Sometimes, things happen that baffle me by the fact that they hadn’t occurred sooner, like the fact that it took nearly 30 years before Magic: The Gathering got a card called “Murder”. Or, as far as this review is concerned, the crossover of Stephen King’s IT property with the amazing board game, Betrayal at the House on the Hill 3rd Edition. With Halloween drawing close, what better time to explore a spooky house and run into a clown with Betrayal at the Neibolt House – The Evil of Pennywise.
Details:
- $24.95
- Ages: 17+
- Players: 3-6
- Time:
- Requires Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition
Contents:
- 3 character minitaures
- 1 character board overly
- 4 room tiles
- 2 haunt books
- 10 game cards
- 1 scenario card
- 3 monster tokens
- red balloon token
Setting the stage, you and the other players are a group of friends that are returning to the town of Derry (where the IT films/book take place) and, through mysterious means, are drawn back to the terrifying Niebolt house. Your goal is to put a stop to the shapeshifter that has tormented the town and your group once and for all. Evil of Pennywise adds in five new scenarios for players to fight through that pull from IT that will see you facing off against Pennywise and other notable scares from Stephen King’s classic. The expansion provides a good mix of haunts that both feature a traitor, even one where you change your character, but also a couple purely cooperative ones, my favorite being the appropraitely named, “Let’s Kill t New to this expansion are a special type of cards, Pennywise Encounters, that will have different effects depending on whether or not the haunt has started yet. These cards are read in place of the traditional Omen cards when you reveal a space with the Omen symbol, but not to worry, Omen cards can still be drawn, as some Pennywise cards tell you to draw them.
One of the most crucial elements of a board game’s expansion is how easy it is to incorporate its elements into the game it’s expanding on, and the reverse, how painless it is to revert it all back to its base experience. I can happily report that using Pennywise Encounters is a quick endeavor, requiring you only to remove a couple of event cards and add in the four new room tiles. While it obviously still requires the base game, I have to applaud Avalon Hill for making the expansion its own self-contained thing, with little hassle to use. An important feature, considering that Betrayal in general is a wonderful entry point into the tabletop hobby, and the likelihood of players not being well-versed or equipped to handle working in a complex expansion is on the higher side.
Betrayal at the House on the Hill is one of my favorite GO-TO games, knowing that I can always pull it off the shelf and have a good time, regardless of how experienced the group is with board games. It’s simple enough to grasp that even someone who has only ever picked up a deck of playing cards could grasp it in a round or two and still have a good time, but has enough tense moments and strategy that even my core group of friends and I have a good time with it. The Evil of Pennywise does nothing to detract from that, and for fans of IT, adds to the reasons to bust it out at your next hangout. As someone who has never read the books or seen the films, knowing only as much as general pop culture has taught me, the neat Pennywise minatures and new encounter cards impart a special vibe you don’t get for the base game. So if you are like me and aren’t up on Derry but like Betrayal, this is still an easy recommendation to pick up.
Like peanut butter and jelly or pepperoni on Pizza, Pennywise and Betrayal just fit and belong together. Whether you are just looking to get some new haunt variety out of your existing 3rd Edition of Betrayal at the House on the Hill or adore IT, Betrayal at the Niebolt House – The Evil of Pennywise is an easy recommendation that will delight players. I know it did mine!
We were supplied a review copy of this expansion to check out and cover.
