Hellboy: The Board Game is a tabletop game developed by Mantic Games featuring characters and storylines from the Hellboy universe. Released in 2019, Hellboy features two to four players each selecting an agent from the B.P.R.D. and undertaking casefiles that feature numerous fights with minions, gathering of clues and battling with bosses from throughout the Hellboy canon.
Core agents players can pick between include Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman and Johann Kraus, with a number of B.P.R.D. agents like Roger the Homunculus and Kate Corrigan, supernatural allies such as Lobster Johnson and "The Visitor" and even alternate forms of Hellboy such as his demonic and childhood selves (naturally titled, "Pancakes Hellboy" in the latter case) being available in the base game and through expansion packs.
The base campaign of the game is based on characters and elements from the early Hellboy stories, roughly between "Seed of Destruction" and "Box Full of Evil," as well as short stories such as "Pancakes", "Nature of the Beast", "The Iron Shoes" and more. Several expansion packs for the game have been created based on Hellboy storylines such as "The Conqueror Worm", "Hellboy in Mexico", "Darkness Calls" and "The Wild Hunt."
Hellboy: The Board Game contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Certain B.P.R.D. agents who died in their first appearance in the comics such as Scott Clark and Bud Waller appear both as Backup Agents and main Field Agents thanks to a Kickstarter stretch goal, allowing them to take part in as many missions as desired alongside main characters such as Hellboy and Abe.
- Assist Character: Agents can choose to spend resources on “Backup Agents” at the beginning of each case and either leave them in the wings until they take time or have them active in the field depending on which skill they bring to the table given the circumstances.
- Eldritch Abomination: The “Tentacle Monster” lives up to its name by being a mass of tendrils jutting out through the floor. The Conqueror Worm also counts from its eponymous expansion.
- Explosive Breeder: Frog Swarms can spawn in areas surrounding agents and will keep multiplying at the end of every turn if they aren't dealt with. While they don't actively hurt agents their presence impedes and can completely halt a squad's advancement if left unchecked.
- Fragile Speedster: Pancakes Hellboy has all the tenacity and guile as his older counterpart, with none of the brickhouse build or booming right-hook that keeps him from being swarmed by enemies.
- Frog Men: The frog monsters are primary enemies in several casefiles.
- Ghostapo: Nazis appear as minions in the “Conqueror Worm” expansion.
- Giant Mook: The Giant Frog Monster, Kriegaffe and more appear as bosses in confrontations or as random encounters, depending on the scenario.
- Hand Cannon: Hellboy is a terrible shot, but when it does hit it packs a wallop.
- Hand of Glory: Appears as a requisition card.
- Kill It with Fire: Liz is naturally capable of setting enemies, scenery and environments on fire, with the potential to damage allies as well.
- Masked Luchador: The “Hellboy In Mexico” expansion features the big red guy donning a luchador uniform along with the three wrestlers from the original story joining as agents.
- Megaton Punch: Hellboy’s “Big Right Hook” delivers an enormous amount of damage (if it makes contact) by spending twice the amount of action cubes.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Camaztoz, the main boss of the "Hellboy in Mexico" expansion, is a gigantic, muscle-bound lucha libre vampire.
- Promoted to Playable: Several backup agents such as Kate Corrigan, Trevor Bruttenholm and Pancakes Hellboy were upgraded to full-on agent status as stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign.
- The Smart Guy: Trevor Bruttenholm acts as this when used as a field agent. He's nearly useless in a firefight but his ability to investigate items that will prove useful in defeating the final boss is second to none.
- Savage Wolves: Werewolves appear as enemies in the "B.P.R.D. Archives" expansion. Making things a bit fairer for the agents, a giant wolf is available as a backup agent in the "Darkness Calls" expansion.
- The Wild Hunt: An expansion based on the titular storyline features a new "Enraged Hellboy" agent with Alice Monaghan as a backup agent and several monsters (including giants) as enemies.
