Editing Atmosfear (section)

==Atmosfear/The Harbingers==
In regions where the game was called Nightmare the game was called Atmosfear, and in regions where the first game was called Atmosfear it was called "The Harbingers". 

The second game played very similar to the first, with some major differences. Rather than a single square board, the board came in the shape of a spiderweb wwith different regions for each character (now called "Harbingers") which could be assembled in any order and connect to a large plastic hub to represent the chaotic nature of the Other Side (even though they're not all that different in any meaningful way). The hub now contains a well with a lid to hold fears, and players can travel the inner road around the hub to shorten the trip to other sections of the board (although tactically this is a good spot to be ambushed or bottleneck each other). 
To obtain a key (now plastic tokens) you must land on a marked location in each Harbinger's territory rather than just get lucky. Black Holes are landed on and escaped from in a manner similar to the Jail of Monopoly rather than being entirely removed from game board, and walls ("Gates", fittingly placed by the Gatekeeper) are put up and moved around the board to block progress through different routes. 

The game featured a decent amount of story, where the Harbingers are the most prominent creatures who fight for control of the Other Side to expand their territory while trying to avoid angering the Gatekeeper. The Gatekeeper is the one who keeps them in the Other Side so they don't escape into the world of the living, but he enjoys abusing his authority and making their lives difficult as they go about their lives there. The Harbingers have artwork based on the appearance in video sequels and are given description, while there is no indication in the game that they transform like they did in their video tapes for the preceding game. The tokens are also unique for each Harbinger.
* Elizabeth Bathory is...exactly who you think she is. But a giant bat monster. The image of her realm indicates she lives in a giant castle that would put [[Castlevania]] and [[Vampire Counts|Sylvania]] to shame and surrounded by a lake of blood, but in the actual video intro she seems to be sitting naked in an armchair in a relatively modern and comfortable-looking living room complete with an electric lamp and a shelf of well cared-for books. Her token is a bat.
* Baron Samedi is a Zombie party animal (the tape for the game has Thrill Me at the end). The realm appears to just be a bony charnel pit in psychedelic colors but the recycled footage of his actor in the tutorial section of the tape shows he's still bumming around a plain graveyard. His token is a top hat.
* Khufu ("the MUMMYYY" as the Gatekeeper says it) is a Egyptian Pharaoh who relocated his pyramid to the Other Side and established it as a casino. Based on his board there's more writhing pits of snakes and worms than solid ground outside the road and structures that make up The Strip in his Egyptian Vegas. His token is a snake.
* Gevauden is a werewolf, and his territory is a large forest full of brambles and thorns. In general he has the least story of any of the others. His token is a wolf tooth.
* Anne became a witch on the Other Side, since she was actually innocent when she was burned in real life. She lives in a giant pumpkin in a boiling orange swamp that's more a giant potion than any natural landscape. Her token is a cauldron.
* Hellin (which the Gatekeeper of course stresses as "HELL-in") was a child who caused herself to have an aneurysm during a tantrum, and on the Other Side built a giant playground carnival. Her token is a children's toy lettered block. 

Players do not begin as a Harbinger; at the start of the game, small plastic skulls (called "Numbskulls", which the Gatekeeper made just for you!) with numbers are placed in a bag. Players begin as them on the Hub and go in order of their turns, trying to reach and land on the center of a Harbinger's area to become them. When the first ten minutes of the game end, any players who have not become a Harbinger become "Soul Rangers", outlaw skeleton bikers who exist to fuck things up for Harbingers and each other. Soul Rangers cannot collect Keystones the traditional way, and must steal them from Harbingers or each other. 
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRMphkKF3M0| The tape for Harbingers] actually began with a tutorial given partially by the Gatekeeper himself, although for an odd reason it was included at the end in some versions. For those familiar with VHS tapes, that presents the challenge of fast-forwarding without damaging the tape and stopping at the right time to not spoil the Gatekeeper taunting players for losing.

Otherwise, the game remains the same; collect each color of key, reach the middle on an exact roll and hope for anyone else's fear to stop the clock or the Gatekeeper wins. The Gatekeeper himself was given a makeover and playing the first game then the second gives the impression he has continued to grow more monster-y, with the natural aging of the actor aiding in the effect. By the end he's more frightening visually than anyone other than Bathory, but his personality is FAR more intimidating which really makes you see why he's the big boss. All cards but Fate were removed, and Gatekeeper interactions now sometimes involve choices such as between two punishments or what other player to fuck over. 
The only other type of cards are Duel Cards which are printed with the numbers 1-7, which Harbingers who land on lightning bolt spaces on the board can use to attack any other Harbinger by the two of them drawing a card from the deck, higher number wins with the 1 beating the 7. Landing on a skull space lets you attack Soul Rangers by rolling a die each, higher number wins. In either case the winner steals a Keystone of their choice from another player.

Keystones grant powers, making it more likely for players who are winning to keep winning and thus make it more imperative for everyone else to dogpile them with misfortune. These include choosing whether to roll one or two dice when moving, being able to immediately leave Black Holes, being able to pass through Gates, or being able to use the compass icon to fly to any other compass on the board.  

The game was heavily advertised, with MTV giving a promotion campaign for the game as advertisement. As a result, Harbingers is still one of the top ten most sold board games of all time (obviously dethroned by [[Settlers of Catan]] in recent decades, and not counting the million fucking reskins of Monopoly, Risk, and Clue). 
Due to the complexity of the game rules, the Gatekeeper is significantly more likely to win than any player making the game a hard mode for ANYONE to win at, even if cooperating rather than fucking each other over. But that difficulty was considered part of the appeal, and became part of the reputation for the game as a challenge. 

Two expansions to the game were added. Only being 45 minutes long each, they altered the rules slightly in the acquisition of Keystones but weren't exceedingly different otherwise. The Gatekeeper continued to host these tapes. 

After market research, players were found to greatly enjoy being Soul Rangers and trolling other players, so another expannsion was made where players ONLY play as them. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9PXwRw_dM| Dr. Mastiff, leader of the Soul Rangers, was the host as he has (temporarily) banished the Gatekeeper which has caused the Harbingers to hunker down and hide until his return, allowing the Soul Rangers to sow absolute chaos in their realms in the meantime.]