The huge, 20 pound box that Gloomhaven comes in can be more than a little intimidating, but that’s nothing compared to all the boxes, cards, tiles and popout tokens inside the game box.
Gloomhaven is more than just a campaign-style adventure. It’s a system that supports the construction and play of millions of custom scenarios. But, it doesn’t lend itself to casual play. The floor tiles have to be found and arranged, the monster AIs need to be set up, their cards found and standees stood up. It could take half an hour to set up a session before I started working on organizing the stuff.
“Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion” promises to change all that. Instead of floor tiles to set up, each map is printed complete in a scenario book that you just play on directly. It’s been simplified a lot, and the first scenario takes you by the hand and takes away much of the complexity players had to work through before they could play their first adventure. You can begin playing Jaws of the Lion minutes after opening the game.
My family gaming group has already played through the main Gloomhaven scenario. I wouldn’t say we’re experts — we played on an easier mode than usual because we were playing with non-traditional character combinations — but we do understand the mechanics and probably don’t need a lot of the hand-holding. Next year’s Frosthaven will be our focus.
But I’m still going to get this. And I’m going to be working on taking this rather simple first scenario and make it truly epic by printing it on my 3D printer.
According to the video, the terrain in this first scenario is pretty simple. About a hundred tiles, and four obstacles — two one-hex rocks and two two-hex piles of debris. So yesterday I printed and painted some one and two hex rocks. (I couldn’t find any premade files for two-hex piles of debris and I do not know how to model things yet).
I also painted my first Gloomhaven character, the Cragheart. I always meant to get around to painting the miniatures in our first campaign, but never got around to it. There’s a bunch of mistakes in the painting, but I think it came out okay for my first try. I know I’ll do a better job on the next one.
I tried printing out some of the hex tiles, but my printer’s X-axis belt is loose and it screwed up a bit. I’ll have to tighten it up before I try printing anything else.
Playing in the scenario book . . . mind blown. I miss the regular game of Gloomhaven I’d play with my buddies every other Thursday night before quarantine. We thought about taking it to tabletop simulator, but haven’t done that leap yet. This looks like something I could maybe even play with my family if the rules are simplified enough. Thanks for the post!
Well, watch the video I embedded. It looks about as open the book and play as you can get. I tried the TTS version and couldn’t really figure it out, but I know Jaws of the Lion, and the first scenario in Frosthaven, are both there.