The 10 Perfect Board Games for Halloween!

hello and welcome thank you for being here today I want to give you a quick rundown of my top 10 Halloween games now what does that mean for me well when I think of Halloween first off I think of ghouls and goblins and haunts and Hoots and all of the things that go into this holiday right costumes and dress up but also Mythos and lore sitting around watching scary movies in the fall season one of my favorite seasons of all time I I think about both childhood memories of being with family and being with friends and sharing in the holiday spirit and then also the more adult side of the world of the uh occult or the haunted and and so that's what I'm approaching with this list of games now they're not all going to be family games in fact the vast majority of them are games that you might want to play with your older children who are sitting around waiting for people to knock on the door instead of walking from position to position trying to scrounge up as much candy as possible by the way if you have a Halloween candy Gathering story let me know in the comments down below because I wanted I was one of those kids that went out with a entire I mean king-sized pillowcase started at like five ended at 10 once all the kids were already in bed let's just say I committed to my role to get candy but the inspiration for the for this list wasn't just that Halloween was approaching but also I was looking around this season and noticing just how many games were fitting into that world some games that have just recently arrived and then also some games that are currently or have just been on the crowdfunding platform now all the games that I am listing should to some degree be available to you not all of them but in fact none of them are going to be behind uh the paywall of Kickstarter at the moment however I do want to start with four honorable mentions that just are competing to be on this list next year or the year after when they arrive to the backers who supported them and then let's dive into the top ten and don't worry this is not going to be overly edited overly fancy in fact I'm hanging out in a onesie like let's just be straight I'm about to go to bed I want to get this filmed and share this list to you with you uh it doesn't not all of them need to be fancy this one's just me so strap in and enjoy the show I'm gonna like stumble all over the place now and I'm not even gonna cut it out this is just this is this is about as uh this is about as normal as I get okay so my honorable mentions the games that are on a pre-order that kind of inspired this list in a lot of ways honorable mention number one Destiny's Witchwood I believe it's over on game found right now but the reason this is incorporating in and base game Destinies is not is because this one is set in the world of well witches and they get called and that that experience that Halloween is all about just in this prototype here we've started journeying through it already you see magic and spells and witches Brews and corn mazes that you're going through and all those things that scream fall to me and so Destiny's Witchwood is high on this list and will probably be on this top 10 list the next time it happens but for now if you want a copy of Destinies itself which is a Incredible App driven game it's a Cooperative it's a cooperative-ish game you're exploring the world and finding out the puzzle kind of together but only one of you will have your story completed it is I I suppose not a Cooperative game at all in a sense and at the same time watching the tale unfold is pretty incredible you're going to be playing the role the character you're going to be rolling dice to mitigate some of the decisions that you have or some of the stats that you're able to use and your goal is to explore this world interact and talk to people go shopping for new gear and slowly accomplish whatever your destiny is in the name very fancy we have Meadows and yeah this one is just this is just Halloween it just is and I think it does a really good job at being Halloween like I am adding this to our collection once it comes in it's a little abstract game you're taking tiles you're matching them up you're trying to slowly grow and harvest the best patch of candy confectionary so that you can make the best possible concoction possible if you like little abstracts if you like tiling if you like pattern matching like this is what Dreadful Meadows is it's similar in the vein to a lot of other games that are out there in the marketplace uh but I think it's I think it's lovely I think it does it well and I've really enjoyed playing even though I am absolutely garbage at it I'm horrible at it and part of this is just I really do love the aesthetic the artwork the approach they've taken it's really themed around fall it's really themed around Halloween but it's not terrifying this is very much a family game that you could play with anyone that you would like a game that is not a family game is going to be black mold and I have that box upside down which is common here on quakalo because I can't see it you can black mold currently over on Kickstarter both of these are black mold is a game about well trying to escape this Crypt that you've been locked in into you're a prisoner that's just recently been broken out and there is mold everywhere and this mold infects you and turns you into a living breathing Nightmare and your goal is to work together with the rest of your team holding your breath for every action sequence you have until you crawl your way out of the script or die screaming and turn into another Abomination that's going to be hunting down the other people that are trying to crawl their way out of the crypt the hold your breath mechanic is very interesting it's very cool it's it's fun to do it creates kind of a panic sense in you and it's not a game about how long you can hold your breath because there are stop gaps there are things that keep you from doing it but that pressure of extending for one more turn while you're like squinching down that last little breath of air works really well it makes your brain think differently than you would assume under Panic under stretch Under Pressure you're you have slower reaction times your brain takes longer to spurn up and figure out what's going on with everyone else around the table chatting and chipping and cheering away at you pretty darn fun uh so if that sounds interesting to you if you want a game that has mechanics that I haven't seen any other game utilize and does them in a really interesting and really unique way black mold you should check out and it fits Halloween because it's gross and finally just left Kickstarter I believe but there should be presumably a pre-order a back order kit Harold County coming from the famed comic book Harrow County coming from off the page games a publisher that does incredible work when it comes to translating uh comic books into the board game scene they worked with mind MGMT before too much Acclaim hero county is going to be a head-to-head uh non-cobot Cooperative entirely combative game uh where you're trying to use your asymmetric player powers to generate the actions that you need in order to hopefully accomplish whatever your goal is uh whether that's creating a line of hints that move from one area to another to try to rescue different people across the board or creating storms that ravage the landscape uh destroying the trees destroying the houses destroying the community or you could get up to chapter five which uh unlocks a witch who comes back from the dead and slowly tries to smash together everyone to create bonfires for people to worship at I needless to say Harold county is very much Halloween the comma my book is all about the occult and the ghouls and the Goblins that might come out during this season and Harold County emulates that well not only do I recommend the board game but I also highly recommend the comic book I really really enjoyed the comic book a lot so there's four games four games that I think eventually could or will deserve to be on this list the question is what are they going to be knocking off because we're about to dive into the top 10 and the top 10 is full of some gems but I did I shifted things around so that this is a Halloween list I thought about this a lot so starting at the very back it's going to be a little game called Arkham Horror Arkham Horror the card game is going to be coming from Fantasy Flight this is going to be a living card game instead of a collectible card game what that means is every pack that is released uh is completely the same so you're not trying to collect the cards instead you're buying module after module and you're going to be going through this story you're going to be gaining cards the wooden box doesn't necessity you don't have to have it with you but it's a very nice uh addition to the game you're going to be getting these packs of cards these cards are going to take you through a cthulhu-based Mythos world so you'll be working cooperatively as a set of investigators with your own skill sets your own deck of cards it is a deck crafting game that means you're going to be building your deck and customizing it as the game continues on and the big selling point of this is that if you love uh Cthulhu if you love that world and that Universe the the haunts and the ghouls and the weird mystery kind of combined with lots of tentacles and outer space rituals this does that probably better than most any other game Arkham Horror is an insanely beloved game with a ton of available content and a lot of people love going through this as a Cooperative experience so it's here at number 10 because I think it's a remarkable game it is not right for me to be fair which is why I personally have bumped into the top of this list but I don't think a Halloween list could or should exist without it in its at least consideration because Arkham Horror uh really really does the The Cooperative Cthulhu Mythos world really well so if that sounds like your speed I am probably the person that's wrong on this and all the other people the tens and tens if not hundreds of thousands of people that love this game they're probably right moving on to my number nine number nine is in this position not because the game in any way deserves to be at the back end of this list but because I think the theme of it distance it's distance it's itself too many instances in there from being Halloween except for some caveats so unsettled coming from Orange nebula this is a Cooperative experience as well you're working together to try to explore these vast different planetary systems and each game comes with these boxed modules so you'll be popping open a box here working with this larger system to incorporate it in and you're then going to be exploring planets you're first trying to solve what the puzzle of the planet is and then you're trying to solve for the puzzle itself and sometimes you end up running out of time you end up very crunched now a lot of this is more sci-fi space horror based theme not quite Halloween not quite fall however there are some scenarios where you're doing things like crawling across the floating head of a forgotten space deity that has been rotting and infected with putrid little pustules freons that to me kind of Screams creepy Halloween and a lot of this is that a lot of this is creepy world and unsettling and yet some of it is Big ocean planets where you're exploring underneath the waves of a forgotten civilization and that's that's not how that's not Halloween so with a strong caveat that not all of this is Halloween but some of it certainly feels similar to unsettled is added to the list moving down to my number eight is going to be underneath some boxes so give me give me moments don't look at anything no spoilers you you stop it dead of winter dead of winter is mixing in here because this is a post-apocalyptic Survival game where you're working together with everyone around the table that's well that's what you do with Cooperative games but you're trying to survive well a post-apocalyptic winter it's a bad deal right you're making decisions based off of what's good for the community and what's selfishly good for you now dead of winter is famous not only for its horror and the shifts in in sort of what happens from evening to evening or throughout the course of this game but also there might be a traitor and that kind of to me feels like we're getting closer to Halloween the idea of someone in the shadows with a knife or people making cryptic choices that you don't know if you can trust and given that it's set in this post-apocalyptic setting I think this probably makes a fantastic Cooperative game night experience if you're looking for something that uh is still going to allow that one friend in the family to point at Aunt Susan and say you're a liar Susan I know you have that gun at least I think that's uh what you you can you can do so dead of winter dead of winter is added to the list it is a game that I need to play more than I have I will be 100 honest about that I have not dove into this I in fact have all the expansion packs downstairs and I have not even yet opened them up so there's a lot more exploring to do and it might rise higher in the list with more plays but for now I think it makes sense to pop this open on the 31st and look around at your friends and say which one of you is going to be revealed for the villain okay moving down to my number seven and here we start getting closer and closer to the Halloween theme heart and soul I have a game called sorcerer eyes wizard wizard games and this is a head-to-head combative deck crafting game but that crafting in a very unique way like I explained with Arkham Horror you're putting together cards to create well the system that you're using well what's unique about sorcerer is here you're taking three categories of a sorcerer that you might be your personality your background and your type of magic so you can be someone who controls spiders coming from a monastery who is also a female vampire I suppose and those three things merge into this type of combination or this type of deck that it is unique to yourself you'll be battling over control of these giant creatures trying to rip apart cities and fighting with each other as you do so you want to be the dominating Force at these different local provinces so why is it here at Halloween well obviously we're working with magic and the Occult and weird cryptic things that are coming back but also like I said you can control flipping spiders what you can you block blood magic what what more do you need like this is if you want to play a game that lets you be a sorcerer or be a sorceress or be a witch or play with the occult sorcerer's got you covered there the artwork is gorgeous the card play is incredibly solid this comes from my personal game Library I'm looking forward to the uh to the next expansion coming soon I got a chance to preview that I guess a year and a half ago or so so it's got to be on the way sometime soon but if you can find a copy of this and you like head-to-head combative card games sorcerer is going to be one of these Halloween picks without a question by the way if you all have any Halloween pics let me know your thoughts as well because there are plenty of games that I am sure I'm missing that should be obvious additions to this list moving down to number six a game that I have raved about for some time that is now actually available to you all because I only talked about the prototype for the longest time Mythic Mischief now Mythic Mischief is up here at number six for two reasons one because I always talk about it and two because by its nature it's an abstract game which means the theming of Mythic Mischief while it does fit into the halloween-esque archetype for me doesn't entirely scream Halloween you're playing with characters that are witches and wizards and ghouls and goblins and ghosts and other creatures uh you know whatever they are there's lots of different things zombies at a mythical School kind of like Hogwarts and you're trying to break into the library and move yourself around with all your different special powers and abilities so that you can hopefully direct the Tome Keeper in a way that captures your opponent but allows you to run free that's the object of the game and because the theme is abstracted nature of an abstract game a game that has mechanics over theme it doesn't quite fit into Halloween for me that's why it's not like number two on this list love Mythic Mischief I'm actually really good at Mythic Mischief it might be one of the reasons why I like it so much it's an abstract puzzle that just kind of clicks with my brain a lot of spatial reasoning a lot of like short and long term thinking a lot of reactionary play based off what your opponents have done because they'll outmaneuver and out thank you every time and you have to be ready to like catch them off guard as well and this is now available uh I don't know that they've done a lot of advertisement on it yet but you can actually pick up copies of this for the first time in forever over on the ivy Studios store so worth keeping in mind if you like abstracts uh if that's your genre of board game Mythic Mischief should probably be on your shelf moving down to maximum apocalypse the board game another Cooperative game there's like a theme of Cooperative experiences when it comes to this Halloween list and I think part of that is due to the nature of these type of games because a lot of these are like survival you know go up against the occult go up against the apocalypse go up against whatever threat you're facing and work together to overcome it but also in my mind I guess I'm choosing a lot of games that fit in with that family mentality as well because Halloween is one of those times like you do one of two things you do one of three things if you're young and not watching this video you go party and drink and wear skimpy clothing but if you're a child and also not watching this video you go hunting for candy and wear really cool costumes and if you're an adult and definitely watching this video you stay at home and wait for the doorbell to ring or take your kids out to go find Candy you hand candy to the kids and you come back inside to continue playing the game which you playing because you watch this video you see how that all connects and because it's Cooperative someone can take your turn while you're are going wow Timmy you just put on another mask and now you're coming back to get more buckets of candy or you can like watch your little Zoom call where someone takes the entire I'm getting off at a tangent did any of you ever steal the Whole Bowl it's such a bad thing to do but if they've got full-size Snickers like can anyone blame you you could still be blamed it's definitely the wrong thing to do I didn't actually ever do it I was the kid that would like take one Snickers and then guard the ball I'd be like don't you I'd watch the other kids come up with these like those Snickers are for everyone and then I'd be really upset when I came up to another bowl and all the candy was gone maximum apocalypse this is legendary edition this this world of apocal ypaka you are dealing with the ghouls and the haunts that showed up after that you can take any number of different character archetypes and you can journey through any number of different possible apocalyptic scenarios trying to survive all of you have your own in-game objectives so you're working together to make sure everyone can fulfill whatever their mission is and this is one of those games that again I need to continue exploring more but blew my mind when I first sat down and started playing it because it opens the world of this what if scenario really really well this is a ridiculously fun game if you've ever wondered what happens if x happens this game helps simulate that type of horrific thing similar in some ways to fall out the video game like reminds me a lot and it's in its essence of that but maximum apocalypse is on this list and uh if you haven't played it before you should probably seek out all these games are like that you should see kind of copy you just should there's a lot of good things out there but these are the games if you like Halloween if you like fall these are the games you should be playing telling you they'll make you like the season more moving down to number four a game that is very Halloween theme this is like an old school Midwestern Dungeon Crawl you're a family journeying into a cryptic haunted house and I mean that like it's like decorated like a haunted house like not like the oh scary house this is like you're journeying into a house that is full of what I would think of in fall and Halloween like pretty neat so if you like dungeon cross another Cooperative experience if you like dungeon crawls that take a really unique Twist on that genre of game this sets you in the world of a Midwestern town with a family of Average Joe's going into this house that has been uh written up for animal abuse and sacrifices and looking into the occult and you're trying to figure out what's happening here and you start journeying through this story it's got great artwork you start picking up items from around the room you're using average things to go fight your way through all of the different like ferrets and weasels and nonsense that you run into this this is one of those dungeon crawls that if you just want like a good old sit-down play on Halloween play the week of Halloween play Through The Fall season I can absolutely recommend the ghost betwixt I'm still journeying through it myself I want to see end game I'm looking forward to continue diving down into it but it's on that list it's scarecrows it's corn fields it's it's the haunted house you always didn't go into when you were four or eight or 29.

don't look at me like that moving down number three oh man this might deserve to be at number one but I couldn't bring myself to put it there final girl is number three if you don't have final girl you're missing out if you're a fan of horror movies and classic horror movies that if you love this fall haunted season and you don't have final girl I don't even know what you're doing that being said if you're watching this you probably already have the game why is it number three then if it's such a no-brainer it's because it's a solo only experience and I'm approaching this like someone who believes in community and families and Halloween parties and all that good stuff and final girl is for those of you that are waiting at home for that knock on the door to give candy to the kids and uh no one's there to play games with you because they all went out hunting for candy themselves or the other member of your household took them out to a Halloween party or you just don't want to see anyone and so you turned off the lights and you're not actually handing out candy you're eating the entire bucket yourself and you're playing a game which means you're having a really good night final girl is there for you which is probably more of my audience than I'd like to admit because it's it's probably gonna be me on Halloween 2 out of all these games this is probably the one that I'm actually going to be diving into and I love it for it final girl is going to set you in the world of a survival solo game where you are the final girl in the story you're trying to survive the Freddie Mercury's knife that's not the right person Freddy Freddy Krueger that's I think that's actually right did I get the like yeah I don't know my Horrors well as I should you're trying to survive the nightmare that is befalling you with serial killers and various different types of Abominations there's a whole bird scenario where chromes are falling from the sky and if too many of them show up they'll Peck your eyes out this sets you in that scene trying to survive whatever is happening you'll be exploring for items you'll be upgrading your character you'll be rolling dice you'll be mitigating it with careful card play and you might just get your throat slashed but luckily for you this is a fantastic very accessible solo game and you'll start another puzzle over because it's just that good moving down to number two oh number two number one there's a big debate in my mind I'm very confident with the decision that I've made but it was a big debate in my mind number two another Cthulhu game Cthulhu death may die another Cooperative game too I know there's a theme I don't know what it is let me know some games that are non-cooperative Halloween themed games that should be on this list Cthulhu death may die you are journeying into this Dungeon Crawl where your mission is to stop the cult or a cult from creating whatever it is they're creating this machination to try to bring forth some great old one which eventually does show up that you then need to rip the head off of it escalates it's insanely fun tons of powers and abilities lots of cool dice mitigation and dice rolling and dice manipulation and new items that you get and on top of that it's one of those games that gives you chapter by chapter or scenario by scenario new puzzles to solve so there's always stories to continue diving through this until you've played it all and then you might as well Journey back through it anyway because it's it's just that lovely Cthulhu death may die is absolutely one of my favorite Dungeon Crawl campaign style games where it falls on the list I'd have to analyze a lot closer but I I don't know that I can speak too highly of how cool this game is and one of the neatest Parts is as you get more and more insane your powers and abilities get bigger and stronger and more and more impressive but the creatures that you're fighting also get stronger bigger and more of them are spawning all over the world until finally you're faced off with this giant tentacle swinging Abomination and you've got a fist of iron that can patch its eye socket out but it has teeth that can rip your throat off and one of you wins depends on who hits first my number one game my number one game for Halloween is vagrant song another Cooperative game I know don't judge me don't don't you judge me vagrant song is a game where you're going through a series of Boss battling systems Storybook game lots of choice and interesting consequences based on the route you go down but you're gonna be taking the role of one of these various different vagrants traveling across a train singing a song maybe I'm not sure trying to restore Humanity to the various different hints that you come across and this screams Halloween out of its earthquakes this game is just full of very interesting Big Boss combat sequences really cool storytelling and on top of that it reminds me so much of things and TV shows that remind me of The Fall season stuff like Over the Garden Wall for instance that cryptic that unique that old style art that you know Betty Boop or like 1920s Golden Era star Style Style artwork brought up to a modern age mixed in with that we're traveling in the west right we're traveling the West on this ghost train with hints of Forgotten and lost souls that need their own puzzle to be brought back to life like this is the type of game that comes alive when Halloween sets it's what kids dream about as youth the Hanks that are popping up in the gravestones and the ghosts of Forgotten people coming back trying to to fulfill whatever their mission is and you're working together to remind them of their Humanity of who they were and not to swallow you in a giant skin suit and slowly consume your body until you become part of them and you're also a haunted hate eventually it's a ghost-based game and it's an amazing game and it's a glorious game for Halloween so that's that's my number one let me know what you've played let me know what you have let me know what you recommend let me know what I should be playing if you can't tell I like this theme I like this world of Halloween and the haunts and the cryptic some of these are some of my favorite games and they're my favorite games because of those stories that I remember because the weird Twisted uncomfortable things that they send my way so there you have it there's a top 10 list not a fancy one not a cool like transition one there's no popping it's just this it's it's you and me and we're sitting here and we're talking and at this point it's kind of romantic to be honest you know I've been thinking a lot about you lately and I'm not as good at this type of communication but I think it's time for us to maybe move our relationship to the next level I know it might be soon we've only just had dinner and the evening is still young but listen there's a subscribe button down below and it would mean the world to me if you take the time to double check and just make sure you're still subscribed to this channel no no don't say anything just gaze into my eyes for a moment on this night of all nights and recommit yourself to us to this yeah me too yeah they're too kind no you oh my gosh thank you now let's do the important thing let's go play some games bye