In This Game Is Killer: Frozen Horror, the second game in Smirk & Dagger Games’ This Game Is Killer series, four to ten players will scheme, bluff, fight, or just plain flee to avoid being killed by the shapeshifting, human-imitating, license-dodging “Horror” at an “isolated arctic outpost” (see? It’s a completely different pole!) The Horror itself, of course, is trying its best to eliminate all other human beings (I get it), one room at a time. All of the action takes place over the course of several lightning-quick rounds with the whole thing wrapped up in about fifteen minutes or less.
“We didn't want to turn it into a social deduction game,” says Curt Covert, head honcho and “Chief Instigator” at Smirk & Dagger Games, “So it wasn't really about trying to figure out who the horror was, it was the paranoia of assuming it was any of them that drives the fun of this edition of the game.”
On the table is a map of the outpost, consisting of just four rooms (Research Lab, Mess Hall, Radio Room, and Garage) arranged in a two-by-two grid. Connecting the rooms are color-coded passageways (blue, yellow, green, and purple) and each room connects to three of the four colored exits.
Each player takes a team badge with their player color and a token to represent them on the board. Starting with the first player (the rulebook says the first player should be the person who most recently saw a horror movie… FANGORIA readers should probably just choose randomly), everyone will place their token in one of the four rooms of the outpost.
Smirk & Dagger calls this a “party game” and it is. It trades the social deduction and blood tests for quick decisions, clever maneuvering, and outright “screwage” of your fellow humans. It’s really all about being left alive at the end, whether or not anyone else survives with you… unless you’re the Horror, that is. Identity cards are then dealt. Most indicate the player is “human”, but one of them will be the Horror. Players, of course, keep this identity secret. Finally, everyone is given two Outpost cards and the round begins.
Everyone will play both of their Outpost cards every round, in player order, but only one at a time, choosing to play each card for one of two possible effects: either as an “access key”, allowing that player to move through one of the color-coded exits connecting the rooms, or for its action, described in the text on the card.
Cards are oriented one way or another to indicate the choice and the decision (either movement or action) is carried out immediately, before the next player lays down their card. In this way, each player plays one card, then plays their second card in reverse player order (so the last player essentially plays both cards on their turn).
The devil really is in the details of those action cards. You’re able to place lockdown tokens on exits of certain colors, exits of your choice, or stop others from leaving your room at all. The “Stay Away” card lets you shoot and kill anyone who enters your room until the end of the round.
Other cards let you reveal the secret identity of other players, share identity information with another player of your choice, or even force a swap of Identity cards. “Scramble to Safety” lets you wait until the end of the round and, if you end up in the same room as the Horror, you scurry out through any available passage.
There’s even one very sinister card titled “Torch It” which lets you place a fire token on any room. At the end of the round, everyone in that room dies. Hopefully, one of those burned alive will be the Horror, but there’s always the chance you just immolated a number of your fellow humans. It’s an extreme card, but, you know, desperate times…
Once all cards have been played and all actions and moves completed, everyone reveals their secret Identity cards, learning who is human and who is the Horror. Anyone unlucky enough to have ended up in the same room as the Horror will be attacked and killed, but only those who share the highest “priority number”. You see, each of those Outpost cards played for their action contains a number in a little blue hexagon: either a one or a two. If there are both ones and twos in a room with the Horror, all twos will be killed, while the ones (presumably) slip away unnoticed.
However, the Horror itself could have been killed by one of the actions on the cards. If that’s the case, then any humans left alive will share a victory. Otherwise, all lock and fire tokens are removed, Outpost cards are discarded, and Identity cards are shuffled and redistributed.
So yes, every round, someone else will take on the secret role of the Horror and, as the body count grows, the outpost will shrink. At any point, if only four humans are left, a Destroyed Room card is drawn at random and placed on the corresponding space on the board, eliminating that room from play. You’ll do that again if the human tally drops to three. This can happen at the end of the round or, due to actions on the Outpost cards, in the middle of a round, forcing other players in that room into adjacent rooms.
Player elimination is a thing (ahem) in Frozen Horror, but an entire game plays so quickly, it’s not really a problem. This wasn’t always the case and Covert identified the problem with his team: “It was running thirty minutes. That was death. In a ten-minute game, sitting out for five minutes after being killed is acceptable. Sitting out for twenty-five is not.”
Indeed! Who wants to sit around watching everyone else have fun? The solution was in the “priority order” mentioned earlier, making sure the gameplay was more deadly.
“The problem,” said Covert, “is that people are living too long. We need more people to die more quickly.”
And die quickly you will, not with a horrifying rictus grin on your ashen face, but an amused smile and, likely, peals of laughter.
Frozen Horror was developed by Smirk & Dagger’s Curt Covert and Gaeton Dragone from an original design by Ivan Turner, who developed the framework for the series with his initial pitch to Covert of This Game is Killer: Alien On Board, the first game in the line. FANGORIA readers will surely be able to guess which beloved film series inspired this offering.
Alien On Board uses the same basic gameplay and mechanisms: a board depicting a small facility, this time a spaceship, with several available rooms. Players are dealt two Crew cards which are then played either for their action or their location (indicating the room in which the player will end the round.
Finally, instead of revealing a secret identity (there are none in Alien On Board), the first player will choose and reveal a Location card, identifying which room the Alien is in and, like in Frozen Horror, it will kill a single crew member (in priority order) sharing its space.
And because Alien On Board shares its bones with Frozen Horror, those actions on the cards is where all the jockeying, backstabbing, and airlock-blowing-out-of occurs. If the Alien dies, that’s great, provided there’s at least one crew member left standing. It could occur that everyone dies, Alien and crew alike, in which case, it ends in a “tragic defeat”. But no matter… just shuffle everything up and start a new game.
I love a long, tense, epic game experience. I also love a quick hit of dopamine that makes me want more. This is bad when it comes to Korean Sweet & Spicy Puffs. It’s not so bad when it comes to This Game Is Killer. Covert agrees this is a common experience among players: “Yeah, overwhelmingly, people who play jump in to play again. It is not uncommon for at least three games to be played in a session.”
Covert also gives a preview of more Killer games to come: “Ivan led the charge on our next edition, This Game is Killer: Franchise of Fear, a loose, ten-minute rendition of Five Nights at Freddy's, which will be out by Gen Con (late July/early August). Meanwhile, I am finishing art and mechanics for next year's Blood in the Water, playing on shark movies like Jaws and The Meg. Each of them has Ivan's core mechanics and each of them changes the way the monster operates, leading to very different experiences, but all sharing a similar vibe.”
Gameplay is, of course, paramount, but something should be said for the nice little package Smirk & Dagger offers with the This Game Is Killer line. Most of the components are simply cards and a few tokens, but each game includes a small neoprene playmat that rolls up and fits perfectly in the box. Cards and tokens are just a little easier to pick up off a playmat than a board, so this is a nice addition, and the whole package is offered for a very affordable $15-$20.
So, it’s not all backstabbing and double-crossing over at Smirk & Dagger… just when it’s the most fun for everyone!
This Game Is Killer: Frozen Horror and This Game Is Killer: Alien On Board are available from Smirk & Dagger Games and wherever hobby board games are sold.
