The Killer: Gepetto the Puppet Master

The Location: Carnival of Blood

Inspirations: Puppet Master? (I’ve not seen Puppet Master so I can’t speak to accuracy)

Final Girls: Eihi Asami & Charlie Aja

There’s something innately creepy about the circus, similar to how there is about clowns. The Carnival of Blood is a great location for a horror scenario. The Big Top makes for a central location both useful to get through but also a bit of a killing field if things go badly. Two opposite corners have the only exits and then there’s the traps. There are Terror Traps both from the Terror Deck and the Item cards. It makes even searching for things a little tricky. It’s the kind of mechanic which hints at what they’ll do later with their Saw-inspired scenario and includes its own reference card as you’ll be getting a bunch of deadly tokens on the board if you’re unlucky.

I could see this scenario being fun against Dr Fright, the werewolf and maybe the zombies. Given all the traps, I’m not sure if the Saw scenario might be a bit much or just right.

Gepetto is of course, thematically right for this kind of place, and victims aren’t just going to get hit by traps but transformed into grim puppets represented by tiny, unpleasant minis (or tokens with the regular version). Gepetto himself isn’t pleasant, but the extra reach he gains with the puppets and their own mobility felt like it was the main challenge. 

I played Eihi Asami, an artist who was visiting the circus with her friends. The starting event was, “How dangerous can it be?” which would move the victims towards traps. Ugh.

Asami started out focusing a little and failing to lower the horror level enough. She hurriedly walked a curious couple to a nearby exit. Luckily Gepetto was also doing poorly as his Terror card needed puppets he didn’t have!

Asami ran to the ‘Things to Astonish’, taking a survivor with her and grabbing some Super-Lucky Dice. That was it, a short turn. The puppers snatched away a small child lured into the open with a stuffed animal. That survivor joining Asami turned out to be her foolhardy fiancé after another event card was drawn, and a victim investigated a weird prop with an asphyxiating dust in it.

Asami moved near to the big top but tried to keep away from it, fearing whatever would end up inside. She rescued another couple of people, walking them to the exit after leaving her fiancé behind. She’d hit enough for her ultimate form and ran to the Forest of Horrors. Gepetto found his way into the Hall of Mirrors and killed a family who’d fled inside and couldn’t get out.

Searching the forest, Asami found a telescoping pole, one of many wacky items. It would help with vaulting past some problems. She avoided a trap, but another victim didn’t, slipping on a banana and getting caught by Gepetto.

Gepetto’s Dark Power activated and a tiger got loose, making everyone panic! The puppets pulled apart someone who got stuck in an exhibit and couldn’t get out. There were so few survivors left and worse, Asami’s fiance had ended up in the big top with Gepetto! Asami grabbed a bandolier of knives, grabbed her fiancé and fled with him.

Unfortunately, Gepetto gave chase. Asami was slashed with Gepetto’s puppet strings, but the fiancé bravely sacrificed himself. The headstart didn’t last long as Gepetto gave chase to Asami and stabbed her.

Asami limped towards the exit with a survivor and killed one of Gepetto’s puppets. The remaining victim was surrounded by puppets and it’d just take an unfortunate Terror card to kill them. It was a clown! Somehow this victim was a sicko who actually liked clowns and ran to the big top to see them. Gepetto was there, but too late in the turn to murder him.

Asami charged into the big top and hit Gepetto with a furious strike. It was a partial success which let to her turn ending too early after so much setup to get the right cards for a fight. Exhausted, Asami could only watch as the final victim on the board was paralysed and butchered by Gepetto. Then just to make things worse, two more victims arrived, not having heard all the screams in the circus. One was instantly killed and the other mauled by the tiger before being taken away for puppet parts.

This distraction bought Asami enough time to try and get her breath back, which took some discards after a failure. She saw a strongman’s hammer unattended, grabbed it and limped towards Gepetto. She wasn’t healthy enough to use it, but it could work.

After a turn of mostly guarding, Asami rested, gained enough health and energy to get ready to fight Gepetto. She limped towards him in the big top, swinging the hammer. One solid hit, and then another one as a bit of a gamble on whether his final health point would be enough. If he had bonus health, she would die in his first attack. Bang! The strongman’s hammer smashed his head in and the puppets dropped to the floor; their strings cut.

I’m shocked this plan worked. I remember my first playthrough being brutal against this combo.

Final Girl Miniatures

This was another extra in the Kickstarter campaign for Final Girl Series One. An extra which requires no spoiler-proofing for me this time! 

You will have noticed the miniatures, lovingly painted by Steve Mileham, a talented friend who is as we speak suffering through painting a ton of tiny birds for the Final Girl Series One scenario, “Terror from Above”.

The game normally uses meeples for the Final Girl, Killer and victims. The Kickstarter added a little bling with miniatures representing each Final Girl, each Killer and even the horrible little puppets Gepetto has. Later campaigns would add the vehicles I’ve been using, too.

They’re completely unnecessary, but they look very cool. I know the mix between plastic and meeple has put some friends off using them in the past, but I’m fine with it. The victims are mostly nameless (unless you use the app, in which case you find them out as they get butchered) and there are versatile special meeples which have roles in the events of each scenario.

I’ve reached the point with them where I wait until the minis are painted before playing the scenario. Luckily the gradual release of series four means that some of those are already painted and ready to go while I wait for the rest.