Best & Most Fun Halloween (board?) Games for Non-Board-Gamey People

September 26, 2015 10:14 AM

Trying to find a fun, and spooky, board game for several adults to play on Halloween. Not a Ouija board, please.

Hi Gamers of MeFi,

Looking for a spooky board game for 5-7 adults to play on Halloween. Most of these folks won't be big board game players. I have Last Night On Earth...friends seem to find this one too nerdy and work-intensive.

Would Fury of Dracula be a good choice? Looking for maximum fun, minimum nerdiness.

Thanks, all!

posted by Miss T.Horn to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (9 answers total)

Betrayal at House on the Hill.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:26 AM on September 26, 2015

FoD is pretty nerdy.

If you're looking for simple, fun, but not really scary at all, go with Zombie Fluxx or Zombie Dice as an appetizer.
posted by Etrigan at 10:28 AM on September 26, 2015

Fury of Dracula's a ton of fun, more adventurey than spooky in terms of play style. There are a lot of little details to remember, especially when it comes to the combat and which weapons to hold on to, even though most of the micro-managing is on Dracula's end. I would recommend playing it at least once with a flexible couple of friends before you try to show it to less-serious gamers, since picking up the rules for Dracula can take a while. Also, I love the game but it can be pretty hard to find - I'm not sure when the reprint is coming out exactly (it was announced for Q4).

Betrayal at the House on the Hill would probably be my first choice for a Halloween game. It's reasonably lightweight, because there's really limited options to strategize in the first half of the game when you're exploring, and even in the 2nd half after the haunting starts I think the experience of playing is more about the storytelling - 'cool, giant slimes from outer space!' or 'poltergeist, run away!' and it can be pretty spooky. A lot depends on which random encounter you draw (so lots of replayability), and one caveat is that the 'traitor' is determined dynamically in-game so someone might find him or herself playing the bad guy when they didn't expect to be.

More lightweight still but not quite as 'filler' as zombie dice: Zombies! Keep Out (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1152532/zombies-keep-out-overview). The negative feedback on BoardGameGeek is mostly of the 'too easy!' variety which I think is probably good, since it sounds like your audience isn't of the "analysis=fun" persuasion.
posted by Lady Li at 10:43 AM on September 26, 2015

Betrayal can be a lot of fun but it can also be miserable based on pure luck - you can spend forty minutes in the first phase of the game and then once the action starts it can be over in five minutes with one side having absolutely no chance of victory. That might not be great for people that are suspicious of board games to begin with.

Seven players is a hard number to accommodate - maybe one of the Werewolf variants?
posted by Candleman at 10:50 AM on September 26, 2015

Thirding Betrayal at the House on the Hill. It's a lot of fun and I can confirm that non-board game people have enjoyed it.

Depending on how you feel about zombies, Dead of Winter is a cooperative-with-betrayal game with chances for people to get into characters and mood.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 10:54 AM on September 26, 2015

Is Werewolf too pedestrian? If you want to get a little more tabletop-adjacent with it there are a few decks out there that allow for more elaborate gameplay. That said, with max 7 people you probably won't have enough people for the more baroque takes on the game. On the other hand, if you go with Werewolf, it is kind of a "more the merrier" thing, so extra people who tag along won't ruin the plan.
posted by Sara C. at 11:00 AM on September 26, 2015

I actually think Betrayal is great for non-board-gamey folks. It totally drips with cheesy, spooky atmosphere, and it's mostly people who are really serious about their board games who hate the luck element. People who aren't into board games think the whole thing is a hoot. I think it only plays six though, so if all seven people show up you might have to have a team.
posted by phoenixy at 12:07 PM on September 26, 2015

Kill Doctor Lucky (Cheapass Games) is easy to learn and quite fun.
posted by salix at 1:52 PM on September 27, 2015

Thanks for all the suggestions! I was about to buy Betrayal when I saw a review of the new "Mysterium" and went ahead and bought that. Will keep all these in mind for next time!
posted by Miss T.Horn at 2:09 PM on October 27, 2015