Claustrophobia 1643 v1

If I, Aguirre, want the birds to drop dead from the trees the birds will drop dead from the trees.

Claustrophobia returns better than ever in a deluxe new edition called Claustrophobia 1643, by Monolith.

The original Claustrophobia was a fun game, but the inclusion of pre-painted miniatures meant that it had a very limited set of creature minis in the box. There was also something a little too random about your level of choice in the game; you roll dice and (for the adventurers) select a line of stats or (for the demon player) various actions, and certainly as the demon player I always felt controlled by the action board rather than the other way around.

Thankfully all the problems have been cleared up with Claustrophobia 1643, the new version now by Monolith (makers of Conan). There’s now an impressive array of creepy monster miniatures and a host of scenarios to go with them. And the rules have been tweaked to give the players more agency, and the demon player more control. It all adds up to a better experience in my opinion, enhanced by some brave graphic design choices that, for the most part, work well to create a unique atmosphere. And I’ve always loved the dark Hell Dorado theme of 17th century-meets-Hell-and-invades-it.

Now, I’ve got an old version and two expansions to get rid of!

BTW, if you didn’t grab it first time around, there’s a Kickstarter running at the moment to sell the last remaining copies, along with a new ambient soundtrack for everyone.