Since March, I think we’ve all been experiencing a little cabin fever. We’re (hopefully) not going to movie theaters, bars, concerts, pizza places and public gatherings. As the months go on, the options feel more and more limited. We’re eating, watching TV, reading, video gaming, and for the most dedicated of us, continuing to exercise. For my horror homies out there struggling to keep it together and break the boredom, I’d like to offer another option: board and tabletop gaming.
Masks haven’t been the only things flying off the shelves during the quaran-times. Forbes reported that Ravensburger Puzzles (the publisher of some of the games I’ll be discussing) saw a sales increase of 370% since March. NPR is currently reporting that Frosthaven, a tabletop game currently in the Kickstarter phase, has surpassed its goal of $500K to sit at $13 million, the most a board game has been funded on the site, and the third most funded project on the site…ever. People are stuck with each other right now, and nothing says “let’s get along” like problem-solving, friendly competition that offers different possible outcomes each time you play. When random chance is involved, as it is in most board/tabletop games, it is less likely that the same person will always be the winner, opening up the satisfaction of coming out on top to everyone involved. This makes board and tabletop games more fun for everyone than constantly losing at video games to someone that can spend countless hours tuning their craft by themselves.
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I’m an avid board gamer anyway, but the quarantine has put a board game on my table multiple times a week, many of which are horror-themed. Here’s some games you may want to get your horror-loving hands on to help curve the urge to kill your spouse or roommate for just a little longer.
Horrified (Ravensburger) – Horrified is a cooperative strategy game in which 2-5 players choose a hero character with specific talents (detective, scientist, explorer, etc.) and go all Monster Squad on Dracula, Wolfman, The Mummy and other Universal Monsters. Each monster must be defeated in a certain way before the team’s “terror token” reaches the max from monsters doing damage and murdering innocent bystanders. The game has well-made tokens and figures, awesome artwork, a sturdy board and inventive, thematic ways to do some good ol’ fashioned monster slaying.
Monster Crunch! The Breakfast Battle Game (Big G Creative) – A bit of a simpler competitive card game, players choose from Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy, Franken Berry or Fruit Brute. Each monster has a special ability that helps them collect as many cereal cards as possible. As the game goes on, you can collect Milk Tokens to help your monsters add more cereal to their bowls. Monster Crunch isn’t too complicated of a game but helps pass the time well enough.
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Campy Creatures (Keymaster Games) – A super-fun bluffing game where 2-5 players are mad scientists that use monsters to collect mortals and move their monster tokens forward on the scoring board. Each monster has a specific ability, and players play them face-down, hoping that one monster will trump the others in order to collect the mortals worth the most points, leaving the harmful ones for other players to collect. This game adds some obscure monsters not normally showcased, including The Blob, The Beast (King Kong), Kaiju and The Demogorgon. A special shout out to Keymaster games for always providing brilliantly made games with top-notch art. If you snag this, go ahead and add Control, Space Park, and Parks to your cart as well.
Jaws (Ravensburger) – What a perfect game for the summer! 2-4 players, where one player plays the shark and the others play Chief Brody, Matt Hooper, and Quint. The game is played in two phases. The first phase has the shark swimming around Amity Island gobbling up unsuspecting swimmers while the three heroes search for him, and the mayor continuously screws everything up by opening the closed beaches. If the shark succeeds to phase 2, it becomes a turn-order strategy game where each character uses different abilities and weapons to kill the shark before it can take down the boat. Honestly, the game is two games in one, as either can be played at any time. The game can have a particularly nice touch, as it takes about as long to play both phases as it takes to get through John Williams’ classic Jaws score.
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Mixtape Massacre (Bright Light) – This one focuses a little less on monsters and more on modern slasher flicks and horror movie nostalgia. Each player chooses a slasher with special abilities and moves around the board trying to take each other out with dice roles. Although the game relies a little more on chance than most to win, the unlicensed nostalgic references are fun and amazing, even moving outside the horror realm, giving us tastes of knock-off Saved by the Bell, The Breakfast Club, or Macho Man Randy Savage. With cool character cards and tokens, it’s clear a lot of effort went into this, and this small gaming company is worthy of your cash.
Unmatched: Cobble & Fog (Restoration Games) – Unmatched: Battle of Legends is a 2-4 player deck-building figure movement game that pits legendary fighters against each other using decks full of thematic attack and defense cards, specific to those characters. It also adds in bluffing and chess-like elements to the gameplay. The base set released by Mondo last year features classic characters like King Arthur and Medusa. Recently, a horror/literary-themed base/expansion called Cobble & Fog was released featuring public domain horror characters. You can select Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde or Sherlock Holmes. The artwork and figures are fantastic, the boards are colorful, and the prices are inexpensive. This is truly a unique game and offers 2v2 or Free for All playability. Plus, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer expansion is releasing later this year!
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Smash-Up: Monster Smash (AEG) – Smash-Up is probably my favorite game on this list. It’s a 2-6 (or more if you feel like a long game) player deck-building game in which you take 2 factions, smash them up, and try to win points from bases. Horror has kind of always been strewn throughout the base set and expansions, but if you’re strictly looking for horror, I’d suggest the Monster Smash expansion to go along with the base set (although the expansion can be played stand-alone). This expansion includes Mad Scientists, Giant Ants, Werewolves and Vampires. Smash-Up has been around for a while, but always delivers wonderful artwork, great thematic cards for the factions, and doesn’t require a board, so you can play it anywhere!
King of Tokyo (Various Publications) – A fun king-of-the mountain game where 2-6 players battle with giant monsters, robots, and aliens over who gets to take over Tokyo. It’s a dice-rolling game to try and accumulate victory points while cards add to attack, defense, and damage to your monsters. It’s one of the simplest games on the list and filled with lots fun cards and pieces. There are also several expansions, including a Halloween add-on that allows you to play a giant Jack-O-Lantern monster.
I’m not advocating for you to spend all your money on all these games but hope to give you some ideas of things to do while we’re on lockdown. I think we all can agree the quarantine can be stressful and these are some great options to not only combat the boredom of being stuck inside, but also help you connect with the people you’re stuck inside with. If I had to choose three from the list, I’d suggest Horrified, Smash-Up and Campy Creatures. You absolutely can’t go wrong with those. Please feel free to send any suggestions of games to try, as I’d love to check new ones out!
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Smash Up may be my favorite board game in the world, but please never play it with more than 4 people if you expect to have a fair and balanced game experience. The box says 2-4 players, and I’d stick with that. Additional players really slow the game down and turn the game’s strategy into randomness and chaos while also unbalancing the decks.