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Gloomhaven

Age Range

How Many Players

Rating

Play Time?

14+

1-4

PG

2-3 Hours

Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game that combines elements of dungeon-crawling, tactical combat, and character development. It was designed by Isaac Childres and first published in 2017. In Gloomhaven, players take on the role of adventurers who explore a dark and mysterious world filled with dangers and treasures. The game is known for its deep strategic gameplay and rich storytelling elements.

Variations

Solo campaign: Play the game alone, controlling multiple characters and experiencing the full story on your own.

Cooperative campaign: Play with a group of friends, each controlling one character and working together to complete quests and progress through the game.

Random dungeon: Create a one-off dungeon by selecting a random scenario from the game and assembling a deck of monsters to fight against.

Competitive mode: Split into two teams and compete against each other to complete objectives and win the game.

Ironman mode: Play the game with the added challenge of permadeath. If a character dies, they are out of the game for good.

Community-driven campaign: Create a campaign with your own custom rules and quests, allowing players to create and contribute their own content to the game.

Gloomhaven is a cooperative tactical role-playing board game. The rules of the game are quite extensive and cannot be covered in their entirety here, but here is a brief overview:

Objectives: Players work together to complete missions and progress the story of the game.

Character selection: Each player chooses a character with unique abilities and strengths.

Combat: Combat is turn-based and is conducted using cards that have different actions and effects.

Movement: Players move around the board by choosing from a limited set of movement options.

Scenario setup: Each scenario has a specific setup, with different maps, enemies, and objectives.

Character progression: Characters gain experience and can level up, improving their abilities and unlocking new options.

City events: Players can interact with the city of Gloomhaven, completing tasks and buying new equipment.

Road events: While traveling between missions, players can encounter random events that can have positive or negative effects.

Scenario completion: Each scenario has specific conditions that must be met in order to complete it successfully.

Campaign progression: The game is designed to be played over a series of scenarios, with each scenario leading to new challenges and revelations about the game's story.

Note: This is just a brief overview of the rules. The complete rulebook is quite extensive and covers many additional details and nuances of the game.

Gloomhaven is a campaign-based cooperative board game for 1-4 players. The game involves creating a party of adventurers and sending them on quests to explore the world of Gloomhaven, fight monsters, gain experience and treasure, and ultimately reach their personal goals.

Here's a brief overview of the game setup:

Choose your characters: Each player chooses a character to play as, with unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

Set up the board: The game comes with a modular board consisting of several large tiles that can be arranged in different ways to create different maps. Choose a scenario from the scenario book, and set up the board according to its instructions.

Place monsters and obstacles: The scenario book will also tell you where to place monsters and obstacles on the board.

Choose your action cards: Each character has a deck of action cards that they use to determine their actions on their turn. Choose a starting hand of cards and shuffle your deck.

Determine initiative: Each round, players will determine their initiative order based on the cards they play from their hand.

Play your turn: On your turn, choose two cards from your hand and play them to determine your actions. You may move, attack, use items, or perform other actions depending on the cards you play.

Resolve monster actions: After all players have taken their turns, the monsters on the board will take their actions based on their initiative order.

End of round: Discard played cards, draw new cards, and prepare for the next round.

Progress the campaign: After completing a scenario, players will earn experience, gold, and new items. They will also progress the story by unlocking new scenarios, character classes, and other content.

Note: This is just a brief overview, and the actual game setup and rules can be quite complex. The game also features a large number of components, including miniatures, cards, tokens, and more.

Tips, Ideas & More

Party Planning Tips

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