The humans need to deduce who is their friend and who is their foe and ensure they don’t take any imitations on the chopper with them come the games’ climax. Are you ready to take to the blistering climate with your so-called ‘friends?’ Here’s how to play. The Setup The Thing is played over a series of rounds each consisting of 8 phases. The game can end in a number of ways. The humans can win if they manage to identify all alien threats and escape the outpost. The cards played by each chosen crew members will determine the number of dice that can be rolled per mission, to a maximum of six. If the result of the dice roll meets the requirement for the mission card, then the humans pass the mission and can reveal the chip that was in this room. Their search was successful.

How To Play The Captain (whoever has the revolver token) draws a mission card, and gathers a team together based on the number on the card, making sure to adhere to the departmental requirements. Missions require players to secretly submit supply cards from their hand to the captain to resolve a variety of circumstances, from revealing a specific supply card, to building a hand of dice to roll higher than a specific number. Battles work by the players involved in the mission by providing another card to determine how many dice can be rolled. You will be facing The Thing at three different levels of difficulty throughout the game as you make your way through different rooms within the base. A level one Thing requires you to roll three of a kind with three rolls. If the vote is unsuccessful (majority thumbs down or a tie), the Flamethrower card has been ‘used’ and is discarded. No-one is eliminated early. Room Effects The location and story are intrinsically linked. So much so, that the crew at the real-life South pole Telescope station where the game and film is set, have a tradition whereby the two movies are watched the first night after the final plane of the season has departed. Perhaps now, they will play the game too! Although, that may make it too real!

Ares Games to distribute the retail edition of the “The Thing – The Board Game”, now on Kickstarter

I found the game had a few issues regarding the alien player. While its great to become the alien and surprise everyone, players who join forces with them at a later time don’t really have much to do other than help decide where the aliens strength tokens will be placed. As a fan of the original movie I can say that this is a superb hidden role game and one of the most thematic and immersive experiences I have ever played. Playing Your Roles In The Thing Usually, another player has been quietly setting up arguments and accusations. If they managed to creep their way onto the Helicopter to win the game for the Imitations, when everyone was convinced of their innocence... well, this is what hidden character games are all about and what games like this are made for. The Thing is a game that mixes different mechanisms to create an experience that is as faithful as possible to that of the original film. It is a "hidden role" game, in which one player is initially the Thing and the others players are humans. The purpose of the Thing is to infect others, to prevent the survivors from escaping from the base (which can happen three different ways), or to try to escape with them by behaving as a human. Dynamite - Dynamite can be used twice in a game to add or remove one pip to or from a dice. Simple, but very useful.

Although the crew in the film consisted of 12, we only have 8 in the core game. The majority of the iconic ones are here but I can’t figure out why they left out Childs, one of the only survivors at the movies’ climax. Yeah, we’ve been here a while. This ‘How To Play’ is a long-un, as The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 has a simple baseline with many moving parts surrounding it. Hopefully this guide has made a semblance of sense, but I have one more parting tip. Power Out - Place a ‘power out’ card on the room in question. Counter it by discarding a Flashlight supply card. The movie board game retells the events of the 1982 film, as four to eight players take on the roles of researchers stranded in the Antarctic with a deadly shape-shifting alien. The group of players must sweep the station, complete missions and ultimately escape in a helicopter. Making things harder are hidden traitors, who can sabotage the humans’ efforts to make it out alive by destroying rooms and impeding other actions if they remain undetected. I love how players can be elected to be the leader of the group. It can give you a great sense of duty and control over the game,. Deciding how to distribute the action cards to various locations while keeping an eye on where players are moving to. It’s even more fun if you are secretly an alien player. Watching everyone squabble and argue over why that player moved to a location or why they did something the last turn.Later in the game, more will be dealt out amongst other human cards. In a seven or eight player game, there is the chance for two more Imitations to be dealt. In a four to six player, there can only ever be one more. This is the main rule difference between player counts, but the overall feeling with more players is very different. For a game about table talk, the more in this case is very much the merrier. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 board game is based on a film originally made in 1951. It received high praise from critics and cinema goers alike. In 1982 it was remade with somewhat less enthusiasm coming from the public but has since gained quite the cult following from fans of suspense and horror films due to its creepy thrills.

As I mentioned at the start of my review this is one of best thematic horror game experiences and a well crafted emulation of the themes of the movie. Flamethrower - The most dynamic bit of gear in the game, with two ‘charges’ of use. The player can either add 3 dice rolls to any mission, or have a player reveal their Blood Sample card to only the player wielding the flamethrower, then the Flamethrowers first ‘charge’ has been used. The card is flipped, and can only then be used to add 3 dice rolls to any subsequent mission. However, the player can exhaust both charges to ‘torch’ a player, removing them from the game. After accusing someone of being an imitation, all players vote with a thumbs up or down on torching said player. Note, only one player can be torched in a game with 4 or 5 players.John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing was a milestone of the Horror genre. Both were immensely successful and influential, pushing the boundaries of practical effects at the time, and raising the bar for cinematic horror going forward. A group of people trapped together not knowing who is friend or foe? Sounds like a pretty engrossing social deduction board game concept, don’t you think? A selected leader will then shuffle and one at a time reveal the action cards, then decide where to apply these at the locations. The cards consist of use, repair or sabotage. Use lets you perform area actions like supply a room or draw an item card. Repair allows you to fix broken areas of the base. Sabotage will damages areas, resulting in escape methods becoming inaccessible. The idea of drawing tokens from a bag to see if a dog infected you is scary but exciting as your role can suddenly switch. Downplaying the result and keeping your head down while you secretly changes roles feels like your acting out a role in front of your friends.

I love how this encourages co-operative gameplay and brings out table talk. You will be debating and at times, arguing over what to do as the situation grows more intense and the pressure rises.If players wish to enter a room for a mission with any of these effects in play, they must discard the relevant card to counter it. Also, a player not on a mission may discard a card to remove the effect while others do a mission elsewhere. Despite a few minor issues The Thing: The Board Game is an outstanding hidden role game. Totally immersive and thematic and one of the best interpretations of a movie into a board game I have ever played. The entire game is built on two T’s. Table talk and tension. With the right group, this game can be amazing. The accusations, counter accusations, and general arguing are hilarious. If there’s an uneven split (you’re not playing with 6 players exactly), don’t worry! As long as it’s relatively even, it’s okay! Be sure to look at what Captain powers characters have, as they can help you when you’re leading a group of supposed humans on your turn! Take your respective miniatures and place them in the ‘Rec Room’ on the board. Deal out 5 supply cards to each player. Your hand is secret, don’t show anyone!