Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition
Betrayal at House on the Hill: 3rd Edition Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
6 double-sided character boards, 6 character figures and bases, 2 haunt books (Secrets of Survival and Traitor's Tome), clips (30), dice (8), 74 game cards (Omens, Items, Events), 5 Scenario cards, 1 Monster reference card, 1 Traitor reference card, 6 Player reference cards, Number Track and pointer, 42 room tiles (including 3 starting tiles: the triple Ground Floor Staircase/Hallway/Entrance Hall, Basement Landing, and Upper Landing), and 114 cardboard tokens.
Game Setup
- Set aside the Traitor's Tome and Secrets of Survival haunt books (used after the haunt starts).
- Each player chooses a character and takes the matching board, figure, and base.
- Give each player four clips; place each pointing to a different green number on their board (starting traits).
- Place all dice within reach.
- Sort Event, Item, and Omen cards by type; shuffle each into a face-down deck.
- Place the Monster and Traitor reference cards face up within sight.
- Give each player a Player reference card.
- Build the house with the three starting tiles (marked with the symbol), placed in the center about 8–10 inches apart.
- Shuffle the remaining room tiles into a face-down stack.
- Place each explorer on the Entrance Hall space of the large starting tile.
- As a group, review the five Scenario cards and choose one (it becomes the characters' motivation and determines which haunt they will face). Return the rest to the box.
- Set the Number Track, pointer, and tokens aside (some come into play at the start of the haunt).
- The player whose explorer has the next birthday takes the first turn; play proceeds clockwise.
Traits, Damage, and Death
Each character has four traits—Might, Speed, Knowledge, and Sanity—tracked with clips. Set clips to the green starting values; trait values are public. Moving a clip may not immediately change a trait's value (some boards have duplicate numbers); a trait at its highest value cannot be raised. Healing returns a trait to its starting (green) value (or leaves it if already at/above). A trait at its lowest value (the skull symbol, red) is critical.
Damage lowers traits by the number of spaces (not the numeric value): Physical damage lowers Might and/or Speed; Mental damage lowers Knowledge and/or Sanity; General damage lets you choose which traits. You may divide damage among the associated traits. Characters cannot die before the haunt starts—pre-haunt damage that would drop a trait below critical leaves it at critical, and you cannot choose to lower a critical trait if others can still be lowered. Once the haunt has started, if any trait reaches the skull symbol, that character is dead.
Dice and Rolls
The game uses eight dice with faces of 0–2 dots; your result is the total dots showing.
- Trait roll: roll dice equal to your current value in the named trait (Knowledge, Sanity, Speed, or Might).
- Attack roll: a trait roll (usually Might); the defender rolls the same trait, and whoever rolls lower takes damage equal to the difference.
- Haunt roll: roll dice equal to the total number of Omens drawn by all players; on a result of 5+, the haunt begins.
- Other rolls: simply roll a set number of dice (not a trait roll, so unaffected by trait-roll effects).
How to Play — Before the Haunt
Players take turns clockwise. On your turn, in any order, you may:
- Move around the house and discover new room tiles (discovering a new room ends your turn).
- Trade Items and Omens with an explorer on your tile (with permission).
- Use your Items and Omens to take special actions (each once per turn).
You need not use all movement or take all actions. Your turn ends when you can't or don't want to do anything else, or automatically when you discover a new room.
Movement: At the start of your turn, your Speed is the maximum number of tiles you may move through (a mid-turn Speed change doesn't affect that turn). Each point of movement moves you to an adjacent tile (sharing a directly connected doorway; some tiles note specific connections). If two tiles touch but only one shows a doorway, they are not adjacent (a false feature like a closet). Forced movement: "up to" a number of tiles lets the mover decide the distance.
Discovering new room tiles: While moving, if you're on a tile with an unexplored doorway, you may move through it to discover a new room:
- The house has three regions (Basement, Ground Floor, Upper Floor), shown on the tile back.
- If the top tile matches your region, place it, aligning at least one doorway with the unexplored doorway you came from (you needn't match every doorway). If it doesn't match your region, bury it (bottom of stack) and repeat until you reveal a placeable tile.
- Place your figure on the new tile.
- Resolve any "when you discover/enter this tile" text.
- If the tile shows an Event, Item, or Omen symbol, draw and resolve a card of that type.
- End your turn.
After placing a tile, there must always be at least one open doorway in your region; if the only placement would prevent further tiles, bury it and draw a new one (or adjust the region's tiles minimally to allow placement). Trying to discover a tile only to run out of tiles for that region does not cost a move.
Playing Event/Item/Omen cards: Read Events aloud and follow them, then bury the card (some provide a results table for a trait roll—read only your matching result). Keep Items and Omens face up in front of you (you possess them). Whenever you draw an Omen, make a haunt roll. There are fewer Omen cards than Omen tiles—drawing the final Omen starts the haunt automatically.
Other things on your turn: Trading—once per turn, on the same tile as another explorer, freely exchange any number of Items and Omens by mutual agreement (but not one used for a special action or a weapon attacked with this turn). Special actions (marked with the symbol) from Items/Omens are optional, once each per turn, and only with cards you had at the start of your turn.
How to Play — After the Haunt Begins
Haunts are the unique stories of the House on the Hill. Each of the 50 haunts has a survivor version and a traitor version (with different goals), using the two haunt books.
Types of haunts: No Traitor (all cooperate, using only Secrets of Survival); One Traitor (one traitor vs. the heroes); Hidden Traitor (the traitor's identity is unknown and explorers may attack each other); Free-for-All (every explorer for themselves—Traitor's Tome only).
Starting the haunt: When a haunt roll succeeds (5+), the haunt begins and that player is the haunt revealer. Take the selected Scenario card, find the Omen just drawn, and it gives the haunt number and names the traitor. Find the haunt in both books; the heroes take Secrets of Survival and the traitor takes Traitor's Tome. Then, in order: heroes read their introduction aloud; heroes perform their setup; the traitor reads their introduction aloud; the traitor performs their setup; then heroes and traitor go into separate rooms to read the rest of their respective haunts. Information in your haunt book is secret only until you use it—when you take a special action or follow a rule, the other side can ask you to read it aloud.
Attacking: Once the haunt begins, you may attack monsters and non-teammates on your tile, only once per turn. Both attacker and defender roll Might (or another trait if an effect specifies); the higher roll wins and deals damage equal to the difference (Physical, or Mental if the attack used Sanity/Knowledge). No damage on a tie.
Weapons: Some Items/Omens are weapons that modify your attack—use only one per attack (announce which); you can't trade a weapon you attacked with this turn, or attack with a weapon obtained this turn. Weapons cannot be used to defend.
Line of sight: Two tiles are within line of sight if an explorer could move from one to the other without changing direction or region (other tiles may be between). Characters on a tile in line of sight are also in line of sight.
Looting bodies: Dead explorers still hold their Items and Omens; once per turn, on the same tile as a corpse, take one Item or Omen it carried (no permission needed).
Obstacles: Tiles with obstacles take two points of movement to leave. Before the haunt, some tokens are obstacles; after the haunt, opposing-team characters also act as obstacles.
Anatomy of a Haunt
Each haunt entry has four or five sections: Haunt Identification (matching the haunt number/Scenario card/trigger/traitor); Introduction and Setup (story plus setup steps, done before the first haunt turn); Main Haunt Gameplay (Special Rules that are unique to the haunt, and Special Actions marked with the symbol, always optional and once each per turn); Other Information (Objective, Tokens Needed, Important Locations, and an "If You Win" flavor text); and, in the Traitor's Tome only, Monster Boxes (each monster's name, traits, and special rules/actions).
Playing the Haunt
Heroes and traitor still count as explorers and can do what they did before, but there are no more haunt rolls. Traitors and monsters act as obstacles to heroes and vice versa.
Breaking ties to select the traitor: Usually the traitor is the haunt revealer; if the haunt bases it on the highest/lowest trait and there's a tie, the player closest to the haunt revealer (in turn order) is the traitor (if the traitor is "to the left of the haunt revealer," the revealer is excluded).
Variable player count: Haunt values may differ by player count (e.g. {1/5/7/9} = 3/4/5/6-player values).
Reluctant traitors: Another player may volunteer to be the traitor—swap the two explorer figures and pass the triggering card to the volunteer.
The Traitor's Special Powers: The traitor may ignore tiles' damaging effects (but still rolls for the Mystic Elevator and slides down the Laundry Chute) and may ignore Event symbols on tiles (but must fully resolve an Event they choose to draw).
Controlling Monsters: Some haunts let the traitor control monsters (using the Monster reference card). Monsters typically have fixed traits and cannot be killed—instead, a damaged monster is stunned (flip its token; if stunned at the start of its turn, flip it back and end its turn; stunning doesn't slow heroes). Some monsters are killed instead (removed and set aside) or cannot be stunned. Monsters move by rolling dice equal to their Speed (always at least one tile; roll once per monster type), may move between the Basement Landing and Ground Floor Staircase as if adjacent, attack with Might by normal rules, may ignore damaging tile effects (rolling for effects they use), and generally cannot hold Items/Omens or explore new tiles.
The Number Track records certain values in some haunts. If lost, you may look through the tile stack for reference (shuffle when done).
End of the Game
The first side (traitor or heroes) to complete their haunt objectives wins. Someone from the winning side reads that side's "If You Win" section aloud.