The Thing Board Game Review
The Thing: The Boardgame, designed by Giuseppe Cicero and Andrea Crespi and published by Pendragon Game Studio in 2022 (distributed in English by Ares Games), is a hidden-role survival game for 1–8 players built directly around John Carpenter’s 1982 film. Players manage a collapsing Antarctic research base, ration dwindling supplies, and try to get out alive — while at least one person at the table is already not human. Rated for ages 14 and up with a playtime of 60–90 minutes, this review covers how well the game delivers on its premise.
The Thing: The Boardgame Overview
The premise is pulled straight from the film. Human players work to keep Outpost 31 operational — maintaining the boiler, the generator, food supplies — and ultimately escape via helicopter, snowcat, or rescue team. The Thing, meanwhile, tries to infect crew members, shift win conditions mid-game, or simply sabotage the base until no one makes it out.
It’s a semi-cooperative game at heart: humans share a collective goal, but paranoia corrodes that cooperation. The same person handing you supplies this turn might be secretly routing blood into the ventilation system next.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Designer | Giuseppe Cicero, Andrea Crespi |
| Artist | Davide Corsi, Riccardo Crosa |
| Publisher | Pendragon Game Studio (English: Ares Games) |
| Year Released | 2022 |
| Players | 1–8 (best at 7–8) |
| Age Range | 14+ |
| Playing Time | 60–90 minutes |
| Game Type | Hidden Role, Semi-Cooperative, Survival |
| Complexity Rating | 2.96 / 5 (BGG) |
| BGG Overall Rank | #1,034 (Thematic: #181) |
What’s in the Box — The Thing: The Boardgame Components
The standard retail edition ships with enough physical material to run the full game. Here’s a breakdown of what you get:
| Component | Quantity / Notes |
|---|---|
| Game Board | Double-sided Outpost 31 map with all rooms from the film |
| Character Cards | One per crew member, each with unique abilities |
| Role Cards | Human and Thing roles; drawn secretly at game start |
| Event Cards | Drive crises, sabotage opportunities, and random base events |
| Blood Test Cards | Used during suspicion checks to reveal infection status |
| Resource Tokens | Food and fuel tokens in thick cardboard |
| Suspicion Track | Shared board component tracking trust per player |
| Infection Tokens | Placed secretly to track assimilation progress |
| Action Dice | Multiple dice for actions, encounters, and tests |
| Room Tiles | Match the film’s locations: generator room, kennel, lab, etc. |
| Player Pawns | Cardboard standees in standard edition; miniatures in deluxe |
| Reference Cards | One per player for turn structure and action summary |
The cardboard quality on the tokens is solid — they’re thick enough to handle regular shuffling without bending. The board art closely mirrors the film’s aesthetic: dimly lit corridors, sparse iconography, a deliberately oppressive grey-and-white colour palette. Deluxe editions swap the standees for detailed miniatures and add a game mat and glow-in-the-dark dice, but the standard version plays identically.
The Thing: The Boardgame Pros and Cons
Pros
- The suspicion mechanic creates genuine, sustained tension — players are reluctant to share resources even when it’s clearly in their interest
- Mid-game assimilation changes the win condition for infected players without removing them, keeping everyone at the table
- The three escape routes give humans real strategic choices rather than one linear path
- Base management (fuel, food, temperature) adds a resource pressure that tightens naturally over time
- The 1–3 player mode with worker placement rules works better than most officially optional solo modes
- Room abilities map directly to their film counterparts — the kennel, the generator room, and the lab all function as you’d expect
Cons
- At lower player counts (3–4), the hidden role element loses impact — there are fewer people to suspect and the paranoia thins out
- Setup takes 15–20 minutes and requires careful secret distribution of role cards, which can be fiddly with new players
- The blood test mechanic can feel arbitrary at times; a bad draw punishes or exonerates players in ways that don’t reflect actual gameplay decisions
- The rulebook has organisational issues — finding edge-case rulings during play requires some page-flipping
- Certain editions (including the original Kickstarter version) are out of print, making acquisition more expensive on the secondary market
How to Play The Thing: The Boardgame
Each session follows a structure that escalates pressure on the humans as the game progresses. Here’s how a typical game runs.
Setup
Place the Outpost 31 board in the centre of the table and distribute character cards. Each player draws a role card secretly — one player (or more in larger games) is the Thing; the rest are human. Seed the board with starting resource tokens and set the suspicion track to neutral for all players.
Turn Structure
On their turn, each player performs two actions. These can include moving between rooms, using a room’s special ability, gathering resources, triggering an event, or — crucially — interacting with another player (handing them something, trading, or initiating a blood test).
After all players have taken their turns, an event card resolves. Events can drain resources, force base damage, or introduce crisis situations that demand a collective response.
The Thing’s Actions
The Thing player takes their turns normally, appearing to cooperate. They can quietly sabotage rooms — draining fuel, spoiling food — or attempt to infect adjacent human players during encounter actions. Infection must pass a check and isn’t guaranteed, which means the Thing has to be patient. An overeager Thing gets caught quickly.
Suspicion and Blood Tests
Suspicion tokens accumulate on players who act strangely — missing resource contributions, being near damaged rooms, failing checks in suspicious circumstances. When a player’s suspicion reaches a threshold, the group can force a blood test. Draw a blood test card in secret: humans are cleared, the Thing is revealed (and the game dynamic shifts).
Win Conditions
Humans win by escaping via one of three routes: the helicopter (requires fuel and a functional generator), the snowcat (requires food and a crew of at least three), or a called rescue team (requires specific event conditions to be met). The Thing wins by stopping all three escape routes, infecting a majority of the crew, or sneaking out with the humans disguised.
Where to Buy The Thing: The Boardgame
| Retailer | Region | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ares Games (Official) | International | Complete bundle (base + Norwegian Outpost + miniatures) ~$199 USD |
| Amazon | US / International | Standard retail edition; pricing varies by seller (~$40–$80) |
| Noble Knight Games | US | Stocks rare and out-of-print editions; secondary market pricing |
| BGG Marketplace | International | P2P listings via BGG game page; Kickstarter editions reach $250–$550 |
| Zatu Games (UK) | UK | Standard edition ~£63; free shipping available |
| Board Games India | India | Listed at ₹9,999–₹11,227 (includes import costs) |
Prices are subject to change. The Kickstarter edition with exclusive miniatures is out of print and commands significantly higher secondary market prices.
Game Mechanics — The Thing: The Boardgame
The game runs on three mechanical layers that interact throughout a session.
The base management layer handles Outpost 31 as a system that degrades. Fuel powers the generator; without it, the board goes dark and action costs increase. Food keeps the crew functional; without it, players lose card draws and movement range. The Thing exploits these systems by targeting resource nodes — but doing so visibly raises suspicion.
The hidden role layer assigns secret win conditions at game start, with the critical twist that humans can become the Thing mid-game. This isn’t a simple elimination — an infected player switches allegiances and must begin subtly redirecting their actions without being caught. It keeps the social deduction active all game rather than front-loaded into an opening reveal.
The suspicion track provides a quantified record of player behaviour. Unlike many hidden role games that rely entirely on player memory and table talk, the track gives humans objective data to work with. A player with consistently high suspicion can’t simply talk their way out — the numbers are visible to everyone.
The three escape routes function as a clock with variable speed. Humans control which routes remain open by allocating resources; the Thing tries to collapse them quietly. The overlap between base management and escape conditions means most human decisions carry double weight.
Who Should Play The Thing: The Boardgame
This game works best with six to eight players who are comfortable with social deduction and don’t mind being lied to. If you regularly play board games with larger groups, The Thing is one of the few titles that genuinely improves as the headcount increases — the paranoia only lands when there are enough people that you can’t track everyone’s movements.
Players who already know the film get an extra layer — the rooms, the blood test scene, the burning kennel all have direct equivalents in the game. Groups who enjoy Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game will find familiar structural territory here: hidden traitors, resource management under pressure, a collective escape goal. Battlestar Galactica is the closest mechanical comparison, though The Thing has stronger thematic specificity and a shorter playtime.
It’s not ideal for groups of three or four. The hidden role loses its punch when the player pool is small, and the base management systems feel less tense without enough crew members to spread responsibility.
Players who dislike being eliminated or sidelined will appreciate the assimilation mechanic — switching to the Thing mid-game keeps you engaged rather than sitting out. That said, if your group finds social deduction stressful rather than fun, the game’s constant undercurrent of mistrust will wear rather than thrill.
For film fans who want the closest board game equivalent of watching MacReady and Childs eye each other across a flamethrower, this is a strong option. If your group primarily wants a fully cooperative game without any deception, the base management and survival mechanics alone won’t be enough to carry the experience.
FAQ
Is The Thing: The Boardgame good for beginners?
It suits players who have tried at least one hidden role game before. The base management and role-switching add complexity that can overwhelm completely new players. The rulebook is also not the most beginner-friendly, so expect a learning game for your first session.
What is the best player count for The Thing: The Boardgame?
Seven or eight players is where the game works best. The social deduction layer needs enough people to create genuine uncertainty about who to trust. At five or six it still holds up; at three or four, the hidden role loses most of its tension and the game feels underpopulated.
How long does The Thing: The Boardgame take to play?
With experienced players, most games finish in 60–75 minutes. Add 20 minutes for setup and rules explanation with a new group, and expect the first game to run closer to 90–100 minutes total. Subsequent plays speed up considerably once everyone knows the room functions.
Is the Norwegian Outpost expansion worth buying?
It depends on how much you’re playing the base game. The expansion adds the 2011 prequel’s setting and new mechanics, but it primarily extends replay value rather than fixing any issues with the base game. Get it once the base game’s scenarios start feeling familiar.
What games are similar to The Thing: The Boardgame?
Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is the closest mechanical comparison — hidden traitors, resource management, collective escape goal. Dead of Winter adds similar survival pressure with a semi-cooperative betrayal structure. Secret Hitler is simpler and faster if you want hidden roles with less setup.
