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Haloween board games
TinMan1997
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Registered User regular
Just wrote this up for my blog, thought I'd post it here for the curious...
October is the right time for spooky games! Here are a few that I own, and some short opinions (all links will be to boardgamegeek). Each game rated from 1-5 skulls (for the spooky factor) and 1-5 hexes (for the "how german is it" factor)
Zombies!!!
Zombies was one of the first "new" boardgames I got, and has probably been played more than any. The rules out of the box are kind of a mess, but supposedly a lot of that is cleaned up in the second edition, and there are good rules available at the yahoo group, where the creators of the game are quite active participants. 3/5 skulls for the gory card art and zombie-chopping fun, 1/5 hexes for the dicefest and confusing out-of-box rules
Betrayal at House on the Hill
I kept reading reviews of this before I found it anywhere- described as a remake of Chill with better components and rules. More or less right- Betrayal is pretty easy to teach because the game happens in stages. First you learn to move, then to fight, then the scenario is different every game. This is also adaptable to just a bit of role-playing, so you can scratch that itch if you've got it. the various rulebooks all have mistakes in them, but Avalon Hill keeps an updated list of known Errata so you can work around this. 4/5 skulls for the nice roleplaying and vague creepiness, 2/5 hexes as there isn't a consistent strategy, but cooperation becomes key in the second half.
Dracula
I bought this two-player Kosmos game PURELY because of the box art, and we were lacking two-player games at the time. Alas, my wife didn't dig it much and I don't get to play very often. This is essentially a hand-management memory game, where you try to find your opponents hidden goodies while keeping yours concealed. The art in the game does a great job with keeping the theme spooky, but the gameplay generally does not. 3/5 skulls for the spooky card art and board, 3/5 hexes for the various german challenges. After you've played a couple times and get the hang of it, I might go four hexes.
Chill: Black Morn Manor
I bought this because I was a huge fan of the Chill RPG as a kid, and this looked like a really awesome bit of boardgame history, having all of the following in the early 80s: a modular board, variable character powers, role-switching, various scenarios, cooperative elements. Alas, the rules have a couple of problems, and the game components may be the worst I've ever seen- really, business cards are on heavier stock than the cards used here. Can actually be a lot of fun if you are patient with the setup, but more historically interesting than anything else. 2/5 skulls- the card art is crap and distracts from the generally spooky elements of the game, 2/5 hexes for a good amount of complexity despite some problems with the rules.
Atmosfear
Great components! Surround sound DVD stuff! All luck from start to finish! Definitely worth breaking out with 6 or less people in a party environment, not something you'd describe as a "really good game." 5/5 skulls- oh yeah, we gots the spooky here. I actually jumped out of my seat as a result of a card last time I played (which instructed the woman on my left to scream at a specified time and punish anyone who jumped), and the surround sound and music is used very effectively. 1/5 hexes as hard-core german game players would probably rather shoot themselves. Lots of roll-and-move, and you stand no chance of being successful until the end when suddenly they start making it easy.
October is the right time for spooky games! Here are a few that I own, and some short opinions (all links will be to boardgamegeek). Each game rated from 1-5 skulls (for the spooky factor) and 1-5 hexes (for the "how german is it" factor)
Zombies!!!
Zombies was one of the first "new" boardgames I got, and has probably been played more than any. The rules out of the box are kind of a mess, but supposedly a lot of that is cleaned up in the second edition, and there are good rules available at the yahoo group, where the creators of the game are quite active participants. 3/5 skulls for the gory card art and zombie-chopping fun, 1/5 hexes for the dicefest and confusing out-of-box rules
Betrayal at House on the Hill
I kept reading reviews of this before I found it anywhere- described as a remake of Chill with better components and rules. More or less right- Betrayal is pretty easy to teach because the game happens in stages. First you learn to move, then to fight, then the scenario is different every game. This is also adaptable to just a bit of role-playing, so you can scratch that itch if you've got it. the various rulebooks all have mistakes in them, but Avalon Hill keeps an updated list of known Errata so you can work around this. 4/5 skulls for the nice roleplaying and vague creepiness, 2/5 hexes as there isn't a consistent strategy, but cooperation becomes key in the second half.
Dracula
I bought this two-player Kosmos game PURELY because of the box art, and we were lacking two-player games at the time. Alas, my wife didn't dig it much and I don't get to play very often. This is essentially a hand-management memory game, where you try to find your opponents hidden goodies while keeping yours concealed. The art in the game does a great job with keeping the theme spooky, but the gameplay generally does not. 3/5 skulls for the spooky card art and board, 3/5 hexes for the various german challenges. After you've played a couple times and get the hang of it, I might go four hexes.
Chill: Black Morn Manor
I bought this because I was a huge fan of the Chill RPG as a kid, and this looked like a really awesome bit of boardgame history, having all of the following in the early 80s: a modular board, variable character powers, role-switching, various scenarios, cooperative elements. Alas, the rules have a couple of problems, and the game components may be the worst I've ever seen- really, business cards are on heavier stock than the cards used here. Can actually be a lot of fun if you are patient with the setup, but more historically interesting than anything else. 2/5 skulls- the card art is crap and distracts from the generally spooky elements of the game, 2/5 hexes for a good amount of complexity despite some problems with the rules.
Atmosfear
Great components! Surround sound DVD stuff! All luck from start to finish! Definitely worth breaking out with 6 or less people in a party environment, not something you'd describe as a "really good game." 5/5 skulls- oh yeah, we gots the spooky here. I actually jumped out of my seat as a result of a card last time I played (which instructed the woman on my left to scream at a specified time and punish anyone who jumped), and the surround sound and music is used very effectively. 1/5 hexes as hard-core german game players would probably rather shoot themselves. Lots of roll-and-move, and you stand no chance of being successful until the end when suddenly they start making it easy.
TinMan1997 on
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Fury of Dracula
Mall of Horror
Arkham Horror (w/ Curse of the Dark Pharoh expansion)
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Zombies looks like an awesome game, might warrant further investigation.
ZOMBIES!!! rocks.
I'm going to pick up a couple expansions for it soon, but the basic game is pretty fun. You can learn it in a couple minutes, which is a big plus for a party game.
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Betrayal's definitely awesome, but you almost *need* to download and print out the updated traitor/survivor's guides, due to errata and clarifications. I wish they'd hurry up and start putting that in new copies already.
Not a huge fan of Zombies!, due to it turning into Munchkin at the end-game, when the helicopter's in sight, it becomes a showdown to see who runs out of "I screw you!" cards first.
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Maybe I am just misunderstanding what you mean, but not being able to start the game with an "I win" strategy strikes me as a good thing.
C'mon, tell me something about them! I was thinking about picking up Fury of Dracula when it came out, but got gun-shy at the pricetag. Any of those sucessfully achieve "spooky?"
The scariest thing about Mall of Horrors is its hideously translated instruction manual. If you can get past that, though, it's a blast. Basically you take a number of votes each round... who the new security chief is, where you're going to send your pieces, who gets items from the parking lot, and who gets tossed to the zombies next. It's short, brutal, and might make certain people very angry indeed, but it's the best zombie game I've played in a long time.
Arkham Horror can be very atmospheric and fun, depending on your level of participation. Sure, you mostly gather clue tokens, seal gates, and kill monsters, but there are a lot of fun little "sidequests" to run as well, ranging from hiring sidekicks to joining the Twilight Lodge. We've played the crap out of the original game (and a few times with the Pharaoh expansion), and it's a lot of fun, provided you're willing to go with the theme a little and not just powergame your way through.