Gloomhaven: Second Edition is a revised and elevated version of the core game of Gloomhaven. This is the culmination of everything we have learned since the initial release of Gloomhaven, including feedback from the community, playtesters, co-designers, and developers. The world, story, and challenging gameplay are all still the same, but there is a plethora of additional content to explore. Even for those who have played Gloomhaven before, this edition brings new material to the table, with rebalanced and redesigned mercenary classes, items, and scenarios, as well as brand new artwork, newly written narrative and events, updated miniatures, a new faction-based reputation system, and more. Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the roles of wandering adventurers with their own special sets of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world. Players must work together out of necessity to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, they will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make.This is a game with a persistent and changing world that is ideally played over many game sessions. After a scenario, players will make decisions about what to do next, which will determine how the story continues, kind of like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book. Playing through a scenario is a co-operative affair where players will fight against automated monsters using an innovative card system to determine the order of play and what a player does on their turn. Each turn, a player chooses two cards to play out of their hand. The number on the top card determines their initiative for the round. Each card also has a top and bottom power, and when it is a player’s turn in the initiative order, they determine whether to use the top power of one card and the bottom power of the other, or vice-versa. Players must be careful, though, because over time they will permanently lose cards from their hands. If they take too long to clear a dungeon, they may end up exhausted and be forced to retreat.
