In a dark and dreary house, every sound sends a cold chill through your bones. A door opens – is someone there? You hear whispers, but no one answers when you call. Your eyes and ears may deceive you, but the hair on your neck tells you what you already know: There are ghosts here — and not just one for these spirits are legion.
In Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, a.k.a. Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister!, four intrepid treasure hunters are on a quest, searching for precious hidden jewels, but the phantoms in this house do not give up their bounty easily. As their ghoulish numbers grow, the treasure hunters must work together to acquire all eight jewels and escape the house before it becomes fully haunted or else face their own gruesome demise.
Players roll dice to determine how many spaces they move this turn and whether a new ghost is added to the board. Players may move up to the number of spaces shown on the die. If they end their movement in a space with a treasure, they may pick it up and place it in their backpack. If they end their movement in a space with a ghost, they fight that ghost by rolling a fight die. If they roll the matching symbol, they remove the ghost from the game board.
If the players must add a third ghost to a room, it transforms into a haunting. A haunting requires at least two people in the room to attempt a fight with it. Players win if they can get all eight treasures and their whole team out of the house; they lose if all six hauntings are on the board.
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- children's memory / dexterity — kid-friendly game with a memory/stacking twist
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- we picked it up for absolute peanuts
- it's actually really good for adults as well
- the rule book is utter utter awful
- this is a complete game we hate this game
References (from this video)
- Engaging cooperative experience suitable for families and casual gamers
- Clear tension between treasure collection and ghost management
- Advanced mode adds meaningful depth and replayability
- Solid foundation for homebrew expansions and community experiments
- Balancing attention between collecting treasures and fighting ghosts can be tricky
- Advanced mode increases complexity and can slow down younger players
- Ghost hunting and treasure retrieval in a kid-friendly coop experience
- Haunted mansion exploration with a goal to recover treasures and escape while managing spectral threats
- casual, experiential discussion of play sessions with improvisational humor and shared storytelling
- Luigi's Mansion
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Advanced mode rules — A harder variant adds constraints such as collecting gems in order and doors that can lock, increasing strategic depth and pacing challenges.
- Dynamic room and door interactions — Rooms can change state (e.g., doors locking) mid-game, forcing players to adapt their plans on the fly.
- Ghost spawn escalation — Ghosts appear and escalate in rooms as play progresses; a third ghost entering a room triggers additional threats, creating a dynamic difficulty curve.
- Pandemic-like threat dynamics — Threats appear around the map in a manner reminiscent of pandemic-era escalation, requiring ongoing monitoring and balance between offense and objective completion.
- Player power and event deck homebrew — Fan-created expansions introduce new player powers and event decks to modify play balance and strategy.
- Treasure collection and exit objective — Players search for treasures and must retrieve and exit them while balancing the need to defeat or delay ghosts.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- And so this kids game was a perfect fit.
- It's a nice sweet spot.
- We made a whole homebrew Luigi's Mansion expansion to this game with variable player powers and an event deck.
- Maybe someday we'll post it as like a homebrew. a mini expansion, a print, print and play thing.
- Luigi is already finished.
- the blue doors all lock