Hellboy: The Board Game Unboxed
The B.P.R.D. is back with a slew of brand new cases to work in Hellboy: The Board Game!
Suit up because you’re about to help the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense save the world – and you’ve got Hellboy on your side:
Investigate, Discover, & Smash!
In Hellboy: The Board Game, you’ll be taking the role of one of the four investigators in the box: Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, and Johann Kraus. You’re tasked with working a case, investigating locations, dealing with the minions of the big-bad, and then eventually facing off against the main supernatural threat. It’s got some great models, cool doodads, and a fun setting to boot.
Gameplay is pretty easy to get the hang of. Each round is broken up into 5 phases: Enemy Phase, Agent Phase, Rest Phase, Doom Phase, and End Phase. In the Enemy Phase, if you couldn’t tell from the name, that’s when the enemies activate. Typically, the will do some combination of Movement and attacking.
Tests in the game are resolved using some custom dice – it’s a pretty simple system based on the type of test you are attempting. Attacking, for example, is just how many pips minus the target’s Resilience.
The Agent Phase is when the players get to act. You’ll each take turns using your actions. Each investigator has a limited number of Action Cubes to spend, but what’s neat is you can do them in any order you want – you’re encouraged to work out strategies with your team. For example, Hellboy could move, Liz could attack twice, then Hellboy could attack and then Liz could Interact with an objective. There are six basic actions and also some free actions you can do during your turns.
The Rest Phase is what you’re probably thinking – it’s when Agents have the option to heal-up, but it can cost you. You’ll only be able to perform one of three rest actions which include Investigating, Recuperating, or Securing a room. The Recuperate action allows you to roll dice to attempt to heal. The downside is that at the end of the Rest Phase, you do advance the Impending Doom Track.
The Doom Phase is when the top card of the Doom Deck is drawn – this can have a few different impacts on the game (like advancing the Impeding Doom Track or causing other things to happen). Basically, you draw the card and resolve its effects …and those typically aren’t very nice.
Finally, we have the End Phase. This is essentially a clean-up phase where you’ll do the following:
- Refresh Action Cubes
- Resolve Infernos
- Resolve Frog Swarms
- Resolve Other Effects
As the investigators move through the maps in the scenarios, they will discover a clue that will eventually lead to the boss Confrontation. Now, it’s a tad more complex than that, but in essence, that’s what your goal is as the player. You’ll have to overcome all the various minions and such along the way. Plus you’ll have to deal with any of the Doom cards that get played, too.
If they happen to meet the requirements, the investigators can get to the boss Confrontation faster – typically with some type of advantage against the boss. Otherwise, the Impeding Doom track will fill up and the boss will trigger that way. If all the players are Knocked Out, then the boss Confrontation still occurs – it’s just the investigators are at a disadvantage.
More Cases, More Adventure
The core set comes with a set of Case Files and it would be easy to assume that once you’ve completed all of them you’re “done” with the game. However, you can easily swap out Encounters, Minions, or even the boss if you want. Plus there are lots of random elements to keep the cases fresh and interesting, too. But if that’s not enough have no fear because there are expansions planned for this game on the way!
Hellboy: The Board Game
Hellboy: The Board Game was a successful Kickstarter – so it’s already been funded. But have no fear because it should be hitting stores soon.
Time to raise some Hell!
