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The Keep box art
1983 Ranked #10,063

The Keep

An asymmetric horror search game has investigators race through a labyrinth to find the weapon that can destroy Molasar. The demon consumes servants to block them, so every delay reduces its defensive options.

Card Game Economic Area Movement Once-Per-Game Abilities

Players

3-6

Play time

30-60 min

Age

10+

Complexity

1.67/5

Rating

6.27

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

A tie-in to the horror film of the same name. One player controls the evil demon, Molasar, while the others have twelve turns to find the Hilt, the only weapon that can destroy him.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

See all 7 mechanisms
Read the full game description

A tie-in to the horror film of the same name. One player controls the evil demon, Molasar, while the others have twelve turns to find the Hilt, the only weapon that can destroy him. It can be hidden in one of six rooms near the heart of a labyrinth. There are intriguing elements to the game; Molasar starts with twelve servants but actually has to "eat" one per turn, reducing his options in terms of blocking the searchers. Combat is handled by the attacked searcher nominating another searcher to play a combat card, which is compared against Molasar's; the loser is forced to "retreat" by the difference in values. If the searcher wins, they pick up a bonus (non-combat) card. All the searchers have (minor) special powers and Molasar has a number of one-off special cards he can play in trying to delay them. You can think of it, almost, as a very early, much simpler version of Lord of the Rings - except that in this one, one of the players gets to be Sauron!

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Editions

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Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
3–6
Best with
2
Play time
30–60 min
Age
10+
Complexity
1.7/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
James D. Griffin

Artists

3
David B. Bromley Jim Clouse Gerald O'Malley

Publishers

1
Mayfair Games

Linked items

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