The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31

Product Information

Equipment cards or sabotage cards are submitted facedown. The captain will shuffle these so that no card can be associated with a player at the table. The captain then looks at the cards and they are allowed to substitute a card based on what they have seen. Following the instructions for the mission, you will either win or lose that task as a team. Anytime sabotage cards show up, players get up in arms and the accusations start flying. The game starts with each player being given a Blood Sample card. This will reveal their role in the game, to them alone, either that of a human or an imitation. There will be one imitation dealt at the start of the game to one of the players.

John Carpenter’s The Thing remains one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Along with Alien, it is one of the few movies that still unnerves and scares me every time I watch it, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. There is a rising tension that permeates every part of it that is brilliantly coupled with the audience sharing the characters’ uncertainty about who is human. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 will arrive later this year from USAopoly, Project Raygun, and Mondo to put you in the shoes of those characters. I played at Gen Con and I walked away calling it my most anticipated game coming out of the convention. It's impossible to talk about this game without comparing it to other hidden traitor games, especially Battlestar Galactica. The genre hit its peak years ago, and while The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 isn't bringing anything new to the table that Battlestar Galactica didn't do first, there's still reason why it might be worth a look, especially for fans of the film. Most notable is the structure of play. Other hidden traitor games such as Battlestar Galactica tend to hit a point where they turn into a team game. I've always found this to be something of a detriment to the design. The high points in any hidden traitor game are those moments of paranoia on either side, be it from not knowing who you can trust or from being found out. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 never breaks off into a team oriented direction, keeping that atmosphere of tension and mistrust going from start to finish, perfect for this IP.Board games have been a staple of family fun for decades with the likes of Monopoly to Candyland bringing young families together to create memories they will never forget for as long as many of us can remember. Of course, this bares the question, what happens when the family gets a little older? Surely they won't want to play Candyland forever, and that is where the best board games based on movies come in. Mixing some of the best and most remarkable stories on the silver screen and adapting them to board games seems like an ingenious idea, but it is one that has only truly started to spark a revolution in the games industry over the last few years. In the game, you relive the 1982 classic John Carpenter horror movie, The Thing, with this social deduction, hidden identity tabletop board game. Keri Russell, whose breakthrough role in the college drama Felicity was only two years away at that point, plays a crucial but difficult role in The Lottery . Popular school teacher Felice Dunbar is unlike other New Hopers, who are more standoffish than usual. No, she greets Jason with a warm smile that hides an unpleasant secret. Having grown up in New Hope, Felice naturally believes The Lottery serves a good purpose, but meeting Jason makes her question everything. And for a minute, it would seem Russell’s character is capable of shaking off years worth of indoctrination. This is a hidden traitor game, where one or several players will become infected as the game progresses. These players will be secretly sabotaging the missions the group is presented with while trying to remain undetected in hopes they'll earn a seat on the helicopter at the end of the game, thus bringing about the end of all mankind. It's up to the human players to minimize the damage caused by the Things and with some careful planning, deduction and table talk, determine who can be trusted when it comes time to escape. Let me start with saying that I’m a big fan of social deduction and hidden traitor games. The Thing does an excellent job in both aspects. Whether you’re playing a Human or an Imitation, you’re playing a role and trying convincing other players you’re Human.

For anyone who just wants the basic setup of the game and no scripting, here you go: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1833127677The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 was originally released in 2017 as the first tabletop release from pop-culture studio Mondo, as part of a partnership with the Project Raygun division of licensed board game maker The Op (then known as USAopoly). The problem with this kind of game is that it is very much dependent on the people you play with. Sure, any game you play with That Guy is going to be bad, but games with hidden roles, lying to the other players, deception, and betrayal are particularly bad for it. Added to that there is often the problem where if you mess up one little rule it breaks the entire game. So not only do you need the right people, those people need to grok the rules to a certain level for the game to actually be enjoyable. Any hidden traitor game is going to live and die by the level and type of talk going on at the table, but that seems to be more so than usual for The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. If the infected players don't manage to destroy the outpost by the time the group makes it the helicopter, a final vote is held to determine which player will be the final Captain. Depending on how much damage the infected players were able to inflict, the final Captain can look at the identity of a number of players before selecting who will make it out on the helicopter. If even one Thing player makes it, the humans lose. This makes socializing and deduction very important in The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31. Where a harmless joke about being a Cylon might fly in Battlestar Galactica, there's less of a safety net here in this game. Anything short of a convincing argument when it comes to your humanity makes you a suspect. Playing as an infected requires a delicate touch. You can't sabotage every mission you go on, but you also can't act normal and hope you'll slip on the helicopter undetected. There's a social skill set unique to this game that develops over multiple plays, which makes the game both more delicate and more rewarding.

Let’s deal with the obvious first: yes, I’m certain the developers of the game were well aware of John W. Campbell’s 1938 novella Who Goes There? as well as Howard Hawks film The Thing from Another World, much less the 2011 prequel The Thing, but Mondo’s semi-cooperative game very specifically focuses on the John Carpenter version, all the way down to specific characters from the film and even snippets of dialog. With that out of the way, onward with what is important: the game itself. Infection at Outpost 31, the board game adaptation of John Carpenter’s cult horror movie The Thing, is making a return later this year. Another big plus for me is that The Thing does an excellent job at emulating the 1982 movie. As soon as you open the box and look over all the components, it’s like stepping into the movie. Also, as the game begins, all players start in the rec-room trying to decide what their next steps are going to be, which places you in the tensest part of the film. Supply cards include many tools but also include Sabotage cards used for automatic fails. At the beginning of the game, cards are drawn that will make one player “the imitation,” who will be in conflict with all the human players in the game. Each player is then dealt a hand of supply cards that will be used to complete missions each round. The captain for the round, which passes between players, looks at the mission and selects a team of players to help fill the requirements on the mission card. After the team is selected, you’ll go to a room where each player on the mission will secretly add a card to the mission pile to see if they can meet the objective.As the cooler temperatures roll in, this is one of the games I’m most excited to bring to the table again. If your family or gaming group is looking for a game with lots of tension and deduction, this might be a great add to your game collection. 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. Once chosen, these players move their miniatures to the ‘Escape’ space on the board, and the moment of truth arrives. These players reveal their Blood Sample cards one by one. If the escape criteria is met, congrats! The Human players win! However, if one imitation made it on board, the Humans lose, and Earth is doomed. Be sure to make the right call! One More Thing… Pre-pub link is up, and the game is getting great numbers to start. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1083-wings-for-the-baron-deluxe-gmt-edition.aspx 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.

Dynamite - Dynamite can be used twice in a game to add or remove one pip to or from a dice. Simple, but very useful. We do most of our discussion before we even decide who’s in on the mission. We get everyone to state exactly what they’re putting in. This way, the entire group knows what should be in there. If it doesn’t add up, we start asking questions. 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. I was not old enough to see the movie The Thing on the big screen in 1982. I had to wait about 6 years later when a High School friend rented it. The Thing seemed just the right kind of wrong to me. Disembodied heads growing legs and eye stalks, and gaping maws opening in a man chest seemed to emulate my love of the macabre and Lovecraft. This brings us to today’s review, The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31.

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If you manage to defeat The Thing in battle, you will move onto the second section, which increases your chance of being infected. More Blood sample cards are dealt out to all players as you open your crew up to a wider area of the base. This gives a second or third player the chance to become an imitation, making each decision for building a crew, mission and battle even harder. In the final third section when you defeat the Thing, then will move onto the final escape attempt on the helicopter. Table Talk Set in a South Pole research station, the story details the invasion of an alien being, that has the ability to transform its appearance and starts to take over different people within the camp. The perfect theme for a hidden character game, so perhaps it was a mechanical choice more than a thematic one? Or maybe designer Joe Van Wetering is just a fan of the movie? Are We Alone? 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!