Betrayal at Baldur's Gate Review

Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.

Board game for 3-6 players.

Pros:

• Thematic gameplay that leads to fun situations. There are some very entertaining cards and there's quite a bit of fun to be had watching people fail at the events depicted. It very much helps to get into the situation and enjoy the story that results.
• Many new themed haunts, including some co-op ones.
• The Dungeons & Dragons theme is given some serious attention. The haunts and tiles have changed quite significantly, character abilities reflect the original game quite a bit, and the cards reference D&D items. They could have gone a bit farther away from the original in pursuit of D&D themes, but I think it's not a bad job.
• 6 pre-painted minis, game tiles (though not really usable for D&D), and tokens.
• Rules seemed to be tighter than the original game. I'd still recommend a reread of the rules before play.

Could Go Either Way:

• It's a Betrayal game. While there are changes, it is still very much the same system and if you didn't like the original there probably isn't enough difference for you to like this one.
• While many of the cards do have art (much more than the Adventure System games), there are still many cards that are just descriptions.
• The layout of the street level can get quite confused due to the combination of street and building tiles over the course of play. It makes for some interesting gameplay due to variety but often doesn't lead to the most sensible results.
• Just like it's parent game, it's quite luck based. If you are in for an hour or an hour and a half of luck based fun, that's a plus. If you prefer more strategy and less luck, this might not be your thing. It's very much about being in fun and funny situations as a result of the game.
• Having the D&D name on it, you'd probably want as many thing possible that you could recycle for use in your campaigns. Given how many miniatures, maps and dice I've stolen from board games over the years, it's probably fair to say that part of me always looks for what I can recycle. This game doesn't have quite as much some of the other D&D games, such as the Adventure System or, depending on what you are looking for, Dungeon Command. If you are looking for just a board game, this won't matter. If you were looking for parts, it will.*

Cons:

• The chips/markers used to mark your stats aren't very good. They will cause damage to your character cards. You can kind of get away with not fully pushing them on, but that will obviously make it far easier to knock them off.
• Why doesn't everything fit back into the box properly? You'd think I was doing car repairs or something. I tend to prefer to organize my tokens so I can easily get them when needed, but when I was done the minis didn't fit. It works out for me since I often steal minis for my D&D games from wherever I can find them, but it would have been nice if it all fit perfectly back into its box.*

* Denotes nitpicking.

The Betrayal at Baldur's Gate box.

Introduction

I haven't done all that many board game reviews. Looking back on it, have I even done one before? Regardless, given how wide I cast my net with “unplugged gaming”, it should come as no surprise that here I am. With the current timing, why not Betrayal at Baldur's Gate? It seems to be my kind of game. And so here we are. It's worth noting that I quite enjoyed playing Betrayal at House on the Hill. It was one of those games that someone would bring to a get together and we'd have fun playing. Of course, it had a way of coming up more often around Halloween. Oh look at the date. So naturally, when I heard of this release I was a bit worried and also a bit excited. It would be easy to just slightly reskin the game. At the same time, making it too different wouldn't make it Betrayal anymore. It's a tough balance to strike and where that balance is can be very player dependent. Of course, it's a different situation if you don't have the previous game. Luckily things worked out well and it's been great playing it over the month of October. I've gone through 14 haunts at the time of writing this and now feel I can comment on the game. As always, I'm happy to hear what other people think. 

It's Betrayal

It's without a doubt a betrayal game. The layout itself has changed, from the floors of a haunted house to the streets/buildings and catacombs of Baldur's Gate, but it is recognizably Betrayal. There are other changes as well, such as the items being related to D&D, the events also being recognizable to D&D players, and the inclusion of co-op hauntings (though in those situations “haunting” is a bit of an odd term). You shouldn't expect something massively different, though it is different in flavour and I would say more refined.

The Game Itself

Players, playing adventurers exploring the streets of Baldur's Gate, lay down tiles to build up the area they are exploring. As they do, based on the cards they draw for exploring areas, players collect items, find omens, and run into events that help form their story. At a certain point (players roll a dice for every omen card they draw and if they roll high enough the second phase begins) the game changes. A player is outed as being a traitor who is out to do something evil at the expense of everyone else. If you played Betrayal at House on the Hill before, this should sound very familiar, though the rules for starting a haunt have changed. Where things differ greatly is that it isn't always going to be a player trying to go after everyone else. There are quite a few haunts where everyone will be co-operating to accomplish something together, or where the traitor isn't instantly known. In my opinion it's nice to break up the flow in this way and the elements of the game come together well.

One thing to know about these games is that luck is a big factor. It's not like you have no choices at all. You can heavily hamstring yourself if you wanted. However, the nature of the game is that rolling dice, and drawing cards are a big part of the game and contribute to randomness. In my opinion it is one of those games where you need to lose yourself in the game and enjoy the story that is coming about over the course of play. Sometimes that story will be the heroes making an easy time of the villain. Sometimes it will basically be a slasher movie as the betrayer knocks out the other players one by one. It's just the nature of the game. The first game we played involved the wizard becoming the hero of the game by starting to flood the area in the first round of the haunt, which heavily skewed things towards the players. This advantage diminished later as the players got pretty bad rolls. A few other times one side or the other started like a tank and just kept rolling. Still, fun was had. If what I described sounds like fun to you, you'd probably enjoy the game.

Each of the 12 characters in Betrayal at Baldur's Gate has a unique ability (2 character choices per miniature). This is a nice option to have, even if some of them may end up being situational. It's one of those things where having a new option to consider goes a long way and helps distinguish characters. At the same time Magic items and omens still make up a good chunk of the differences between characters, especially later in the game.

When laying out tiles during exploration, the game is divided into two levels. There is the street level, made up of building and street tiles, and the catacombs made up of catacomb tiles. The simplicity of only having two levels is nice and the variation thanks to having two kinds of tiles on the main floor is welcome, but this can result in kind of odd layouts on the main floor. This is a result of the random nature of drawing the two different kinds of cards. The game explains this away as Baldur's Gate being an older city and not very well planned, but it does end up being not as neat as Betrayal at House on the Hill.

The tone is quite different in Betrayal at Baldur's Gate compared to Betrayal at House on the Hill. Of course you'd expect this with the switch in themes, but I think it would have an effect on your preference. The original game rules work very well thematically for exploring a haunted house and if that's the kind of story you'd prefer to experience, it's hard to beat. Betrayal at Baldur's Gate has it's own feeling that can be appreciated as well. Sometimes it strays closer towards horror like the original. Other times its more in the style of an adventure. However, for this kind of game where a big part of the enjoyment comes from the shared story created over the course of the game, theme and feeling play a big role. It's a hard thing to explain and talk about and I'd also be curious what other people felt in this regard. There's something to be appreciated in both versions. I personally liked the variety in Betrayal at Baldur's Gate but it could also be the novelty talking.

The Game Pieces

The core of the game are the cards (omens, items, and encounters) as well as the tiles that make up the streets, buildings and catacombs of Baldur's Gate. The tiles have quite nice art and does a good job of illustrating the areas that we find ourselves in. The cards have less art, though some of them do have some that is made from black outlines. It's nice to see some though, compared to the Adventure System games which had none.

There are quite a few tokens in this one as well. Quite a few of them have images depicting what they are. However, not all of them do. This makes the ones that lack the depiction stand out all the more. It's a bit disappointing, but luckily many of the tokens, especially the monster ones, do have art. The obstruction, quest, and blast tokens aren't as lucky. Given how the obstruction tokens are used in different ways depending on the haunt, I can see why it turned out this way but it would have been more impressive with more art. There are also 8 dice and miniatures. 

The Art and Build Quality

The art for the characters in particular is quite stylized. Much of the rest of it is too, such as the monster tokens. They are black ink on a coloured background, and look pretty good. The character cards were particularly cartoony compared to my preference (those of you who've looked at my previous reviews will know what I prefer), though they aren't bad. The item cards have art, but the rest do not. The tiles used for the rooms are well illustrated and serve their purpose. Overall, I'd say that more art could have been included but it completely isn't artless either. What art is there is pretty good. For my tastes the room tiles are the real standouts as well as the minis.

The miniatures are painted fine and have a good amount of texture to them. The wizard is probably my favourite, and you can bet will make an appearance in one of my D&D games at some point. As you'd expect, it's not to the same level as you'd expect from a hobby painter but they look fine. Areas are painted but they aren't perfect and there won't be enough shading for the super picky among us. Still, it's not bad and it's always nice to see pre-painted miniatures. The problem with the miniatures is the bent weapons. The dwarf, orc, and halfling were fine but the rest weren't so lucky. Due to the soft plastic I'm not really concerned of those components breaking. However, the wizard staff in particular is very bent. It would have been nice if it wasn't the case out of the box, though there are ways to straighten out such things.

The card used is fine. If you played the earlier game, you know what to expect. The problem that exists here is with the clips that attach to the character cards. A good few of them were too tight for me and marked the cards. Be aware.

The rulebooks are softcover as you'd expect. They are held together with a string which makes me a bit concerned about how well they'll last in the really long run, but it's what we were all probably expecting. You typically don't find hard cover rulebooks in board games. However, a PDF version of at least the basic rules would have been nice as a backup just in case. Something tells me doing so for the Betrayer's Tomb and Survivor's Tomb would be a harder sell. Please do let me know if they are around and I just missed them.

Reuse in D&D

In a pinch, the tokens with art can be reused in D&D if needed. Kobolds, beholders, goblins: all are easily reused. However, there isn't enough for a campaign here and you'd probably be better off getting your parts elsewhere. If you'd be getting the game anyway because Betrayal + D&D sounds like your kind of thing, it makes a welcome addition. However, you probably won't be buying the board game simply to reuse the pieces. The room tiles are too small unless you just wanted to map out the general area for theatre of mind use, but it wouldn't be that much easier than getting some dungeon tiles to map out the area. You'd also get the bonus of miniature combat out of using dungeon tiles instead. How much you liked the art would also play a role in your choice for this particular purpose. I wish there'd be more that could be easily reused, but there is still quite a bit that could be. The miniatures, of course, are easily reused.

Price

The suggested US price is $50. This seems to be the same as the suggest price for the original Betrayal game, though depending on when you search you may be able to find it for cheaper.

What I felt was Missing

I wish there were some rules copies online, kind of like what they did for the Adventure system games. Hopefully they'll do it in the future, but right now they don't. It's one of those things I really appreciate since board game rulebooks can get damaged quite easily.

Summary

It's a Betrayal game. If you didn't like Betrayal at House on the Hill then I don't think that this game is different enough for your tastes. However, if you did like it then you will probably like Betrayal at Baldur's Gate. To me it seems to be more refined than the original and the additional haunts, including co-operative haunts, are much appreciated. The D&D theme is incorporated quite well, and the humorous elements are a nice hidden treat. The main design criticism you can throw at it is that it may be too similar to Betrayal at House on the Hill, though it the game is far from a name change. The thematic difference will also play a role in your preference for one over the other (horror vs fantasy with a twist). If you liked the original game, the new haunts, and theme may be enough justification on their own, though I'd recommend taking a few minutes to do a quick search to make sure. I lacked a copy of Betrayal at House on the Hill so I'm happy to have one of the games. It's also seen quite a bit of play time so far this month, so it looks to be well received among my gaming groups.

Other Stuff

• Want to see some of the game before deciding? There is this official discussion about the game that also goes over some gameplay, though I have to warn you ahead of time that it's about an hour long.