Review: Dungeons & Dragons Horrified

I've been a fan of the Horrified series since the first edition, which comprised of the classic Universal Studios monsters. From that first game, the colour palette, theme, and pick-up-and-deliver mechanics held me enraptured. There was a simple beauty to the game play and everything about it was a love letter to those classic horror movies that inspired it.

Since that first edition we've seen a tremendous outing with Horrified: American Monsters, focusing on North American cryptids such as mothman, big foot, and the jersey devil. We've also had the legendary Greek Monsters, which featured monsters from classic Greek mythology. Both of these titles expanded on the original theme with larger maps and mechanics that kept the game fresh and interesting, more than just a re-skin of the original.

Following this, Ravensburger, released Horrified: World of Monsters, which if I'm totally honest didn't hit the same mark as it's predecessors. The steam punk aesthetic was interesting but less refined that the previous three titles, and the assets included felt cheaper (the cards felt much thinner and flimsier than the original). Furthermore, the monsters that were chosen for inclusion felt disjointed. Fascinating monsters from real world folklore were lumped with Cthulhu (the Cthulhu mythos could easily have supported it's own game, not to mention the monsters from folklore from around the world). There was no cohesion here, and it was explained away with some half-hearted text about rifts between worlds. Generally, World of Monsters felt like a misstep in the series.

Those negatives aside, we at Hand Limit still get World of Monsters to the table and it still offers a rewarding challenge. There was, however, some trepidation that there were signs of the franchise going stale. Could the Horrified formula continue to provide enough material to keep it relevant?

It was with great excitement that we learned the next title in the series would be Dungeons & Dragons. There is already so much material in existence from the world of D&D that it seemed like the perfect way for Horrified to bring in some fresh blood.

The game arrived at Hand Limit HQ at the beginning of August and it has taken us a couple of weeks to get it to the table but when we finally did we were so happy to see the results of this match-up.

At it's core D&D Horrified is a return to the classic formula. The gameplay is smooth and well executed, and the rules are easy to learn for those less experienced in board gaming. 1 to 5 players take the roles of heroes looking to rid the land of troublesome monsters by completing various mini-games and challenges. On a turn a player gets a set number of actions to advance their objectives then they flip a card from the monster deck and complete the monster actions as described. When players or the sporadic civilians who turn up on the board are knocked out during monster attacks the terror marker moves along the terror track. Should this ever reach the final point on the track, the heroes have failed and the monsters overrun the town. Likewise, if the monster deck is ever depleted, the heroes have run out of time and fail.

As with most cooperative games there are multiple ways of losing but only one way to win, defeat all the monsters before your time runs out. D&D Horrified introduces 4 new monsters to the series; mimic, displacer beast, beholder, and the fearsome red dragon. All classic and recognisable monsters of the IP.

Dungeons & Dragons Horrified introduces some interesting new mechanics that helps keep things interesting. Most notably is the inclusion of a D20 in the set. In other titles of the series, characters have special actions unique to them, in this latest title each character has a number of special actions that are determined using a D20 roll. While this makes it harder to plan for these special abilities, it does add an element of the luck of the roll, which feels very in keeping with the D&D theme. On top of this, many of the monster mini-games involve rolling a D20. In the game we played (displacer beast and beholder) we found battling the beholder a lot of fun as it involves rolling the D20 and disabling it's eye-stalks depending on what you roll. This effectively captured the classic feel of D&D while staying in the realm of Horrified.

The map itself is the most adventurous yet with the inclusion of teleportation portals that link sections of the map in ways that made strategising feeling more akin to 4-dimensional chess. Not to mention the artwork on the board, which has definitely found its footing since the slightly ill-defined aesthetic of World of Monsters. The high quality artwork associated with Wizards of the Coast is evident throughout the game, with perk cards made to look like tarot, monster cards featuring some impressive monster artwork (the green and purple beholder is a particular favourite of mine), and some lovely character art on the character boards.

The characters for the game once again feature staples of the genre. The Cleric, The Wizard, The Rogue, The Fighter, and The Bard, are all playable characters with their own selection of unique abilities. My main criticism of this version of the game is that there are only those 5 characters to choose from. In earlier editions of Horrified, some of the joy was finding synergies between different characters and assembling a new team for each session in an attempt to find the match ups that worked. As the game accommodates up to 5 players it feels as though Ravensburger have tried to get away with giving us the minimum it can possibly give. Only 5 characters, and only 4 monsters, feels stingy and will certainly impact the replayability of the edition. 

That being said, we found nothing has been lost in terms of the challenge. When it comes to cooperative games, we always say that we don't feel we've got our money's worth unless we've lost more times than we've won, and in this respect D&D Horrified didn't disappoint. The displacer beast and beholder comfortably wiped the floor with us.

Overall, this is a strong contender for a place in the top 2 Horrified titles (Universal and American Monsters - the exact placement of these is still to be determined). Does it quite outpace American Monsters? It's possibly too early to tell, but it is a solid contender. The theme is incorporated well, the monsters feel original to the series, and there is enough here to keep the series feeling fresh and original. This is a fun title for those experienced and in-experienced in D&D and is definitely worth a play if you enjoy cooperative games and the Horrified series.

Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons - Horror is in the eye of the Beholder!

Horrified, the Ravensburger classic that has seen players take on monsters from Universal fame, North American cryptids, Greek monsters of legend, and even our lord and saviour Cthulhu himself, is set for a new outing. This time teaming up with Wizards of the Coast, Ravensburger will bring us a dungeon-themed adventure in the form of Horrified: Dungeons & Dragons, which is set to release in the UK in October 2025.

Initial previews suggest the new edition will bring with it four of the classic TTRPG's most fearsome enemies, and will include new game play mechanics inspired by D&D such as the use of a D20. Current box-art circulating online suggests that the foes will be a Beholder, a Displacer Beast, a Mimic, and as the name promises, a Dragon. Though this may change between now and the final release.

Horrified first graced our table tops in 2019 with the release of its Universal Monsters edition and quickly became a fan favourite. Its pick-up and deliver mechanics, coupled with unique puzzle solving for the different enemies, offered a streamlined experience that was quick to learn and satisfying to play. The quality of the assets and the artwork made this a pleasing addition to the Hand Limit library and it became a favourite recommendation to those who wanted an entry-way into the hobby.

The latest addition to the series, Horrified: World of Monsters, failed to hit the same level of excitement as the other editions, which was largely due to the confusing theme that blended real-world creatures of myth with a peculiar steam-punk aesthetic. Although still an enjoyable game that offered a lot of replayability, the rare-misstep on theme definitely damped our reception. So it is of great interest to us that the next edition will be using a proven and solid theme in Dungeons & Dragons. There can be little chance of the same mixed-message concept with something so universally recognisable.

While we wouldn't go so far as to say that the series was at risk of losing its shine, an injection of D&D could well be precisely what it needs to keep things interesting. The promise of new mechanics, in particular, will help things from feeling like a simple reskin, which series such as this are often at risk of doing.

Needless to say, we have already pre-ordered our copy so will wait in eager anticipation of its arrival, and will no doubt have more to say on the game when we can get it to the table.

What classic D&D monsters would you want to see in the Horrified format? Leave your answers below in the comments.

Review: Deep Regrets - No regrets backing this

Fans of the video game Dredge will absolutely love Deep Regrets by Judson Cowan and published by Tettix Games. The game blends a little bit of dice placement and a little bit of push-your-luck to deliver a satisfyingly creepy fishing experience that sees players competing for the highest value haul of creatures by the end of the game. Not everything beneath the waves is as it seems, however. Borrowing heavily from Lovecraftian horror and Edmond Halley's hollow earth theory, Deep Regrets contains many "foul" creatures that will force players to gain regret cards, which pushes player's madness to higher levels. Although the player with the most regret at the end of the game will suffer a penalty, there are advantages in the number of dice you can use and even discounts at shops in port that come with losing yourself to the madness that spreads beneath the sea.

The artwork, also by Cowan, makes this game really stand out as something special. The sheer number of different creatures is reminiscent of the Wing/Wyrn/Finspan games and allows for a lot of replayability before you truly know everything that lurks beneath the briny depths. The quality of the game is mirrored in the quality of the assets and extra care has gone in to reducing the amount of plastic in the packaging. This was thanks to the efforts of Cowan who, following a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, wanted to ensure there was no hypocrisy in designing a game about the ocean while also introducing more plastics into circulation.

Deep Regrets also comes with a satisfying solo experience that allows a player to take the role of a scientist completing a survey of the oceans and recording the many fair and foul creatures they dredge up. This solo mode hits a more relaxing tone than the main, multiplayer game, with less focus on the madness and regret mechanics, and no down-time in port. However, it stands alone well as an enjoyable experience and will guarantee that owners of the game will get more of their money's worth should they struggle to get a group together to play.

Thanks to the huge success the game received on Kickstarter, Cowan has since developed Shallow Regrets, now taking late pledges on Kickstarter, with Button Shy Games. Shallow Regrets is advertised as a pocket-sized game of Deep Regrets made up of only 18 cards and packed in a vinyl wallet for maximum portability. The Kickstarter page also promises a solo mode in which players will go up against fan-favourite character Frod to make the biggest catch. The popularity of Deep Regrets saw Shallow Regrets make its pledge goal well within the time limit.

Cowen has also announced that this summer will see a Kickstarter launch of Even Deeper Regrets, an expansion on the main game, that promises even more disturbing fishing, deeper madness, and a wealth of new regrettable decisions. This campaign will also allow backers to grab a copy of Deep Regrets if they have any regrets of not backing the game the first time around.

Overall, Deep Regrets is a satisfyingly meaty game to play when played with the maximum number of players, yet simple to pick up, and the theme is well executed. A must have for any fans of eldritch horror as a genre, and a fascination with the horrors that lurk beneath the waves.

Horrified and Indigenous Cultures

We are big fans of the Horrified series of games by Ravensburger and have been since the first edition; Universal Monsters. Since then we have enjoyed the American Monsters (cryptids) and the Greek Monsters (from the pantheon of legends) games. However, we recently got hold of the new Horrified: World of Monsters and while it is another fun game in the series, something didn't sit right with me.

Each Horrified iteration so far has had a clearly defined theme, from the classic Universal Studios monsters like Dracula and the Wolf Man, to the Greek mythological monsters like the chimera and basilisk. World of Monsters initially seems like a perfect entry into this collection with monsters from folklore from around the world, the Jiangshi (or hopping vampire), the Sphinx, and the Yeti. This was a perfect opportunity for Ravensburger to highlight the incredibly rich folklore of indigenous cultures from around the world, but then they went and spoiled it all by doing something stupid like Cthulhu.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Cthulhu mythos and have long said that it would make for a great Horrified but it's inclusion in World of Monsters not only cheapens the impact, but also detracts from the importance of the other monsters to their native cultures. It is almost insulting to draw a comparison between the vast history of folkloric tales of Jiangshi and Cthulhu, the fictional creation of a xenophobic recluse writing in the early 20th century. In terms of their cultural importance, I don't believe there can be a comparison. It would be like including both Baba Yaga and Edward Cullen.

The game attempts to justify the mixing of mythologies and modern fiction through some fairly flimsy pretext explaining that a rift between realities is causing monsters to wonder into our world, along with fantastical steampunk technologies. Fine. As a premise goes, I think that's OK. But I still feel like the inclusion of historical folklore from other cultures should be handled with a little more care than this clumsy introduction. 

There is a lot of fantastic writing done about the unsettling trend of colonialism in board games and how they discretely act to lessen the importance of indigenous cultures. I highly recommend checking out the two articles on this topic from the Daily Worker Placement. As such I won't go into too much detail in this blog as I would only be rehashing something that another author has put so much more succinctly than I ever could.

However, I would like to take the opportunity to recognise that Horrified: World of Monsters seems to have been made somewhat backwards compatible with previous titles. Furthermore, they recently released an expansion to include the Krampus as a monster to go toe-to-toe with. What this could mean is that generally, they will be releasing further expansions for this latest core box, rather than looking to create more iterations of the same game. While I worry this model of content creation engenders laziness, it might offer some hope that future expansions will further explore some of the rich cultural offerings the world has to offer the genre.

What are your thoughts on this peculiar mashup? Could it have been achieved with more care?

Review: Final Girl - A board game with a Killer theme

I'm sure we're all familiar enough with horror films to recognise the "final girl" trope. This is the character (due to convention it tends to be a female character) who is left standing at the end of a horror film surrounded by the remains of her fallen companions, usually victorious in defeating or evading the horror that has pursued them for the last 90 minutes. She often portrays some characteristic that the film-makers, or society, feels embodies the one "worthy" of survival. Perhaps she has been the voice of reason, compassion, or she's simply a virgin and therefore not deserving of a gruesome death. 

This character has managed to stick it out to the end, either through kick-ass bravery, or just screaming and stumbling far enough through the woods that they get picked up at the highway. Their journey has been transformative, terrifying, and usually good for 3-4 sequels.

Final Girl, the board game now on "Season 2" releases (I'll get into how that works more below), places you in the shoes of one of many possible, and legally distinct, Final Girls. You are constantly caught on the back foot, fighting for time, and a helpless witness to the growing horror of the situation, while given just enough hope to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Final Girl has condensed this age-old scenario into a loving homage to the many, many hours of screen time given over to our favourite horror cliché.

How do we kill something that's... already dead?!

That's it for the flowery introduction. What exactly is Final Girl?

Final Girl is the rarest of table top games, one that has been designed to be played solo from the ground up. A smart choice considering the aim of the game is to make you feel alone, but that isn't the first thing that makes the game intriguing.

I mentioned above that Final Girl feels like a love-letter to the golden age of horror, and this goes well beyond the theme and mechanics, to the make-up of the game itself. The foundation of the game is the Core Box, which all players will need to purchase in order to play the game, but does not allow you to play the game by itself. Much like the artwork of the boxes, this game harks back to the time of the VHS. Simply buying a VHS player was not enough, you had to actually buy a film to put in it. Think of the Core Box as the VHS player and the various expansions as the videos ready to be loaded in.

The Core Box comes with some universal components that will be used across all games: health tokens, action cards, meeples, etc. and each individual "Feature Film", as the expansions call themselves, comes with a location, a foe, a choice of Final Girl, and specific components to match. 

For example, the first Feature Film I purchased was "Frightmare on Maple Lane" featuring Not-Freddy-Krueger, Dr. Fright, who hunts his victims in their dreams. The ingeniously designed boxes come with location and enemy specific rules, tokens, cards, everything you need to play. So you load these components into your game, grab your popcorn, and enjoy the show!

These boxes tend to be released in waves that the designers are calling Seasons. While I understand the terminology has its uses, I do worry when board games use this term as it might put off potential players who "haven't played season 1 yet", even though that really makes no difference.

The Feature Film boxes themselves are not overly pricey, averaging around £16 if purchased from your friendly neighbourhood board game shop, so after an initial splurge to get set up, adding further experiences isn't prohibitively expensive and they offer considerable replay-ability.

Furthermore, there is the added bonus of being able to easily mix and match all Final Girls, enemies, and locations to create completely unique experiences. Feel like Creech Manor is too claustrophobic for your battle with the Poltergeist? Why not take them to Camp Happy Trails? Or maybe see how Dr. Fright handles himself in the Storybook Woods from Once Upon a Full Moon?

He was never really dead...

The game operates in phases with players spending action cards, purchasing cards for future turns, fulfilling the killer's moves, then planning for the next turn. Each killer and location is unique enough to make it difficult to describe the game in full detail but your standard win/lose-condition is kill or be killed. The Final Girl has already had her character development so now it's the showdown.

The killer will perpetually hunt you and the various other "victims" that spawn around the game map. With each kill, their blood lust increases along with their movement distance and strength, even unlocking their dark powers, which invariably make the game considerably harder. This unavoidable levelling up of the enemy is what helps keep the player feel they are working against the odds and makes the ultimate success or death even more exhilarating.

Actions such as sprinting , searching, and fighting can only be used if you have the necessary card in your hand, but even then it requires a dice roll to succeed, with only a 5 or 6 on a D6 considered a definite success. Of course, as the killer gets stronger so does the horror level which can reduce the number of dice you get to roll for each action.

Time, aside from being a key currency in the game used to purchase actions and often forfeited for unsuccessful rolls, it is represented through the deck of Terror cards. This deck indicates what horrible events or actions your nemesis does each turn. Once depleted your time's up and you move into the End Game. The killer unleashes one final power in their attempt to stop you, which unless you're in a strong position already will usually spell the end of your Final Girl.

A really neat mechanic the game uses for it's health trackers for both Final Girl and the killers who can actually be, well... killed, is the Final Health Tokens. These tokens act as the final health markers for both hero and villain but once they are spent they are flipped over. The back will reveal a number of hearts from 0-3 that the character regenerates. I love the suspense this creates. The murderer lies prone at your feet and you hold your breath as you check to see whether they are truly dead or if they will spring back in a final jump-scare cliché. Or perhaps it is you who has been defeated and you get to punch the air as your Final Girl, beaten and bruised, finds the inner strength to pull herself up and rescue her young charge from the clutches of the poltergeist?

If you're successful in defeating the threat, the game includes a reward for the Final Girl you are playing as. A small envelope comes with each Feature Film addressed to each of the Final Girls inside with instructions to open after a successful game. I won't say any more than that here but I will note that it was a nice surprise to find a legacy element in the box. It felt like a pleasant after-thought on the part of the designers.

He's slicing off his own fingers!

You can probably tell that I think very highly of this game, and I'm not the only one. My local board game shop has said that Final Girl has become one of their top-selling games this year, which is a pretty high accolade for a solo game.

Whilst the mechanics, the artwork, the theme, and the novelty of the Feature Film pick-and-play design are all excellent reasons to enjoy Final Girl, the thing that stands out for me above all else is its capacity for story telling. Everything about the game is built to recreate a scene we all know well, from the flavour text on the item cards to the titles of the Dark Powers, and this all works together to create an environment that activates the player's imagination. Each success and failure adds another line to the unfolding story so that by the end you will be completely invested in the experience.

Although this is a solo-game at heart, I think there is a lot to say for sitting around a table with some friends and enjoying it together. We're all comfortable sitting around a horror video game such as Alien: Isolation and taking it in turns with the controller. This is the board game equivalent. It is a game designed around one character but I think it can entertain an audience of more. 

As ever I recommend pairing this game with theme appropriate music, specifically some 80s-style Horror Synthwave. Nothing like hearing the chilling sounds of Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma to get the hairs on your neck to stand on end...

Have you tried any of the Final Girl games? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Final Girl is designed by Evan Derrick and A. J. Porfirio. Artwork by Tyler Johnson and Roland MacDonald. Published by Van Ryder Games.

Review: Dread - A One-Shot, Tension Guaranteed, Horror RPG

With Halloween a mere 6 months away I'm sure we're all starting to get our preparations started (no? Just me?), and horror RPGs are a great alternative to a classic party, and arguably considerably cheaper!

Creating a sense of fear and tension in TTRPGs can be a daunting task. Building in appropriate mood lighting, ambient sound, pacing, can all help put your players on edge but after all that work, what happens if they continually roll high and all the fear is taken out of your carefully crafted scenario?

Dread, designed by Epidiah Ravachol and Nathaniel Barmore (publisher: The Impossible Dream), is the answer. 

Dread is also the guarantee.