Gloomhaven Buttons And Bugs

Smaller But Still Mighty…

One of the first things about the preview of Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs I noticed was the drop in scale and that is the point. Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs is meant to be a smaller scale version of its big brother Gloomhaven and with the box being a quarter of the size it clearly sticks out as a smaller version. Not to mention it is designed as a 1 player game and so the perfect game for any solo Gloomhaven hero.

So Why Is It Smaller, What Is Buttons & Bugs All About?

Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs is a new game to the Gloomhaven series intended as a smaller, portable version of Gloomhaven, keeping as much of the original game as is needed whilst making it easier to pick up and play within 20 minutes. From a first glance a lot of components have been removed from its bigger brother and others have been adapted or shrunk for ease of use.

No more city or road events, this game instead focuses on its 22 scenarios, meaning the little interactions in between each scenario is lost, but this is okay as it allows the game to prioritise the scenarios first and foremost. Even with the loss of the road and city events that would create a feel of a wilder world the game still keeps its ongoing narrative with the scenarios and the subtext given for the game of the heroes quest to resize themselves from their shrunken selves.

There is also one major change used to shrink what is in the box, no attack modifiers or monster deck, now all of those functions are changed into a dice used to identify both how monsters react and how successful a player's attack was. These are done by the combination of an identifying card for both players and monsters with enough to represent the varying levels of difficulties and a dice which when rolled will identify where on the card to look for the result. To create the monsters unique abilities there cards for identifying them have both their health and 3 spots for their unique attacks which are chosen based off of dice rolls. The only downside I can see to the dice roll aspect of the game is that unlike the card aspect, certain unique powers could possibly never be seen as the dice is always going to have the same chances of rolling each side whereas the cards will always increase in chance as they go on. For the sacrifice of an easier game to get to the table the dice is a worthwhile sacrifice as is only having 6 mercenaries in the game with all the starting ones from the main box, this removes unlocking more along the way but saves space within the box. Even with just 6 mercenaries there are a lot of varying options and I can easily see them expanding this with more if it becomes a resounding success.

Enough Of What Has Gone, Now To Focus On What Is So Great About It

It may seem like I have problems with Buttons and Bugs but I can promise you this is far from the truth, I more want to make it clear that this is not as simple as Gloomhaven in a smaller box. More like a portable version of your favourite video game, this takes the box and shrinks and changes aspects of the game to make it a much more compressed and easier version of Gloomhaven.

To me this is a dream come true, taking my favourite board game of all time and making it easier and simpler to play, something that I can take on holiday and enjoy within a short 20 minute game. I enjoy how ultimately this feels the same as its bigger brother, keeping its varying enemies and characters and its card gameplay, and its clever use of both the narrative to create the story and clever adaptations to core factors of the Gloomhaven fun. Whereas a usual scenario mission of Gloomhaven will feature the player, choosing the scenario, gathering the right pieces like map tiles and terrains, setting up the scenario and starting it, in this small game a lot of the set up is simplified. Now instead of having to gather and put together all the pieces of the board, players just simply take the scenario card and place cubes to represent the enemies and their place figure. This means that bringing the game into action takes a lot less time and can make it smooth and quick for action, yes the diversity of play can be lost especially with a lack of a random dungeon functionality, but that cost means a quicker version of the well known game.

When you consider the fact that this solo game contains 22 scenarios and 6 mercenaries it is still very clear that there is a lot of replay here, with completing the narrative with all 6 mercenaries one by one taking you to a grand total of 132 times. That and the fact that each mercenary will grow and gain new cards there will always be a reason to come back even after completing each scenario.

What To Get Excited About?

It is definitely worth getting excited for this game of Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs, not only because of the way it is able to capture the heart of Gloomhaven and bring it to the table in quick 20 minute scenarios, but for what it can mean for the future of Gloomhaven and games in general. Here is a solid attempt to bring more diverse, complex and challenging games to an audience with only a short amount of time. I for one am excited to try this game and see if it is as fun as it seems to be on the table and I am excited to see how this can change the board gaming world in the future.

From this I expect not only to see more Buttons and Bugs content in future if this does as well as I hope it will but other companies trying to find their own version of this with their popular games. Let's hope that this can be as successful as its bigger brothers of both Gloomhaven and Frosthaven and who knows, maybe in a few years we can see Frosthaven Buttons and Bugs or Twilight Imperium Microverse (maybe not).

For now there is no official release date for Gloomhaven: Buttons and Bugs but it is up for backing on backerkit.