Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

Last year I got a small bonus, and I used it to buy a couple of board games in the “luxury” class (e.g., priced at $100 or more).

The first purchase, Mansions of Madness, was a huge disappointment, as the replayability and the number of supplied scenarios didn’t justify the higher price.

Unfortunately, I was unable to review my second purchase, Gloomhaven, as the release date was repeatedly extended. I ordered it back in March 2017, but the release was pushed out to August, September, November, and then December, but finally it shipped in early January of this year.

It was worth the wait.

Cost

As I mentioned, it’s a pricey game. So right there, it’s not for everyone. Totally understandable. Encourage a friend, then. Hehe…

Gloomhaven retails for $140, but due to demand and limited supply, the asking price on Amazon went as high as $250 before it settled back down to $190. I pre-ordered mine at GameNerdz for $99, where it’s been consistently listed at a friendlier price (currently $140, though once again on backorder).

When the box arrived, labels told me that it weighed in at 9.3 kg. That’s a lot of game, and it’s by far the biggest game box I’ve ever seen. Carting it across the street for game nights has already busted one of my tote bags, and I have few that are roomy enough to accommodate it. Inside the box were smaller boxes for characters and figurines, deck after deck of different card types, and hundreds of thick cardboard map tiles, standees, and overlays.

Just from a physical perspective, the game delivers value for the money.

Theme

Another possible turn-off for some is the fantasy RPG theme. For me, not a problem.

Back in the days before tablets, mobile phones, video games, and even computers, I was an early adopter of Dungeons & Dragons, specifically the pre-hardback versions of TSR’s Advanced D&D. My brothers and I were always either playing or concocting new scenarios for our lovingly crafted characters. It’s where I cut my teeth with writing, devising adventures for us all to enjoy. My enthusiasm for the game lasted well into the 1980s, after which I switched to writing in my free time. As the designated Dungeon Master (the guy who ran the show), I rarely got a chance to play a character or discover new realms and adventures.

Enter Gloomhaven.

Here, everyone plays a character, and every aspect is infused with the flavor of this new fantasy world. Striking just the right tone, the text doesn’t get cute or flowery or bombastic. Humor and drama spice things up, but the game remains realistic in its presentation of the world and theme.

Gameplay

Gloomhaven, a game for 1–4 players, bears the stamp of its AD&D predecessor, but is also new and utterly fresh. It can be played in two modes: “Casual,” where you run scenarios independently, with whatever character class you pick; and “Campaign,” where your characters persist between gaming sessions, where the scenarios link to form a grander narrative, and where you add in City and Road events to build continuity across the links.

Unlike the old AD&D, each character actions are limited by a bespoke deck of Activity cards. These cards provide options for movement, defense, support, attacks, and spell-like actions. Players must select a subset of cards to take into each scenario, and may not add or swap cards during the adventure.

There is no dice rolling in Gloomhaven. Instead, each character has a tailored deck of Attack Modifier cards that can boost or negate the base outcome of a chosen activity. As players progress and “level up,” they have options to add new cards to both the Activity and Attack Modifier decks, bringing new features into the former and winnowing out some of the less desirable outcomes of the latter.

While this sounds limiting to the old AD&D mindset of I can do whatever I want as long as the DM says it’s OK, this card-driven method presents each player with new and unique challenges. Which cards are the best for this scenario? or which cards work best with which other cards? et cetera.

And then there are the Item cards, available for purchase in the city of Gloomhaven, they represent armor, weapons, potions, and devices that provide additional boosts to a character’s performance.

Scenarios and Characters

As mentioned, I had an issue with the limited number of free scenarios supplied by the other “luxury” game I purchased. Gloomhaven does not have this problem.

The game comes with one hundred scenarios, all linked together to form an ongoing saga. In addition, players can devise their own, custom scenarios. That’s a lot of gameplay, and the advertised “1000+ hours” of play time is not an exaggeration.

Scenarios use a collection of interchangeable map tiles with hex grids to track location and movement for character miniatures and enemy standees. Overlay tiles provide obstacles, traps, doors, treasures, etc. The scenario maps are geared to fit on a tabletop—just one of the many well-considered aspects of this game—leaving players room for their character mat and cards, plus room for the stats and cards of enemy factions.

I’ve played through four of the scenarios so far, repeating one of them with different character types. Because of the randomness of the Activity Cards and the Attack Modifiers, even replaying with the same exact party brings a lot of action that is different and challenging. Playing with different character classes brings even more challenges and strategies, so the replayability factor is high.

In addition to the six basic classes, the game comes with eleven “locked” classes that can be opened up for use by achieving player-specific goals. This adds even more variety to the replayability factor. That’s serious bang-for-buck, in my opinion.

Game Mechanics

Gloomhaven does extremely well with game balance and consistent mechanics. While I must admit, my first character was knocked out of play in Round One of Scenario One, that was definitely part of my learning curve, and not due to a game flaw.

Scenarios have a base level of difficulty, expressed by calculating average character level, but they can be buffed up or toned down, depending on the party’s desire. Higher difficulties provide a bigger payoff, while easier settings are best if you’re new to the game or unfamiliar with a new class. As players advance in level, the base scenario difficulty goes up, keeping pace and providing ample challenge.

Gloomhaven also balances the action by taking party size into account. Only two characters on this particular trip? You might only face four “normal” bandits. Three characters? Three “normal” bandits and one “elite.” With four characters (the maximum) you might meet five normals and two elites.

Game rounds are governed by “initiative,” with more complex activities requiring a later initiative start. Characters and enemies alike use initiative, so all your well-laid plans may turn to naught when the bandits you’re fighting draw a lower initiative and attack you first. The mechanics of activities and initiative, actions and modifiers, are the same for friend and foe alike, making it easy to follow as play progresses.

Lacking a Dungeon Master, the enemies must be controlled by players. To avoid pitfalls of self-interest, the designers built a simple but flexible algorithm for controlling enemy standees during a scenario. While this makes the enemy actions somewhat predictable, there’s still enough randomness built into the game—via initiative, Attack Modifiers, other character actions, etc.—to keep you guessing whether or not your plan was really a good idea.

And there’s a built-in “timer,” of sorts, in the gameplay. Each character has a limited number of Activity cards available to play. Some of the cards are “use and discard,” but the more powerful activities are “use and lose” cards; use one of those, and it’s really hard to get it back into your hand. Also, to get your discards back into your hand, you must “lose” one of them. This mechanic of periodically losing a card slowly whittles down your deck of available activities. If you have no more cards to play, your character is “exhausted,” and must retire from the scenario. The more cards you lose, the faster you become exhausted. The effect of this mechanic is that you simply cannot dawdle during a scenario. Once more, unto the breach, dear friends!

“Leveling up” a character brings various boons. They acquire “perks” that modify the standard Attack Modifier deck, adding good cards or eliminating bad ones. Higher level Activity cards can be added to the hand you take into a scenario. New items can be purchased in the City, bringing new protections or capabilities. And, leveling up also allow you to take more damage, a good thing since the enemies you face will be sending more your way. One mechanic that was new to me was the function of enhancing your Ability cards. If your character has enough coin, she can enhance the cards in her Ability deck, increasing the values of damage, shield, range, area-of-effect, etc.

Production Quality

Everything in this game is of above-average quality. The printed materials are clear, straightforward, well supplied with examples, lacking in contradiction or ambiguity, and exceptionally well indexed. The rule book is saddle-stitched (standard), but the scenario book is spiral-bound, allowing you to fold pages over to the back or lie it flat. We’ve had very few questions that weren’t answered by the materials supplied—a remarkable feat in a game with this many moving parts—and for those few, online FAQs and Wikis gave us the answers we needed.

The cardboard used for campaign board, map tiles, overlay tiles, markers, counters, and standees, is all good thick stock. A few of the counters are wood, and I would have preferred a few other things to have been made of wood as well, but that’s an incredibly minor nit to pick.

The artwork is excellent, keeping with the fantasy world theme without getting “cartoony.” The game designers avoided using the standard elf/dwarf/halfling stable of non-human races, so if you want to really role-play your character, you’ll have to search for clues about that character’s race and proclivities, but they’re there. And some interesting choices await, as new classes and races are unlocked.

The various card decks are also exceptionally high quality. Different backs help to differentiate the various types, most cards are numbered for reference and comparison, and the artwork here, too, is very good and spot on for theme.

My only complaint in this area is that some of the identifying labels—especially on the map tiles—are small and hard for these aging eyes to discern. Again: an incredibly minor nit.

Accessories

Even with a box of this weight and size (over 20 lbs and measuring 8″ by 12″ by 16″), storing and organizing it all is going to be difficult. To address this, I highly recommend the organizer inserts provided by The Broken Token. I’ve used TBT’s inserts for other games, but for Gloomhaven, their organizers are a must. Assembled from thin laser-cut wood, these organizers, trays, and “tuck-in” boxes provide easy storage for cards, characters, miniatures, standees, and all the various tiles and counters. And it all still fits in the original box.

Another accessory I recommend is the removable vinyl sticker set. Gloomhaven comes with stickers which you can apply to the campaign board (to show discovered scenarios) and to Activity cards (to show the enhancements you’ve purchased), but these are permanent stickers. The removable vinyl stickers provide the same function, but (duh!) can be removed from the board and cards, should you want to “reset” the game for play with a different group.

The final accessory I’d recommend is  a set of card sleeves. Mayday Games offers a set tailored to Gloomhaven, but sleeves of the appropriate size can be found via many sources. Just make sure you get enough. There are a lot of cards. Set aside a day for that chore.

Summary

As disappointed as I was with Mansions of Madness, I am pleased in equal measure with Gloomhaven. More pleased, in fact.

The more I play the game, the more impressed I am in the way it achieves simplicity within complexity, in the challenge of gameplay, and in the overall quality of theme and production. And I’m not alone. Not only is it the top-ranked game on BoardGameGeek.com, it’s also a big hit with my gaming groups, with hopeful texts like “GH tonight?” popping up weekly.

I’m happy to oblige.

k