: The Ring or the Crystal Ball. As Brandon searched the upstairs, the brave Flash raced around the downstairs, keeping one step ahead of the Abyss as it devoured Father Rhinehardt and several other rooms behind him.

There was still a chance there... By the graces of some higher power looking out for the heroes, Brandin experienced a vision and knew that It Is Meant to Be... He knew with certainty that if he could find the Master Bedroom--the last possible room in the house posessing an omen--the omen that would be waiting for him would be the Crystal Ball. Steeled by this gifted vision, Brandon pressed forward into the room that he hoped would turn out to be the Master Bedroom. But alas, the boy's doom was sealed the moment he set foot in the room. Brandon had wandered into the Vault, a room with only one exit. And as the Abyss devoured the room behind him, he knew that the end had come. But perhaps there was one last chance...

Brandon had heard that there was a Bottle in the house that could transport him to safety. And so he set to work on opening the Vault. Alas all he found was a Revolver and Lucky Stone which at that moment didn't seem so lucky. As the rooms around him began to collapse and fade into the Abyss, Brandon could hear the tormented screams of Flash and Father Rhinehardt, their souls lost to the darkness below. It was then that Brandon knew what he had to do... With the walls literally falling apart around him, Brandin knew that he could not let himself fall to this fate, an eterntiy of torment as his soul was swallowed by the Abyss. There was only one option. And so he took the revolver in his hand...

*******

And so ends the story of my game. And it really was a fun story. Despite knowing how the room-collapsing mechanic worked, I don't think it changed my strategy much. Now for the traitor... well, because I had all the knowledge of the heroes, I knew that the Chapel was the first room that needed to be eliminated once the Abyss got to the ground floor. One could argue that as the traitor I shouldn't have known this, expcept for one thing... I've now played the game three times, and perhaps by a bizarre twist of luck (or maybe it's just a common mechanic) all three of the scenarios I have played have involved the exorcism mechanic. So even if I were playing this game without having read the Survival Tome, I would have targeted the Chapel at first opportunity.

Plus, I felt like the traitor having all the facts in this instance made it more challenging for the heroes, and that's a good thing. Because the traitor knew just which rooms to target, I had to work that much harder as the heroes to pull off the victory. And the end couldn't have been any closer. If I had pulled any room but the Vault on that final turn, the heroes almost certainly would have won.

Anyhoo, I quite enjoyed my solitaire play, and will likely try it again.

- Jeff

[deltabob]

Nice recap!

I've tried some solitare games also. I've been keeping track of which scenarios I've already played, and I'm only using those scenarios in my solitare games (so I don't get any spoilers for group play).

I've had to make some adjustments for choosing the haunt to make sure that I'm getting one I've had. When I have some more time, I'll put together the list I'm using to help choose, in case anyone else is interested or has suggestions for improvement.

But, I've had almost as much fun playing solitare as I have with a group. Granted, I was an only child, so I've been improvising solitare play on games since I was a kid - so I'm rather used to doing it.

[GranvilleTheAnvil]

Shortest game I've played yet. Scenerio done in 15 minutes.

Heather Granville (me), Brandon Jaspers, Zoe Ingstrom, Madam Zostra, Father Rhinehardt, and Darrin Williams enter the house.

1. Father goes first, heading one space left and finds the Collapsed Room. Fails his speed check and plummets into the basement, finding the Chasm. Takes 1 damage. Fails his speed roll to cross the Chasm and has to stop moving.

2. Madam Zostra moves, one space to the left. Discovers the Kitchen. Draws an Omen card and gets Bite. Father rolls for the bite and turns up a 6. Madam Zostra gets a 1. Five points physical. She's at 2 might and 2 speed. Madam Zostra checks the haunt role. Six blanks, the haunt begins (my friend Richie will always be remembered for that unfortunate turn).

3. Kitchen with the Bite. Haunt 17: Bugs. The traitor is highest knowledge (Heather Granville: me). I place the bugs. Praying Mantis goes in the Kitchen. Roach goes in the Kitchen. The other bugs haven't been discovered yet.

4. My turn. Flash, Zoe, Brandon and myself are all still in the entrance hall. I attack Flash (my roll 4, his roll 2) then step forward and to the left, discovering the Junk Room. For my Omen, I get the Dog. I send ol' Mangy to the kitchen to snatch the Vinegar and bring it back to me.

5. Monster turn. The Roach attacks Madam Zostra in the kitchen and bites her in half. Five might to two turned her into Roach-food. The praying mantis rolls 3 for his move, steps out of the kitchen into the entrance hall, attacks Flash. Praying Mantis beats flash by 3. He's reduced to Might 3 / Speed 4 with only one buffer hit point of life remaining. The Praying Mantis then finishes it's move by stepping one room in front of the heroes.

6. Flash moves forward through the opposed Praying Mantis foyer, then into the Junk room with Heather. He attacks me. We tie and his move is finished.

7. Zoe moves past the praying mantis and explores another ground floor room. Gets the Gardens. She grabs the Gardening Supplies and draws her event. Bloody Vision. Sanity Check and she rolls a 1. She's forced to attack the Praying Mantis in the foyer. Zoe steps into Foyer and attacks. Praying Mantis rolls 6. Zoe rolls 2. Zoe = Might 3 (one from bottom) Speed 4 (just above skull).

8. Brandon goes. Steps forward, attacks Praying Mantis and loses by 1. Then moves to the upper landing.

9. Back to Father. He leaves the Chasm into the Basement Landing, then explores and finds the Crypt. The Beetle is placed in the Crypt. Father draws his event and turns up Webs. Goodbye Father.

10. Zostras dead already so I go. I attack Flash and win 4 to 3. He's now minimumed on stats. I leave the Junk Room (successfully), and head upstairs, making it as far as the Upper Landing.

11. Monsters. Praying Mantis devours Zoe. Beetle swallows the Father. The Praying Mantis can only move 1, so he steps onto the stairs. The Beetle moves to the basement landing.

12. Flash moves to leave the Junk Room. Rolls a 2, loses a speed and dies.

13. Brandon explores upstairs, finding Research Laboratory. He grabs the Nitric Acid and draws his event. Smoke.

14. I send the Dog to grab the Gardening Supplies from the Foyer where Zoe died, then explore upstairs, turning up Servants Quarters. I pick up the Floor wax and draw my Omen. The Mask. No biggy, but I've got three ingrediants.

15. Monsters go. Praying Mantis rolls 1 for move again. Only makes it to the Upper Landing. Beetle stays put.

16. Brandon moves on and discovers the attic. Grabs the Spray Gun and draws an event. The Walls. He draws the next room tile, the Larder, places it in the basement on the far side of the Chasm and appears there, grabbing the Rat Poison. Brandon's got 3 ingrediants as well. There's smoke in the Research Lab though, which would reduce his knowledge roll to 1 and make the combine impossable. So he has to find a way to the kitchen with the Roach.

17. I head downstairs, getting to the entrance hall.

18. Praying Mantis moves 4, making it to the collapsed room and falls through to the Chasm. The beetle rolls 2 for movement, also moving to the Chasm. The Wasp rolls a 6 for move and makes it to the Collapsed Room.

19. Brandon explores the next basement room away from them and discovers the Mystic Elevator. Rolls a 2 and places it off the Gardens. Then moves to the Entrance Hall. Brandon attacks me and we tie.

20. I attack Brandon and he beats me by 1. Then I move to the Collapsed Room, drop to the basement, roll a 1 for damage, throw my three ingrediants into the Chasm and step into the basement landing. I've got to find stairs for my bugs and I feel confident in my Roach's ability to guard the kitchen.

21. The Wasp moves into Brandons room and attacks him, but loses the fight and gets stunned.

22. Brandon steps into the kitchen, tries the combine and rolls a 3 on his knowledge check. Then he flees back into the entrance hall.

23. I explore a new basement room and find The Vault. My event is Secret Passage and I roll that it's placed on the Upper Floor. I throw it in the Upper Landing, crack the vault, pull out The Rope and The Axe. Then I take the passage to the Upper Landing and end on the stairs.

24. The Wasp unstuns. The Beetle and Praying Mantis both head through the passage to the stairs.

25. Brandon steps into the kitchen, rolls a 4 and successfully makes the Bug Spray, then blasts the Roach. Brandon rolls a 2, but Roach has a 0 Speed, so it's dead.

26. I run into the kitchen and attack. We tie.

27. Wasp and Praying Mantis make it to the kitchen, the Beetle in the entrance hall. Praying Mantis attacks, wins by 2. Wasp attacks and loses again.

28. Brandon sprays the Praying Mantis, killing it, then runs out into the Entrance Hall and makes it to the Foyer.

29. I run to the Foyer, attack Brandon again and lose by 1.

30. Beetle steps into the Foyer and chomps Brandon for 2. Wasp unstuns.

31. Brandon blast the Beetle with the Bug Spray and kills it too. All I've got left is my Wasp.

32. I attack Brandon and beat him by 2. I steal the Bug Spray and run to the collapsed room. Fall to the Chasm, take one point of damage (I'm at minimum speed and might now) and throw the Bug Spray into the Chasm for the win.

It was so wildly intense. We've all been sitting here with discard piles retracing everything we did to get it down perfect. Man alive, that was the funnest one we ever played, was incredably close for both sides, and was over in 15 minutes. It's a whole differant world when there isn't anything discovered and the haunt starts. There's nowhere to run away to.