You’re sitting in a dimly lit room. The floorboards of the cardboard mansion creak under your plastic miniature. You just found a dusty old book in the Library, and suddenly, the omens align. The dice hit the table. A five. It’s not enough. The Haunt begins. This is the exact moment Betrayal at House on the Hill shifts from a cooperative exploration game into a frantic, often hilarious, fight for survival.
Most board games give you a clear goal from minute one. Not this one. You spend the first half of the night basically loitering in a haunted house with your buddies, picking up weird items and exploring the Attic. Then, the game flips the script. One of you—maybe the person who brought the snacks—is now a traitor trying to sacrifice the rest of the group to an ancient deity. It’s chaotic. It’s sometimes unbalanced. Honestly? That’s exactly why people still play it twenty years after it first hit shelves.
What Betrayal at House on the Hill Gets Right (And Wrong)
Board game purists sometimes hate this game. If you go into Betrayal at House on the Hill expecting a tight, competitive strategy experience like Chess or Terraforming Mars, you’re going to have a bad time. The rules can be messy. Sometimes the Haunt starts so early that the survivors have zero items and get absolutely slaughtered in two turns. Other times, the heroes are so geared up that the traitor doesn't stand a chance.
But that’s not really the point.
The game is a "story engine." It’s designed to mimic the pacing of a B-tier horror movie. You have the slow buildup, the rising tension, and the frantic climax. Bruce Brown and Rob Daviau, the minds behind the original design, leaned heavily into trope-driven gameplay. You aren't just playing a generic character; you’re playing the Jock, the Clairvoyant, or the Weird Kid.
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The Haunt Mechanics are the Heartbeat
Everything changes during the Haunt. When the omen dice roll fails, the game pauses. The traitor takes the Traitor’s Tome booklet and leaves the room. The remaining players open the Secrets of Survival guide. Both sides read their new victory conditions in secret.
This separation is brilliant. It creates immediate, genuine paranoia. While the traitor is in the kitchen plotting how to turn the house into a swamp, the survivors are whispering about whether they should trust the guy holding the Revolver. There are 50 different haunts in the base game alone. You might be dealing with a hidden traitor, a giant bird carrying the house away, or a shrinking room. Because you don't know which haunt you'll get until it triggers, the replayability is technically massive, though some scenarios are definitely more polished than others.
The Evolution of the House: 2nd Edition vs. 3rd Edition
If you’re looking to buy Betrayal at House on the Hill today, you’ll mostly see the 3rd Edition (released in 2022 by Avalon Hill/Hasbro). It’s a significant upgrade from the 2nd Edition that dominated tables for a decade.
First, the art is just better. The 2nd Edition had those weird, translucent green dice that were notoriously hard to read, and the character cards used tiny plastic clips to track stats. Those clips were the worst. They never stayed on. If you bumped the table, your character’s Speed and Sanity were lost to the void. The 3rd Edition fixed this with dials and better cardboard.
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More importantly, the 3rd Edition tried to fix the "clunky" factor. They added "Reluctant Traitor" rules and adjusted how the Haunt starts to ensure you actually get to explore the house before the murder begins. They also updated the themes. Some of the older haunts felt a bit dated; the new ones feel a bit more like modern horror (think A24 vibes mixed with classic Hammer Horror).
Why the "Betrayal" Name is a Bit of a Lie
Here is a hot take: the game isn't really about betrayal in the way Among Us or The Resistance is. In those games, you choose to lie. In Betrayal at House on the Hill, the game tells you to be the traitor. It's a mechanical shift rather than a social one.
You don't spend the whole game pretending to be good while secretly sabotaging the group. You genuinely work together until the moment the dice decide your fate. This makes the "betrayal" feel less like a personal stab in the back and more like a tragic possession. "Sorry guys, the Ghost Bride told me I have to drown you all in the Underground Lake. Nothing personal!"
Survival Tips for the Brave (or Evil)
If you find yourself playing tonight, keep a few things in mind to actually stand a chance.
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- Don't ignore the Basement. It’s a trap, honestly. Getting out of the basement is notoriously difficult because of the stairs and the "Coal Chute" tile. If you get stuck down there when the Haunt starts, you might be out of the action for several turns.
- Stat management is life. If your character has a high Knowledge, stay in rooms that reward Knowledge rolls. Pushing your luck to gain a tiny bit of Might when you already have a 6 is usually a waste.
- The Traitor needs to move fast. Usually, the survivors have the advantage of numbers, but the traitor often has "monsters" or house effects they can control. Don't let the heroes group up. Pick off the weakest player—usually the one with the lowest Sanity or the least items—immediately.
- Read your Haunt rules twice. Because the two sides don't talk, it is incredibly easy to misinterpret a rule. If the game feels impossible, someone probably misread a sentence in their booklet.
The Legacy Beyond the Base Game
The success of the original game spawned a few interesting spin-offs. There is Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, which swaps the spooky house for a Dungeons & Dragons setting. It’s actually a bit more mechanically sound because the "monsters" are more varied.
Then there is Betrayal Legacy. If you have a consistent group of friends, play this. It takes place over multiple generations of families visiting the same house. Actions you take in the 1600s—like burning a room or leaving an heirloom—affect the game when you play the 1920s chapter. It’s widely considered one of the best legacy games ever made because it gives the "House" a personality and a history.
Getting It to the Table
To get the most out of your session, lean into the cheese. Read the flavor text out loud in a spooky voice. Turn off the overhead lights and use a lamp. The game is a "horror movie in a box," so treat it like one. Don't get too bogged down if a rule seems ambiguous; just make a group decision and keep the momentum going.
The beauty of Betrayal at House on the Hill isn't in the winning. It’s in that one time Sarah turned into a werewolf and ate the entire party just as they were one turn away from escaping in the elevator. Those are the stories you'll talk about for years.
Practical Steps for Your Next Session
- Check the Errata: If you're playing the 2nd Edition, keep a phone handy to look up the "Errata" online. Some of the original haunts had literal typos that made them impossible to finish.
- Assign a Rules Lawyer: Have one person who is responsible for checking general movement and combat rules so the Traitor and Survivors can focus on their secret objectives.
- Watch the Clock: A typical game takes about 60 to 90 minutes. If the exploration phase is dragging, start rolling for the Haunt even if you haven't drawn an omen card yet to force the action.
- Player Count Matters: While it says 3-6 players, the game really shines at 4 or 5. With 3, the traitor often gets overwhelmed by the action economy of the survivors. With 6, the house gets crowded and the wait between turns can feel like an eternity.
Focus on the narrative, embrace the inevitable unfairness, and remember that in this house, the walls are definitely watching you.