Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven is a co-operative adventure game for 1-4 players which immerses you in the fantasy world, surrounding the town of Gloomhaven, as imagined by designer Issac Childres. By playing the game over many scenarios, you’ll develop your own character and learn to cooperate in the game’s tactical, card driven combat system.

The game is scenario based, with a story woven between each scenario that you will find in the book. As you encounter new characters they might lead you to discover new areas of the board – applying stickers to customise the board itself. You can choose where to explore, as well as choosing the outcome of different events along the way. For each scenario, you’ll build a unique map of game tiles, populated with terrible creatures, which you must defeat to succeed. You’ll gain experience and treasure along the way, allowing you to upgrade your adventurer with skills and items to help in further scenarios.

In terms of gameplay, Gloomhaven is a unique dungeon crawling experience. Each turn you’ll select two action cards, which determine your speed and also the movement and combat actions you’ll take. Although you’re co-operating, all players choose their actions independently to try and take on different challenges that the group are currently facing. This simple card mechanism is a really effective one for giving you control over your outcomes in the game, as well as driving some really interesting decisions.

Gloomhaven is widely regarded as a fantastic game, with two successful Kickstarters behind it, as well as the accolade of being the number one rated game by gamers on BoardGameGeek. It seems to appeal to both gamers with an interest in typical dungeon crawl style board games, as well as a wider range of people who are drawn to the game for its story, campaign and card driven mechanisms.

There is a significant amount of content in the Gloomhaven box! The game includes miniatures to represent each character, as well as a huge amount of cardboard map tiles, tokens and monsters. It’s a great big box, full of adventure, that keeps gamers coming back to the table for tens or hundreds of game sessions.