Gloomhaven - Campaign Overview

[Music] hi my name is Paul Grogan and welcome to the first in a two-part series of gaming rules videos where I'm going to helping you learn how to play gloom Haven a fantasy cooperative adventure game with linked scenarios and an evolving game world in this video I'm going to be covering the overall campaign setting how you create a party of adventurers and interact with the campaign map you will learn how your character levels up and how the city of gloom Haven grows as the campaign progresses if you want to see how a scenario plays out in detail and how the combat system works then you'll need to watch the other video in the series by clicking on the link just up here however you will need to watch both videos to get a good overview of how the game plays when you start a game of gloom Haven even if you're just going to play one individual scenario you first need to create your party of adventurers each player chooses one of the characters available taking the character Matt the ability cards and a character sheet to record information when you start a new campaign all characters will start at level one with zero experience points you also start with 30 gold pieces which you can use to buy your initial equipment from the city at the start of the campaign only items 1 to 14 are available to you so let's say you spend your 30 gold on buying some leather armor and a - stamina potion these items are placed beneath your character Matt every new character also starts with a personal quest draw two cards and choose one this is your character's primary goal in the campaign a group of characters who adventure together form a party and certain pieces of information about the group are recorded on the party sheet one important piece of information on here is the party's reputation which will rise or fall based on the things that happen during the campaign reputation affects the price of items from the shops but it can also have other effects to the campaign too when playing a scenario the core mechanics involve the playing of ability cards and each character class comes with a wide range of them when you first create a character the only ones you can use are marked as either level 1 or level X it's recommended for your first game to use only the ones with the 1 since the ones with the X are more complex and situational as your character levels up you will gain access to a higher level ability cards although you don't just add these to your deck the number of cards you play within a scenario will always be equal to the number shown here on your character map so for each new one you add it replaces one of your existing cards this is the campaign board which is used to track things that happen in the world the numbered circles are potential scenario locations which are unlocked through the course of the campaign and at the very start of the campaign you'll be instructed to add the first sticker to the board meaning that scenario one the black Barrow is unlocked as the campaign progresses more and more stickers will be added to the board unlocking more scenarios whenever your party travels to a location a road event must be resolved draw the top card from the road event deck and follow the instructions on it you'll be presented with a choice and once you have made your decision flip the card over to see what happens once an event is resolved it's either placed at the bottom of the deck so it could occur again later in the campaign or if it has this icon it's removed from the game instead one cool thing about the road event deck is that it evolves as the campaign progresses with extra cards being added into the deck based on choices that you make during the campaign once you have completed a road event you then set up the chosen scenario using the scenario book this 122 page book contains a map of each scenario along with story takes to tie the scenario in to the larger campaign completing a scenario will give you specific rewards which could include achievements which may be required to play other scenarios party achievements are tracked on the party sheet and global achievements attract at the top of the game board now I can't say too much about this without giving any spoilers away but when a global achievement is unlocked a sticker is placed on one of these spaces at the bottom of the campaign board is where you track the prosperity of gloom Haven certain events or scenarios will increase the prosperity of the city and when it reaches a new prosperity level new items become available at the shops for example when gloom Haven reaches prosperity level two items 15 through 21 are added to the city's supply giving you new shiny items to purchase at the city at various times during the campaign your party of adventurers will want to return to the city of gloom Haven if your character has the required number of experience points for the next level they can level up in the city leveling up does three things first your characters hit points increase as shown on your character map secondly you gain access to other ability cards as mentioned earlier you can use a card if the level number on it is equal to or lower than your level and finally each time you level up you can mark one of the perk boxes on the right side of your character sheet these perks allow you to permanently change your attack modify deck which is used during a scenario I'll explain this deck more in the other video also in the city you can buy and sell items you sell items at half the listed price and remember that the items available to you depend on the prosperity level of gloom Haven once per visit to gloom Haven the party may complete a city event these function in the same way as Road events but have a generally better outcome for the party this one for example gives you the opportunity to either help the town or maybe not I mentioned your character's personal quest earlier on in the video now once you've completed this personal quest the next time you return to gloom Haven you must retire the character now this isn't a bad thing because every time you retire a character some new content of the game is unlocked opening an extra one of these character boxes for example also the prosperity of gloom haven goes up by one and you get to open the secret town records book the first time a character retires when you create a new character it comes into play at the prosperity level of the city so you don't have to start back at level one when everyone else is a much higher level and that's a very short overview of how the campaigning gloom Haven works there's going to be a lot more details on how the actual scenarios play out in the second video but if you've got any questions feel free to ask and if you like what you've seen here and you want to see some more of my other videos then please subscribe to the channel until next time take care and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Gaming Rules!

Views: 435,906

Rating: 4.9731293 out of 5

Keywords: Instructional

Id: XUx7riwsrwY

Length: 7min 4sec (424 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 15 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Dingbat_Downvoter]

Bookmarked for later. I'm so excited for Gloomhaven, I almost can't contain it. Waiting for that "manufacturing complete" update that's coming!

[u/zachhorn117]

Short and sweet overview of the campaign. Here is a link to the longer rules overview for those interested.

[u/3kindsofsalt]

Spoiler Alert Guide:

Throughout, there are first-game cards and items shown, so if you want to know truly nothing about the game until you get your copy, skip the video tutorials. This isn't a review, it's an instructional video. I found it easy to just not read them.

3:05 - A second Location Sticker is shown(I figure the first one is a freebie to learn the game). Close your eyes for 10 seconds?

5:50 - A City Event is described. Pause and skip ahead to 5:55.

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Edit: The rules overview (the second video he links to) is more detailed in walking you through what is probably the first part of the first scenario. It does, however, contain a single significant spoiler: This game looks thoroughly amazeballs and the hype level might send you into a hypertensive crisis. Consult a physician before reflecting on how many weeks it will take for your copy to arrive.

[u/kingjorf]

Great video, well done!

[u/[deleted]]

My copy can't get here soon enough!

[u/FallenCentury]

Awesome! I'm always up for new Gloomhaven things to help stave off my thirst for this game even a little bit. Thanks for the link!

[u/Integrals]

Awwww yea

[u/dethfalcin]

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get in on this kickstarter but I am DEFINITELY going to be preordering with some Christmas money.

Does anyone else feel like this will completely replace Descent in their collection? I can't see any reason to keep Descent once getting this since I only play with Road to Legend anyway...

[u/oneELECTRIC]

oh no.. I thought I read that Gloomhaven wouldn't have elements that permanently affected the board like stickers? I knew it was a legacy game so to speak but I got the impression that it would be able to be reset to be played with different groups