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Weekly Trash - Betrayal at House on the Hill

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26 Aug 2008 09:58 - 26 Aug 2008 09:58 #10543 by ChristopherMD
Shellhead
This is a pretty good game that could have been amazing. But there should have been a lot more playtesting, due to the scaling issue, the 50 scenarios and the highly variable house map. As it stands, only the first half of the game is reliably good. After the traitor is revealed, it's pretty random whether or not the rest of the game will be entertaining or a one-sided beatdown. And while the online errata isn't absolutely necessary, it does reduce the confusion on various scenarios that were written well or tested properly.



Weekly Trash is a series of discussion threads in the F:AT forums. Each week a comment from the recommendations database is highlighted here. Don't be shy about posting further comments, questions, answers, funny stories, pictures, "this game sucks", or anything else related to the game.
Last edit: 26 Aug 2008 09:58 by ChristopherMD.

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26 Aug 2008 10:04 #10545 by Matt Thrower
There's one shop left in the world that still has copies of this game.

Sadly, it's in Australia.

Still, I just ordered one. I figured that even if I didn't like the game I'd easily make my money back on EBay given the prices that this one fetches. It'll probably be weeks before it arrives in the post, but hopefully I'll have it in time for Halloween :)

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26 Aug 2008 10:49 - 26 Aug 2008 10:56 #10551 by southernman
I got one in trade for a German copy of El Grande about 6 months ago AND still haven't been able to get it to the table due to the small size of the groups I go to, and one being predominantly euro gamers so I don't attend that often - they have promised to play it the next time numbers hit five and no super-hyped euro is in someone's bag (they have been doing agricola recently so I've been watching the Olympics).

Since then our club group has started playing Arkham Horror and are planning an all day Haloween session with AH, BaHotH, LNOE, FoD mentioned so should have played it at least once by the end of October ... I hope :( .
Last edit: 26 Aug 2008 10:56 by southernman.

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26 Aug 2008 11:13 #10554 by Citadel
I have played this one a few times and enjoyed it. It is pretty random and the scenarios are of variable qualities but I have had a good laugh playing it. It also only takes about an hour so its easy to get a game in and people don't mind if the scenario is a festering mess. It is in some ways like a lighter quicker version of Arkham Horror. There is far less brain usage required and far more fistfuls of dice.

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26 Aug 2008 12:25 #10563 by Spinrad
I probably like this game more than I should, given its flaws, but something about it just hits the right chord for me. I love that we can burn through 2 scenarios in less time than it takes to play a lot of other games. Also, turning into a werewolf mid-game and proceding to eat your friends is a plus in my book.

Yes, it could have done with more playtesting and editing and the scenarios can be ridiculously unbalanced, but it is a perfect beer and pretzels type game for me.

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26 Aug 2008 14:03 #10565 by ChristopherMD
Played this game several times. It really sucks. The first part of the game is like an extended setup where nothing you do really matters (if I recall, you can't die yet). Then you enter the second part which, in my experience, only lasts a turn or two. Typically the traitor will have an easy victory or one player will singlehandedly defeat the scenario with a few die rolls. Really there's very little need for cooperation in the game or planning of any kind.
50 different scenarios or whatever sounds nice, but there's not many different cards in the game. By our third play we'd read every card in the game at least once and stopped even bothering with all the text after that and just read the title. "Look, I got the dog again!" Its not that there should have been an expansion with more cards. There should have been more in the game, period. 50 different endings to the game, but its the same meaningless shit every time getting there.
Pretty much everyone who played the game had fun with it their first few times and then had no interest in ever playing it again. I even liked it at first despite the increasing instances of friends arguing over the poorly written scenarios because they leave out need to know information. The game truly is a rules lawyers' wet dream as you can find loopholes in probably every scenario to exploit in your favor regardless of which side you're on.
While its true there is a book of errata on the game and scenarios, its really not worth the effort in my opinion. The idea for the game is solid and maybe a new Black Morn Manor or something else will develop it better.

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26 Aug 2008 14:16 #10567 by ubarose
I friggin' love this game. It's like MST3000 in a box. The only thing that is missing is a "Manos Hand of Fate" scenerio.

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26 Aug 2008 14:23 #10569 by Citadel
I have played this with both the groups I play with in Glasgow. One of the owners brings out a thick ream of paper that is some kind of errata tome, the other doesn't. I don't know if this makes a difference or not. My memory is that quite a few games have come close and I don't remember failing to have a fun game of it.

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26 Aug 2008 14:36 #10571 by Spinrad
Also I really love the dice in the game. They have the perfect amount of "heft" to them and are really satisfying to roll a handfull at a time.

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26 Aug 2008 16:33 #10581 by Aarontu
I really like this game. I know it's messed up and sometimes it just falls apart or ends up being unwinnable by one side and really unbalanced, but I really enjoy it all the same. My haunt books are all marked up with the revisions put out by Hasbro, and one of the haunts is edited even more because it's just lame as is.

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26 Aug 2008 18:56 #10583 by metalface13
I played this game once and it's such a mess I didn't see the point in playing again. I really don't get why everyone likes this game so much, or why it fetches such high prices. There are plenty of other good 'beer and pretzels' games out there.

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26 Aug 2008 19:19 #10584 by Mr Skeletor
MattDP wrote:

There's one shop left in the world that still has copies of this game.

Sadly, it's in Australia.

Still, I just ordered one. I figured that even if I didn't like the game I'd easily make my money back on EBay given the prices that this one fetches. It'll probably be weeks before it arrives in the post, but hopefully I'll have it in time for Halloween :)


Should have let me know and i could have grabbed it for you.

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27 Aug 2008 04:12 #10591 by Matt Thrower
Mr Skeletor wrote:

Should have let me know and i could have grabbed it for you.


Thanks, Frank - much appreciated. But I figured that I'd end up paying the same in P&P overall so I just ordered it straight from them. AUS$60 wasn't too bad a price, with the exchange rate the way it is!

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27 Aug 2008 05:45 - 27 Aug 2008 05:46 #10593 by billyz
I couldn't stand this fucking game! For all the reasons cited above.

Just in case, let me make it perfectly clear:

THERE IS NO STRATEGY IN THIS GAME.

NONE. NADA. ZIP. ZERO


I'm sure a cystoscopy involves more meaninful choices and is more pleasurable.

I literally gave this away for B-17 Queen of the Skies.

The guy looked at me like I was retarded.
Last edit: 27 Aug 2008 05:46 by billyz.

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27 Aug 2008 07:32 #10594 by southernman
Definitely sounds like this game has polarised camps - still sounds liek I'll like it, I don't mind some random chaos if it doesn't go on for too long and everyone is getting into it.
Sounds like a good closer to an intense game of Arkham .... which, incidentally, we had last night. Only my second play and the owner set it up with all expansions for just the three of us. We went from thinking we were going to get slaughtered to knowing we were going to get slaughtered to thinking 'we have a chance to win' in the first 2.5 hrs - and then I lost my unlimited movement (Deputy's van) and the terror limit hit 10 (rumour card) and Arkham was just flooded with monsters. At the 3 hr mark, as we were fighting street by street just to get to a gate before we could seal it and slowly being beaten to a pulp, we conceded as the the venue's closing time was approaching and we still had to pack it all away.

But if our day long Haloween session goes ahead I think games like LNoE and BaHotH will be needed between AH and FoD.

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