Although a compelling case could be made that every version of Horrified is essentially the same game, this also lets fans jump into a different iterations without learning a crap ton of new rules. Plus mixing and matching Monsters and Heroes between different settings is fun, and that's never been easier and more thematic thanks to last year's Forgotten Realms-style D&D set and this years campaign-specific Ravenloft.
Let's open the coffin lid on this blood sucka and find out what's new!
First off, you've got a striking new board that's somewhat easier to navigate than its predecessor.
(Related: makes me sad to write this, but I gotta give a demerit to the production team for sloppily miss-spelling "Mount Baratok" on the game board as "Mount BARATOR." *whomp-whomp*)
The Items, dice and Villagers are all unique to this setting, but their in-game function is exactly the same.
The Heroes in both D&D-themed sets can perform a Special Action to roll the d20 for an improved effect. Naturally, the higher the roll, the better the result! In fact, scoring a critical hit during your Hero Phase will net you get the top tier action...plus a free always-awesome Perk Card!
Speaking of Heroes, the OG D&D set gave us the traffic-directing Bard, the defensive Cleric, the combat-specific Fighter, the Item-wrangling Rogue and the teleportation-happy Wizard. Not to be outdone, Ravenloft's designers graciously provide five brand-new character classes. There's the Druid, who can perform tasks from adjacent locations, the Paladin, who can accelerate Advance Actions, the Ranger, who can sneak around Monsters, the Sorcerer, who shifts threats around / provides free Items and the Warlock, who deprives enemies of attack dice and hits.
As if that wasn't enough, at any time the Heroes of Ravenloft can accept their own unique "Dark Gift", which lets them flip over their Hero tile. This permanently alters their Special Actions to produce even more powerful effects, but at a greater chance of failure, as well as a special trait that you can try and leverage over and over again during the game.
Then there's the other major distinction: the Monsters! First up is the cursed doll / puppet / toy thang Carrionette, who's POWER effect forces Heroes to chuck out Items.
To Advance its defeat condition, you must swap out the automaton's spare parts...preferably with items of the same color and strength. After everything has been plugged in, a Hero can dismantle the fiend by discarding Red Weapon Items, adding their combined strength to a d20 roll and hitting 15 or higher.
The Gulthias Tree's Power Effect will spawn Blights all around the board, which move and attack on behalf of the stationary tree. Heroes can prune these twiggy fucks by adding the value of a discarded Brown Mundane Item and rolling 8+ on a d20 roll.
To combat the source of this misery, Heroes can discard a Blue Magical Item while in the Tree's location to flip a Root Token. They can do this as often as they like and - if they stop before a match is revealed - all of the exposed tokens are thrown out. However, if the Heroes press their luck a bit too far and reveal a duplicate Root Token, they must stop, shuffle all revealed tokens together and randomly put them back!
Once all of the Roots are um...rooted out, the the evil tree can be felled in its space by adding the value of expended Weapon Items to a d20 roll and getting 15+.
Baba Lasagna...er, Lysaga swoops two locations towards Villagers and carries them off whenever a Pow! comes up.
To challenge her, Heroes must poke around her creepy hut by discarding items. Browns flip over concealed tokens equal to its strength or move the prized Gem that number of unoccupied spaces. Reds let you fight revealed Scarecrows, beating them by rolling their target number on a d20 roll + the Item Strength. Ravens are released in the same manner, but use Blue discards.
After you've maneuvered the Gem into the Door, you can strike down the evil witch by sacrificing Blue Items, rolling the d20 + your discard total and meeting or beating a 15.
Then there's the final boss of this spooky milieu: Strahd von Zarovich himself. His "Fury" Power simply clobbers everyone in his space with a hit!
To foil his dark machination, go to Madam Eva's tent, discard an item, reveal the matching Tarokka Card and place the corresponding Relic on the revealed location. Once all three Relics are recovered and placed in their appropriate spaces, Heroes must destroy the Heart of Sorrow by rolling 20+ on the d20, adding the discarded Weapon strength.
If this succeeds, Strahd appears in the Castle's North Tower. You can slay this undead fiend by turfing one of each type of item and net 20+ on a d20 + discarded Item Strength roll.
Sure, the game doesn't re-invent the wheel, but I love the spooky art design of this new version and the added variety of more Heroes with Dark Gifts and Monsters with unique powers and defeat conditions makes this a worthy addition to the collection for me.
Thanks for reading. Until next time, keep your adamantium ascot on "lock" while staying in Valaki!
