Gloomhaven
Lead a party of mercenaries through a persistent cooperative campaign built around tactical card-driven combat, hand management and branching scenarios.
Each scenario is a tactical puzzle played on a map against automated enemies. Characters select two ability cards per round, using one top action and one bottom action while initiative helps determine turn order.
The same cards also act as a stamina clock. Powerful lost-card effects can solve an urgent problem but shorten the number of rounds a character can survive, making hand management central to the game.
Why We Love It
Gloomhaven ties tactical combat to a persistent campaign without using dice as the main action-resolution system. Choosing two cards each round creates a constant tradeoff between immediate power, initiative and how long a character can remain active.
About Gloomhaven
Each scenario is a tactical puzzle played on a map against automated enemies. Characters select two ability cards per round, using one top action and one bottom action while initiative helps determine turn order.
The same cards also act as a stamina clock. Powerful lost-card effects can solve an urgent problem but shorten the number of rounds a character can survive, making hand management central to the game.
Game at a Glance
Choose Two Cards
Pair one top action with one bottom action and plan around initiative.
Position Carefully
Movement and turn order shape which attacks and objectives remain possible.
Manage Stamina
Lost cards increase short-term power but reduce how long you can keep acting.
Grow the Campaign
Progress through branching scenarios, unlock content and develop mercenaries.
What is Gloomhaven?
Gloomhaven is Isaac Childres’s cooperative fantasy campaign game for 1–4 players. Cephalofair lists sessions at roughly 2–3 hours and age 14+.
Players control mercenaries, unlock new content and move through a branching campaign while tactical scenarios determine much of the moment-to-moment play.
How the game works
Each round, a character selects two ability cards and uses one top action and one bottom action, with initiative helping determine turn order. Movement, attacks, status effects and scenario objectives then play out on a tactical map against automated enemies.
Cards are also a stamina clock: stronger effects may remove cards from the current cycle, so spending your best abilities too aggressively can leave a character exhausted before the scenario ends.
The decisions that define it
Positioning and initiative matter as much as raw damage. Acting early can secure a key hex or remove a threat, while acting late can let enemies move into more favorable positions.
Hand management creates the central tension: every lost card increases short-term power but reduces how long the character can remain effective.
Who is it for?
Choose Gloomhaven if your group wants a long cooperative campaign, tactical combat and character progression with substantial rules overhead.
Choose Jaws of the Lion for a more guided entry point or Spirit Island for deep co-op strategy in stand-alone sessions.
Learn Gloomhaven in depth
- How to play Gloomhaven — cards, initiative, monsters and rests
- Gloomhaven strategy — hand stamina, positioning and scenario tempo
- Scenario success, failure and exhaustion
Publisher sources & scope
Checked September 16, 2026. This hub covers the original Gloomhaven board game, not Jaws of the Lion, Frosthaven or the digital adaptation.