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[Betrayal PbP] Victory!
Bitstream
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It's October. Let's do this shit up right.
It is a dark and stormy night.
Six strangers find themselves in the foyer of an enormous, shadowy mansion.
Trapped, they must now explore the house and find a way out...
before something finds them.It's everyone's favorite cheesy-horror-movie-based survival boardgame, brought to you in glorious Web-O-Vision!
What is Betrayal?
It's a tile-based boardgame in which players explore a mysterious mansion in hopes of escaping whatever horrors lurk in the shadows. Players uncover new rooms, discover useful items, and eventually set off the Haunt, which is one of 50 scenarios based on your favorite scary B-movies. In most cases, revealing the Haunt also reveals one of the players as a traitor to the group, pitting that player against the rest.
It's a pretty great game, and sadly out of print for the last few years. Rumors abound of a reprint, but in the meantime we'll have to use our forbidden science to resurrect what was thought lost and... play it online.
The Basics
Players have four stats: Speed, Might, Sanity, and Knowledge. Pretty self-explanatory. The stats are affected by forces in the House, and should any one stat reach zero the player is dead (death by lack of knowledge seems especially grim). Each turn, players move around the board opening doors and drawing rooms from the deck to build the House. As they explore, they will find three different kind of cards: Items, Events, and Omens.
Items are objects you find along the way, usually helpful and sometimes very powerful. Events are those parts of the movie where the music gets really quiet and a single violin plays in the background until SOMETHING JUMPS OUT OH GOD and players are given a choice or at the very least a dice roll to determine the outcome. Omens are special items and events that are potentially important to the story and have a chance of starting the Haunt upon discovery.
The Haunt
The meat of the game begins when the Haunt is unveiled - each Omen has the potential to start a Haunt, and the Omen and the room in which it's found determine which of the 50 scenarios plays out. Players may be tasked with destroying Dracula and his minions, fighting a pack of resurrected dinosaurs, or simply outrunning a nameless pan-dimensional horror until the sunrise.
In the majority of Haunts, one player is singled out as The Traitor, who has secretly lured these fools to their doom. The Traitor often gains special powers or commands minions, and must defeat the players before they can unmake his nefarious schemes.
Yes, that's a scientist and a little girl with a teddy bear exploring a haunted house. You know you want to play.
Bitstream on
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Full revised rulebook can be found here.
Here are the basics:
Movement
Each player can move a number of spaces up to and including his Speed stat. Movement is stopped upon discovery of a card icon (Item, Event, or Omen) unless otherwise stated by the card.
Post-Haunt, moving through a room with an enemy in it adds 1 to the move cost, and the cost stacks with each enemy. For example, if a room has three enemies in it, the total cost to move out of that room unmolested would be 4. Don't get ganged up on!
Building the House
As you explore, you'll draw new rooms and add them to the house. I'll post a scan of the room, update the map, and we'll resolve any room-related shenanigans.
There are three floors - the First Floor, where you start; the Second Floor; and the Basement, which is inaccessible at first but will be found eventually.
Dice Rolls
The usual, with a twist!
We'll be using InvisibleCastle for our rolling needs. The way Betrayal's dice work, we'll use an nd3-n structure. Rolling six dice would be 6d3-6.
and paste it the number of times you need to roll. A pain, I know, but such is the price we pay for interesting dice mechanics.
Post a link to your roll, please.
The Cards
Most rooms require you to draw a card, either an Item(cowskull), Event(spiral), or Omen(crow). I'll post the text of the card in the thread (scary stuff is always public!) and you post your reaction.
Every time an Omen is found, the player rolls six dice. If the number rolled is less than the number of Omen cards in play, the Haunt begins.
You may use a card in your hand at any point in your turn (unless otherwise stated).
Items
A player may carry as many items as they can find. Most item cards can be dropped, traded, or stolen.
Dropping: At any point in a player's movement, they may drop an item on the floor unless otherwise noted. That item becomes available to anyone entering the room.
Trading: Any explorers together in the same room may trade cards freely (unless noted). Some items' effectiveness is based on specific stats, so it may be more advantageous to give them to certain characters.
Stealing: A player making successful attack of 2 points or more (see below) against another character may steal a single tradable item (again, unless noted) instead of doing damage.
Combat
Pretty simple in this game. You can choose to attack a character or monster in the same room (unless using one of several ranged weapons) using your Might stat (some cards and scenarios allow attacks using other stats). Roll a number of dice equal to that stat, your opponent rolls equal to their own, and the highest total wins. Even results count as successfully defended.
If the attacker wins, the defender loses points in Physical stats equal to the difference between rolls. (example: Ox attacks a vampire using Might. He rolls a 5 and the vampire rolls a 3. The vampire loses 2 points in Might and/or Speed).
Some items may allow you to attack using your Mental stats, doing Mental damage instead.
You may not attack an opponent using a stat they do not possess - many monsters and minions lack certain stats.
In most cases, a defeating a monster (as opposed to another player) only Stuns it, causing it to forfeit its next turn. Some Haunts specify otherwise.
You may attack each opponent once per turn.
The Characters
Heather Granville
Speed X33456678
Might X33345678
Sanity X33345666
Knowledge X23345678
Age: 18
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 120 lbs
Hobbies: Television, Shopping
Birthday: Aug 2
Heather has always been perfect - perfectly petite, perfectly blonde, perfectly polite. Perfect, perfect, perfect. If even the teeniest, tiniest thing in her life isn't perfect, it gives Heather a headache. Sometimes her headaches get so bad it feels like something is trying to dig its way out of her skull. But even that doesn't wipe the perfect smile off of her face.
Heather's older sister is friends with Jenny - why, Heather doesn't really know. After all, Jenny's certainly NOT perfect. Heather knows Flash and Prof. Longfellow from school. Vivian is a friend of her mother's, has been for years. Heather's greatest fear is that she isn't actually perfect after all.
Jenny LeClerc
Speed X23444568
Might X3444568
Sanity X11244456
Knowledge X23344568
Age: 21
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 142 lbs
Hobbies: Reading, Soccer
Birthday: March 4
Jenny is a quiet girl. She loves soccer, but sometimes she's too shy to cooperate with her teammates the way she should. Jenny's greatest pleasure is curling up in a tiny place reading a gigantic book - the older the book, the better. The books keep her from dwelling on her mother's disappearance, that day fourteen years ago when Mom went to the store and never came back, leaving Jenny alone. Alone forever.
Jenny's only real friend is Caitlyn, Heather's older sister. Jenny also knows Ox, since she grew up only a few doors away from him on Mulberry Lane. And Jenny knows Madame Zostra from the library, a place they both adore. Jenny's greatest fear is being trapped in a crowd or lost out in the open.
Ox Bellows
Speed X22234556
Might X45566788
Sanity X22345567
Knowledge X22335566
Age: 23
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 288 lbs
Hobbies: Football, Shiny Objects
Birthday: Oct 18
Ox Bellows was always a big kid. Never got beaten up. Always did the beating up... but only when he had to do it (well, except for that one time). Ox doesn't like to think about that, but the blood and screams creep into his dreams on cold, lonely nights. His greatest fear is of the dark.
Ox has known Jenny since they were kids growing up on Mulberry Lane. He met Prof. Longfellow at Greenwich University. Ox has known Father Rhinehardt all his life. He's been confessing his sins to the priest since he was small (except for that one sin he doesn't like to talk about).
Darrin "Flash" Williams
Speed X44456778
Might X23345667
Sanity X12345557
Knowledge X23345557
Age: 20
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 188 lbs
Hobbies: Track, Music, Shakespearean Literature
Birthday: Jun 6
Flash isn't the most original name for someone as fast as Darrin. But he likes it. Its comfortable and it fits him, just like his favorite pair of track shoes. Darrin lives to run and runs to live. When he's not running, Darrin feels like there's something coming for him... something Not Good. Even when he runs, the wind sometimes whispers in his ears, and he swears he can hear the Not Good Thing coming up behind him - fast. No wonder he's the star of the track team.
Flash knows Jenny from the neighborhood. She's okay, but she's real quiet. He's known Madame Zostra for his entire life. After all, he's her nephew. Zoe's his little cousin, but he's only met her a couple of times. Darrin's greatest fear is that he's going to be caught by the Not Good Thing (whatever that is).
Vivian Lopez
Speed X34444678
Might X22244566
Sanity X44456788
Knowledge X45555667
Age: 42
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 142 lbs
Hobbies: Old Movies, Horses
Birthday: Jan 11
Vivan's perfect day is to get up late. have coffee and doughnuts, and then ride one of her horses all day. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to spend too many days like that, since she's so busy trying to keep her little used book store from going under. Some days she gets so frustrated she feels like burning the place down, or maybe just burning down the little shed out back... or the school. But she'd never do anything like that. Still, sometimes she has nightmares about striking the match...
Vivian is a good friend of Heather's mother, Sarah. She also knows Madame Zostra and Father Rhinehardt as cutomers at her little book store, Something Written. For extra money, Vivian has been babysitting Missy Dubourde at least once a month for the last few years. Vivian's greatest fear is of fire... and her fascination with it.
Madame Zostra
Speed X23355667
Might X23345556
Sanity X44456788
Knowledge X13444566
Age: 37
Height: 5'0"
Weight: 150 lbs
Hobbies: Astrology, Cooking, Baseball
Birthday: Dec 10
Madame Zostra, or "Belladina" as her mother named her, has been a tarot and tea leaf reader since college. She started out working part-time sitting in the window of an occult bookstore, but now she has her own home astrology business. Although Madame Zostra reads cards for a living, she won't ever read her own cards. She is terrified that she'll see her own death in the cards, something she can't bear to think about.
Madame Zostra is familiar with Vivian and Father Rhinehardt from seeing them at Vivian's bookstore. Flash is her nephew, and she never fails to buy him birthday and Christmas gifts. She sees Jenny regularly at the library. Zoe's mother comes to Madame Zostra for tarot readings. Madame Zostra is terrified of death, particularly her own.
Missy Dubourde
Speed X34566677
Might X23334567
Sanity X12345567
Knowledge X23445666
Age: 9
Height: 4'2"
Weight: 62 lbs
Hobbies: Swimming, Medicine
Birthday: Feb 14
Missy can't remember wanting to be anything except for a doctor. her favorite gift ever in the whole wide world was her first doctor's kit. She practices "medicine" on anyone who'll let her. she even cuts up dead frogs and stuff she finds in her yard. But sometimes that gets bad, and she dreams of dead frogs hip-hopping into her bed at night and smothering her. Then she screams.
Missy knows Peter (and his gross bug collection) from school. She knows Father Rhinehardt from Sunday school (he talks funny and smells like chocolate). Missy lives in the same neighborhood as Brandon. He delivers her family's paper, but she doesn't really know him (she thinks he's cute, though). Missy's greatest fear is of dead things coming back to life and hunting her.
Zoe Ingstrom
Speed X44445688
Might X22334467
Sanity X34556678
Knowledge X12344555
Age: 9
Height: 3'9"
Weight: 49 lbs
Hobbies: Dolls, Music
Birthday: Nov 5
Zoe likes to play in her room with her dolls. Each doll has its own name, family, history, pets, and everything else a doll needs to be happy. Zoe helps her dolls play out little dramas, mostly happy ones, but sometimes the dolls get mad at each other and hit. Not that daddies would ever hit mommies. That doesn't happen. Leastways, you're not supposed to talk about it when it does. So, Zoe plays with her dolls.
Flash is Zoe's cousin, but she doesn't know him real well. Zoe's mom goes to Madame Zostra for tarot card readings. Zoe likes playing with her dolls under the table there. Zoe's family sometimes goes camping with Brandon's family. But Zoe doesn't like it, so she mostly stays in her tent an plays with her dolls. Zoe's greatest fear is of the Boogeyman... whoever he is.
Peter Akimoto
Speed X33346677
Might X23345568
Sanity X34445667
Knowledge X34456778
Age: 13
Height: 4'11"
Weight: 98 lbs
Hobbies: Bugs, Basketball
Birthday: Sep 3
Peter's two favorite places in the world are the basketball court and under his house. He likes the basketball court because that's where he can play his favorite game. He likes being under the house because it's a great place to hunt for bugs, plus it's a good place to avoid his five older brothers. Sure, all older brothers pick on their younger siblings, but Peter's brothers really pick on him. But what's a few broken bones among family? Peter loves bugs and wants to be an entomologist when he grows up - an entomologist who never has to speak to his brothers.
Peter earns extra money taking care of Prof. Longfellow's yard (and finding cool bugs - bonus!). He knows Missy from school. She likes to do pretend medical exams on him and chec out his real broken bones, but she doesn't like it when he shows her his bug collection. Peter's greatest fear is that he'll get trapped somewhere and never be able to escape.
Brandon Jaspers
Speed X34445678
Might X23345667
Sanity X33345678
Knowledge X13355667
Age: 12
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 109 lbs
Hobbies: Computers, Camping, Hockey
Birthday: May 21
Brandon loves computers and camping. He takes his new laptop with him wherever he goes. That way he can program AND camp at the same time. Cool. Brandon's never liked playing with regular toys, action figures, or that kind of thing. in fact, he hates puppets. He had a clown puppet when he was little, and some mornings when he woke up he'd find it had moved closer to him. Once it even had a kitchen knife in its hand. Brandon's pretty sure his big brother Chris was messing with him, but he still hates puppets.
Brandon sometimes sees Zoe's family when they go camping. Zoe usually hides in the tent with her dolls though. Yuck. Brandon delivers the newspaper to Prof. Longfellow (in his big old freaky house) and to Missy's family. Brandon's greatest fear is of puppets, particularly clown puppets.
Professor Longfellow
Speed X22445566
Might X12345566
Sanity X13345567
Knowledge X45555678
Age: 57
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 153 lbs
Hobbies: Gaelic Music, Drama, Fine Wines
Birthday: Jul 27
Professor Josiah Longfellow is very proud of his aristocratic roots. His family used to have money... at least until his father lost it all on gambling and alcohol. The Professor still lives with his aging mother in the rundown Victorian that used to be the finest house in town. His father disappeared one day. Ran out. His mother has a rather large life insurance policy, but of course, he doesn't want to collect on it any time soon, no matter how nice the money would be...
Prof. Longfellow knows Ox, Flash, and Heather from the University. Brandon is his paperboy. Peter mows the yard and takes care of other petty chores around the house. The Professor's greatest fear is that he will lose everything he has, proving to everyone that he's no better than his deadbeat father.
Father Rhinehardt
Speed X23345677
Might X12244557
Sanity X34556778
Knowledge X13345668
Age: 62
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 185 lbs
Hobbies: Fencing, Gardening
Birthday: Apr 29
Father Rhinehardt was born in Munchen, Germany (or Munich, as Americans call it). He moved with his family to America when he was 15... and then gut beaten up for the next three years. Father Rhinehardt turned to religion for the reasons why people treated him so badly. Eventually he entered seminary and became a priest. Since that day, long ago, many people have confessed their sins to him. But there is one man who haunts him, every few years, a stranger who sits in the confessional and whispers of murder and madness. In recent years, Father Rhinehardt has found he's starting to agree with the madman's arguments. Blood, pain, death - they are all a part of life, of God's plan, are they not?
Father Rhinehardt is familiar with Vivian and Madame Zostra from seeing them at the Something Written bookstore. He knows Ox from hearing him confess his petty sins. He also knows Missy from her appearances at Sunday school. More than anything, Father Rhinehardt fears going mad.
The Stars Are Right
Three week ago, Heather Granville's search led her to the Presticott house and its heavy, ornate foundation. The Door was there in the depths, just waiting to be opened; the house had been built on the ruins of the Goddess' temple. Heather called to her followers, and they immediately set to restoring the chamber housing the Door, carefully painting the mystic signs and sigils.
Heather had charmed a young man working as Presticott's servant into giving her access to the Chamber, and soon John, as fools in love tend to do, had joined her cause. His excitement got the better of him, though, and when he explained the importance of the site to his employer it all fell apart. Presticott had known of the Door, had vowed to guard it, and immediately set out to stop the cult; he was... less than successful. Presticott and young John were the first sacrifices.
Now, the Chamber is ready. Heather has lured five innocents to the house, intent on spilling their blood and opening the Door that has held her terrible Goddess at bay for so long.
The five have little time left to stop the cult. Presticott had prepared for this, keeping stores of mystically imbued paint with which to desecrate the Chamber. Our intrepid heroes must bring this paint to the Chamber and stop Heather before she destroys the mortal plane, but first they must avoid becoming sacrifices themselves.
Sacrifice Points: 10 of ??
Paint thrown: 5 of 5
The Map
Notes: - Secret Stairs in Conservatory lead to 2nd Floor, Game Room.
- Closet in Ballroom
- Smoke fills the Ballroom
Second Floor
Notes: - Revolving Wall between Bedroom and Balcony.
- Secret Stairs in Game Room lead to 1st Floor, Conservatory.
Basement
Notes: - Wine Cellar is below Collapsed Room
- Vault is empty.
The Players
Might X22244566
Sanity X44456788
Knowledge X45555667
Inventory
Items: Healing Salve
Omens: Book, Mask
Other: Holding a roll of 3 for future use thanks to It Is Meant to Be
Wildcat - Professor Longfellow
Might X12345566
Sanity X13345567
Knowledge X45555678
Inventory
Items: Rope, Candle, Angel Feather
Omens: Bite
Gandalf_the_Crazed - [strike]Brandon Jaspers[/strike]
Might X23345667
Sanity X33345678
Knowledge X13355667
Inventory
Items:
Omens:
scrivenerjones - Darrin "Flash" Williams
Might X23345667
Sanity X12345557
Knowledge X23345557
Inventory
Items: Bottle
Omens: Girl, Madman
ThatDudeOverThere - Missy Dubourde
Might X23334567
Sanity X12345567
Knowledge X23445666
Inventory
Items:
Omens: Spear, Spirit Board
NotoriousBEN - [strike]Heather Granville[/strike]
Might X33345678
Sanity X33345666
Knowledge X23345678
Inventory
Items:
Omens:
Reserves
TunnelRunner
Arivia
adventfalls
Darian
Rawkking Goodguy
El Skid
*Orange Soda
*samurai6966
Me too.
note that I have never played before, so if I succeed in getting only most of us killed, rather than all of us, it should be counted a victory
If you're not already signed up at InvisibleCastle, now's the time to set up an account.
Perfect.
terribly, terribly wrong
Damn, we may be running this game perpetually at this rate.
See now, scrivener gets it.
I've actually thought about doing an adversarial playthrough for Halloween, actively trying to kill the players. That's more likely to be a tabletop thing, though.
8d3-8=6
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
What she said (if Samurai can be believed :P). Also reserve for the crazy
If these threads are any indication, Hasbro are fools not to republish this game.
I haven't played before but really enjoyed spectating in the first game.
PS I'm in Aus timezone (GMT +10) just in case that's an issue.
Cheers
EDIT: Curses! Too late. That'll teach me to not refresh the page before posting.
totally missed this until just now
edit: had some trouble with IC, but I've got it down now
anyway, my roll:
8d3-8 → [1,3,1,3,1,1,3,2,-8] = (7)
gandalf - 9
scrivener - 7
tdot - 7
ben - 6
etoy - ?
wildcat - ?
PMing etoy and wildcat; hopefully they check in before tomorrow night. I'd like to get this rolling asap before the inevitable Halloween festivities start interfering too much.
to get a petition
for an invite
to the pre-party
for the next game's
signup list?
8d3-8 → [3,2,3,2,2,2,1,2,-8] = (9)
there's mine
8d3-8=9
tiebreaker round 2 (8d3-8=12)
8d3-8 → [2,1,3,1,3,1,1,3,-8] = (7)
looks like you go before me