Description from the publisher:
The shadow of Bhaal has come over Baldur's Gate, summoning monsters and other horrors from the darkness!
As you build and explore the iconic city's dark alleys and deadly catacombs, you must work with your fellow adventurers to survive the terrors ahead. That is, until some horrific evil turns one — or possibly more — of you against each other. Was it a mind flayer's psionic blast or the whisperings of a deranged ghost that caused your allies to turn traitor? You have no choice but to keep your enemies close!
Based on the award-winning Betrayal at House on the Hill board game, in Betrayal at Baldur's Gate you'll return to Baldur's Gate again and again thanks to the fifty included scenarios only to discover it's never the same game twice.
Can you and your party survive the madness, or will you succumb to the mayhem and split (or slaughter!) the party?
Of the 50 scenarios, some end up being purely cooperative, with all the players winning or losing together. But the normal mode is that it becomes one-vs-many.
- Really fun mix of D&D and Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Lots of replayability with 50 scenarios
- Heroes hired to remove a blight from the city.
- The city of Baldur's Gate
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Event resolution — When a tile with a symbol is revealed, the character must stop and resolve an event, such as a might roll against sickly mold.
- Haunt Trigger Roll — A dice roll is performed when omen cards are drawn, and achieving a certain number of pips (six in this case) triggers the haunt.
- Monster combat — Heroes can attack monsters, rolling dice equal to their might (or other stats like sanity). Monsters have different damage rules, and defeating them can remove them from the board.
- Monster Movement and Attack — Monsters have specific movement rules, often needing to move before attacking, and can attack characters in their square.
- Omen cards — Drawing omen cards is a trigger for potential haunt roles, with the fifth omen card initiating the haunt.
- quest tokens — Heroes can place quest tokens on tiles under certain conditions, which seems to be related to a ritual the traitor is trying to stop.
- Stat Reduction — Taking damage causes a reduction in physical stats like speed or might.
- tile laying — Players explore by drawing and placing tiles, with the color of doors indicating the type of tile (building or street) to be drawn.
- traitor mechanic — Upon triggering the haunt, one player is determined to be the traitor, reading from a separate book, while the others read the survival guide. The traitor's character ceases to be a hero.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- hello and welcome to GTS business conference 2017 I'm pet from watch a plane and I'm joined by Ray with Wizards of the coast and you brought a game for us to check out betrayal at Boulder's gate
- betrayal at baldur's gate is a really fun mix of D&D and the award winning game betrayal a house on the hill
- so ball has shown his shadow over baldur's gate and we have been a set of heroes who have been hired to come in and remove his blight from this city
- I am the traitor
- there are 50 scenarios in the books so that you will have a lot of replayability with the game and unless you're playing with the exact same group every time and somehow randomly get the same scenario it's gonna be a different game every time you play
- if anyone has any questions feel free to leave them in the comments below and I'll reply as soon as I can but otherwise thanks for watching and I'll see you next time
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- If you could inhabit the world of any board game which one would you most like to live in?
- Don't want to choose one that would kill me!
- That's scary as hell!
- The Elder Gods approaching Earth slowly is... is reality?
- Think about what's happening right now in the world we live in!
References (from this video)
- Player received a free copy
- Ability to play on Ultra settings
- Found some aspects fun
- Good character interactions
- Computer bogged down and shut off
- Mac version was in beta and progress was lost
- Buggy spells (Fairy Fire)
- Not fully developed for Mac
- NSFW content
- Lost 45 hours of gameplay
- Fantasy RPG
- Fantasy
- Story-driven with player choice
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- player interaction — Ability to have romantic interactions with party members.
- RPG mechanics — Features character progression and interactive elements.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Giving out one deck is sort of like what are you gonna do in one deck?
- The cards look amazing.
- it feels like a Tetris game like if Tetris made this game people would Rave if it was a Tetris branded it would be so far
- great filler weight game
- The way the DMV and where I live goes they they give you a ticket you go and you sit down in this big room with all these chairs and it's like it's in this old mall where that has 95 of them all is is vacant and they're actually planning on tearing the whole thing down
- it has an ending that makes you think and makes you actually go whoa that's huge
- it is the most graphically violent like movie that it is it I don't it's and it's very um it's very psychological as far as the horror goes
- it's one of those things where uh I I I want I I seriously want other people to watch all of Martyrs so I can actually talk to them about the ending so I can discuss what you think theUATION the ending means
- it is it is a extremely difficult watch
- the ending has stuck with me for like days
- it is completely and totally like uh totally popcorn TV it is there's nothing there is it is perfectly solid B material that you can just have on and like you can literally not watch it
- it's like the monster's not gonna come out of the movie
- the one genre that will be affected least by the strike will be horror because most horror films are independent
- Mario made a billion bucks let's not discredit that
- the sound is like unreal it was like one of the best sounding movies I've ever heard
- Dunkirk had the rapid noise
- I hated seeing it the movie before yeah it's awful and then I noticed a bunch of movies followed that afterwards it annoyed me every time afterwards too
- 250 000 views and you only got 30 bucks
References (from this video)
- Very narrative
- Lots of fun
- Still own and enjoy it
- Prefers Betrayal at House on the Hill theme
- Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy
- Baldur's Gate
- Narrative
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- exploration — You and your friends are kind of exploring the city, but then certain things can trigger and suddenly you've got a a different kind of adventure that you're going on.
- Narrative Gameplay — It's a very narrative game.
- traitor mechanic — You never know who the traitor is going to be. And the haunt can be all any of these kind of horror film tropes.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Builders of Balders's Gate is a great city building game where you are getting these building cards and kind of forming a tableau in front of you, but you also there's a bit of a push your luck aspect here.
- It's really a lot of fun. We actually had a blast with this game. Absolutely fell in love with it. I love this kind of when I talk about Euros, this is the kind I absolutely love. Deeply thematic, beautiful production, great minis for parts of the buildings, the fortifications that you build, and just really fun.
- There's a great tension there because you never knew where the attack was going to hit next because it's a it's a pull from a bag and really a lot of fun.
- Dungeons and Dragons Conquest of Nearoth is essentially Axis and allies in Dungeons and Dragons. Instead of bombers, you've got uh dragons. Instead of tanks, you've got wizards, right?
- It does not reward turtling. You can't just sit there and build up. You've got to go out and attack. That's how you're going to score points in the game.
- This is a great light war game. Some great minis. I love the the dice you're rolling. You're rolling different kinds of dice. It's a tremendous tremendous light war game with this wonderful Dungeons and Dragons theme.
- I am sad it is no longer in print.
References (from this video)
- Casual gamer friendly storytelling and social interaction
- Replayability through multiple haunt scenarios in the storybook
- Smooths out some complexities of the original house-on-the-hill engine
- First half can feel filler before the haunt starts
- Explorer phases can feel random or meaningless
- No solo mode; designed for 3-6 players
- traitor-based social deduction within a cooperative exploration game
- Dungeons & Dragons-inspired Baldur's Gate city with taverns and catacombs
- scenario-based storytelling with a chaotic Haunt reveal
- Betrayal at House on the Hill
- Tyrants of the Underdark
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- combat_resolution — combat resolves by dice against opponent stats after haunt begins
- Dice Rolling — roll dice to determine success against character attributes and challenges
- dice_rolling — roll dice to determine success against character attributes and challenges
- Events — omen cards drive haunt triggers; event cards add narrative twists
- exploration_of_subterranean_areas — catacombs and subterranean rooms accessible via starting tiles
- item_trade_and_drop — players can drop, pick up, or trade items with others
- omen_and_event_cards — omen cards drive haunt triggers; event cards add narrative twists
- Tile Placement — place and reveal room tiles to explore a modular map
- tile_placement — place and reveal room tiles to explore a modular map
- Trading — players can drop, pick up, or trade items with others
- Traitor Game — a traitor is revealed at a haunt phase with different win conditions
- traitor_haunt_mechanic — a traitor is revealed at a haunt phase with different win conditions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Betrayal at Baldur's Gate takes the engine of the original betrayal at house on the hill and not only changes the setting to dungeons and dragons but also smooths out some of the haunt mechanics making the game easier to manage than the original
- the best thing about this game is when the haunt is finally underway
- what betrayal is though is a casual gamer friendly storytelling and betrayal machine
- you take actions things happen someone yells curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal and you have a laugh about it
- this is a reskin of the classic betrayal at house on the hill
- there's lots of events and equipment cards and the storybook contains a lot of scenarios so each time you play it the haunt should be different and surprising