Friends
Alter
Spezial
Of Vampires and Hunters
Van Helsing
Caution, Holy Water!
Drakula, du schlimmer,
komm
nicht auf mein zimmer,
tu mama
nicht schrecken,
nicht uns
kinder necken,
bleib’
bloß schön zu haus’,
bei der
flebebermaus.
H. C. Artmann
Four vampire hunters enter Castle Dracula to finish off the Dark Prince of the Undead. They search the castle’s rooms for weapons and other useful things. Meanwhile Count Dracula tries to herd his vampire brides to the safety of his crypt and at the same time eradicate the hunters. The hunters may celebrate their victory only when either five of the brides or the chief vampire himself are killed. Otherwise it is a triumph for the dark side.
Fréderic Moyerson, creator of the intriguing card game “Saboteur” (Amigo 2004) and the hide-and-seek variant “Nuns on the Run” (Mayfair Games 2010) amongst others, has now ventured into the world of theme based board games following in the footsteps of adventurer Dr. Van Helsing against the infamous Count Dracula as invented by British-Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897.
“Van Helsing” is played on three sketch levels (one game board, twice foldable) of the Transylvanian monster’s castle. At random, markers are placed face down into the rooms of the castle, some rooms are to be marked “locked” as well (so only Dracula may enter there at the start of the game), all players get their character sheets containing wound counters, the four hunters – if there are less than five players, hunter characters have to be divided among them, since they only stand a chance against evil if all four hunters take part in the chase – get (six) starting markers (“initial object markers” – weapons, medicine, a crucifix) and Dracula gets one starting marker with a vampire bat on it (a joker, may be used when dice are being rolled). The hunters’ playing pieces start in front of the castle doors, Dracula starts inside his crypt. On each of their turns the characters take actions (movement, search, combat) according to their life-/blood-points. Hunters may keep and use (most of) found and uncovered objects, Dracula may only keep vampire bats and vampire brides. Turns are rather simplistic: Characters move from room to room, trying to discover as many useful items as possible (useful for their faction, that is). Dracula (as well as his brides and possibly hunters turned into undead minions due to death in combat) may move in secret. The Dracula player has to jot down these secret moves on a sheet of paper, though, to avoid cheating; something similar was used in „Nuns on the Run“. When hunters and vampire(s) meet on the same space, a combat sequence may unfold. The result of said event is decided by rolling a die – hunters may only attack when they already own a weapon (object marker). In order to win, their die roll has to be equal to or less the number printed on the object marker in question. Vampires on the other hand measure their die cast against their amount of life-/blood-points and may choose between attacking with claws or fangs. If Dracula succeeds in stealing his victim’s last life-/blood-point by biting, that hunter is turned into an undead creature, from now on Dracula’s minion. That means Dracula now controls that character.
Three (of the four) victory conditions are rather straightforward – the hunters win, as soon as they kill Dracula or five (out of eight) vampire brides, Dracula (along with his minions, if any) wins as soon as he reaches his coffin inside the crypt together with at least four vampire brides. Dracula also wins, though, if he has turned all four hunters into vampire minions. Apparently you have to play on to reach any other of the remaining three victory conditions, if a hunter character drops out of the game due to death and not being turned into a vampire minion.
The game components are rather nice, even if a bit plain in general. Designer Fréderic Moyerson remarks in an article found on the internet that the “locked room”-markers seem to have been produced a bit too large, so he recommends to replace these markers by using smaller objects, e. g. match sticks. Well, really!
Although one is intrigued to play “Van Helsing” more than once or twice, some aspects point rather to the contrary. The rules are short and more or less to the point, there are refreshingly few typos (for example one funny thing: one note gives a reference to a character known from the novel that does not make an appearance in the game; this is in the German part only; the rule booklet, by the way, comes in English, French, Dutch and German), but even in this short rules booklet an index would be very helpful. Some items (markers) are explained rather confusingly. The least satisfactory point is, though, in spite of a small note in the “Tactical Hints” chapter, the disproportionate advantage for Dracula, at least until the hunters can lay their hands on the most powerful weapons (crossbow, phial of holy water). Every single test game was won by Dracula, regardless whether he played aggressively or simply tried to lead his vampire brides to the coffin’s safety in the shortest time possible. True enough, Dracula may claim that it is his castle and he makes the rules, for example passing through locked doors or using the secret passage, but when, as it chanced to happen every time, the randomly distributed items lay very disadvantageous for the hunters (brides turned up before the hunters could gather weapons, the key object markers on the other hand never turned up, supposedly they were inside locked rooms) it is not really great entertainment for the hunters.
Since „Van Helsing“ happens to be a nice game after all, players should consider making up their own set of house rules to enhance the balance of the game for the hunting party. You could for example declare Holy Water or a rifle as “initial object marker” for the vampire hunters, or Dracula could begin the game with less than his full complement of blood-points to slow him down a bit. Such measures would definitely increase the thrill of the game.
Martina & Martin Lhotzky, Marcus Steinwender
Spieler : 2-5
Alter : ages 10+
Dauer : 45-70 min
Autor : Fréderic Moyerson
Grafik : Vladimir Nartov
Titel : ident
Preis : ca 22 Euro
Verlag : Sirius 2010
Genre : Fantasy adventure game
Zielgruppe : With friends
Sprache : de
Regeln : de en
Text im Spiel : no
Kommentar:
Nice but plain components
Rules could do with an index
Easy to master
Painstakingly made
Vergleichbar:
Black Morn Manor
Meine Wertung: 5
Martina. Martin und Marcus:
Easy-to-learn game of hunting, without much preparation– there is a certain amount of possible frustration (due to chance causes), but still the game impresses with its likeable, if slightly creepy setting.
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