Shadow Hunters is a survival board game set in a devil-filled forest in which three groups of characters—the Shadows, creatures of the night; the Hunters, humans who try to destroy supernatural creatures; and the Neutrals, civilians caught in the middle of this ancient battle—struggle against each other to survive.
You belong to one of these groups and must conceal your identity from others since you don't know whom you can trust—at least not initially. Over time, though, someone might decipher who you are through your actions or through Hermit cards, or you might even reveal yourself to use your special ability.
The key to victory is to identify your allies and enemies early because once your identity is revealed, your enemies will attack with impunity using their special abilities like Demolish, Teleport, and Suck Blood or their equipment cards such as the Rusty Broad Ax or Fortune Brooch. This ancient battle comes to a head and only one group will stand victorious—or a civilian, in the right circumstances, might claim victory.
The 2011 edition of Shadow Hunters from Z-Man Games includes the Shadow Hunters: Expansion, a set of ten new characters previously sold separately.
- Nostalgia and accessible social deduction
- Expandable with house-made content and mods
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hidden Roles — Players are assigned hidden roles (shadows, hunters, or neutrals) and engage in attacks via dice; player elimination is possible
- roll-and-move — Movement determined by rolling a d4 and a d6; attacks are resolved by calculating difference in dice values
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "this is a worker placement game"
- "the main economy of the game is money"
- "a simple full drafting combo-tastic style game"
- "engine-building, combo-tastic style game"
- "we solved the puzzles"
References (from this video)
- Okay game.
- Fun.
- Remade with an anime theme.
- Expensive ($175).
- Remade into an inferior version.
- Shadow Hunters (Cosmos Remake)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the early 1990s saw a temporary craze with the release of the Super Soaker
- I went racing out the garage door the garage door had one of those doors that like you know the the The Swinging like door with the spring and everything like that and I was so excited and I was I was leaving the door sland and broke the barrel off one and I was so mad
- Sour grapes is a comedy about things that aren't funny
- Sour grapes however is tone deaf
- I lost a bet and had to go to that movie it was horrible
- Shot glass is correct
- Spice Girls is correct
- Sugar Hill G
- Suicide Girls nice
- I like it better I think than Clash Royale it's it's good worth a try
- The Escapist team put their heart into every piece of work we put out and the talent brought in was UNM the kind of talent isn't cheap and my mission with The Escapist was to not be driven primarily by views but by direct funding through premium memberships and live streams
- he went on some show and went did an interview that basically probably added like 20 years to his sence
- Elizabeth Holmes finally went to jail right did
- you know all of them are going to be it's with AI art now like none of these people that are like you know just they're not going to pay for they're just going to AI art all of their
- if you plead guilty you going to jail for 40 to 50 years you might as well try to have the trial you might get off right
- Seven years of college down the drain I might as well go join the peace score
- the bench isn't wasn't actually there though they moved it
- he was a comedian from Houston
- they basically just have it listen to every single thing that he sung or said and you just take the sounds that's all it is
- The Smoking Gun that was a website
- It's got $225,000 Canadian though
- he said he was let go for not achieving goals that were never properly set for us
- we were given unattainable goals in a very short amount of time
- I won't be taking Zero Punctuation name with me but fans would hear my voice again soon in a new place
- my mission with The Escapist was to not be driven primarily by views but by direct funding through premium memberships and live streams
- I'm pretty hyped for the next yatsi drop not gonna lie
- it's always good like you know you fall down internet rabbit hole and like watch his videos
- it's like it's like him I really like Norm Mitch Hedberg always made me laugh
- it's like they said um we have that audio to play here they say the audio you're listening for you have to listen carefully it's after the third shot and you hear this cow and then no no no it's like kapow then it's like and it's like now here it's right for the third shot and you hear this kapow
- yippe Jerry Ruben died oh I'm sorry that should be yippi Jerry Ruben died
- The curse of the doors
- it's like a slice a life thing you know
- Seven years of college down the drain I might as well go join the peace corps
- the fingers are mostly they're not completely fixed but they're they're a lot better
- he didn't listen to anybody he didn't listen to his lawyers
- turns out turns out it was he
- she's in prison for serving an 11 year three month sentence for the wire fraud
- the victims of the fraud were like giant companies
- when she's making license plates you know that's a lot of license plates
- The actor strike oh yeah
- you guys are going to do for parking
- it's a 30 foot tall realistically rendered fiberglass sculpture of a human eyeball
- I don't think there's anything about I mean it's part of the the lore
- I must told you yeah basically we sat in a room for two three hours and then left done nothing
- The judge that came in and swore us all in threaten to throw somebody in jail
- you basically lied I was I was unknowingly
- so when the cop pulled you over um there were open beers in your car he said yeah he's like but I was he's like and you were outside a bar he's like yeah he's like and you're 19 I was like yeah he's like were you in the bar he's like no I got a call my friends had been drinking and they said they needed to ride home so I went to go pick him up and I should have checked him
- the thing that John balushi does in that scene was not in the script
- Everything is within walking distance if you have enough time
References (from this video)
- engaging hidden-role interaction
- dynamic table activity with movement and actions
- potentially long playtime
- player-elimination and downtime can dampen flow
- hidden roles, faction conflict, secret objectives
- fantasy/larger-than-life social deduction at a tabletop with hidden factions (shadows, hunters, neutrals)
- tabletop deduction with action-draw mechanics
- The Resistance
- Avalon
- Werewolf-family games
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card decks for equipment and effects — draw and potentially steal equipment from others to influence outcomes
- Deck Manipulation — draw and potentially steal equipment from others to influence outcomes
- dice-driven movement and action resolution — a die determines movement to board locations and actions taken there
- Hidden Roles — players have concealed alignments (shadow, hunter, neutral) that drive objectives and interaction
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- The Hidden roles are great but a long Play Time exacerbated by player talk and player elimination put this on the downside
- it's a very simple game you don't necessarily need to know the answer to the question
- I love this game
- I do have fun memories playing this with my many many good friends
- I really enjoy the game as the seer and the Werewolf trying to help and hinder without being too obvious
- plays from 6 to 30 players
References (from this video)
- Long-standing staple with Halloween play culture
- chaos and laughs with family
- Card wording can be confusing due to translation
- hidden roles, betrayal, teamwork
- fantasy island with hunters and shadows
- semi-cooperative with hidden objectives and multiple paths
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- hidden_roles — hunt shadows vs hunters with various cards
- variable_players_locations — locations cards and multiple players; neutral players can win
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I love it because it's very thematic.
- Oathsworn is a fantastic game.
- I fell in love with this game.
References (from this video)
- Unique take on social deduction
- Innovative information-sharing mechanics
- Ahead of its time
- Social Deduction
- Blood on the Clocktower
- Battle cattle
- Bang
- Two Rooms and a Boom
- Night of the Ninja
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Passing Information — Players can give cards to others, who read them and then return them, creating suspense and shared knowledge.
- Secret objectives — Players have secret goals they are trying to achieve.
- Social Deduction — Players have hidden identities and work in teams to achieve objectives.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- It's all about the narration, the story, the the you know, and that's I still get caught up in this map.
- It was called Remote Possibilities.
- Scotland Yard, it just it's one of those games that's way ahead of its time.
- Sid Sackson was Way ahead of his time.
- This game almost just This started a genre, but then didn't.
- Cosmic Encounter is the or one of the original asymmetric games.
- Also introduced the traitor mechanism, which was a really cool concept that again didn't really become a thing till years later.
References (from this video)
- Engaging for fans of hidden roles and social deduction.
- Unique potential playstyle with multiple boards.
- Nostalgic appeal.
- Not for everyone.
- May be difficult to find.
- Deduction, hidden roles, personal goals
- Fangs
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Hidden Roles — one of those hidden roll deduction kind
- Set Collection — deduce who's who while achieving their own personal goals
- Social Deduction — if your jam is hidden rolls or social deduction style games
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- so we have a list of every single game that was released in 2005 and we're going to go through all of them in a three-hour episode absolutely not
- we have a potential pool of 25 board games but only 10 can be inducted into our newly minted Hall of Fame that's the rules that's the rules only 10 we made them up that's the rules
- you could argue with us in the comments and tell us why we're wrong you could do that always an option
- I'm going to be real honest with everyone that this list of games from 2005 there are a bunch on here I don't know
- that is like the oldest of old school hidden Trader Trad
- it spawned so many other games right we have a ton of games in this Arkham Horror World which is obviously the world of HP Lovecraft
- I think wits and wagers is a is a classic
- it is on my list it's one of the very early like kind of worker placement kind of mean Euro dry Euro kind of game that I played
- this is like a grill game for people
- wow we didn't even rehearse that
- it sounds like if your jam is hidden rolls or social deduction style games and you haven't played Shadow hunters and you see it out in the wild maybe pick KCK it maybe give it a whirl you might like it
- if this isn't a classic game I don't know what it is
- it is ubiquitous when it comes to board games not just the theme but sooner or later if you're talking about board games eventually Arkham Horror is going to hit the table
- many aboard gamer covet this
- people still talk about I mean any game that you're still it's 20 years old and you're like I should play that sometimes
- I may have my Nostalgia goggles on and uh you know be looking at it through those rosecolor glasses
- it's a game 100% you can play with your kids