There is a lot I like about Fearsome Floors: I'm a horror movie fan so anything with a monster gets my interest; its a racing game as you try to get your group out of a dungeon (I always play the Rock n' Rollers); but what really intrigued was the idea of an opponent (the monster), whose movements were programed.

As you work your way accross the dungeon using and avoiding obstacles, you can sometimes use the monter's predictable movements to get your opponents eaten! Lastly, this game can be played in a basic or advanced format, and both are great.

Bits:

The bits are cool. The board is very basic: a dungeon floor with a few atmospheric stains. The dungeon is a little unusually shaped in that two of the corners consist of a staggered wall, making for some interesting choices in the game.

The tokens are wooden disks with stickers on either side. The artwork is entertaing and cartoonish, and consists of seven teams: rock n' rollers, high schoolers, clerics, etc. We have played the game quite a bit and have had no problem with the stickers coming loose. Like any such tokens though, you have to be careful not to slide them all the time or you'll wear out the artwork.

Seventeen floor tiles are used as obstacles on the dungeon floor. You get two blood pools--one square and one long and narrow--with limbs and other unidentifiable body parts. The blood pools are slippery bits that allow you to advance all the way to the end. The other tiles represent stones that tokens can hide behind or push (the monster can push them too along with you). On the other side of the tiles are advanced obstacles you can use to play the advanced game. Also for the advanced game are two pairs of teleporters.

To determine the monster's movement you flip the top of eight tombstone-shaped tiles with numbers, in blood. You also get a starting player tile.

The monster itself can be constructed in any number of ways: to look like Frankenstein, a shambling pinkish mound, or a ghoulish looking butler, and a giant eyeball. Each one of these configurations consists of a head, body, arms and feet so you can mix and match for all kinds of creatures.

Set Up:

The main set up time is for the board itself. If playing the basic game, there is a prescribed set-up, which after a couple of plays goes pretty quickly. In the advanced set up you take turns setting up the board, which takes a little longer, but you can plan for lots of nasty surprises.

Play/Rules:

The object of the game is get your entire group, or as many of them as you can, out of the dungeon. Instead up using dice, you move your tokens according to white value printed, then flip them so that next turn you move them according to their black value. If playing with four or fewer players, you have the values 1/6, 3/4, 4/3, 5/2. I like this mechanic because its predictability helps determine how to move each piece. You only place two members of your group on your first turn; then your other two or one, if you are playing with 5-7 people. You move all of your available tokens in a rounf, and the starting player changes every round.

The monster moves according to a program: it looks ahead, right and left; if it sees no one it moves in the same direction it was facing, and looks in the same three directions in the next square. If it does spot someone, he moves towards them. If after looking in the three directions he spots two or three people, he moves towards the closest one. If they are the same distance apart, he continue to move in the direction he had previously been going in.

The monster never looks behind him, so that is a safe place, at least temporarily, and he can't see through stones, so that is another safe place to hid. You can also push stones--but not if there is a person behind them--to block the monster's view. The monster also pushes stones though and can push you with them right into a wall (the equivalent of being eaten by him). You can also hide behind or in line with another player's token, and hope the monster doesn't reach you.

Depending on the tile, the monster can move anywhere from 5-10 spaces, or until he makes 1 or 2 kills (he can only move to maximum of 20 spaces on the kill tiles). Sometimes being far enough away from the monster can also be a safe choice, however, if the monster walks into a wall, he goes through it and re-appears at a predetermined spot, and your safe-distance can suddenly disappear.

If your are eaten by the monster or pushed into the wall by him, your token is removed. You get to put it back on the board if it is eliminated in the first 7 turns of the game (the eighth movement tile is not revealed). After that, your token is permanantly removed from the game if eaten by the monster.

After the second time through the tiles (again not revealing the eighth card) the dungeon collapses and any remaining group members are eliminated. Whoever has the most group members out wins; if there is a tie, whoever got them out first wins.

The game can end before the dungeon collapses as soon as a player gets all but one of his tokens out.

Advanced Game:

The advanced game follows the same rules, except that you get to place the obstacles, many of which are new. You still have the two blood pools and three stones, but you also get two sets of teleporters (when the monster steps on one of them he reappears on the other); 2 crystal stones (essentially stones that the monster can see through); four right turn stones (the monster proceeds right when it reach this stone and does not push it); 2 180 stones (the monster reverses direction rather than push the stone).

You can get some pretty interesting set-ups in the advanced game. The monster's movements can still be predicted, but they are more complex--like a pinball bouncing off stones, or like a ghost going through walls only to be forced to go through another wall.

Like the basic game, the board is always changing as tokens move and push stones around, but there are more possibilities.

To make the board interesting though, you have to think like a dungeon designer and make the board evil. The monster can get into loop--bouncing back and forth between stones/teleporter combinations--and that is not much fun.

Strategy/Tactics:

Fearsome Floors is not a deep game, but it is interesting to find ways of avoiding the monster, or much better, luring the monster towards your opponent.

To avoid the monster when there are no available hiding places, you can sometimes place two of your tokens equidistant from the monster's path and have him carry on right by you. Sometimes you can also do this by setting up your token equidistant from your opponent's (make sure it is one that has already moved that turn).

Sometimes there is no way to avoid being eaten, and nothing is sweeter than taking down a few people with you, so when there's no hope, position your token so the monster will eat you and then enjoy a smorgasborg of your opponent's. He moves his full movement regardless of how many people he eats, unless you draw a kill tile.

To lure the monster to eat your opponents you can take advantage of the monster changing his course for whoever is closest. It doesn't matter how far away from the monster you are, if you are the one he sees, he will head towards you; however, if there is some closer on his way to you--on his right or left--then he will head there. This technique can also work to deflect the monster from your own tokens also.

All hiding places, except teleporters, are movable so you can sometimes reveal a tasty treat for the monster. Some degree of co-operative play is sometimes good to save your own skin, but you still want your opponent's team to get eaten.

In the advanced game, luring the monster into a teleporter can wreak havoc on your opponent. The monster can see you if you are standing behind a teleporter, but he can't get to you because he disappears when he steps on it and reappears elsewhere, hopefully close to your opponent.

Towards the end of the game, many of the stones tend to cluster around the exit. Normally only the monster can remove stones from the game by pushing them into a wall; however, if a plyer pushes them into the exit/entrance, they are also removed--a kind of scorched earth policy to leave the people behind you less cover. In a similar vein (no pun intended) if you take a slide on the long blood pool, no other player can use that same route for that round.

I have played with some people who take a while to move, trying to analyze every conceivable possibility to make their token safe, but the board is always changing and it is more important to think about how your move will change the board. We haven't found it necessary to use a timer, as we have found that players tend to make their moves faster the more they get used to playing.

Conclusion:

I have never played this game with 7, but have played with six and all numbers down to 2. It is by no means a deep game, but it is very fun, and forces you to think about your move. As the board will likely change a bit before the monster moves, you never have the feeling of having made a monumnetal decision, but always a mildly interesting one at least.

This game is fun and easy, and the advanced game's design element is especially interesting. I give this game an 8.