by CavemanLogic
The main thing about Betrayal, is that it is more of an *experience* game. In my experience, you can't really play to win, because it is way too swingy for that. You mainly play for the stories that you create while playing it, and at the end you just laugh as the story comes to an end, regardless of who won. And when I approach it like that, and explain it that way to the other players before hand, we all have a great time every time.Kelsoa1 wrote:
...A lot of the haunts that are available in the base game are unfair to the survivors and are biased towards the traitor. It is often near impossible for a survivor to win the game. Often times the players are very spread out once a haunt starts and it is easy for the traitor to pick off the players as they please. I have only played the game three times so maybe I am missing some of the haunts but the haunts that I played makes it seem like the monsters are supposed to win every time.
Many times it comes down to how much of the house has been explored, and if the correct rooms that the Heroes need have already been found when the Haunt starts, which will give a major benefit to either the Heroes or the Traitor. It can be very swingy. Sometimes the Heroes need to find the Furnace Room to win, and it is buried at the bottom of the room tile stack (easy win for the Traitor). Sometimes the Heroes need to visit three different rooms and succeed at some sort of trait roll in each, and all of those rooms are already in the house, with Heroes having just the trait boosting Item or Omen cards they need (easy win for the Heroes). But most of the time, the game balance falls somewhere in between. I've had games come down to a single dice roll at the end which determined the winner.
Kelsoa1 wrote:
...The exploring phase of the game ends when a player receives an omen card and fails a “haunt” roll (rolling 6 dice to add up to less than the number of omen cards discovered).
That said, you may want to try out a variant for the Haunt Roll. With the base game Haunt Roll rule, the Haunt could happen on the very first roll if you get all zeroes. Not enough of the house will have been explored, and it may be pretty hard for the Heroes to win if that Haunt requires certain rooms to be in the house in order for the Heroes to win. Later versions of Betrayal somewhat fixed the Haunt Roll, but they still had issues. In Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, for instance, you roll a number of dice equal to the number of Omen cards in play, and the Haunt starts on a roll of 6+. This ensures that the Haunt will never begin on the first two rolls, giving the Explorers more time to explore the house. See here for more info:
BaHotH Best Haunt Roll Method
One note though...
Kelsoa1 wrote:
...The first player is the person whose birthday is closest to their character’s birthday.
Not quite correct here. The rules say that "the explorer who has the next birthday goes first." This means you will look at the birthday of your Explorer (as listed on the character card), and compare it to the current calendar day that you are playing the game. If you were playing today, March 1st, then you would look at all the character cards for the explorer with the next birthday after today's date. That explorer goes first. But then again, it doesn't really matter. Just choose someone randomly to go first if you want.
Betrayal is a great game experience. It is very thematic, and is a game I try to pull out around Halloween each year. I always enjoy my plays of it (regardless of who wins).
Cheers!