Game night is headed to Derry. The Betrayal at The Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise Expansion from Avalon Hill drifts in like a red balloon and steals players away to the world of IT.
If you’ve played Betrayal before, you know the deal: a haunted mansion, spooky vibes, and a twist halfway through where one player turns traitor. This expansion does away with that. By anchoring everything around IT, the Pennywise expansion gives Betrayal a cohesive spine. Themed encounter cards swap in for Omens. New haunts reference iconic moments from the films. And when the Haunt hits? It’s Pennywise, baby.
Betrayal is notoriously group-dependent. You need players who care enough to dive into the surprise mid-game rule flip. If the traitor doesn’t understand the new win condition, or the survivors just shrug and wander into ghost closets, the whole game breaks like Georgie’s paper boat. But here? Everyone’s on the same page. The Haunt is clearer. The story hits harder. Even non-gamers who just like Stephen King can follow along.
You get five new haunts in this expansion. The first three boil down to “Kill all Heroes,” and the other two shine like deadlights. The Ritual of Chüd and Let’s Kill This Clown flip the formula entirely. No traitor. Just Pennywise on the hunt, targeting a different kid each round. It’s fully co-op, fast-moving, and it slaps. One has you collecting artifacts to banish him. The other has you fighting his final boss form — full-on Spider-Pennywise. It’s tense; it’s thematic; and casual players aren’t stuck reading the Traitor Manual.
Another huge bonus is that the minis are gorgeous. You get Henry Bowers (with maximum creep energy), Pennywise in Clown form (classic), and the big bad Spider form (nightmare fuel).
The expansion also features four new tiles — the Old Well, Darkened Hallway, Ancient Den, and Winding Tunnels — and you’ve got the perfect crawlspace for fear. Each tile has mechanics that feel just right, pulling you into Derry without ever overcomplicating the rules.
One gripe. The Traitor’s Manual for “Let’s Kill This Clown” references a “Hidden Traitor” twist that doesn’t exist. The Secrets of Survival manual doesn’t mention it at all. It doesn’t break the game, but it’s a weird editing miss in an otherwise tight package.
If you’ve bounced off Betrayal before — maybe the vibe never landed, or your game night dissolved into traitor confusion and passive-aggressive sighs — this might be your on-ramp back in. The Pennywise expansion dials down the chaos and cranks up the theme. It’s easier to teach, faster to play, and somehow more brutal (in a good way).
The Betrayal at The Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise Expansion officially launched this weekend at Gen Con and is available now.
BETRAYAL AT THE NEIBOLT HOUSE: THE EVIL OF PENNYWISE EXPANSION
Players face off against Pennywise the clown in this Betrayal expansion, which features five haunts. The expansion requires Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition.