It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Halloween! A time of great music, great outfits and great games! Here are my top picks for this Halloween.
- Goosebumps
This 1995 classic was inspired by the titles of Goosebumps books. As part of my teacher training I did a research project which involved me reading lots of Goosebumps books – I thoroughly enjoyed them. My perfect night in is spent in front of the TV with cinema lighting* and a horror film on. I especially enjoy a crap horror and Goosebumps books give me the same level of enjoyment. So imagine my joy when we spotted this beauty in the charity shop.
Each player is given a board with 4 discs in (each depicts a Goosebumps book), you put out one fewer spider than there are players. You each turn over cards from your own pile and when a skeleton is revealed everyone tries to grab a spider. Fail to grab a spider and you lose one of your discs. Lose all 4 and you’ve lost the game. It’s very like Spoons or Corks. It’s loads of fun, quick to play and the theme is perfect for Halloween!
*basically without the big light on – so before we shelled out for some LED lights it was just me sitting in the dark with the TV on. It’s a throwback to when the children were little and always wanted to pretend we were in the cinema and now it’s stuck! It’s a bit alarming for visitors who are offered cinema lighting and then just plunged into darkness.
2. The Portal at Hill House.
One of my recent obsessions has been buying solo role playing/ journaling games. I have started many of them but most are quite involved and I just haven’t dedicated the time to them. However, I have played Portal twice now. What better Halloween game than to immerse yourself in the horror of your own imagination aided by some thoughtful prompts and structures. When I taught creative writing, the best pieces were always written with constraints, even arbitrary rules and limits. If I can write about anything, unless I’m feeling super motivated, I’ll write about nothing. So, journaling games suit me very well.
You only need a die and a pack of playing cards to play. Can you explore the house and find the right items to close the portal or will you be sucked in to it’s cosmic horror?
You can read some of my attempt here.
You can get your own copy here.
3. Horrified
I first played this as a solo game at Bar Gammons Tavern in Chippenham. If you’re around there I definitely recommend visiting them. In the solo game you are being attacked by and trying to defeat Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
You gain advantages by safely escorting the villagers to their homes. The actions are fairly straightforward once you’ve played a couple of rounds but there’s lots of tactical decisions to be made. You often need to think carefully about positioning and planning ahead. The multiplayer version is much the same but you are working together to defeat the monsters.
One of the first things that drew me to this game was the characters. They are all absolute classics: the creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein’s Monster and the Bride, the Invisible Man, the Mummy and the Wolf Man Satisfyingly the bright plastic material they are made of reminds me of the free toys you used to get in Cornflakes!
Worth noting that the first instruction is to open the game board. I don’t know whether you routinely do this but if not I highly recommend it. It will transform your gaming experience! I would also go ahead and place it in the middle of the table within easy reach of all players.
4. Ghosts Can’t Draw
Disclaimer: No films have been made based on this board.
This is the new one from Big Potato Games. A brilliant game of drawing and deduction for 2 to 6 players. There are two parts to the game – in the first part the paranormal investigators must deduce who the ghost is. Everyone receives a card – if your card says paranormal investigator then that is your role. However, if your card does not then you are the ghost and the card tells you what you must draw. But of course it’s not that easy – you no longer have a corporeal form. So each of you places two fingers lightly on the ghost shaped planchette and the ghost guides this to create an uncanny likeness of the object assigned to them. When the planchette (which for bonus fun glows in the dark!) comes to a stop you point at who you suspect is less than human.
The ghost reveals their identity and now you must work out what they have drawn. The ghost draws 7 more cards and shuffles them with their own card. Now you vote for which of the cards you think was their prompt for the glorious work of art before you.
I must admit when it arrived I was team sceptic and thought it would be very easy to tell who was drawing but it really isn’t. It’s a brilliantly spooky game plus it’s completely safe to communicate with the spirit world through the medium of art. It only turns really dark when you use words….
5. Epilogue
The first incarnation of this game was ‘…and then we died’ which I absolutely love and have reviewed here and here before so I’m incredibly excited to see Epilogue. It’s still on it’s way so photos and more details to follow but here’s a brief overview.
Working together you will tell the story of your untimely demise. Carefully choose cards that will overlap with others to reveal words which hold the clues to your story. The story can be serious, frightening, or silly; it all depends on what you as a group decide.
Game play is really straightforward, the beauty of this game is in the creativity it prompts. On your turn play a card so that it overlaps another card to create a word. You then point at a person to pick up the story using the word you created in their sentences.
On the back of the rule book there is space to record your epitaphs. You can jot down key moments, great sentences or words and as it says on the kickstarter page: “The more you play, the more this section will become a history of your time spent with friends!” (How adorable is that?)
This is on kickstarter until the 10th of November you can back it here
You can play any of these at any of my events – just comment on Facebook or Instagram and I’ll bring it along. Or, you can email me if you don’t use those.