Stranger Things Board Game

 Our friend Graham popped round for a game again on Friday evening, this time bringing with him the Stranger Things board game, covering seasons 1 & 2.  This is a fairly incoherent overview of the game, hindered by the fact that it is relying on my memory of the evening and my rather hazy understanding of the rules, gleaned as we played.

Stranger Things

It's a co-operative game, your aim being to rescue Will from the Upside Down in the Season 1 version that we played.  Throughout the game, you can "Help Eleven", which releases psionic abilities to help you.

The game board for Season 1

The game board is divided into the town of Hawkins (top) and the Upside Down (bottom).  It's double-sided, with Season 2 on the opposite side.  The board is set up with small stacks of counters for the various challenges that will be encountered.  Each character has 5 random action cards that are numbered from 1-3, which can be spent to overcome challenges or perform actions.  The challenge counter stacks vary in size from 2 to 4 counters.  Counters are randomly numbered 0-5 and at the start of the game, all the stacks in Hawkins have the top counter turned over, giving a hint as to the total in the stack.  Most locations have a special challenge you can try to overcome, or you can get an item or calm down (move your fear tracker backwards).  At certain locations, you can perform actions or overcome challenges that let you turn over additional top counters or even look at one entire stack to find out the total.

Mike, Hopper & Nancy.

The figures for the characters are pretty good likenesses.  Mike has a radio, Hopper is in his Sheriff's uniform, Nancy has a revolver.  Not pictured are Joyce (clutching a string of fairy lights), Dustin and Lucas.  You also get a figure of Eleven, used to mark whether you are in Act 1, 2 or 3 of the game, which affects how many "Scene" cards you draw after each character has acted (more on that later).

Demodogs.

The demodogs are nice, coming in 2 poses.  They weren't used in our Season 1 game, only appearing in Season 2.

Lucas at his starting place in the Laboratory.

I played Lucas for the first game.  Each character has a starting location in Hawkins noted on their character card, Lucas started at the Laboratory in the woods.  Characters all have a special ability.  Nancy could move the Demogorgon or one of the patrol vans 1 location at the start of her turn, Lucas started with one item, Mike could "Help Eleven" from any location, whereas other characters had to move to a specific location in order to do so.  Dustin could move 2 locations rather than 1, and could move past enemies unhindered.

The Demogorgon lurks in the Upside Down...

The Demogorgon starts in the Upside Down, but may be drawn to your location as the game progresses... If that or one of the patrol vans are present at a location, you cannot perform the action/challenge at that location, so they are both a hindrance and a threat.

My character card.

Your character card has a fear track which builds as you experience things like a Demogorgon attack or as you explore the Upside Down.  If fear reaches the end square, the game is lost, but you can spend action cards to "calm down" in certain locations on the board.  On the left are my action cards, a couple of 1s, a couple of 2s and a 3.  The radio icon means you get to add an extra 1 to the score if you are in the same location as another character.  Action cards are spent to overcome challenges (equal or beat the total of the counters in the stack), move extra locations or perform actions at locations.  As an example, the first stack at the lab has only 2 counters, I already know that the top counter is a 1, so even if the hidden counter is a 5, I only need to spend my 1, 2 and 3 action cards to be sure of equalling or beating that challenge.  The red triangle means you have to draw an extra Scene card at the end of your turn - more on those in a moment.  Lucas also starts with a random item, in this case a bear trap to give +3 during a fight!  You can pick up items by searching various locations, though you can only carry 2 at a time.  When searching for items, the total of the action cards spent dictates how many item cards you get to draw, giving a greater choice over which single one you will keep.  They give bonuses in certain situations, for instance the first aid kit reduces your fear by an extra 4 when you spend an action card in a "calm down" location. Some items give a bonus to "Help Eleven" (activate her psionic abilities), others to "Rescue Will" (final objective), others at the Laboratory (as you remove additional stacks of challenge counters, allows you to use more red triangle action cards without adding extra scene cards - see below).

You also have opportunities to recruit Allies.  These include some of the more obvious ones such as Steve Harrington, Jonathan Byers, but also lesser characters such as Benny Hammond, the diner owner killed early in season 1.  Allies give you various abilities - Jonathan counts as a character in your location, giving you the +1 action for every action card you spend with the walkie-talkie icon.  Benny's only purpose is to be sacrificed (killed) as soon as you have gained him, in order to immediately activate one of Eleven's powers without having to complete the challenge.

Some of the Scene cards that cause you trouble.

At the end of each character's turn, you draw a "Scene" card.  This is generally something bad that happens to you.  The Demogorgon cards add to your fear.  If you're in the Upside Down, it can be especially deadly because it might add a number of fear equal to the number of challenge stacks in the Demogorgon pool, which starts at 4.  You can reduce the number of stacks by successfully fighting the Demogorgon, but with each stack containing 4 counters (potentially a total of 20 to equal or beat if you're really unlucky), it's a risky thing to do.

Some more scene cards.

Other scene cards involve the search parties from the Lab hunting you, which rob you of action cards.  Once you have worked your way through the whole action card deck, you shuffle them and start again... but now you are in Act 2 of the season, which involves drawing 2 scene cards after each character's turn.  Overcoming the stacks of challenge counters at the Hawkins' Laboratory means you can use event cards with the red triangle without causing extra scene cards to be used at the end of your turn.  Starting at the lab, I spent a couple of turns removing some of those stacks to make it easier/safer for everyone to use their action cards.

Approaching the endgame...

We lost the first game fairly early on when Lucas became terrified in the Upside Down.  We did better in the second game (I was Nancy), managing to activate most of Eleven's psionic powers and reducing the Demogorgon to half strength.  This meant that it would induce less fear if it attacked while we were in the Upside Down.

Nancy collapses from terror, thus losing the game.

Sadly, everything fell apart as we moved to try and Rescue Will.  After a failed attack on the Demogorgon, Nancy's fear moved to Terrified and the game was over.

The other side of the board for Season 2.

The Season 2 side of the board involves different challenges and adds in some extra characters and allies.

The game was good fun, but it certainly seems to be one where losing is the most common result!  It's well balanced, but would probably play better with more characters.  Although you draw a scene card after each character turn and would run through the action cards more quickly, you would probably have more items in play overall, thus making it easier to complete various of the challenges without having to waste actions repeatedly searching to try and find the best items for specific tasks (or having to spend more action cards because you don't have the bonuses from items).  You might be more likely to have characters at the same locations together, getting bonuses on their action cards, though it would make it more likely that you would both be affected by whatever the Scene card was at the end of the turn.

I'd certainly play the game again, I think as you played it more, you'd get a better feel for how to use certain characters to get the best use of their abilities, and would start to earn how many different challenge counters there are.  By the end of the second game, we knew that we had encountered a lot of the "5" challenge counters, so took a few risks that paid off.