Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, or How I Finally Got the Base Box Off the Shelf

Bought this specifically because I own actual Gloomhaven and it has sat on the shelf, unplayed, for two years now, big glossy box, mint condition, basically a monument to my own optimism. Jaws of the Lion I brought home on a whim from a used game store, twenty bucks, slightly dinged corner, and I had it on the table within the week. That gap tells you everything. The scenario books here have the map printed right on the page, no tile hunting, no standee sorting, tear down in five minutes flat instead of forty, and that alone got it played more in a month than big Gloomhaven got played in two years.

Here’s the thing nobody warns you about going in, the stickers. You permanently mark up your character sheet and the scenario books as you play, and the first time I peeled one off the sheet my hand actually hovered there a second, worried I’d misalign it and regret it forever. Turns out it doesn’t matter, a slightly crooked sticker still tracks your hit points fine, but that little hesitation is real and I’ve seen enough people online say the same thing to know it’s not just me being precious about components. If it really bothers you there’s a dry erase workaround floating around, I just leant into it instead.

Combat here plays like a hand management puzzle wearing a dungeon crawler costume, you pick two cards each turn, one for the top action one for the bottom, and figuring out which half of which card to use when is the whole game. Two characters is the sweet spot, my wife and I ran a full campaign that way, though I’ll say running two characters solo is a real chore if you ever try it, way more bookkeeping than it looks like from the box art. Minis are genuinely nice for the price point too, better than I expected off a starter set.

Only real knock is it’s shorter than the full game by design, seventeen scenarios and you’re done, which is exactly the point but still stings a little once you’re hooked. Bought a second copy for a friend’s shelf before I’d even finished my own campaign.