Betrayal Legacy
Betrayal Legacy takes the concept of the original betrayal game, exploring a haunted mansion, and adds permanent changes and a multi-game story arc that define the Legacy concept. At Pax Unplugged it was announced that the new game will feature a prologue and a thirteen-chapter story that will take place over multiple decades. Players will represent members of a specific family, with some characters aging within the story arc and possible family descendants making appearances.
Betrayal Legacy is a semi-cooperative campaign board game that tells an overarching story of the House on the Hill incorporating the actions and choices of the players. Over the course of the campaign, the game is permanently altered until players are left with a fully customizable, re-playable board game version of the critically-acclaimed Betrayal at House on the Hill. Betrayal Legacy is a stand-alone experience designed in partnership with Avalon Hill and award-winning legacy designer, Rob Daviau. Fans of the original Betrayal at House on the Hill will enjoy this fresh take on the classic game, however, no previous experience is necessary to play. Even players new to the brand can jump in, explore, and affect the spooky history of the legendary House on the Hill.
Betrayal Legacy marries the concept of Betrayal at House on the Hill — exploring a haunted mansion — with the permanency and multi-game storytelling exhibited by Daviau's Risk Legacy and other legacy games that followed. Betrayal Legacy consists of a prologue and a thirteen-chapter story that takes place over decades. Players represent families, with specific members of a family participating in one story, then perhaps an older version of those characters (assuming they lived) or their descendants showing up in later stories.
Why would people keep exploring a haunted mansion for decade after decade, especially when horrible things happen there? Curiosity, I suppose, or perhaps an ignorant boldness that comes from the belief that we know better than those who have come before. Look at all that we've learned, marvel at the tools we have at hand! Surely we'll all exit safely this time...
As with other Betrayal titles, the game is narratively-driven, with elements that record the history of your specific games. The tools mentioned earlier, for example, become attached to specific families. This isn't just a bucket; it's my bucket, the one my grandpappy used to feed his family's pigs when he was a boy, and while you can certainly use that bucket, I know how to wield it best from the time he spent teaching me how to slop. Yes, it's an heirloom bucket, and when kept in the family, I get a bonus for using it.
Reviews and Articles About Betrayal Legacy
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The two games we have played so far have taken only about an hour each, including set up, and have swiftly gotten to the haunt without the sometimes overlong wandering around the house with no clear goals bit that the original has.
There is some kind of mystery that is being slowly revealed with little hints and clues, which makes you want to play the next scenario as soon as you have finished the last. But we are pacing ourselves, so we won't get to find out what gets revealed in the next chapter until next week.
There's also a little metagame developing among our players along the lines of:
"Why are you attacking me and not her?"
"Because you drowned my mother last game."
That's disappointing. I assumed that the first two scenarios were tutorials as they introduced all the basic rules of the game kind of piecemeal, and they were rather simple and inconsequential. I was expecting it to ramp up quickly now that all the rules have been introduced.
I was squarely against the idea of Legacy games, and I still kind of am, but that first scenario really justified it.
For our last time.
After wrapping the fifth game, we unanimously agreed to stop the legacy.
There are dozens of other games we'd rather pursue, from either one-shot sessions or campaign play.
I can't contribute much without spoilers, and I don't want to be a wet blanket. As always, your 'mileage may vary.'
Personally, I'm bummed. I adore haunted houses across all media; books, movies, television, and amusement parks. Board games? I guess not. OG Betrayal is still a hit with the college freshmen at work, but I've grown distant on it. Great concept, mediocre execution. At the end of the day, Betrayal Legacy has fallen into the same pattern.
This has been my friends group game of the year so far. To the point where they’ve gotten their other friends to start up their own campaigns of it. We are all more casual gamers though.
I loved Betrayal Legacy myself. I played the full campaign and enjoyed the hell out of it. I realize it has flaws, but they weren’t big deals to me. We totally had meta gaming too with the heirloom items and what various families did you you in previous games too.
Thank you. I hope it turns out the same way for us. We do like original Betrayal, other than the crap shoot of sometimes getting a broken haunt. Seems like your group plays the same way we do, so it sounds like we have a good chance of this being great fun.