I’ve been aware of Gloomhaven, the proper big box original, since the Kickstarter in 2015. It feels like the best proxy for D&D for 2-4 people who don’t have a DM among them. It also feels intimidating in it’s commitment from a time and price perspective. I’ve had a regular D&D group years and knew shelling out $100 for a boardgame with family was as good as burning those dollars. But a little bit of me has always remained curious.
So why is the video above for Frosthaven, the behemoth of a sequel? Well this is how I discovered and picked up Jaws of the Lion. At the 25:15 mark there is a mini review for JotL, a bite sized version of the big box game that came out in 2020. It is pitched as an alternative starting point for folks who have never played the original. All for $25 and still packed with minis, cards, books, tokens, and more. I mean look at all this stuff:
After watching the video I picked up JotL and it arrived last week. Just in time for long holiday weekend where we had very little on our calendar. We tried to pitch the kids on playing, but it ended up being my just my wife and I in the end. We played through the first five scenarios and went from confused to enamored. The first five also walk the players through learning the game in small doses of rules introduced through play. It was a great way to learn a complicated ruleset while enjoying what is fun about the game that I hadn’t seen before. And there are another 21 scenarios ahead of us and we are looking forward to them.