The Wandering Tavern
Busan Con: Board Games
Betrayal at Baldur's Gate
Host: Tommy | Players: 3-6 | Ages: 12+ | Genre: adventure, fantasy, exploration
Mechanisms: traitor game • modular board • storytelling • dice rolling • variable powers
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?
Content Advisory: hidden traitor, player elimination, fantasy violence, horror themes, mental stress, madness, body horror
Hero Quest
Host: Peter | Players: 2-5 | Ages: 14+ | Genre: adventure, exploration, fantasy
Mechanisms: semi-cooperative game • modular board • scenario-based • role playing
HeroQuest is Milton Bradley's approach to a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure game. One player acts as game master, revealing the maze-like dungeon piecemeal as the players wander. Up to four other players take on a character (wizard, elf, dwarf, or barbarian) and venture forth into dungeons on fantasy quests. This game was made in cooperation with Games Workshop Ltd. who designed the miniatures and helped in many of the production details including background world and art in the rule book and scenario book. The HeroQuest series consists of the main game and a number of expansions.
The game is played on a grid representing the interior of a dungeon or castle, with walls segmenting the grid into rooms and corridors. One player assumes the role of the evil wizard character (Zargon/Morcar), and uses a map taken from the game's quest book to determine how the quest is to be played. The map details the placement of monsters, artifacts, and doors, as well as the overall quest the other players are embarking upon. During a Hero's turn, the player can move before or after performing one of the following actions: attack, cast a spell, search for traps and secret doors, search for treasure.
The game ends when every player has either returned to the spiral staircase, exited by a door, or been killed by the evil wizard. If the objective of the quest has not been accomplished then the evil wizard character wins. Items collected during the quest may be kept for future quests. The quests usually form part of a longer story, especially the quests which are part of the expansion packs.
Content Advisory: typical fantasy violence
Disney Villainous
Host: Tommy | Players: 2-6 | Ages: 10+ | Genre: fantasy, movies, strategy, Disney
Mechanisms: hand management • variable powers • take that (sabotage)
Includes Expansions: Bigger and Badder, and Wicked to the Core
In Villainous, each player takes control of one of six Disney characters, each one a villain in a different Disney movie. Each player has their own villain deck, fate deck, player board, and 3D character.
On a turn, the active player moves their character to a different location on their player board, takes one or more of the actions visible on that space (often by playing cards from their hand), then refills their hand to four cards. Cards are allies, items, effects, conditions, and (for some characters) curses. You need to use your cards to fulfill your unique win condition.
One of the actions allows you to choose another player, draw two cards from that player's fate deck, then play one of them on that player's board, covering two of the four action spaces on one of that player's locations. The fate deck contains heroes, items, and effects from that villain's movie, and these cards allow other players to mess with that particular villain.
Content Advisory: direct player conflict, sabotage, villainous themes, minor fantasy violence, betrayal