My top 5 board games for halloween

Halloween is approaching and here in Edmonton it’s snowing outside. So you could bundle into something warm and stretch a costume over it to trudge around getting a bag of random “fun size” candy. Or you could get friends together in a warm house where their costumes fit they way they should, with some good food and play some board games. Here’s my list of board games to play this Halloween.

Gloom – Each player selects a dysfunctional family and proceeds to weave a tale of misery and death. Gloom is game where you actually want terrible things to happen to your characters and you despise your friends for making good things that happen to your “family.” This is a fantastic Gothic story telling game perfect for Halloween.

Zombies!!! - This game from twilight inc. is a hardcore competitive zombie slay-fest. Explore a town as each player adds map tiles on their turn. Gather items, kill zombies, and play cards to mess with your opponents. Be the first to slay 25 zombies or make it to the helipad and escape to win the game.

Zombie Dice – Simple, fast and fun. This is an easy to learn dice game. Be the zombie to collect 13 or more brains to win the game. Beware three shotgun blasts and you end your rolling streak without collecting your braiiinss! So do you go after the runners or stop to enjoy the brains you collected?

The Haunting House – A basic shifting maze game that’s great for people who want a Halloween themed game without scares. Make your way through the haunted mansion to the exit before the other players. Just don’t question to hard as to why the house is all corridors and no rooms.

Betrayal at House on the Hill – So far the best horror game I have played. This game is played in two stages. In the first the adventurous players explore a spooky old house on a hill, adding rooms from the room tile deck as they go. Players collect items, trigger events or find omens of horror. Eventually one of the omens triggers one of 50 haunts for the game. This haunt is the second phase where you discover which horror story you are in and which person in your group is the one who betrayed you to this horror. The randomness and story elements of Betrayal at House on the Hill make for a night of thrills, chills, and player kills.  If you are getting one game off of my list this is the game to buy.

So what do you think of my list? This list only covers games I have played so are there any reader recommendations for me to try out for next Halloween?

All of these are available from Mission Fun and Games.