by pvt1863
I have played three times, each time with five or six players. Of those three times, the traitor won twice. This is a pretty small sample size, especially considering how random the game is.It seems to me that it would be really hard to decide if the scenarios are balanced or not because there are so many random factors that come into play. How many players are in the game? How much of the house has been explored before the haunt started? Did one or more heroes end up stuck in the basement with no exit (coal chute, collapsed floor, etc)? Which explorer became the traitor, and what modifications were made to that player's stats? What items were in play before the haunt? And of course, how are the dice behaving? For a given scenario the answers to these questions can cause wildly different results, and those results can cover the full spectrum from a game heavily slanted towards the traitor to a game where the traitor has almost no chance. So if you are a competitive player who is looking for a balanced strategy game, this is not for you. But if you want a fun story-telling role playing game, then it is great.
Specifically, here were the three scenarios we had, in the order that we played them (SPOILERS below, of course):
1. Crimson Jack. Five player game. The traitor was a person who had never played before, but the scenario is straightforward enough that inexperience didn't matter. The house was extremely small since the haunt managed to be triggered on the second omen room (I managed to roll a 1 on six dice!). Despite being early in the game, the heroes had items in hand that let them quickly advance along their set of goals. To make matters worse for the traitor, fights between Crimson Jack and the heroes kept ending in ties. This was bad for her because Crimson Jack winning fights would weaken the heroes and Crimson Jack losing fights would cause him to get stronger; ties did nothing. By the end, heroes were so assured of victory that they started exploring the house just for fun. It was an easy win for the heroes.
2. Alien world. Five player game. One hero--the one with the second highest intelligence--was stuck in the basement and never found a way out. The traitor had good might and was near the organ room at the start of the haunt. The traitor quickly killed the hero with the highest intelligence when he made a desperate run for the organ and then simply had to wait while the other heroes were killed by the corrosive atmosphere. It was an easy win for the traitor.
3. The blob. Six player game. The blob started in a room next to the upstairs landing, which meant the upper floor of the house was quickly made inaccessible for the heroes. The traitor got lucky dice rolls twice and converted three heroes on them. Despite this, the heroes almost won; with the last two heroes trapped in a dead end in the basement, the game came down to a last-turn vault roll with about 50/50 odds and the heroes lost.
So three games. One easy win for the heroes, one easy win for the traitor, and one game that came down to the wire before giving victory to the traitor.