Table Top Game Club Week Eight: Betrayal, Zombies, and Courtly Intrigue

As we headed into Halloween, we decided to feature some classic spooky, haunting games.  Tuesday’s session was all about the modern classic, Betrayal at House on the Hill.  As most folks know in the gaming community, Betrayal has some flaws.  The powers and abilities can be a little off balance, the Haunt can appear a little too early, or as we saw last year, the betrayer can be stuck in the basement while the heroes gather every possible item like a Supernatural Easter egg hunt.  That said, it’s also an incredibly entertaining experience, with wonderful tension and atmosphere.  The week’s game brought in Haunt 15: Here There Be Dragons.  This could have been a brutal feast for the dragon, but the betrayer was upstairs while the remaining survivors were isolated in the basement.  By the time the dragon and betrayer finally made it to the basement, the survivors had every necessary item to make quick work of the beast.  Still, the group had fun, and it was a good introduction to the game.

The Friday before Halloween called for Last Night onEarth.  I really enjoy the idea behind this game.  The game mechanics are easy to handle, the components are well made, and I appreciate the different scenarios.  I think the cards are clever, and the art direction gives it a cinematic feel (although the female characters are a bit weak in a cheesy, 80s horror movie kind of way).  We played the basic Die Zombie Die scenario.  Like with many other examples of this type of game, sometimes the balance can be thrown off early.  Both zombie players rolled sixes right at the start, so the maximum number of zombies were spread all over the map.  We hapless humans were unable to get any real traction or gather suitable weapons before we were swarmed and turned into lunch.   A similarly quick game was played last year.  I still think it’s a good game, and we’ll probably revisit Last Night at a later date.

The quick game of Last Night on Earth gave us time to crack open Love Letter.  For such a simple game, there’s some nice strategy involved, and I was happy to see a new gamer pick up the nuances, and score a win.  It’s also a good game to prepare groups of students for Coup, when the time comes.

Next week, we’ll feature Small World, plus stay tuned(?) for my upcoming post about H.P. Lovecraft's influence on table top gaming.

Thanks for reading!