Best horror board games
Top horror games to scare yourself chitless this Halloween!
Halloween may have been and gone, but that doesn't mean that the spooky activities need to end - and boy do we have the best terrifying tabletop titles to share with you! From board games about astonishing eldritch beings come to end the world, to hordes of the undead swarming a local shopping mall, this list of the best horror board games features all sorts of frightening spectacles for players to enjoy this all hallowed eve!
Whether you’re looking for a game to bring your friendship group closer together, or to test the relationships you hold dear, the co-op titles and traitor-maker games on this list are entries to suit all types of frights on any given scary night.
Best horror board games
- Eldritch Horror
- Betrayal Legacy
- Mansions of Madness
- Mysterium
- One Night Ultimate Werewolf
- Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Zombicide: Black Plague
- Dead Man’s Cabal
- Nyctophobia
- Escape the Dark Castle
- Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
- Shadow Hunters
Of course, the true joy of playing horror board games is being able to imagine all the scary scenarios found within their boxes, from the safety of your own home. So, get ready to dim the lights, turn up the atmospheric spooky music and munch on some tasty sweet treats around the table with some of the best horror board games in front of you.
1. Eldritch Horror
Travel the world in search of clues and ways to stop the Old Ones returning
Eldritch Horror sees its players travelling (almost) the entire globe in a desperate race against time. The ancient ones are awakening, and a team of brave investigators must use both brains and brawn to stop this Lovecraftian invasion before it’s too late. By facing a series of encounters and completing the required number of quests, you and your friends might just be able to win Eldritch Horror. But the sheer amount of tension induced by brutal mechanics like the doom clock and the mythos cards (which trigger terrible events) makes playing it nothing less than the most entertaining endurance test in tabletop history.
Buy Eldritch Horror on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
2. Betrayal Legacy
Weave a tale of deceit and horror in this legacy board game
Betrayal at House on the Hill has long been a staple in tabletop horror, but its legacy version amplifies all its greatest strengths by 11. Legacy games are designed in the same vein as an RPG campaign, splitting the game into a series of episodes for players to tackle in sequential sessions, not unlike a series of The Haunting of Hill House. In this case, players are invited to create their own families, doomed to roam the haunted halls of the game’s titular house from generation to generation. Throwing lasting consequences into a game about doing horrible things to your friends makes playing Betrayal Legacy an equally excruciating and engaging affair – and one that stays with you long after its box is placed back on the shelf.
Buy Betrayal Legacy on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
3. Mansions of Madness
Fight against the forces of the Old Ones in this dungeon-crawler game
For a more visceral and combat-heavy approach to the Cthulhu mythos, consider picking up a copy of Mansions of Madness. As with Fantasy Flight’s other Lovecraftian games, Players take on the roles of investigators standing against the threat of certain annihilation at the hands of uncaring gods. But unlike those games, Mansions of Madness makes space for a DM-like role, designed to help guide the other players through various familiar locations in and around Arkham. In the second edition, this was eventually phased out with the introduction of a nifty app, which would manage all the admin work in the player’s stead. Along the way, you can expect nail-biting encounters with all manner of cosmic abominations, before a final showdown with one of the several bosses included in the box.
Buy Mansions of Madness on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
4. Mysterium
A ghost is looking for justice from a team of plucky mediums
Beloved abstract storytelling game Dixit gets given a suitably spooky makeover in Mysterium. A fantastic reworking of a system originally introduced in the game Tajemnicze Domostwo, Mysterium proposes a world where ghosts are real (wooo-ooo) and want to help you solve crimes. More specifically, their murder. In Mysterium, one player takes on the role of said ghost, whose methods of communication are limited to a deck of beautifully illustrated cards. With these cards, the ghost must lead the other players, or paranormal investigators, to the correct murder suspect before the night is out. Mysterium takes the initial concept of Dixit and applies a more defined ruleset and stronger theme to it, making for an arguably better game – or, at least, a more challenging one.
Buy Mysterium on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
5. One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Who will be the werewolves in this fast-paced social deduction game?
Mafia may be the original social deduction game, but this list’s theme is horror, so we have to talk about something spooky. And what could be scarier than making your friends and families disown you? One Night Ultimate Werewolf is like the classic social deduction game Werewolf (innocents must successfully identify the lycanthropes or lose) but, as the name suggests, takes place over a single evening (or round) instead of several. What this does is speed up the pace of the game considerably, allowing for players to take on multiple roles during a single session. This ensures that the game never gets stale, making it perfect for Halloween parties where you want to keep the ball rolling.
Buy One Night Ultimate Werewolf on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
6. Arkham Horror: The Card Game
A living card game where players become investigators in the Arkham Files universe
As you may have noticed, Cthulhu is a popular guy in the tabletop world now, so forgive us if it sounds like we’re beating the same drum. But Arkham Horror: The Card Game is unique amongst its eldritch card game peers for providing an ongoing series of campaigns, each one designed to be played with a deck of cards. These decks represent each of the game’s investigators, with the cards inside containing the various skills and tools unique to each one. As players encounter scenario after scenario, each more horrifying than the last, these cards become the only thing between survival and permanent death. Arkham Horror is a living card game, which means that unlike a collectable card game (e.g. Magic: The Gathering) deck expansions are not random. This results in Arkham Horror providing a more linear experience than its RPG sibling, Call of Cthulhu, whilst still giving players the freedom to craft a surprisingly deep narrative experience.
Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game on Amazon US and Amazon UK.
7. Zombicide: Black Plague
Battle against hordes of the undead in a medieval setting
Playing a game of Zombicide is one satisfyingly bloody experience. This satisfaction is only increased by the inclusion of ancient medieval weaponry – which is one of the reasons why we’re recommending Black Plague over the original Zombicide, the other being the subtle tweaks made to the game’s ruleset in this newer version. In Black Plague, players embody a ragtag group of survivors who are tasked with beating back the ever-growing hordes of undead, and hunting the pesky necromancers responsible. The game may be simple in design (there’s a lot of zombie-slaying combat), but it offers a huge amount of depth in terms of playable characters and mission selection.
Buy Zombicide: Black Plague on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
8. Dead Man’s Cabal
A bizarre board game about raising the dead to join a party
But what if you wanted the dead to rise? What if… you were one of those pesky necromancers? Dead Man’s Cabal allows you to live that dream by putting you in the moth-eaten shoes of a dark mage whose social life is entirely dead. In Dead Man’s Cabal, players must compete to have the largest gathering of rotting partygoers rise from the grave. This is achieved by cunningly negotiating the game’s unique action queuing system, selecting one action for yourself and another action for the whole group. This refreshing approach to strategy, as well as the game’s darkly comedic tone, is why Dead Man’s Cabal is definitely worth digging up.
Buy Dead Man's Cabal on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
9. Nyctophobia
This unusual board game sees players donning blindfolds and navigating a 3D maze
Easily the weirdest game on this list, Nyctophobia is a co-operative horror experience unlike any other. You just know you’re going to have fun with a game when blindfolds are involved, and Nyctophobia has a lot of them (or in this case, blackout glasses). In Nyctophobia, one player adopts the role of a bloodthirsty hunter, stalking the other players through a dark forest until the last victim dies – or the remaining survivors escape. Escape is achieved through careful communication between players, and a mental understanding of 3D shapes. The game board itself is a strange beast, with plastic panels representing the trees and little divots for players to poke their fingers into. It’s a game that’s designed for physical interaction, and yet provides a surprising amount of immersion considering how initially ridiculous it might feel to play.
Buy Nyctophobia on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
10. Escape the Dark Castle
Prepare your best and spookiest voice to read out each chapter card in this game
Do you want an equally immersive experience without the gimmickry of blindfolds? Escape the Dark Castle could be the answer to your demonic prayers. It’s a joyfully simple game inspired by choose-your-own-adventure books, with players taking turns to encounter a gruesomely illustrated event or monster, before selecting one of several possible solutions (such as a) run away screaming or b) run away screaming in the other direction). What elevates this basic concept is how much the game encourages you to enjoy playing. Yes, you will read that card in a spooky voice, and your friends will love it. It’s also an incredibly accessible horror game, with a simple ruleset and relatively quick playtime.
Buy Escape the Dark Castle on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
11. Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
They are excellent mechanics coming out of the walls in this horror deckbuilding game
Alien is unequivocally one of the best horror movies of all time. Hugely influential and ahead of its time, Alien spawned a film franchise that arguably has since seen better days, but it does have some pretty brilliant tabletop adaptations to its name. One of these adaptations is Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game, a series that began with a Marvel themed entry and eventually made its way to a number of other IPs. (Including, funnily enough, the Predator franchise.)
Marvel Legendary is a great game in its own right, but Alien Legendary masterfully combines fluid gameplay with surprisingly competent theming. As a deckbuilding game, Alien Legendary contains all the classic elements of the genre - card buying, deck synergy and engine-building - but wraps them up in a brutally difficult experience that seeks to mirror the feeling of being in an Alien film. Which film you imagine yourself in depends on which set you decide to play with, as Alien Legendary comes with a card set for each of the first four mainline entries. Every set presents a unique challenge, with the variety of xenomorphs you face changing to reflect the film the set is based on.
Luckily enough, Alien Legendary is also a co-op game - so at least players will be able to rely on each other for support. Players can choose between a selection of different characters, each with their own individual powers that benefit the group. However, you’re still likely to have a hard time of it no matter which roles you decide to play with. Alien Legendary is tough as nails and often ends with players being overrun by the sheer volume of xenomorphs. But this only makes Alien Legendary a better horror game because the incoming doom provides so much delicious tension.
Buy Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game on Amazon UK/Amazon US.
12. Shadow Hunters
A social deduction game with ludicrous character powers and fast-paced gameplay
Let’s get this out in the open, Shadow Hunters is a ridiculous board game. The gameplay mechanics are mostly random, the world-building makes no sense and it involves player elimination. Despite all this, and despite the disappointing depiction of the female-identifying characters, it’s easy to love Shadow Hunters. This is all because the messy combination of every element of Shadow Hunters just works.
At its core, Shadow Hunters is a social deduction game about a world where monsters prey on the innocent, and a cabal of warriors have sworn to stop this from happening. At the beginning of the game, players are secretly sorted into different teams depending on how many people are in the game. Larger player counts means the introduction of the neutral characters, alongside the opposed hunters and shadows. The goal of hunters and shadows is simple enough - destroy the opposing side - whereas neutral characters have their own unique goals to achieve before the game ends.
All this makes for a pretty chaotic experience, with players attacking each other based on either intuition or the words of an apparently trustworthy team member. Using a turn to take a green card may provide some much needed information about the identities of the active players, but there’s an equal chance it could just contain complete nonsense. Each of the characters have a special ability they can use if they decide to reveal their identity to the rest of the group, and some of these powers are unbalanced in the most wonderful way. The fact is that Shadow Hunters is an unfair game that sometimes results in players being punished for unexplained reasons. However, the games move so quickly and continue to be deeply entertaining for everyone but the person getting dunked on, that it doesn’t matter.
Buy Shadow Hunters on Zatu.
