Board games are not inherently scary, in fact most people would not find them scary at all. This is often because of their slow, often turn based nature. Most board games take around one hour to complete and you just cannot be in a constant state of fear the whole time. Interestingly, there is actually a fear of games – Ludophobia. However, that is a fear of the nature of games, rather than the content. While, not scary, board games can adopt scary themes. Today, we look at Horror Board Games and who knows, maybe something on this list will knock your socks off.
Table of Contents
- The Thing: The Board Game
- Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Nyctophobia: The Best Horror Board Game?
- Nemesis
- Fury of Dracula
- Conclusion
The Thing: The Board Game
Kicking off this list, we have the The Thing: The Board Game. This board game is based on the 1982 movie of the same name. Directed by John Carpenter, master of the horror genre, the film captures the panic and fear of being part of a research team on an icy tundra with an impostor in the ranks. The horror board game does the same thing attempting to create a faithful imitation of the film.
The Thing is a hidden role type game. Played with a minimum of four people, one player will have the hidden role of the thing.
The infection mechanic is unique in this game, reflecting the film. Whenever two or more players go into a room, if the alien is amongst them, there is a 50% chance you will become infected. This breeds doubt amongst the table and a constant fear of dread. In addition, infected huskies patrol the base. We would recommend not patting these puppers as again, it increases infection chance. While you can round them up, this requires two or more players putting us back to square one with a 50% infection chance.
The Thing can win in a few ways: Infecting all the humans in the station; preventing the survivors from escaping (this can be done by infecting, but they are not one and the same); and lastly, escaping with the humans by behaving human. Likewise, players win by catching the Thing. We would recommend a hardy flamethrower like the film.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
Arkham Horror has horror in the name and while not strictly a board game deserves a place on this list (it’s a tabletop game alright…). Frankly, it is too well acclaimed to ignore. Best played in two players, Arkham Horror plays as a mixture of role-playing and more traditional card games. Set in the Lovecraftian universe, it already has a great background for horror.
Gameplay takes the form of a campaign and the player takes on the role of an investigator. The investigator is trying to solve whatever mystery haunts Arkham in any given campaign. Each investigator has individual stats that they will use to complete “tests” throughout the campaign. Tests can be anything from defeating a monster, solving a crime, or outright running away from danger. Investigators draw from a deck which helps them on their campaign, it may be weapons or allies, which improve their core stats making them more likely to complete tests.
We chose Arkham Horror: The Card Game (2016) over the 2015 board game version because it plays better and is more refined. Overall while the 2015 game is enjoyable in its own right, the developers learnt from their experiences and have made a more balanced experience.
Nyctophobia: The Best Horror Board Game?
Nyctophobia comes as close to a true horror board game experience as possible. Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark (not the Iron Maiden track). It comes from Greek Nycto for night and phobia, for fear.
The game is played between three and five players with all but one of these players, the hunter, blindfolded. By taking away one of our five core senses the game really helps build this foreboding atmosphere. The blindfolds separate hunter and hunted. The team who are hunted must find the car and survive until the police come. The hunter must kill all the opposing players.
The blindfolds are a clever addition to the game, it is played in a 3-D maze so hunted players must navigate the maze with trees and obstacles getting in the way. The basic game is played with the axe murderer hunter and is the simplest version of the game. Alternatively, the game can be played with a mage who is able to bend and twist the environment to torture the hunted even more. Honestly, such a well thought out game and it is a shame that it has not seen a wider audience.
Nemesis
Nemesis takes horror sci-fi to board games. There is something primal about the human fear of science fiction, as much as an oxymoron as that may be. What we mean by this is: there is something in humans, to be afraid of space – what goes on in the universe far beyond our own tiny planet. The human mind has all sorts of capacity to imagine horrible things in space. Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien is a testament to this.
Nemesis is not too dissimilar to this film. On an alien infested ship you and your crewmates must do your best to survive. To win, you must complete one of the two objectives dealt to you at the start. This makes the game semi-cooperative as while objectives may overlap with your crewmates, they can widely differ too. Obstacles to success include: The aliens, the physical condition of the deteriorating ship, and the objectives of your crewmates.
The game is on the complicated side, not to mention the long side too with games lasting over an hour and a half. It is worth it though as it really does a great job at brining sci-fi to your tabletop.
Fury of Dracula
Honestly, what horror list would not be complete without vampires? Fury of Dracula takes Bram Stoker’s famous vampire to the tabletop. The game has gone through several iterations and so the third and fourth edition from 2005 are the recommended, most well-rounded versions.
The gameplay is broken into day and night cycles in which hunters can act. However, Dracula can only take actions at night. Hunters win through slaying the titular vampire, whereas Dracula wins though getting his influence track to thirteen – an unlucky number to be sure. What is most interesting in these newer editions is the addition of the rumour token. This allows Dracula to mislead the hunters and manipulate their behaviours during the day.
Conclusion
Board Games with a Horror theme do not necessarily need to be scary. It is the thoughts and emotions that they attempt to invoke that make players uneasy. Whether it is the fear that the survivor in the room with you could be the Thing, or that you are battling an ancient deity in Arkham Horror. The reason that Horror Board Games are not so common is that it does not really suit the turn based nature and length of most board games. That is not to say it cannot be done, hopefully the examples shared today will send shivers down your spine!
