Founders of Gloomhaven is a competitive tile-placement, hand management, city-building game where each player controls a fantastical race working to build the city of Gloomhaven and gain influence over its residents. This is a stand-alone game set in the same universe as Gloomhaven. The events, however, take place hundreds of years before Gloomhaven and depict the original construction of the city.

In Founders of Gloomhaven, players will use card-driven actions to place resource buildings on the map of the city, use these resources to create more advanced resources, and then deliver them to proposed building sites to earn influence. An individual player, however, cannot do everything on their own, because they can only import a small number of resource types, depending on their race. To create more advanced resources, they will have to work with other players.

The game also features an auction mechanic where players will vote to determine what new building proposals come out and where they are placed on the board. These votes will determine which scoring opportunities are made available on the board and can drastically change the course of the game.

Gloomhaven: Forgotten Circles, the first expansion for Gloomhaven, features twenty new scenarios that take place after the events of the original Gloomhaven campaign and involve one new character class ? the Aesther Diviner ? and her attempts to prevent an approaching calamity. The accompanying scenario book breaks these scenarios up across multiple pages to create more dynamic and surprising encounters.

The expansion also features seven new monster types (including three new bosses) and fourteen new items.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a standalone game that takes place before the events of Gloomhaven. The game includes four new characters ? Valrath Red Guard (tank, crowd control), Inox Hatchet (ranged damage), Human Voidwarden (support, mind-control), and Quatryl Demolitionist (melee damage, obstacle manipulation) ? that can also be used in the original Gloomhaven game.

The game also includes 16 monster types (including seven new standard monsters and three new bosses) and a new campaign with 25 scenarios that invites the heroes to investigate a case of mysterious disappearances within the city. Is it the work of Vermlings, or is something far more sinister going on?

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is aimed at a more casual audience to get people into the gameplay more quickly. All of the hard-to-organize cardboard map tiles have been removed, and instead players will play on the scenario book itself, which features new artwork unique to each scenario. The last barrier to entry ? i.e., learning the game ? has also been lowered through a simplified rule set and a five-scenario tutorial that will ease new players into the experience.