Gloomhaven

If I’m planning to get this for a friends birthday (going in with a few people) what should we get to start? I know the organizer seems to be a fan favorite.

A few jankier alternatives that work for my group:

YASS for token storage. Cheaper than the custom broken token solution, and I like having everything in a few thin clear containers.

Gloomy Companion to replace the monster deck. Doesn't track monster health, but does everything else and doesn't require an app. One person runs it from their phone and is generally in charge of managing initiative and keeping combat moving.

D&D dice to track monster HP. Between d6 and d20 you can track pretty much everything up to higher levels, and 2 d20s will cover most bosses (or 2 d10s if you have a 10's die).

Ziploc sandwich bags for item deck, road cards, and city cards. One bag per for active, one bag per for unused, and one bag overall for 'destroyed' cards. Use a permanent market to write which is which on the fronts : ).


Other stuff that works for us:

Make sure you have a large gaming table/area. A lot of setup/takedown time can be saved if you can leave things 'at hand' across scenarios like monster stands, status tokens/coins, board pieces.

Pull out all the monsters/environment pieces you'll need before you begin each scenario--they're listed at the bottom of every map so you can just gather them without spoiling the rooms. Saves you a lot of time vs. fishing back into storage every time someone opens a door.

I use a google slides version of this scenario flowchart (Spoilers, because you can see what scenario numbers are locked/unlocked by each decision--some groups like to play blind) to track the scenarios the party has completed, unlocked, and blocked off. You can click the circles and fill with color, so I use Green = completed w/ chests opened, Yellow = completed, Red = blocked, Purple = unlocked. Makes it much easier for our party to choose the next scenario up and to remember what we have available.

Probably my favorite board game. You'll have an awesome time.

I got this game for Christmas, have a group of friends I've been playing with, 4 of us total. We went Brute, Craghack, Tinkerer, and Scoundrel. We went in totally blind, had no idea what each class does (although you can kinda tell from the name scoundrel it's probably like a rogue, and brute sounded like a warrior.....craghack and tinkerer were chosen because the names were "kinda cool").

I have to say this game is a fantastic value even at full price. We've played 3 scenarios so far. It will probably take us close to a year to finish this game. Our first session took the longest, like 5 hours, because we had no clue what the abilities did, and we all had to look at the Gloomhaven shop items to see what was available (most of us went with the recommended starting items, but a few deviated).

I know it's still early for us, but this is probably the funnest RPG-type board game I've played personally. I love all the different abilities. I also really like how the initiative system works. We are playing by the rules so only communicate in vague terms ("I'm gonna attack this bandit", "I'm gonna heal player X")....which leads to some hilarious outcomes when the turn order gets screwed up. Especially the scoundrel who goes so damn fast but needs to brute to be in melee range to maximize damage and exp. (Scoundrel to Brute: "you need to go faster"....Brute: "Ummm....I'm going as fast as I can").

Anyways, for anyone still sitting on the fence about this, if you are into board games at all, this is a must buy. I got the Wrath of Ashardalon D&D board game last year for like $60 bucks, and I can already tell that Gloomhaven has a TON more content and less repetitiveness.

Mizake said:

I got this game for Christmas, have a group of friends I've been playing with, 4 of us total. We went Brute, Craghack, Tinkerer, and Scoundrel. We went in totally blind, had no idea what each class does (although you can kinda tell from the name scoundrel it's probably like a rogue, and brute sounded like a warrior.....craghack and tinkerer were chosen because the names were "kinda cool").

I have to say this game is a fantastic value even at full price. We've played 3 scenarios so far. It will probably take us close to a year to finish this game. Our first session took the longest, like 5 hours, because we had no clue what the abilities did, and we all had to look at the Gloomhaven shop items to see what was available (most of us went with the recommended starting items, but a few deviated).

I know it's still early for us, but this is probably the funnest RPG-type board game I've played personally. I love all the different abilities. I also really like how the initiative system works. We are playing by the rules so only communicate in vague terms ("I'm gonna attack this bandit", "I'm gonna heal player X")....which leads to some hilarious outcomes when the turn order gets screwed up. Especially the scoundrel who goes so damn fast but needs to brute to be in melee range to maximize damage and exp. (Scoundrel to Brute: "you need to go faster"....Brute: "Ummm....I'm going as fast as I can").

Anyways, for anyone still sitting on the fence about this, if you are into board games at all, this is a must buy. I got the Wrath of Ashardalon D&D board game last year for like $60 bucks, and I can already tell that Gloomhaven has a TON more content and less repetitiveness.

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You didn't clear the first 3 scenarios in only 5 hours did you? I would be EXTREMELY skeptical that you were following the rules as written the very first time you ever played the game in that case...

italica said:

You didn't clear the first 3 scenarios in only 5 hours did you? I would be EXTREMELY skeptical that you were following the rules as written the very first time you ever played the game in that case...

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No, the first time we played it took 5 hours. That was just for the very first scenario (Black Burrow one). I think we spent like an hour just looking over the ability cards to see what the hell they meant.

The other 2 times we played took about 3-4 hours each time. We have only been able to play one scenario per play session. I'm hoping we can get it down to like 2-3 hours per scenario and maybe knock a couple out each time, but I don't know how feasible that is yet.

Also, we're trying not to use online resources to avoid spoilers and stuff, but I'm sure that means we are making mistakes. For instance, on healing abilities, for the first 2 scenarios we were playing it like you couldn't heal yourself with the card unless it said "self".....but after reading the rules more carefully, it turns out you can use it to heal yourself, as long as the heal doesn't say "allies".

I'm sure we aren't moving the monsters in the most optimal way all the time, because the rules are kinda confusing. But we try and make it so the monsters "play smart", meaning don't move into traps if they can avoid them, and move them as if we were playing them as characters and what would be most advantageous for them.

Also, we aren't sure exactly how to do the treasure chests. The scoundrel is just so much better at getting loot than the other classes.....if she was greedy she could easily grab most of the loot but luckily she's a team player and isn't roleplaying "selfish"......but the treasure chests present a dilemma because the scenario ends on the turn the objective is completed, which means a lot of time we aren't in a great position to loot the big chest. So usually the scoundrel goes and gets it, since she has like move 6 available, plus good looting cards. However.....does the person who loots the chest get everything in the chest? I think the rules imply this is the case, but it would suck if the scoundrel looted everything, then since we can't trade items or gold, had to sell the items she couldn't use or had duplicates of, or keep items that would be more useful from the other classes. So we just have a house rule that all the treasure is FFA except for the big chest at the end, that is considered "group loot" and we divvy the gold and will assign the items on a need before greed basis. That might not be in the true spirit of the rules but it will save us a lot of heartache/bad feelings and help preserve friendships i think

Our group is very cut-throat (group name = "The Cunts") and its essentially every man for themselves, hence the Scoundrel was rich as fuck by the time it was retired whereas others barely had any coin for gear or enchants. Our group is not completely evil, just self-centered and our Reputation has never been positive for more than a session or two at a time.

We are playing the "good" route, so all the city/road events we are trying to do the chivalrous thing, hopefully we end up with a high reputation. I like how there is a bad reputation path as well, too bad we aren't going to be able to experience it this playthrough. I have no idea if we are ever going to replay this game if it takes us a year to finish....too bad. I'm so tempted to see what's in those bad rep packets lol. Maybe down the road I will solo 2 characters and play as "evil" so I can experience more of what this game has to offer.

The lore of it is that you are all a part of a mercenary company, and you all have personal objectives for your characters. So, while you are a team, you might need to personally collect 5 magic items, or get 30 killing blows. The only way to do that is to shaft other players. You all work together, but you aren't really friends for the most part. You might let a coworker take the last bagel or something, but you probably aren't going to help them move out of State. Similar concept here.

Some of us finally hitting level 2! Good to hear about the Cragheart, the person playing Cragheart in our group is getting a little discouraged because she always acts so late in the turn so her best laid plans often go awry. I'll let her know to keep truckin' and the character will improve by level 4.