# Gloomhaven - Work: Board game - Date: 2017 (Kickstarter 2015) - Made by: Isaac Childres (Designer) - Houses: Cephalofair Games - Platforms: Boxed board game, Digital adaptation - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/gloomhaven/ > Isaac Childres's colossal campaign dungeon crawl: cooperative mercenaries, hand-management combat with no dice, and a legacy world of sealed boxes that changes as the story unfolds. **Why it matters:** Gloomhaven fused the dungeon crawl with Euro-style card play and legacy campaigns, topped BoardGameGeek's rankings for more than five years and set crowdfunding records for tabletop games. ## Quick answers **When was Gloomhaven first released?** Gloomhaven was first released in 2017 (Kickstarter 2015). **Who created Gloomhaven?** Gloomhaven was made by Isaac Childres (designer). **Who published or developed Gloomhaven?** Cephalofair Games. **What kind of work is Gloomhaven?** Gloomhaven is a board game in the Dungeon-Crawler Board Games and Fantasy Adventure Board Games tradition, released for Boxed board game and Digital adaptation. **Why is Gloomhaven important?** Gloomhaven fused the dungeon crawl with Euro-style card play and legacy campaigns, topped BoardGameGeek's rankings for more than five years and set crowdfunding records for tabletop games. ## Overview *Gloomhaven* is a dungeon crawl on the scale of a roleplaying campaign. Designed by [Isaac Childres](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/isaac-childres/) and published by his company, [Cephalofair Games](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/cephalofair-games/), it arrived in 2017 in a box crammed with 95 scenarios, 17 character classes — most hidden at the start — and dozens of sealed envelopes and boxes to be opened only when the story demands it. One to four players control mercenaries working out of the frontier city of Gloomhaven, taking jobs, fighting through dungeons and slowly changing the world around them. It was a crowdfunded triumph and a critical one. From 2017 until February 2023 it held the No. 1 position on BoardGameGeek, the hobby's largest ranking site, and it redefined what players expected from the [Dungeon-Crawler Board Games](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dungeon-crawler-board-game/). ## Origins Childres, working independently, took *Gloomhaven* to Kickstarter on September 2, 2015, with a goal of $70,000. The campaign raised $386,104 from 4,904 backers. The finished game reached backers and then stores in 2017, and word of mouth quickly outpaced the supply of copies. In April 2017 Childres returned to Kickstarter for a second printing. That campaign raised about $4 million from more than 40,000 backers and delivered in November 2017. By August 2018 the game had sold roughly 120,000 copies — remarkable for a heavy, expensive hobby game. The design sits in a lineage that runs from [HeroQuest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/heroquest/) and [Warhammer Quest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/warhammer-quest/) through [Descent: Journeys in the Dark](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/descent-journeys-in-the-dark/), combined with the "legacy" format — games that change permanently as they are played — and with card-driven mechanics more familiar from strategy board games. ## How it plays *Gloomhaven*'s combat uses cards instead of dice. Each class has its own deck of ability cards, and each card has a top half (often an attack) and a bottom half (often movement or support). On every turn, each player secretly chooses two cards, then plays the top action of one and the bottom action of the other. The initiative number printed on the lead card determines turn order for everyone, including monsters. The hand is also a clock. Cards played are discarded and can be recovered only by resting, which permanently loses one card; the most powerful actions are "lost" when used. When a character can no longer play two cards, they are exhausted and drop out of the scenario. Every decision trades present power against future endurance. Monsters are run without a game master. Each monster type draws from an ability deck that determines its initiative, movement and attacks, and simple rules decide where it moves and whom it targets. Instead of rolling for hits, each character draws from a small attack modifier deck, which players customize as they level up. Elemental infusions — fire, ice, air, earth, light and dark — are created by some actions and consumed by others, rewarding coordination. Between scenarios the campaign unfolds on a large map covered in stickers. City and road events present moral choices, the city's prosperity rises and unlocks better equipment, and each character pursues a personal quest. Completing it forces retirement, opening a sealed box containing a new class. ## Reception & impact *Gloomhaven* won six Golden Geek Awards in 2017, including Best Overall Game and Best Strategy Game, and its reign atop BoardGameGeek's rankings lasted more than five years. Critics praised its tactical depth and sheer volume of content; its size and setup time became running jokes and genuine barriers. Childres extended the line with *Jaws of the Lion* (July 2020), a smaller standalone game with 25 scenarios and a guided tutorial. Its sequel, *Frosthaven*, launched on Kickstarter in spring 2020 and raised nearly $13 million from more than 80,000 backers — at the time, the most ever raised for a board game on the platform. ## Legacy A second edition of *Gloomhaven* followed in 2025, and a licensed digital adaptation brought its card combat to computers. The game's influence is visible in the wave of campaign-driven, cooperative board games that followed, and in the [crowdfunding](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/crowdfunding-tabletop/) economy that made such ambitious products possible. *Gloomhaven* also shows how far the fantasy adventure board game had traveled from the family-friendly dungeons of the 1980s. Where HeroQuest offered an evening's quest, Childres built a world meant to be lived in for a year of game nights, one sealed envelope at a time. ## Facts - Childres's first Kickstarter, launched September 2, 2015, sought $70,000 and raised $386,104 from 4,904 backers. - Combat uses no dice: each turn a player plays two cards, using the top half of one and the bottom half of the other. - Running out of cards means exhaustion — every card played to heal, rest or unleash big attacks shortens the scenario. - Gloomhaven held the No. 1 spot on BoardGameGeek from 2017 until February 2023. - It won six 2017 Golden Geek Awards, including Best Overall Game. - The 2020 Frosthaven campaign raised nearly $13 million, then the most ever for a board game on Kickstarter. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloomhaven) - [Original Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frosthaven/gloomhaven) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.