Zoinks! What do you get when you cross Scooby-Doo and Betrayal at House on the Hill? You get Scooby-Doo in Betrayal at Mystery Mansion of course!
The new board game from Avalon Hill comes out on July 24th, 2020 and is designed for 3 to 5 players, ages 8 and up. It should retail for $35.00. Each game that we played lasted roughly 45 minutes.
Those that are familiar with Betrayal at House on the Hill will immediately recognize how the game is played, and while it does have some similarities there is enough here to make the Scooby-Doo version a very unique game. Scooby-Doo in Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is not as complex (I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a watered down version – because it’s not – it’s just not as drawn out).
The premise; you play as one of the gang, Scoob, Fred, Shaggy, Velma, or Daphne (by the way, did you know that Shaggy is just a nickname and that his actual name is Norville Rogers?!) OR not… This is where the twist is, ’cause you know, in every episode of Scooby-Doo there HAS to be a twist… You may end up playing as the monster trying to stop those meddling kids!
Yeah, it just took something cool and make it kewl!
So, it breaks down like this, you pick your character, then once the haunt begins (a haunt is what they call a game session) one of the players is chosen to be the monster. There are a total of 25 different haunts in which you will go up against the usual Scooby monster – a vampire, a ufo, a demon-dog thing, a werewolf, or perhaps it’s simply a human wearing a mask! We also created our own two haunts with their own unique story.
Scooby-Doo in Betrayal at Mystery Mansion wouldn’t be an official Avalon Hill game if it didn’t come with lots of cardboard tokens you had to punch out, so the first game session went a little like this; we spent about 20 minutes carefully punching out the tokens and examining the artwork (which is amazing by the way) and then we read through the rulebook. Each character starts off with different abilities, Daphne starts with extra snacks, Fred starts with an extra item, Scoob can move an extra tile on his turn, Velma gets a bonus to her ‘brains’ roll, and Shaggy can re-roll his dice.
We initially goofed up and started reading the Monster’s Tome first, this was a mistake, read the rulebook first, as it explains that only the monster is supposed to read the Monster’s Tome. The rest of the players consult the Secrets of Survival book. In each of those it explains what the premise of the specific haunt is and what the objective for the players are and what the objective of what the monster is. The first one to complete their objectives, win.
It is important to note that not all of the tokens are used in every haunt. Pizza, for example, isn’t used a lot (in our custom haunts we actually made the pizza tokens an objective).
You then take a select number of tiles and set them up according to the haunt, and like the tokens, not all of the tiles will be used. There are indoor tiles for the mansion itself and outdoor tiles for when you are exploring, well, outside.
Avalon Hill Scooby Doo in Betrayal at Mystery Mansion Board Game
If you grew up watching Scooby-Doo, you will immediately see lots of easter eggs from the shows, and overall the game actually feels like you are playing in an episode. Once you have played a few of the provided haunts, return to this page and let me know some of the home-brew haunts that you have come up with, we’d love to try em out!
