Whether you like navigating your way through haunted mansions, outsmarting serial murderers, matching wits with Count Dracula, or trying to prevent zombie outbreaks, horror board games offer a wide variety of ways to test your bravery and your smarts. Players can work alone or cooperatively to succeed in their goals, often with individual side objectives adding to the complexity of the gameplay.
Horror board games can take as long or as little time as you like, with interchangeable pieces that make the thrills and chills extend for hours. Every game is new when the board game can be shifted, the characters exchanged, and the difficulty level increased. Here are the must play horror board games that offer a chance to tackle your greatest fears without any danger to you or your friends!
MANSIONS OF MADNESS
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Prepare for Lovecraftian horror and thrills with the Mansions of Madness game, which takes players on a labyrinthian quest through an extensive haunted mansion in search of a way to escape the horrors within its walls. With four separate campaigns, intermediate to advanced players will have hours of chilling gameplay.
With the help of the accompanying app, immerse yourself in a world come alive with 500 detailed components as well as over 32 high-quality figurines. Wander beyond the mansion to the ghostly town of Arkham, and several other maps complete with monsters around every corner!
THE THING: INFECTION AT OUTPOST 31
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Based on the action-packed horror blockbuster The Thing by acclaimed horror director John Carpenter, Infection at Outpost 31 brings all the frights of the 1982 classic horror film to chilling life in this multiplayer board game. Only by deducing who “The Thing” has infected can you make it out alive!
Follow the narrative of the film by completing missions, locating potentially infected hosts, and escape Outpost 31 without falling victim to one of the imitations. Playable by up to 12 people, take on the identities of iconic characters like Palmer and Blair, while uncovering the identity of the imitations and winning the game.
CHILDREN: THE HORROR GAME
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Horror movies have long managed to use the disarming innocence of children to frighten adults, and this board game is no exception! Children: The Horror Game has you play as a ghost hunter endeavoring to capture the most child ghosts (up to 13) by discovering their toys and confronting them.
To heighten the mood, play with the official “Children: The Horror Game” soundtrack in the background. With a variety of room cards, the Thornhill Mansion game board can be set up differently every time, offering new twists and turns each time you play.
LETTERS FROM WHITECHAPEL
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Have you ever wanted to solve the mystery of the infamous killer Jack the Ripper? Stalk the streets of London’s Whitechapel district in this alluring game of intrigue and danger as either the historical slasher Jack the Ripper or one of four detectives assigned to his case. This game of mystery requires your expert skills in deduction, as well as your ability to bluff, depending on your part in the storyline.
With beautiful artwork, special engraved wooden pawns, and engrossing true facts about the Jack the Ripper killing spree, hunt the hunter or become the prey in this horror board game that perfectly replicates the fear that gripped 19th century London at the time of the murders.
BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL
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Fans of classic survival strategy games like Clue and Dungeons and Dragons will relish the challenge of Betrayal at House on the Hill, a cooperative horror board game that lets you set up a new customized game board each time you play it. Use interchangeable floorplan pieces to expand the haunted house far beyond your wildest expectations, creating a new gaming experience with each set up.
Considered one of the best horror survival games available, work together in a group or as a lone survivor in the musty corridors of a haunted house. Discover treasures, weapons, or curses in each room, each of which will affect if you get out alive!
DEAD OF WINTER
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Can you survive in the dead of winter with limited supplies, in a frozen colony, with only a few members of your party you can trust? Play Dead of Winter and find out how long you make it. A multiplayer game of cooperative skill and strategy, your group will work towards its own goal of survival as well as their own individual side stories.
Of particular intrigue are the side objectives, which take the form of pursuing psychological traits that can plunge the colony into danger with their emergence. Each player leads a group of survivors in an apocalyptic world where these traits could mean life or death if they take over.
FURY OF DRACULA
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For fans of gothic horror and classic monster villains, look no further than Fury of Dracula, now in its fourth edition. Play as either the infamous vampire Count Dracula, or one of several vampire hunters looking to drive a silver stake through his undead heart.
As Dracula, you’ll be able to create an army of vampires, lay traps for your enemies, or utilize your supernatural powers to kill them off one by one. As the hunters, you will have to use your resourcefulness, cunning, and an array of vampire-killing weapons in this cat-and-mouse game to make sure the Count stays dead once and for all.
CAMP GRIZZLY
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Fans of classic slasher films like Friday the Thirteenth and Halloween will get hours of enjoyment out of the survival horror strategy game Camp Grizzly. Taking inspiration from the slasher films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, immerse yourself in the darkly humorous environment at Camp Grizzly, a summer camp for teens that turns into a slaughterhouse when “Otis” goes on a killing spree.
Not for children under 14, up to 6 players will outsmart Otis amidst the tawdry backdrop of sex, drugs, and other common vices found when teens get together for the summer. The cheesy spirit of the game combined with its easy rules will make it a hit for any level of player.
CITY OF HORROR
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Fans of zombie outbreaks and survival horror will embrace City of Horror, a horror board game that places them right in the middle of a chaotic zombie apocalypse. Work together to survive a zombie invasion, but be careful to concentrate on your own health, as you may find yourself becoming one of the horde if you don’t!
A strategic game, the challenge lies in working cooperatively with your fellow players, but ultimately having to betray them to survive against the undead. It’s survival of the fittest and most cunning with this game, as the player with the most antidote and rations triumphs.
DARK DARKER DARKEST
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Stop the world-ending outbreak of a zombie apocalypse by exploring the house of Doctor Mortimer, unlocking the security system to his laboratory, and locating the antidote somewhere in its innards to stop the sickness from spreading.
Work cooperatively with other players to locate the antidote, with the laboratory security system working against your team at every turn. Unlike some other horror games, players can “level up” and gain new abilities after each round. House tiles allow for different game board setups of the Doctor’s mansion, allowing for hours of tense replay.
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