Setting the mood for a proper spooky game night is essential. And you’d be surprised how much atmosphere you can get out of a few simple choices.

Obviously, lighting is the first choice. Candlelight, or dimming the lights in the room is easy, but does a lot to establish mood. Careful lamp placement could throw interesting or menacing shadows across the wall, and you’d be surprised what a few layers of colored Saran wrap can do for throwing reds and greens across surfaces for splashes of color to help set the tone.

Scent can also be a help. Autumn candles with smells like fallen leaves, or the hint of smoke from a fire in the fireplace. Anything people associate with the fall or with a spooky scene!

Music and sounds come next. Hide a speaker or two, offering spooky music, or even better, sounds of a rainy night with occasional booms of thunder or crashes of lightning. There are whole soundscapes out there you can use with creaking doors, footsteps, animals howling in the distance, and even played low, it adds so much to a properly seasonal gaming experience.

If you’re feeling particularly devious, you could prerecord lines and play them through the hidden speaker or through your phone. The simple act of having players hear a voice and not seeing someone speak can be delightfully immersive and spooky. (I know someone with a foot pedal they use for roleplaying game nights, so they can trigger sounds and voice clips without betraying any movement at all!)

You could also dress up! You don’t need to do full costumes, but some dark clothes, some makeup to add a goth touch to the proceedings. Every little bit helps set the tone.

And you can do the same thing if you’re gaming online! Send everyone the link to the same music or sounds to play in the background of the game.

Actually, playing online is great, because you can do a jumpscare without actually startling or sneaking up on someone in person. (Always make sure you know who is okay with being surprised and who isn’t. Game night should be fun for everyone!)

Secretly adding someone to a zoom call or a video chat creates a fun spooky moment. (Especially if you have the screen arranged so they can sneak into the lineup without immediately being spotted.)

This worked like a charm during a roleplaying session I ran online years ago. The players had been warned about a masked figure for the previous few sessions, and they were expecting to cross paths with him soon.

But what they didn’t know was that I’d recruited a friend to make the exact mask I’d described, and I secretly added them to the chat. It took a second for them to notice a sixth person in a small window at the bottom of the screen, and when he delivered the short speech I’d written (as if he’d hacked into their feed to jumpscare them), it was fantastically effective!

With a little simple preparation, you’d be amazed at the engrossing Halloween gaming experience you can share with friends.

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Do you have any suggestions for enhancing a spooky game session, fellow players? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.