Terrorscapes horror game report

I had a game of Terrorscape recently, which hadn't been on my radar before. It is a boardgame leaning heavily into horror movie tropes. Up to three players are characters trapped in a mansion. Behind a screen, the other player is the killer, who doesn't know where the survivors are. The killer has to use logic and deduction to find, fix and finish their opponents- killing one survivor to win the game. The survivors can run, hide, and sometimes defend themselves. but cannot hurt the killer. They have to find five keys or fix the radio and wait for the police- all these actions make noise which attracts the killer, who gets stronger as the game progresses.

Our game was painted by my friend Lims, who took the killer's role. The Butcher has abilities to progressively lock down parts of the mansion. We found a few helpful items, not to mention a secret passage to the telephone room, and were saved by a cameo from Commissioner Gordon- not a moment too soon, as my character was about to be murderised!

I was concerned that the tension in a horror film comes from not knowing where the killer is, whereas in this game the killer's position is known. It was still tense, however, and I understand there are different types of villains that can be picked, as well as different locales.

Recommended!

Unfathomable

Father Dagon leads a wave to assault the Atlantica.

I painted the Deep Ones from Unfathomable, a boardgame where you are crew on a 1920s steamship being attacked by Lovecraftian watery monsters. You have to work together to allocate finite resources, resolve dilemmas, and repel boarders- but at least one of the players is secretly helping the monsters and trying to keep their real allegiance hidden!

Fairly simple paintjobs with Contrast and gloss varnish and plain black bases. There are twenty Deep Ones and they're identical, so it wasn't fun painting them and they've been stalled in my painting queue for over a year. Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are pleasantly hefty chunks of plastic.

Deep Ones

Father Dagon spawns more Deep Ones

Mother Hydra smashes the ship

The boardgame is a retheme of the 2008 classic Battlestar Galactica, which is well out of print. In BSG you are humans evading the Cylons, but some players may be secretly Cylons. The two games are very mechanically similar. The retheme acknowledges the heavy debt to BSG and other SF:

• You're on the SS Atlantica
• One of the crew has a dog called Starbuck
• There was a ship's cat called Ripley
• The Engineer is Jeanne Lafarge
• etc.

I was a traitor in our recent game- it was challenging trying to teach and supervise the game, because mistakes and oversights would favour me!

Mansions of Madness: Path of the Serpent

I've painted the monsters and investigators from the latest MoM expansion, Path of the Serpent. The monsters are a bit more pulp/ Indiana Jones than cosmic horror, but they're still nice figures.

Investigators

 

Ursula Downs, explorer

Leo Anderson, expedition leader

Daniela Reyes, mechanic

Norman Withers, astronomer

Monsters

Ancient Basilisk

Temple Guardians

Serpent People

Feathered Serpents