How Gloomhaven was transformed from one of the biggest board games into one of the smallest

Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is kinda like a caravan.

No, seriously. The original Gloomhaven reminds me of a house you've lived in for years; you don't realize how much stuff you've got until you have to move it. This abundance of plastic and cardboard can be pretty intimidating for newcomers, and even the beginner-friendly Jaws of the Lion is weighed down with capital 't' Things. By contrast, Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs is a leaner and more lightweight alternative - it carries nothing but the essentials. 

To stretch this already-pained metaphor further, it's perfect for vacation as well. As noted on the Backerkit crowdfunding campaign, it can be played on "an airplane tray table." Not many of the best board games are able to say the same.

While a cheap-as-chips travel version of Gloomhaven feels like a no-brainer in retrospect, Isaac Childres - who created the series and publisher Cephalofair Games - admits that "this sort of microgaming just really wasn’t on our radar." In fact, it was only when designer Joe Klipfel created a free, no-table-needed version of Gloomhaven (called Gloomholdin') in their own time that the stars began to align. As Childres tells me when we discuss the project over email, "fans really latched onto [Gloomholdin'], so we decided it was something we should officially license"

Who says fan projects won't get you anywhere?

Roll the dice

As explained in its reveal, this new Gloomhaven board game is basically Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with swords. Players take on the role of would-be adventurers who have been hit with a shrinking spell (cast by returning character Hail, who set it off as a way of making unwanted visitors leave them alone), and now they've got to find a way of reversing that magic. However, it's not just the heroes who have been miniaturized. In Buttons & Bugs, which was developed by Klipfel along with the designer of the second edition Mansions of Madness, Nikki Valens, there are far fewer components kicking around. Indeed, the box is a fraction of Gloomhaven's size. 

"The main difference [between this game and Gloomhaven] could be summed up as reducing the components as much as we feasibly could, while still keeping the gameplay simplified," Childres explains. This resulted in fewer but double-sided ability cards, and the inclusion of something that Childres has never been the biggest fan of - dice. His distaste for the way they leave success down to chance rather than skill is well documented, and this frustration led to Gloomhaven's creation in the first place. So why not stick with the card system he developed as an alternative?

"The problem with using cards as a randomizer is that you need a different card for each result, which can add up to a lot of components quickly," he says. "By using a die, we can condense an entire deck of cards to a single card, which is quite helpful."

While this does mean Buttons & Bugs isn't cross-compatible with other entries in the series, it has pushed Childres and co in new directions - Childres mentions that he's "having fun expanding the lore in quirkier directions and exploring new art styles in the world." This has resulted in the creation of fresh, but equally fiendish, challenges for players.

"Monsters work differently in this system, so it was kind of nice that there wasn’t much pressure to re-use existing monsters from Gloomhaven. We did to some extent, bringing in bandits and demons that had also been shrunk down by Hail, but it was also a great opportunity to introduce some new, tiny threats. We’ve got a host of different bugs, a gloomtoad, and a harrower-infested rat corpse, so loads of fun all around. There are also three bosses, which are all-new, very interesting enemies."

Smaller price, smaller footprint

While demons and bug-filled bodies aren't what you'd call 'family-friendy', the game's teeny foes make for a more lighthearted quest overall. When teamed with a lower 10+ age rating, vibrant artwork, and simpler rules, Buttons & Bugs is pretty inviting. Does that make it a better place to start than Gloomhaven prequel Jaws of the Lion? The answer is a distinct 'sort of' - it depends on what you're looking for.

"I think Jaws of the Lion has an excellent tutorial system that ramps you up really well into playing a full Gloomhaven experience," Childres says when I ask him.

"Buttons & Bugs is the less intimidating game, though, with a small price, smaller footprint, and simpler gameplay. You’ll be able to jump in just as quickly as you would with Jaws of the Lion, and you will learn a lot of the same concepts and mechanics, but it ultimately is its own system, so jumping from it to another Gloomhaven game will still require some additional rules learning."

Fans seem to have latched onto the game regardless. Over 13,000 people have backed it so far, and Childres notes that "it has been great watching people respond so positively to Buttons & Bugs. Ever since we announced the game halfway through the Backerkit campaign, we have just seen a surge of people joining the project, which has been wonderful."

Considering how Gloomhaven rocketed Cephalofair Games from unknown entity (consisting of Childres and a freelance artist) to tabletop darling with a full team of staff, the franchise becoming popular enough to warrant spinoffs must be one hell of a trip. Childres mentioned that Gloomhaven's success was a real surprise when I interviewed him earlier in 2023, so seeing colleagues add to the series with games of their own is presumably a 'pinch me' moment.

"I haven’t been too involved in the development process on this one - that is Nikki and Joe’s domain. So I think the best part was just coming in at the end and getting to try it out," Childres says. "Having the opportunity to play a super-fun version of Gloomhaven that I didn’t have to design has been pretty gratifying!"

Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs doesn't have a release date yet, but it'll cost $19.99 at retail. To get it for less, you can pledge to the Backerit campaign before it ends on July 20 - that allows you to pick up the game for $15 instead.