I recently posted a list of 31 board games and roleplaying games perfect for the Halloween season, bringing spooks and scares and horror-fueled goodness to your gaming table.
But it occurred to me that you don’t necessarily need to pick up a new board game to get your ghostly gaming and unearthly playtime in. You just need to add a little Halloween spice to those classic games on your shelf.
So here are some house rules for board games we all know and love that will add an eerie or monstrous touch!
Clue: Restless Spirits
In this version of the game, the spirit of Mr. Boddy is still around, and has a role to play in the game.
He appears in a square in the center of the house, rolling a die and moving towards the closest player. If the spirit of Mr. Boddy enters a room with a player (or lands on the same space), they try to possess the player.
You can make an opposed dice roll to see if the spirit succeeds, or you can have the player sacrifice a weapon card to defend themselves. If they don’t have a weapon, or they lose the opposed die roll, they’re possessed, and now they serve the spirit as another figure on the board for three turns, pursuing the closest player while the spirit of Mr. Boddy does the same.
(Some people use similar rules, except Mr. Boddy is a zombie, and he turns the players he bites!)
Either way, it’s a terrific spooky element that pushes the game forward.
Candyland: The Hungry One
Candyland isn’t much of a game to begin with, since once the deck is shuffled, the game is already decided. (It’s like the card game War that way.)
But what if you needed to succeed as a group? What if the Hungry One was lurking, gobbling up the path behind you, and potentially your slowest companion?
In this version, you’re trying to get your whole group to the end, and you can’t get too far apart from each other without consequences.
Separate the deck into four stacks, facing upward with the colors showing. On your turn, pick one of the four available cards and make your move. (Once you take that card, it reveals a new choice underneath for the next player.)
You’re trying to move ahead, but if you get more than 12 spaces ahead of the player furthest back, you lose your next two turns!
Oh, and after all the players have gone, the Hungry One takes their turn, gobbling up the first three spaces — and any players on those spaces! (Or four, or five spaces, depending on how dangerous you want the Hungry One to be!)
Can you get your group safely to the end, or will someone fall into the waiting maw of the Hungry One?
Connect Four: Secret Summoning
Each player worships a different dark lord and secretly creates a pattern of 5 discs in a row in whatever colors or pattern they wish, hoping to recreate that pattern on the board.
Instead of trying to stop your opponent from getting the four-in-a-row, you need to be the first to complete your 5-disc pattern and summon your dark lord.
While playing the game, be sure to warn your opponent of how great and vengeful and terrible and ridiculous YOUR dark lord and why it’s better than their dark lord. A little sinister smack talk never hurt anybody.
Guess Who: Profiler
This one is pretty simple. Normally, you get a card for your opponent to narrow down with questions, and you do the same for your opponent’s card.
But in this version, you take your card and choose whatever quality about the character made them a victim of a mythical serial killer. So on your opponent’s turn, you tell them one person to flip down on their board, representing another victim of the killer.
Then they try to guess what all the victims have in common. Each round, another victim, another chance to figure out what they have in common.
The winner is the person to guess why the killer targets their victims first. (And for a bonus point, they can try to guess which card you pulled that inspired the crime spree.)
Battleship: The Monster Below
This tactical game is all about making the most of your guesses to track down and destroy your opponent’s fleet, but what if there was something else lurking under the water?
In this supernatural edition of the game, there’s a greater consequence to your misses. Three misses in a row triggers an awakening from the deep, and your opponent gets to pick a 3×3 square (on your board) that includes that last miss.
If part of one of your ships is in that 3×3 square, the monster from the deep emerges and takes a bite from your ship, marking it as hit.
(If more than one ship or more than one spot on a ship is inside that 3×3 square, you only need to mark a single hit, and you DON’T tell your opponent the exact spot. You only say MONSTER! to indicate one of your ships has been bitten.)
Not only does it add a monstrous element to the game (and a consequence for misses), but it also adds a new layer of strategy to the game!
Is it Godzilla? Ebirah? Cthulhu? The Beast from 10,000 Fathoms? You decide the monster!
Hungry, Hungry Hippos: Poison Pellets
Here’s a bonus one cooked up by my marvelously devious friend, Lisa Mantchev.
It’s Hungry Hungry Hippos with a dark twist: a single, differently-colored marble in the mix with all the regular marbles.
It’s a poison marble, and you’ve gotta eat up all the regular ones and not get the poisoned one. If you do, you’re done for, and you’re out. Then the remaining players try again, and you keep going until there’s only one survivor.
So be hungry hungry, but not TOO hungry hungry, or it’s curtains for you!
Do you have any Halloween versions of classic board games you enjoy, fellow players? Or do you have a spooky house rule suggestion? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
