Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
About
5/5 Highest recommendation. Fantastic.
If the idea of a campaign dungeon crawler game appeals to you in the slightest, buy this game.
Gloomhaven "Light".
That being said, this is not a "Light" game in any sense. While the incredible tutorial system is the easiest way ever to learn how to play, it will simply take a bit of time to fully understand the rules.
So what is it?
Gloomhaven is a co-operative, fantasy-themed, campaign-based tactical skirmish game. Over the course of a single campaign you will play about 18 individual scenarios each taking about 2 hours. Each scenario will start with an introduction that ties the scenario to the overall campaign, present you with a small map, and give you an objective to complete the map. You and your fellow players will work together against the "computer controlled" monsters.
On your turn, Instead of using dice you will have a hand of cards each allowing you to move, attack, heal, etc. When it's time for the monsters to act, you will pull an action from deck of cards unique for each monster. A great system.
The "campaign" or "legacy" aspect of the game comes from both the overarching story tying each of the scenarios together and the ability to "level up" your character by choosing from an ever expanding set of action cards that you have to choose from.
(I've now written and re-written this five times, so I'm going to stop. If you want to know more, there are plenty of great videos on YouTube. It's big and has a lot of features to like and there are simply too many for me to cover adequately. That being said, I have a few highlights below)
The Tutorial
I can't say enough good things about this. I first played the original Gloomhaven with some good friends a couple years ago and even though we were all experienced gamers, the rules had a brick wall of a learning curve. From reading multiple accounts online of other people's trials, it seems we were not alone in our frustration. It is obvious that the people at Cephalofair games listened. They managed not only to make an in game tutorial, but one that moves the story along and never feels like you are playing a tutorial. This is the new bar in how to present instructions.
Card based Actions
Using cards instead of dice is probably the heart of this game. A good game always give the player multiple options and the feeling that the option chosen is meaningful. Nothing is more boring than rolling a one on a 1d6 for your moment and therefore having your turn be barely moving or doing nothing.
It also allows for a great game mechanic of "upgrading your character". With a hand limit of 10 cards per scenario but with 15 or more cards to choose from, you constantly get to make decisions on what to take and what to leave before you start the scenario and you can customize your hand to suit your own particular play style.
Card based Monster Actions
I first purchased and wanted to play the game "Descent: Journeys in the Dark" (2005) but constantly wanted to find a way to play it co-operatively. Gloomhaven's use of monster action cards solves this. Not only does the game add some random elements to the monsters' actions but it customizes the actions for the type of monster greatly increasing interest and flavor. Now the howling demons can howl while the shrieking skeletons can shriek.
Map Book
Taking a page from "Stuffed Fables" (2018), this game uses a spiral bound notebook for the maps. Simply turn to the correct page and you have a map and are ready to play. No more spending 15 minutes looking for all of the tiles you need and trying to get everything set up. Fast, easy and wonderful. Everyone is hoping that similar products will be available for Gloomhaven and Frosthaven.
Upgrades
This deserves its own section. If you are not familiar with sites like the Broken Token or Top Shelf Gamer, there is an entire industry devoted to upgraded board game components. Do you really "need" metal coins? Well no, but they are so very, very, fun.
Gloomhaven real metal coins (Kickstarter)
There is just something fun about using real metal coins instead of cardboard. ($25)
Foreteller Games Narration (Foreteller)
If you don't have someone in your group that likes to read narration, or just want to hear the narration read by people that are really good, this is a great upgrade. ($10)
Poker chips (Amazon)
There are a couple of solutions to tracking monster hit points, but I started with the easy one. A pack each of red and black 7/8in mini poker chips (50 per pack). This lets me stack the chips under the monsters for a quick way to manage damage. Each pack of 50 chips is $7. This seems to work find for a 2 player game. There are other solutions with stands that have dials but I've not tried any of those yet. ($14)
Doors and chests (The Broken Token)
Having some 3d miniature doors really makes it easier to understand the map layout. And they are cool to look at. Add a couple of treasure chests and now everything is just that much better. About $10 for a pack of six of either. ($20)
Smonex Wooden Monster Stands (Amazon)
As the number of monsters and their hit points increased, the method of using the small poker chips started to become cumbersome. Time to find a different approach, and these fit the bill perfectly. I would rate these as excellent. The mini poker chips still have a use as a quick counter for "objectives" since the objectives don't move. But these counters really do make it easier keeping track of all of the moving monsters. ($16)
Thoughts
Tim:
5/5 Highest recommendation. Fantastic.
It's going to be really hard to say anything negative about this game. They took everything about the full Gloomhaven game that made it great and then learned everything that worked and everything that needed some more work and distilled it down. The best tutorial ever, clear rules, a great campaign, and a new way to display maps. Everything that my original group had issues with in Gloomhaven has been refined and made better.
Also a shout out to Foreteller Games. They have a phone app you can purchase if you want to hear professional narration for all of the story elements. Hard to beat this for a $10 purchase.
In this play through, we played a two player adventure and the balance seemed very good. It can be played with 2, 3, or 4 people but I liked two player as it kept things moving along faster.
Update 3/20/2021: Game Complete! At right about 40 hours to complete the entire campaign this is really some incredible value for your money. We ended up playing Three of the "optional" scenarios when everything was said and done.
Laura:
5/5
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is an excellent game that makes the larger original Gloomhaven game seem less daunting as this version is much more accessible for people with fewer experiences of complex cooperative dungeon crawlers. By making the first few scenarios "the tutorial", the gameplay can start immediately without making it a steep learning curve for newer players. I really enjoy the game and its exciting scenarios make me want to set up for the next scenario once the current one has been played. Of course, the map based setup helps as it cuts down on the 'boring' time of setting the scenario up. This might be the first game where I'm quite interested in complex mechanics and wanting to play more than one scenario a day. It's also made me look forward to playing the much larger original Gloomhaven once I've exhausted both playthroughs - not in a way where I want it to be over, but in a way that I'm looking forward to more. I'd easily rate it 5/5.
Trivia
- A good estimate to finish Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is 35 hours. You will play about 18 scenarios long of the 25 in total Each taking about 2hrs to complete. Estimates for Gloomhaven are between 100-150 hours and about 65 of the 95 different dungeons.
- On a quick internet search, I can't figure out who first designed the system where the monster actions are determined by a set of cards. "Kingdom Death Monster" was published in 2015 and Gloomhaven in 2017 so it's likely KDM. In a blog by Isaac Childres the designer of Gloomhaven he cites the game "Mice and Mystics" (2012) as inspiration for simplifying rules he had been working on for monster actions.
12-31-2020