Spooktacular Games: The Haunting… And The Horror…The night and the road stretch onward out of sight. Your group has been travelling for so long, you thought it’d be closer to dawn by now. You crest a hill and there you see a strange house. Your fuel gauge drops to empty; you have no service for your phone. Do you sleep in the car or head into the Abandoned House? Was that a light flickering in the upstairs window? What is going on? Do you have the guts and the investigative prowess to figure it out without losing your mind… or your life? Our last game suggestion is the heftiest of the bunch and it's definitely a game for an older group, but if you love Eldritch Horror (and really, who doesn’t?) Mansions of Madness by Fantasy Flight Games is the perfect addition to your Spooktacular Game night!
Mansions of Madness is a behemoth of a game! But the manufacturers have very helpfully provided an app that will basically run the game for you. Set up is the most complicated of any game we’ve talked about so far, so we’re going to give a very abbreviated version pulled from the Learn to Play booklet. First, you set up the card decks, organize the map tiles, organize the monsters, and create token pools by separating the tokens by type. Then you need to choose your scenario. There are several different possible stories to choose from, and players will need to choose which of them they want to complete and input that choice on the app. Players will then choose their investigators and take both the investigator card and the corresponding figure. Once investigators are chosen the app will direct you to collect your starting position. Lastly, for set-up, read the prologue and reveal the entrance on the map tile the app directs you to start with and place your figures and any additional tokens on the map tile.
Gameplay is divided into a series of rounds, the number of which will vary depending on the players choices. Each round is divided into two phases, the Investigator Phase and the Mythos Phase. During the Investigator Phase the Investigators perform actions that allow them to explore the board and attack monsters that they encounter. During the Mythos Phase, the app will dictate actions taken by the monsters, and generate mythos effects which vary according to the scenario and what is happening in the game. The Additional Rules section of the Learn to Play booklet contains additional rules regarding effects like investigators being damaged, wounded, insane and eliminated. This section also contains the rules for how to conduct the skill tests that the app will direct you to make as you explore and engage with monsters and even examples of the types of puzzles included in the game. The Rules and Reference booklet will have all of the additional rules you need to play the game, and you should probably keep both booklets handy for quick referencing. The investigators win the game when they identify the objective, complete their investigation and complete the necessary tasks! If the investigators fail to complete their objectives, they lose the game. If one of the Investigators is eliminated, the other Investigators have until the end of the next Investigation phase to complete their investigation or they lose. Additionally, there are some game effects that can change how an individual Investigator wins or loses the game. We fully admit that this game is complex. It has a lot of pieces and a ton of different options for actions you can take and things that you could run into. Having to figure out what the actual objective is in each scenario is also a very unique objective in this game. But its variability and its complexity that we like so much! No two scenarios will be the same! Honestly, even if you replayed a scenario it is unlikely to progress the same way! We think that if you give this game a try, it’s sure to be a spooktacular addition to game night!
0 Comments
Spooktacular Games: “Grim Grinning Ghosts”Lightning flashes and the hallway you find yourself trapped in starts to stretch. Is the ceiling rising? Or is the floor dropping? What was that noise? Everything starts to spin and the walls fall away! You’ve found yourself in the brand new Disney Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits Game! Can you make friends with the denizens of this Ghostly Gala all while evading too many encounters with the Hitchhiking Ghosts who set out to really Haunt you?
Disney Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits Game is a brand new spooktacular game from Prospero Hall Games & Funko Games in which players rotate the never-ending hallway to grant them access to different rooms in the Haunted Mansion where they can claim cards to complete sets. Scoring depends on the number of cards in each set you collect and the player with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner. In addition to scoring points for sets of cards, you will also potentially lose points based on your Haunt cards. Haunt cards can be gained in a few ways, which we’ll go over as we talk through how to play a round. First, set-up. Place the game board in the center of the table and place the endless hallway in the empty space in the center of the board. The endless hallway should rotate freely, as this rotation will come into play in the game. You will need to shuffle the Ghost cards and the Haunt cards separately and place them face-down on the side of the board. Remove the Final Round card from the Event Cards. Shuffle the Event cards, put a number of them equal to the number of players back in the box without looking at them. Take the bottom two cards off the face-down stack and shuffle the final round card with those two cards. Put all three cards back on the bottom of the stack and set the stack to the side of the board. Place the dueling dials in easy reach and the Hitchhiking Ghosts figure in the Crypt. Find the First Player token and place your player figures in the Séance Room in the center of the endless hallway. Now you’re all ready to start.
This game is played in a number of rounds determined by the number of event cards before you reach that Final Round card. Each round has two phases. The first phase is called the Event Phase and the second phase is the Action Phase. At the beginning of each Event phase you will draw an Event card. These cards will have a set of arrows and a number indicating which direction the Hitchhiking Ghosts will move this round. The direction will indicate clockwise or counterclockwise and the number will indicate how many rooms the Hitchhikers move through. Any player in a room that the Hitchhiking Ghosts move through will have to draw one Haunt card. Players in the room that the Hitchhiking Ghost stop in must draw two Haunt Cards. In addition to the movement of the Hitchhikers, the Event cards may also have an extra rule, called a Condition, that applies to all players for that round. Once the Hitchhikers have moved, a player will take a number of ghost cards equal to three plus the number of players and distribute them face up around the game board starting in the room where the Hitchhikers end their movement, place two cards and then place a single card in each of the next rooms. Once all the cards have been placed and everyone understands the Condition the Event phase ends and the Action phase begins. In the Action phase, players will take their turns starting with the first player. On the first round, the first player is the player who most recently heard a ghost story. Play will continue clockwise from them and the first player token will also move to the next player at the end of each round. On a player’s turn they may choose to take a combination of three actions from a total of five possible actions. Players may choose to Move, which means that they will move their figure into an adjacent room, from the Séance room into the Hallway, for example. They may also choose to Rotate the Endless Hallway. This action allows a player to spin the endless Hallway as far as they want. They could choose to do this to move their figure quickly to another room, or to move their opponent’s figures closer or further from a particular room. Players can also choose to Collect a Ghost Card. If a player is in the part of the Endless Hallway that is immediately adjacent to the room with a card that they want, the player is able to claim that card from the room. If however, the Hitchhikers are in the room from which the player claims a card, they must also claim a Haunt Card. Once you have claimed a Ghost card, place it face up in front of you, so that the other players can see it. Haunt cards will have a number between one and three on them and you should look at them as you draw them and place them face-down in a pile in front of you. You may look at your Haunt cards at any point, but you will most likely want to keep your total secret from the other players. If a player is in the same room as an opponent who has a ghost card that the player wants, the player can choose to Duel that opponent for the card. In this case both players will grab one of the Duel dials and will secretly bid a number between zero and three. If the challenger wins the bid, they will get to steal the card they wanted from their opponent. If however, the bids tie or their opponent bids higher, the opponent would keep their card. Either way, both players will draw the number of Haunt Cards equal to their bid and add them to their pile. The last option for players on their turn is to Discard a Card. Any player in the séance room may opt to discard a Haunt card from their pile to the bottom of the Haunt deck. Players may choose any combination of three of these actions and may perform all but the Duel and Discard a Card options multiple times on their turn. Once the last player has taken their turn, pass the first player token to the next player in rotation and start a new round with a new Event Phase! When the Final Round Card appears as the Event Card, it signals the final round of the game. The Event and Actions phases proceed as normal, but at the end of the Action phase, players move to scoring and determining a winner. First, players will tally their Haunt Card totals. The player with the highest Haunt total will have to discard their largest ghost collection (ghost card collection with the same symbol). If two of their collections are the same number of cards, they will have to discard the collection that is worth the most points. Players will then score a number of points for each set of cards and, in some instances, extra points for specific combinations of cards. Each of the Ghost cards have an icon on them that shows what type of card that Ghost is. Each type of ghost has a number of ghosts that make a set, and if you have more cards of the type than makes up one set, you would score the first set and then move to scoring the second. You cannot however, split a set so that you have two shorter sets. The player with the highest score after all of the scoring is complete is the winner! We are very excited about this new game and think it makes a wonderful addition to any Spooktacular game night! Spooktacular Games: Wandering Wizards You’ve been wandering for what seems like hours. You keep finding huge glowing doors to fantastic places, but every time you try to pass through one, you find yourself here. Always here in the main level of this cursed library! You hear talking from around a stack and when you arrive you see several other Wizards peering down at a glowing Grimoire on a desk tucked at the end of a long, long row of books. The Grimoire seems to be giving you clues to get out! Can you and your Cohorts interpret the Grimoire well enough to escape? Are all of your Cohorts to be trusted? You have no idea, but you have to try...
The two primary roles for players in Obscurio are that of the Grimoire and the Wizards. The Grimoire plays as the clue-giver, moderator and timer- and so it is definitely the more challenging role but, the wizards are the players whose decisions win or lose the game. (Especially, since there’s a traitor among the wizards!) We’ll go through set-up, the Grimoire’s role, the Wizards’ role, and last the Traitor’s! Set up is a little complicated because there are a number of different boards to set up before playing. First is the
of wizards and experience of the Grimoire in your group) on the cohesion tracker along the bottom of the library. The progress marker goes in the first room on the progress track along the top of the library board. Next up is the foldable Card Holder with a Time Track on the outside.
The Grimoire should secretly fill the eight slots of the card holder randomly from the deck of Illusion Cards. This will be used by the Grimoire and the Traitor during the game. The back of the card holder has the timer track. This track will indicate how many trap tokens to reveal based on the wizards reaction time the previous round. The more traps the harder it will be to decipher the clues and find the right door. Set the rest of the deck of Illusion Cards aside as they will be needed later in the game. As long as there are at least three wizards in your group, grab a number of loyalty cards equal to the number of wizards in your group. Make sure that the traitor card is in the bunch (if there are only two wizards you skip this step). Deal one loyalty card to each wizard and have them secretly look at their loyalty.
token (or tokens depending on the Wizards time the previous round) and apply those effects. There are three categories of traps and each set affects play at a different part of the round. We recommend keeping the back page of the rule book handy for reference. The brown traps affect how the Grimoire shares information, the purple traps grant the traitor more power, and the green traps hinder the wizards choices, time, and abilities. A special watcher trap automatically applies when the progress token is on the last place on the track and blocks all communication between the wizards. Now it’s time to prepare the first riddle! The Grimoire will secretly look at the top card of the Illusion Cards. This will be the door the Wizards need to find. Set it aside and place the next two (as long as a trap doesn’t change it) Illusion Cards in the Grimoire’s Desk.  The Grimoire will use the two magnetic butterflies to provide hints to the players about the door card they need to find. The Grimoire hands the whole desk to the Wizards who may pass it around and discuss it freely. The Grimoire, however, cannot talk or provide any additional hints about the door. Once the players are satisfied, they pass the desk back to the Grimoire. The Grimoire then asks the wizards to close their eyes, and then the traitor to open their eyes. Communicating silently so as to provide no clues to any of the other wizards the traitor may choose to add up to two cards from the Card Holder to the stack of cards with the door. Once the cards are chosen and the Card holder is closed again, the Traitor closes their eyes, the Grimoire adds the cards needed to make a total of six (or more) possible doors from the Illusion Cards to the stack with the door and finally commands the Wizards to open their eyes. The Grimoire shuffles the stack of six cards and hands the whole stack to one of the Wizards. The Wizards flip the cards and place them in the numbered cutouts on the library board and the Grimoire flips the sand timer and places it on the {+0} spot on the outside of the card holder. The Wizards now have one minute to find the right door; after the one minute expires, the Grimoire flips the timer again and moves it to the {+1} spot. This adds one additional trap to the next round. If Wizards still are not prepared when the sand runs out, the Grimoire would flip the timer onto the {+3} spot, and so on. In all rounds that the progress marker is not in the last room, the Wizards may freely communicate about the doors. Once the Wizards have chosen their doors, the Grimoire identifies the correct door and determines if the Wizards move forward on the Progress Tracker. Each Wizard may make their own decision about the right door, and they can even choose different doors and as long as one of them chooses the right door, the whole group will progress to the next room. However, for every Wizard that chooses the wrong door, remove one cohesion token from the tracker and pile them in front of the player, or players, that chose the wrong door. Once the first area of the cohesion tracker is depleted, the Wizards must identify the Traitor. If they accuse the wrong Wizard, that Wizard will be ejected and the Traitor will still be among them. For each round after that the Wizards find their remaining cohesion tokens on the right side of the Cohesion Tracker and the Traitor has not been identified, the Wizards must accuse one Wizard. If the cohesion tokens run out altogether, the Wizards lose and are lost in the cursed library forever. In this case, the Traitor wins! If the Traitor is identified and ousted, they cease participating in all parts except the card choosing phase of the game and the Wizards may continue their escape attempt.
Each round is played the same as described above, except any rounds played in the last room where the Watcher Trap comes into effect. Because of the Watcher, the Wizards are unable to communicate with each other in any way during the viewing of the Desk or the choosing of the door. In fact, they do not even place their tokens in front of the door until all Wizards are prepared. Then the Wizards all place their tokens in front of the doors they choose on the count of three. Do you and yours have what it takes to find your way out of the cursed Library? Play Obscurio at your next Spooktacular game night and find out! Spooktacular Games: Moonless NightYou know the nights with no moon are the best nights to collect the shadowlings so you put fresh batteries in your trusty lantern and head out into the forest! The Shadowlings are fast, darting between shadows as soon as you blink your eyes. All you have to do to catch them is freeze them in the light of your lantern, but as you move around, you could have sworn they were standing right there… Another shadowling must have rescued them! Can you catch them all before they get away?
In Shadows in the Forest one player plays as the seeker, and the others (up to six) play as shadowlings. The seeker is trying to find and freeze all of the shadowlings and the shadowlings are trying to group up in the same hiding place. The best part of this game, though, is that it's designed to be played in the dark! Set up is a little more complicated than the other games we’ve talked about so far. You place the game board in front of all the players and you put the trees, tree stumps, and large stones together and then on the board to make the hiding places. Be careful that the hiding places do not touch the path. Place the lantern and the glow in the dark dice on one of the four red starting stones (in the corners) and then, turn down the lights! The shadowlings now get to place their figures on the board with their masks on, while the seeker’s eyes are closed.
they get to reroll and move that number of spaces as well. Until the seeker reaches the first green, mossy stone, they can only move forward away from the stone they started on. Once they reach the mossy stone, they are allowed to move in any direction, even back the way they came.) If, while the seeker is moving, a shadowling is illuminated by the lantern, the shadowling loses their mask and is frozen. This shadowling is no longer allowed to move to a new hiding place. After the seeker’s turn, it is the shadowlings turn and the seeker must close their eyes! The shadowlings can move anywhere on the board
shadowling is frozen, another shadowling can come to their aid. They must go to the same hiding spot and wait until the seeker’s next turn has passed. At that point, the frozen shadowling retrieves their mask and is allowed to move around the board once again! The game ends when either the seeker has frozen all of the shadowlings or all of the shadowlings manage to hide in the same hiding spot.
Not only is playing a boardgame in the dark fun but it also provides an exciting twist for a spooktacular family game night! We also love the ability to control the difficulty of the game by simply playing with more shadowlings or with fewer shadowlings! The minimum number of shadowlings is three, but you can play with up to six for a more complex game! Give Shadows in the Forest a try and tell us how your spooktacular family game night goes! Spooktacular games: Lunar LoonacyThe Werewolves have heard about the party and just couldn’t resist a quick trip to your neck of the woods! Can you and your fellow villagers sniff out the Lycanthropes before the Moon changes? Or will you all fall victim to the terrible curse? Either way, it's sure to be a hoot...and a Howl!
In a game of Werewolf, there will be one moderator (or you could use the handy Werewolf App on your phone) and a number of other roles. For a game of seven, you will need one doctor, one seer, and two werewolves. The remaining players will be villagers.
There is a deck of cards in the game box and once you have set the necessary cards together, shuffle them and hand them to each of the players. The players should look at their cards secretly and not share their role with anyone else. The game plays in alternating rounds of Night and Day until either there are an equal number of villagers and werewolves left, in which case the werewolves win, or the villagers manage to kill all of the werewolves, in which case the villagers win. Once the roles are assigned, you are ready to start with the first Night. During the Night, the moderator will have everyone close their eyes and call for individual roles to open their eyes and perform their role. Remember that aside from the moderator calling for individual roles, this entire phase should be communicated silently so that the other players do not get any extra information about who is in what role! First will be the Werewolves, who get to choose someone in the village to kill. After the werewolves have made their choice and been told to close their eyes, the moderator will ask for the Doctor to open their eyes and choose someone to heal. The doctor can choose anyone in the village, including himself, and if they were the victims picked by the werewolves, they will be saved instead of dying when the day phase begins. Once the doctor’s eyes are closed again, the moderator will ask for the seer to open their eyes. The seer will be able to ask about a single other player in the group. The moderator will silently inform them if the player in question is a werewolf (typically with a thumbs up) or a villager (with a thumbs down.) After the seer has closed their eyes, the moderator tells everyone to wake up and you move into the Daytime phase. At the beginning of the Daytime phase, the moderator will inform the group if someone has died and that person will no longer be able to participate in the game. They should also not reveal their role to the group! If the doctor managed to save the person the werewolves attacked, the moderator will instead inform the group that someone was saved, but the moderator will not disclose who the lucky villager was. On the first day, have all of the players introduce themselves. The only limits to what jobs the players can say they have in the village is the imagination of your players. Once introductions are complete, and in all subsequent Daytime phases, the players will then discuss their suspicions of who the werewolves are and they will come to a consensus. Once the consensus is reached that person is dead and no longer participates in the game. Again, there are no restrictions on what the players can say to convince the others that they are not the werewolves and so save their own hides! Once Daytime ends, the Night phase begins again! The game ends when either the number of werewolves equals the number of villagers remaining, or when the villagers manage to kill all of the werewolves off. If you are moderating the game and not using the app you may want to add some spooky background music for ambiance, and you’re off to a great spooky game night! Spooktacular Games: |
 Ghost Blitz Age: 8+ Players: 2-8 Playtime: 20 mins |  Ghost Blitz Junior Age: 4+ Players: 2-6 Playtime: 15 mins |  Ghost Blitz Spooky Doo Age: 8+ Players: 2-8 Playtime: 20 mins |  Ghost Blitz 5 to 12 Age: 8+ Players: 2-8 Playtime: 20 mins |
In Ghost Blitz players are trying to be the first to figure out the right object to grab after looking carefully at the card in play! Setting this game up is easy; place the wooden pieces where everyone can easily reach them and shuffle the deck. The first player will flip the top card and place it where everyone can easily see it. Then players have to quickly decide which object is the right one to grab. If one of the objects in the picture on the card shown is the right color, that object is the right one to grab. If neither of the objects in the picture are the right color, the right object is the one that is not in the picture and whose color is also not shown in the picture. The first player to grab the right object wins the card. When all the cards run out, the person with the most cards is declared the winner. But be careful about acting too fast, if you grab the wrong object, you must hand one of your cards over to the player who grabbed the right one!
 | Ghost Blitz has five objects and each of them is a different color. Two objects will appear in the picture on the card, so you will |
| always have five options and four pieces of information to process in order to make your decision. If you think that the game is too complicated for your group, you could try Ghost Blitz Junior. This simplified version has only four objects and three of them will appear on the card making this version much easier to play. |   |
Conversely, if you think the game is too easy, you could try Ghost Blitz Spooky Doo, in which in addition to the five objects there is a fez (red cup shaped hat) that is used to cover one of the items. This changes the game from a mostly observational, quick thinking game to one requiring quick thinking and a good memory.
There are still five objects and each is a different color. The cards will show two objects in two colors and you will still be making decisions about a group of five for which you have four pieces of information. If you think this version is still too easy for your group, you could try Ghost Blitz 5-12. This game plays like the original Ghost Blitz, but it has an
 | additional four objects for a total of nine objects. The cards have three pictures on them, and there are two objects of each color except white. Figuring out the right object for this one is even harder! This game requires players to quickly sort through six pieces of information (three objects and three colors) and then choose between nine options. Things can get crazy fast! The rule |
books for each of the games also contain extra variations to make the games even harder! We think that being able to easily tweak these games to play long-distance is one of our favorite aspects but in person play is always great too! All in all, any of the Ghost Blitz games would be a great addition to a spooky-themed family game night!
Stay tuned though you never know when the ghosts & ghouls will drop the next edition of spooktacular games.... or who will join the party along the way!
Stay tuned though you never know when the ghosts & ghouls will drop the next edition of spooktacular games.... or who will join the party along the way!
Spooktacular Games:
Sorcerers Origins
Halloween is upon us and we’re excited to show off some Spooktacular games! So get ready for some sorcerers, ghosts, shadows, werewolves, wizards, and madness! Stay tuned though you never know when the ghouls will drop the next edition of spooktacular games...
First up is 1,2,3-Hex Herbei!
 | Age: 5+ Players: 2-4 Playtime: 10 mins Publisher: Haba |
1,2,3-Hex Herbei! is a quick thinking, observation game which will have you searching for a silhouette that matches the next step in the path, while you race to get to the end first! Set-up is simple. Put the round puzzle-style game board together and place it in the center of the players. Allow everyone to choose their color base and player piece and put a magic ball on each of the four bases. Put all of the player pieces on the starting spot on the path. Once everyone is ready, the players shake their magic ball and pass it to the player on their left. Then everyone says, in their spookiest voice, “1,2,3 Conjure up for me!” and the hunt for the silhouette begins. On each of the tiles of the game board there are spooky silhouettes. In each of the magic balls, some, but not all, of these silhouettes also appear. The players are looking for one of the silhouettes that matches the next tile from their current position. Once someone finds it, they say, “Magic Stop!” And they carefully place their magic ball in the center so that everyone can see the silhouette they found. Once everyone agrees the silhouette is there, that player will move their player token to the next spot on the path. Then everyone shakes their magic balls, and passes it to the player on the left and the round begins again! The game ends when one player makes it all the way around the spooky path and back to the stone door. This game is a great option for building observation and memory skills and is simple enough for young players. Not only is everyone playing at once fun for all, but the tactile nature of this game makes it a great game for all ages. Thus, keeping short attention spans from getting bored and making it a great addition to a spooky family game night!
RSS Feed