Horror Board Games For a Frightful Start to October
If you’re enjoying a full month of all things spooky, scary, and creepy, these horror board games will get your October started right.
October doesn’t need to be an excuse to dive into all of the creepy things you weren’t able to make time for all year. But I sure treat it that way. All month, I go out of my way to enjoy as many horror movies, shows, games, and books as possible. And if you, too, are looking for a little bit more horror to add to your October, these horror board games will bring equal parts fun and terror to your next game night.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
I’ve mentioned before how much I love this game. But it is genuinely one of my favorite board games and there are very few people in my life who I haven’t made play Betrayal with me at least once. Players begin the game cooperatively exploring a haunted house that comes together randomly as they explore and is never the same in any two games.
But eventually something triggers the haunt to start. There is often a member of the group who betrays the rest, and then it is a survival game to defeat the randomly-selected monster and escape the house with your lives. This game borrows from almost every horror movie trope, and has some of the best replayability I’ve ever seen in a board game.
Arkham Horror
When it comes to the weird-horror genre, the Lovecraft-based games have stayed an industry staple for a reason. In Arkham Horror, players take on the role of investigators, trying to figure out what new strangeness is happening in Arkham this week. They work together to collect clues, figure out how to stop or defeat the world-ending monster of the week, and hopefully keep them from making the leap from their dimension to our own. And if they fail, what’s a little madness between friends?
The Night Cage
This game actually feels like a tense horror game. Players are lost in a dark maze with one candle, so do your best to explore with little light and less idea where you are. The Night Cage is a tile-laying game where the map will constantly disappear from view as your candle grows more and more dim. New pathways will open up as others will be lost forever in the darkness. But your group can make it through together.
Alone
Alone is a sci-fi horror-survival game. One players takes on the role a hero, working to save themselves and complete their missions while exploring their location. But the map is full of traps and dangers, and time and resources are both scarce. Meanwhile, the other players control the forces of evil, working towards their own awful ends. So the hero is always well and truly alone.
The Shivers
Shivers is a cooperative mystery board game full of magic, mystery, and just a little creepiness. One player takes on the role of the storyteller, while the rest work together to solve puzzles, collect clues, and defeat the ghoulish foes. If you want a game that will get your into the spooky spirit, but maybe isn’t as scary as some of our other picks, this is a nice middle ground.
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