Gloomhaven is Getting a New, Casual-Friendly Prequel Board Game

Ricky Frech October 5, 2019 5:26 PM EST

Gloomhaven designer Issac Childres announced at this weekend's Shut Up & Sit Down convention that his hit board game is getting a casual-friendly prequel.

For my money, Gloomhaven is the best board game experience you can have in 2019. It is the best mixture of incredible board game gameplay and innovative, video game-inspired mechanics. That said, it’s a tough game to recommend if you aren’t either well-versed in board gaming or very willing to learn. There are a ton of fiddly rules that are easy to get wrong. Plus, the set-up makes it a struggle to get the game to the table. People just don’t want to wait 20 minutes for set-up. Put simply, the game is a bear. Which is why I am so excited to see Issac Childres, the game’s designer, announce a more casual version of the game at this year’s Shut Up & Sit Down convention.

As others have reported from the SHUX panel today, there is a more casual version of Gloomhaven scheduled to come directly to stores in Q3 2020. No official title as of yet, but it's a 24-scenario campaign in a $40-50 box, with the barrier to entry made as low as possible. pic.twitter.com/SqRtbaC5sv — Isaac Childres (@Cephalofair) October 4, 2019

Obviously, the game is still a long way out, so details are relatively sparse. We do know that the game will come with a 24-scenario campaign. That should be much more manageable than the 100 you get with the original game. It will also be a much cheaper product at $40-50 instead of the $100 you’re probably going to spend picking up the original. Of course, losing $50-60 worth of components is going to downgrade some of what makes Gloomhaven special. However, if it means more people will get to experience the near-perfect card combat the game utilizes, then I’m all for it.

This new version will include four new characters and serve as a prequel to the original game. Hopefully, these characters will be available for purchase outside of the box, as I’d love to add them to my growing Gloomhaven collection. The art Childres provided on Twitter is stunning. Either way, it will be great to have this game on store shelves next year. I know I will be picking it up for a few 2020 Christmas presents.

Of course, many Gloomhaven fans are wanting news about the big box expansion/sequel Childres has said he’s working on. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a bit longer for news on that front. He’s dropped some hints that news will be coming right before this year’s PAX Unplugged, so check back in early December. While you wait, I recommend checking out the digital version of Gloomhaven on PC. It still has a ways to go to catch up to the analog version, but they’re slowly getting there.