Daniel (@dungeondive) stumbles upon Gathering Gloom, a self-published gem from Dragon Phoenix Games (Harvey and Carly Cornell) that he ranks among the best games of 2025.
Gothic Horror Worker Placement: Play as the Charming Family—werewolves, vampires, zombies, ghosts, and other monsters—trying to keep your secret while running your town businesses (the mine, manor, mortuary). The Brotherhood of Light investigates, and villagers grow suspicious as your fear level climbs.
Crisis Resolution Core: The main goal is solving crises (evidence matches needed at your three family locations) before either the doom track reaches 50 or fear reaches 12. Crisis tokens provide the ongoing challenges driving the game forward.
Multiple Interacting Systems: The game brilliantly weaves together worker placement (moving to village locations), deck building (accumulating deed cards), threat management (evidence and villager suspicion), and set collection (matching traits to overcome challenges). Each piece feeds into the others.
The Evidence System: Especially clever is how traits match against collected evidence. When villagers gather matching traits (visual, deductive, oral, intuitive), they become stalkers following you. A randomizer card can trigger stalker status if you’ve accumulated three matching or three different traits. The system creates emergent narrative.
Memorable Stories Over Rules: What makes Gathering Gloom special is how all the mechanical pieces generate authentic stories. Harvesting souls from cemetery bodies, conspiring with enthralled villagers, dealing with peril cards that snowball threats—it’s a game about creating memorable moments through chance and interconnected mechanics.
High Replayability: Twelve unique characters, each with different stats and starting decks, provide variety. The game plays solo excellently because the theme is so strong. A $50-60 price point offers tremendous value for hundreds of cards and deep mechanical satisfaction.