Charles’ List of Top 5 Horror Board Games

I love board games, they are a wonderful escape from the real world that bridges the gap between full on RPG experience and childhood experiences (see Candy Land, Shoots and Ladders, Monopoly and Life) that we fondly recall. These games do not share the simplistic mechanics of the previously mentioned games but that should not deter you. Put a seatbelt on your brain and get ready to devote a few hours to some awesome experiences that can be had via some good times with friends. The best recipe for enjoyment/success is a group of friends that include: at least one veteran of the game, one rules lawyer, one newbie and one comedian.

Quick disclaimer: a lot of these pictures and links (click the board game box art) comes from the great site Board Game Geek an amazing resource for the rookie to the veteran. Also, while doing some research for this article I was sad to learn that Thought Hammer  has closed down. I ordered a lot of my games from them, RIP you kings of the tabletop.

Honorable Mention: Mansions of Madness (Fantasy Flight Games)

2-5 players, competitive with cooperative components, roughly 2 hours and expansions available.

This would have probably made it pretty high up the list but I can’t verify for sure having never played it. As you can judge by the rest of the list Fantasy Flight is no slouch in the Horror board game department so I bet that this is fantastic, bit ups to Mr. Holly for the reminder.

 

5. A Touch of Evil (Flying Frog Productions)

2-8 players, cooperative, roughly 1.5 hours playtime and expansions available.

This game was hard pressed to make the list, but I wanted to limit this to games that I have played so the input might be a bit more valid. Originally I was sold on this as it was a “simplified version of Arkham Horror”. Man, that was a bit off the mark there are some similarities but more so in general. Having cooperative gameplay, playing against a non-player enemy, game board and miniatures.

Overall the rules are not super complex and it should not take a lot of pick up the basics, NPCs include townsfolk that can either aid you in your quest or be secretly (or not so secretly) working against your goal of defeating whatever threat menaces Shadowbrook. The NPC big bad will throw minions at you until time counts down to his domination. For the players you must uncover the sinister nature of your foe through investigation and build your character’s arsenal to take down the baddie via encounters in the town and fighting minions. My goal is to give this game another shot over this October season and see if my bias still holds, it was a long night of drinking and waiting to see if any trick or treaters showed up. Still as an entry into board games in a cooperatives manner you’d be hard pressed to beat this game.

 

4. Fury of Dracula (Fantasy Flight Games)

2-5 players, competitive with cooperative components, roughly 2-4 hours playtime and no expansions available.

Play as Lord of the Vampires, check. Have you or your friends ever wanted to hunt down a dracula and not just any dracula but Dracula. Then this is the game for you. 1987 at it’s finest has been remade for the modern 2000s and all their social media saturation. One player assumes the role of Vlad the Impaler and the rest assume the roles of characters from the novel hunting down the Count. The players have limited information and must track Dracula over Europe (city to city via planes, trains and kinda automobiles) and attempt to destroy the undead scum.

Ideally you want to full 5 players to balance things out a bit, since Dracula is a shape changer and you must pit your mere mortal detective skills against the knowledgeable Nosferatu and his deviously Machiavellian schemes. Moving in secret and setting traps and clues for your mortals foes. To achieve victory, Dracula must raise vampiric allies, defeat the hunters or simply withstand the test of time. For the hunters, and as always they must kill Dracula. All I can saw, when you play as Dracula you need to channel your inner Bela Lugosi it pays off in spades.

 

3. Betrayal at House on the Hill (Wizards of the Coast)

3-6 players, cooperative to competitive, roughly an hour playtime and no expansions available.

Betrayal at House on the Hill, like any other great board game has a checkered past between the first and second edition. Pictured above is the 2010 second edition which has a much improved system or so I am lead to believe, I haven’t sampled it yet but from what I’ve read and seen looks like a much better deal. This game evokes childhood memories of Scooby Doo with a sinister twist, what if one of the gang was the man in the rubber mask and instead of a rubber mask it was a knife that ended up wedged in your spine? Ruh-roh Raggy indeed.

I have not had the pleasure of playing this game sober enough to give you a full rundown, the amount of beer in my system suggested otherwise then trying to learn the rules and that it would be much easier to do Scooby Gang impressions from the sidelines and call friends Old Man Jenkins™. I can tell you that this game is fantastic and well deserves it’s spot on the list for the fun factor and betrayal alone. It feels a lot like a favorite of mine Shadows Over Camelot.

 

2. Last Night on Earth (Flying Frog Productions)

2-6 players, competitive with cooperative components, roughly 1.5 hours of playtime and expansions available. Bonus points if you crossover with Invasion from Outer Space.

Zombies may becoming a bit worn, but that all changes when you are either playing as the zombies trying to chow down on your friends or playing as the survivors trying to escape the eager jaws of your friends. This game plays optimal at 4 or 6 players, you can do with less but it is great for each side to have a team of 2 or 4. 2 players with two heroes each or 4 heroes, or 4 players with one hero each slugging it out against their Undead Wraith Master Flash or perhaps a duo of Undead Zombie Masters. Plotting your strategy and trying to keep it secret and safe is of utmost important. This game has a great set of heroes to choose from, they vary quite a bit and each have unique abilities that makes your fight for survival more interesting. It can be a terrible blow when you’ve been playing as your favorite character and they’ve succumbed to the zombie side and are now being controlled as a zombie hero, but you can always draw another hero.

This game is high on the replay value, each time you play a new scenario and new hero cards are drawn spicing things up with the perfect amount of awesomesauce. The mechanic that judges the shooting for the heroes can seem a bit off sometime but this is a great way to use House Rules™ and sort out the most logical way to put a slug in some rotting brains. There are other zombie games avaiable but for me LNoE is a cut above the rest in combining fast action, simple combat and all around funny experiences. There is nothing like drawing a card called ‘Just What I Needed’ and then pulling the keys for a truck from the deck and getting the hell out of dodge (PS you can leave your friends behind if they didn’t pull their weight in putting down the undead).

1. Arkham Horror (Fantasy Flight Games)

1-8 players, cooperative, 4 hours (please consult a Doctor) and MANY expansions available.

Arkham Horror first appeared in 1987 and has been causing bouts of insanity since. 2005 saw the game come back into circulation with a revision in 2007. It has been gleefully tormenting board games nerds for over two and half decades and judging by the play time doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. This game comes the closest to being an RPG outright but has a game engine built to screw you over without the intervention of a DM, how handy indeed. I can only dream how treacherous the 1987 edition was to manage, the 2005 and 2007 editions are great and provide hours of entertainment, in one sitting, to play. Seriously, take a look at the game laid out with all the expansions.

Yeah, that’s right. Roll a D6 and take that much damage to your Sanity. Oh, you’re lost in Time and Space? That’s a shame because the game is going to end in death and madness and fire. You really should have eaten that dog Ashcan Pete. I’m about 67% sure that conversation happened in one form or another during a bout of Arkham Adventuring.

This game is for the most hardened of board gamers, you’re going to need to max your stamina to be able to endure rounds of rule clarification, monster spawning, monster movement, movement checks, sanity checks, lore checks, czech checks. Yup, oh wait almost forgot to move the doom track! Does the Ancient One still slumber or have you failed to keep the forces of evil at bay? You have to keep in mind Lovecraft was an atheist and dreaming up gods that would terrify him, that is what you fight against in this game. That a game engine so sinister that it might cause you many a sleepless night.

All joking aside, there is a reason this game is at the top of the list. Simply put it is the intricately designed of these, yet still retaining a great gaming system, a fun story and the replay value is off the charts. You have loads of investigators (characters to choose from), a stack of Ancient Ones to battle (with their own specific major and minion ones) and cards that can completely derail the best laid plans of your collective group with a simple draw. Fear not mortals for you may dip your feet in the dread pool that is Arkham Horror with Elder Sign or if you need to start digitally Elder Sign: Omens these are a truncated version using simplified mechanics and on a plus note they don’t take 4 hours plus to play.