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Required Reading
Like all Final Girl Feature Boxes, Frightmare on Maple Lane (Frightmare going forward) requires players to already own a copy of the Final Girl Core set in order to play and utilises all of the Core Ruleset that is broken down and explained within the Core Set’s excellent rulebook. If you are not aware of how Final Girl plays, I would highly recommend checking out our Final Girl Core Set review in which we break down how Final Girl works and what makes it so great! Please note: some components shown in pictures are not included within Frightmare on Maple Lane, but instead within the Final Girl Core Set.
What makes a great Final Girl feature (required expansion to the Final Girl Core Set), is in its ability to build upon Final Girl’s already extremely solid foundation by adding delightful little and sinister twists. And I’m pleased to say that Frightmare falls into the category of great!
Van Ryder Games have manged to introduce an interesting and fun new mechanic to not only Frightmare’s included Killer, Dr. Fright (defiantly not Freddy Krueger) but also within its iconic location, Maple Lane (definitely not Elm Street). So let me break down these main changes and what you can expect to see within this excellent feature for Final Girl!
What’s in the box?
Following the same tried and tested formula of all major Final Girl Features, Frightmare includes the following:
2 x Final Girl’s
- Sheila
- Nancy
1 x Location (including Location specific Events, Setups, Items, Action Cards and Terror Cards)
- Maple Lane
1 x Killer (including Killer specific Minor Dark Powers, Dark Powers, Finale Cards and Terror Cards)
- Dr. Fright
Regarding the components themselves, there isn’t really too much to say here; if you’re familiar with how Final Girl Features work, the physically included components will be no surprise to you and whilst the quality of components is more than good enough for the price point you pay for a Feature, I would still recommend sleeving your Final Girl cards to ensure they last you long into the future (or at least long enough for you to enact your revenge on these nasty Killers!) – having said that, I ran out of sleeves so the pictures in this review won’t reflect my advice!
However, it is in the mechanics and theme that Frightmare really justifies its value and worth to both seasoned Final Girl players and people more unfamiliar with the franchise who dipping their toes in for the first time!
Mixing up the Formula!
Much like Dr. Fright concocts his vile, sleep-inducing formulas to inflict on the Final Girls, so too have Van Ryder Games brewed some fresh and exciting changes to the Final Girl formula, both within the Location of Maple Lane and in Dr. Fright himself!
Dr. Fright is easily the most interesting killer I have tried to take down in my quest to becoming the ultimate Final Girl (to be transparent, as of writing this, I have faced Hans, Geppetto, the Poltergeist and Dr. Fright) and whilst this is partially due to me really enjoying his creepy theme and art, this is largely to Dr. Fright’s unique mechanic, the Boiler Room!
Unlike most other Killers you’ll face within the Final Girl Features, Dr. Fright can only hurt you, and you can only hurt him in your sleep! When I first learned of this mechanic, I was expecting my battles against Dr. Fright to be a cake walk. “It’s cool – I’ll just dip in and out of sleep whilst getting off a couple of cheap hits until I bring this guy down!”. This was before I learned of the Boiler Room…
Whenever you fall asleep (either by using a Rest Action or via the Terror Deck) Dr. Fright will drag you down into his Boiler Room, a twisted crucible of rusted pipes and gas clouds of unknown origins. In here, you play by his rules. To escape the boiler room, you’ll have to outrun and outwit Dr. Fright in a game of cat-and-mouse that is a perfect blend of luck and strategy; the same fine line that the Final Girl Core Ruleset also walks expertly.
Within the Boiler Room, you’ll slide a new deck of cards around (included in the Frightmare Feature) in a clever little minigame that will result in one of two outcomes; you either escape Dr. Frights clutches, or he catches up to you dealing damage to your chosen Final Girl regardless of the distance between the two of you on the game board… he can always catch you in your sleep! However, there are only 4 possible locations in the Boiler Room and once Dr. Fright has scoured one corner, he will never return to a location twice in the same dream; knowledge you can use to your advantage!
If Dr. Fright has already appeared in the bottom left corner of the room, you know that he is less likely to appear on the left-hand side than the right. As a result, you could opt to move left again in an effort to evade his attacks! It’s a delightfully tense little mini game that plays out on top of your regular actions and one that adds an extra layer of depth and strategy to each game that I really appreciate.
Open the door!
The included Location in Frightmare, Maple Lane, also has its own neat little twist. Unlike other locations from Series 1 of Final Girl; certain locations will require the successful use of a unique Action to enter; Convince.
Maple Lane is a sleepy little neighbourhood and so, when news breaks that Killer who haunts your dreams is loose in the area, the local citizens are not too keen on the idea of letting strangers into their homes (understandably might I add)! As a result, you will have to use the Convince Action to not only reassure these locals that you are here to save them… but to also loot their houses for supplies! The valuable items scattered around Maple Lane are only found in these houses; and once you’ve looted one, you can’t loot it again.
This addition of the Convince Action forces you to consider which houses you are entering more than most other Locations within Final Girl, and with the Convince Action costing 1 time, this means even more thought needs to be put into the Planning Phase. Do you take the Convince Action to try and enter someone’s house for that Crossbow you’ve been eyeing up from over the street? Or do you use that time elsewhere to heal up and plan for your next attack? Only you as the Final Girl can make that choice… let’s just hope it’s the right one!
Final Thoughts and Final Girls
Of course, a Final Girl Feature set wouldn’t be complete without 2 new Final Girls to add to your collection and Frightmare is no different, introducing Sheila and Nancy.
Whilst I will always have a special place in my heart for Reiko (see the Camp Happy Trails Feature), both of Frightmare’s included Final Girls have interesting Ultimate Abilities and useful bonuses that come from saving victims over the course of the game. For instance, I particularly found Nancy’s ability to swap out her final health token to be extremely novel and some of her victim bonuses such as granting access to more expensive Actions such as Planning and Long Rest can be extremely powerful early on and even helped me to beat Dr. Fright on my very first try!
Overall, Frightmare on Maple Lane is an excellent addition to any Final Girl collection and even a fantastic choice if you are just getting started and looking to pick up your first Feature. Both the Location and Killer are extremely thematic and offer mechanics that are unique and satisfying, whilst not feeling overly complex or obtuse. Where other Feature’s rules sometimes feel a little too clunky to manage, the ones included in Frightmare never feel like a chore to maintain and only add to an already fantastic game!
