The Meeple’s Eye View is an in depth review of one of the many games in The Malted Meeple’s board game library.

You are an explorer investigating the abandoned house on the hill with your friends. As you delve into the depths of the house, you begin to realize that it may not be as abandoned as you had been lead to believe. As for your friends, well, they might not be friends at all… 

Theme: Adventure, Exploration, Horror

Number of Players: 3-6

Game Time: 60 minutes

Age Appropriateness: 12 and up

Game Type: Horror Game

In Betrayal at House on the Hill, players take on the role of explorers who are investigating a creepy abandoned mansion. During their turn, each player will add room tiles to the mansion, expanding the house’s floor-plan. As players venture further into the mansion, they will pick up various items, encounter terrifying events, and be faced with omens foretelling their doom.

Each explorer begins by taking a miniature and the matching explorer card which contains four different traits including: strength, speed, knowledge, and sanity. On a player’s turn, they can move through rooms up to their speed and explore one new room. They can also make use of any items that they have collected along the way. When they explore a new room, they add a room tile to the house, corresponding to the floor that they are currently on. Then, they draw either an event card, an omen card, or an item card depending upon the symbol indicated on the newly placed room tile. The card may ask the player to make a trait roll to avoid the bite from a giant spider, avoid amnesia, or go a little mad from encountering the paranormal. When players are asked to make a trait roll, they roll a number of dice equal to the current trait value indicated on their explorer card.

As the house is explored, one of the players – determined as the game progresses – will betray the other players and try to kill them. This special end game scenario is called “The Haunt.” Once the haunt begins, one player, determined by the omen cards, will read from the Traitors Tome (away from the others). This allows the other players, who are now heroes, to conspire and figure out a way to defeat the traitor.  When both teams are ready, the traitor will return to the game, place any new tokens, and explain any new rules. The rest of the information, including how each team wins, is kept secret from the other players.

There are 50 haunt scenarios each with their own unique flavor, monsters, and ending goals. Some scenarios have the players running from a horde of zombies, banishing baleful spirits, or contending with hell itself or worse.

Read more details about Betrayal at House on the Hill and what one of the Meeple’s Game Masters thinks of it on the Meeple Moments blog.