166 – Spooky Games, Revisited Again (?) – The Family Gamers Podcast

We’ve done Halloween games before, concentrating on non-spooky family options. Good news! There continue to be more family-friendly options for Halloween themed gaming.

What We’ve Been Playing

Horrified – by Ravensburger. We’ll talk more about this later.

The Climbers – it looks like a dexterity game, but it’s more about strategy and spatial relations.

Meeple Circus – draft characters and add them to your circus. Stack them in specific ways for more points.

Fleet: The Dice Game – a roll-and-write that is an engine-building game. Build your fleet of fishing vessels and cascade positive effects. “You always feel powerful.”

Anitra has finally played Ganz Shön Clever – and did terribly. But at least now she knows how to play!

We’re Doomed! – a semi-cooperative game that plays in exactly 15 minutes. Cooperate, and everyone will get a “seat” on the rocket at the end of the game… or look out only for yourself with limited seating and hope you’ll manage to get on board! No round limit, and don’t forget about the timer.

Tobago – a reverse-deduction treasure hunting game. Play clue cards to narrow down the location of each treasure – everyone who places cards will get some treasure once it is “dug up”.

CABO – basically Golf with special powers. Quickly becoming Andrew’s favorite short filler game.

Incubation – a game about hatching dragon eggs into cute baby dragons. Looked far more complex than it was; great for dragon-obsessed kids, no reading necessary.

Dragon’s Breath – HABA is really good at games for all ages.

Valley of the Vikings – another one from HABA. Our 5-year-old “taught” Anitra how to play. We disagree whether it’s fundamentally bowling or croquet. It won Kinderspiel last year, and we can see why.

Seikatsu opened our most recent Commonheart Game night.

Drop It

Sagrada – Andrew is loving this game more over time (though never as much as Roll Player).

Narwhal Free-For-All – a ridiculous kids’ game – with water! Thankfully, not nearly as messy as we thought it would be. Put enough water into the reservoir so the narwhals float! Then players try to flick rings over their own color narwhal while another player spins a paddlewheel. It solves so many problems inherent in typical kids games, and Anitra gets excited about these little touches.

SNAP Review: Carpool Karaoke

A friendly karaoke competition, this take on the famous ongoing sketch from the Late Late Show pits players in a one-on-one karaoke showdown. Add movements or impressions to gain points and be the first team to drive your way to victory. But when we sing together, we all win, don’t we?

Sing your heart out with the rest of our review.

Backtalk

Following up to episode 162, Dwayna asked when Imhotep: The Duel is coming out? (It’s out now!)
And where did we get the playmat? (We got it directly from KOSMOS at a convention. But you can get it at the BGG store for $15.)

Nick shared a neat video that helps visualize what the result is of various forms of shuffling – not only with a standard 52-card deck, but also using Magic: TG cards.

A few great deals shared, and lots of insights from Chrissy Wissler. Expect to see some content from her on the website soon.

Family Friendly Halloween Games

Horrified – Brandt was nice enough to set this up for us to play, after Andrew showed so much interest in it on the show. Cooperate to accomplish villain-specific goals to defeat each villian; while trying to make sure they don’t kill too many players or civilians!

VISITOR in Blackwood Grove – as we’ve mentioned before, it’s a fundamentally spooky setting, and you can play it up.

Grimm Masquerade – everyone is in costume and hiding behind a “mask”. Deduce who the other players are :)

EXIT & Unlock boxes – certainly spooky. We’d highly recommend The Haunted Roller Coaster for family play at Halloween, but pretty much any box would fit.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle – a cooperative deck-building game. Witches, wizards, and plenty of villains.

Harry Potter: Defense Against the Dark Arts – takes the same mechanics and turns it into a one-on-one battle.

Or, of course, Harry Potter: Codenames.

Potion-building/alchemy games make Anitra think of Halloween, so why not try Potion Explosion or Quacks of Quedlinburg?

Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters would still be our highest recommendation with pre-reading kids, although BOO and Zombie Dice are not too far behind.

Don’t forget Monster Crunch! Nick Martinelli also recommends Broom Service and Tricks & Treats the Card Game.

Our community also recommends Gloom, Campy Creatures, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and Werewords, especially for groups of adults or teenagers.

We also think making a witchy or creepy Untold adventure would be perfect for this time of year.

Tell us your favorite creepy, spooky, or Halloween-themed games! And don’t forget to enter our giveaway for an EXIT box.

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