
2024 · Post-Napoleonic
Obsession: Characters Expansion
A dowager’s sprawling, eccentric household becomes a source of new personalities to populate a Derbyshire estate. Players recruit and deploy distinctive characters who grant special actions and interactions that affect household management and social standing. Characters include practical and quirky figures who solve staffing problems, remove unsavory guests, dispense advice, or open connections to foreign and noble contacts, each altering available options and strategies around staffing, events, and reputation.
- Players
- 1–6 best 1
- Playing time
- 30–180 min
- Age
- 14+
- Complexity
- 3.7 / 5
About the game
- Design
- Publisher
Expansion for
See them in LudoyaWhere to buy it
Shop prices and second-hand copies, checked every day.
On Ludoya's tables
Full stats in Ludoya- 7
- Plays logged
- 16
- Players
- 2h 27m
- Average play
- 56
- In collections
- 2
- On wishlists
- 7
- Pre-ordered
8.0/10
from 2 Ludoya reviews
Rules questions
Answered from the rulebook by Ludoya's rules assistant.
When I pass, can I invite a character and still take a passing benefit?
Usually, yes: before choosing your passing benefit, you may send an ordinary footman to invite one character. If you invite the Eccentric Dowager, taking one Exile guest replaces your normal passing benefit; you can invite only one character per pass (pp. 6, 9).
Do I have to use a character’s favour right away?
Yes. At the start of your next turn, you must resolve the visiting character’s favours, then return the character during Clear Board and put the inviting footman in Expended Service. While a character is visiting you, you can’t pass (pp. 6, 9).
What counts as an unsavoury guest for Constable Bucket?
A casual guest is unsavoury if their card has at least one red frame; casual guests without red frames are respectable. Exiles are always respectable, and American Heiresses are unaffected by Bucket’s favours (pp. 5, 7, 9).
When do second chance servants cost me reputation?
Using one on an activity costs 2 reputation if any prestige guest attends, or 1 if there are no prestige guests but at least one respectable guest; otherwise there’s no penalty. Using one on a guest card is judged by that guest alone: 2 for prestige, 1 for respectable, and none for unsavoury (pp. 10, 12).
Can I hire second chance servants with the Butler’s Room, and can they score objectives?
No. Hiring is a separate action: expend your butler or underbutler, then take one or two servants from Higbee’s or recruit one from another player; they go to your Servants’ Quarters and become available next turn. They can’t complete objectives and are worth 0 VP (pp. 10–11).
How do Socialite and Antisocialite guest requirements work?
Their modifiers add together: Socialites increase the number of gentry required, while Antisocialites reduce it, but the total can’t drop below one. Neither type can stay in suites (pp. 17–18).
Free, on web, Android and iOS
Play Obsession: Characters Expansion with Ludoya
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Game facts (players, playing time, age, credits) from BoardGameGeek.
