Halloween parties are upon us. What better time than a chilly October evening to bust out a game full of ghosts and goblins? There are a lot of card games that fit the bill with easy to explain rules and evocative artwork.
Most of these games take about an hour to play. They are perfect for small parties or passing the time during trick or treat. All games except Gloom were provided by the publishers for review consideration.
Creepshow
EC Comics, known for classic horror titles like Tales From The Crypt, follows a fairly simple rule. The worse the main character of one of their stories is, the more horrible fate they suffer at the end of the tale. The stories take some joy in showing how wicked these people are but even more glee in turning them into bloody messes by the end.
Creepshow takes many cues from these comic books and the classic HBO series they inspired. Its card game is no different with players playing cards on villains highlighting their dastardly deeds so that when they die, they’re more valuable to whoever finally gives them their just desserts. Players also get to choose paths for certain cards to increase replayability.
Gloom
Gloom takes Addams Family vibes and turns them into a card game. Players inflict misery on their family for negative points while playing good fortune cards on their opponents. The winner is the family that dis with the most nevative points at the end of the game.
While not a full role playing game, it’s very easy to slip into storytelling mode while playing. The poor suffering souls in the game garner some sympathy as their lives go from bad to worse. Some of the potential fates can also make everyone cackle with wicked glee like a table full of witches.
Betrayal: Deck of Lost Souls
Betrayal At House On The Hill is a modern board game classic. Players explore a creepy old house room by room until they trigger a haunt. Then one player turns into the traitor and tries to win the game on their own while the others try to stop their terrifying plan.
Betrayal: Deck of Lost Souls shifts to more of a hidden trator style game that uses a deck of dark and gorgeous tarot style card to play. Players play item cards to defeat omen cards but if they run out, they lose. Unless there’s a traitor in the midst, in which case, that player wins.
Escape The Dark Castle
Atmosphere drips from the cards in Escape The Dark Castle thanks to the illustrations on each of the story cards. Players team up to survive traps, monster attacks and other terrible twists of fate between them and freedom. They do so by making hard choices and hoping the dice come up in their favor.
Expansions include more characters, new storylines and new rules that make escaping even harder. There’s also a companion app that includes health trackers, creepy sounds and bespoke endings based on what character dies first and by which card. For those looking for a science fiction experience like this full of killer robots, twisted psychics and gooey mutants, check out Escape The Dark Sector.
Illuminati
While this game from Steve Jackson Games doesn’t have monsters or supertaural menaces, it places players in control of one of the scariest things to rise to power in the real world. Each player in Illuminati is in control of a global conspiracy trying to destroy their rivals.
The CIA might conspire to control Canada one turn then fend off an attack from Children’s Television the next. Most of the games on this list pit players against powerful creatures of the night. This one inflicts horror by giving players power and seeing how they might change the world with it.
The Zone
What would you to do get a wish fulfilled? That’s the question at the center of The Zone, a surreal horror storytelling game inspired by media like Annihilation and Roadside Picnic. Players enter a strange zone and find themselves changed by the journey until only one survives to make their wish.
The players that died along the way still shape the story. They affect how The Zone interprets the wish and can give the surviving player everything they wanted or the exact opposite. This game might take a whole evening but it’s also a great doorway into tabletop role playing games.
Read the full article here
