Monster & Horror Games (Video or Analog)

[Lazarus]

I post my new monster game acquisitions in the new stuff thread, as it's something that is generally underrepresented on here as far as merchandise goes unless it's something very vintage like the Mystery Game series (which I'd love to have but will never ever be able to afford).  But there's a lot of games out there from over the years that have themes based on some version of our beloved monsters, and all other things spooky.  If you have something you like, post it here!  I'm gonna share all kinds of stuff I have or I've seen.  I encourage you to do the same!

This way I don't clog up the new stuff thread with a bunch of big pictures of my stuff, and we can post more here with interior shots and stuff!

Show us your spooky games!  My first few posts, I'm going to put up games for each of the big Universal Monsters characters, or as close as I can get to them.  Got to make sure our boys and girls are represented! 

After that, I'll branch out a bit and do games for other stuff like witches, zombies, haunted houses, and the like.

[Lazarus]

I thought I'd start the thread with one of the big 4 monsters, and it was really between Dracula or Frankenstein's Monster.  I don't actually own a copy of this, but I fully intend to at some point in the future when I find a nice one.

Dracula, produced by Rio Grande Games in the US in 2003, is a 2 player head to head game featuring Dracula vs Van Helsing.  Here's a picture of the game all set up.  You can just barely see the Dracula and Ven Helsing meeples on the top left and bottom right corners of the board here.  The russian edition has a pair of very sharp little plastic gentlemen that I'm quite jealous of.

From the publisher:

Count Dracula has left his home in Transylvania to travel by ship to London, where he plans to hunt for innocent victims. The famous Dr. van Helsing got wind of Dracula's plans and immediately caught the next carriage to London. It is a race against time! Van Helsing tries to find and destroy all of the vampire's coffins, while the count tries to find five victims. Will the horror end tonight or will the count's reign of terror continue?

The players move their respective markers around the town, revealing the cards that are face down, looking for their objectives.  they can also work to impede the other player by placing barriers and things like that.  Dracula and Van Helsing each have their own unique deck of cards, and the cards with their objectives are from a common deck of smaller cards.

I'm really into this one.  I look forward to finding a copy for myself some day. 

[Subatomic_Matt]

That looks really cool! Thanks for the deep dive on the details for this. I don't know of/see many games like this and it's great to know they exist!

[Lazarus]

Happy to contribute.  I've got lots of cool stuff to show you guys.

[Lazarus]

Second post!  We're stepping outside the original monsters, and looking at a game based on one of Universals later classics, JAWS!

I love this one.  It's the only game I think I have where you are playing 2 different games in the same game.

The game consists of 2 halves.  The first half of the game has the players moving around Amity Island, trying to save swimmers, while at the same time putting tracking barrels on the shark.



The sharks movement is largely hidden, progress is kept on a pad of paper and the sharks position is only revealed if the players ask if he's in a space they're allowed to pick, via the fish tracker or by being in said space, or if the shark eats a swimmer.  After the shark has been revealed, it will promptly disappear again, leading to a scramble to try and pin its position down and get a barrel on it. 

The up to 3 human players have to try and locate the shark using various abilities. 

Quint can launch barrels in spaces around him, while Brody and Hooper can pickup and move barrels in their space.  Brody and Hooper cannot launch barrels themselves.  Hooper has a fish tracker to give him a broad area to look, and a faster boat than can help him locate the shark.  Brodys primary ability is to close beaches.  This prevents swimmers from spawning there, and narrowing the sharks choices for a few turns (the beaches stay closed for 2 turns.  can't keep the tourists out during the 4th of July!).  He also has binoculars to help locate the shark that he can use while on a beach.  All players can also rescue swimmers while on a boat in their space, or on the beach space they're located at.  Brody cannot board or pilot a boat, and Hooper and Quint cannot leave their boats.

The sharks goal is to eat a certain amount of swimmers before it gets 2 barrels attached to it.  If the barrels are attached, or the number of swimmers are eaten (poor doomed Alex Kintner is worth two swimmers!) then you clear the board and flip it, revealing the second half of the game, the showdown aboard the Orca:



This phase will happen no matter how the previous round goes, but depending on how well the humans do in the first half, the shark will have more or less health, and other options will be more limited for weapons and such if they've done badly.  The fight goes like this:

the shark player picks 3 segments of the boat, marked A, B, and C.  They set aside one of those letters face down, themselves.  the shark will surface in one of the spaces designated.  The human players each select a target space, and once the shark surfaces, if it is in a target space they can then attack if they're in the space or an adjacent space if they have a firearm.  Dice are rolled, damage is dealt, and ability cards for both sides take effect.  If the shark damaged a section of the boat, once a certain number of points of damage varying by the section is dealt, you flip the tile to the damaged side.  If that side also receives sufficient damage, you remove the tile, and that section is now submerged.  Any humans  in that space are thrown into the water (they can get back out, but you do not wanna be there, the shark can attack players that are swimming directly).

And you play until 1 of three things occur. 

1)  The Shark is killed when his health reaches zero.  Humans win!

2)  The Humans are all killed.  Shark wins!

3)  All sections of the Orca are submerged.  Shark wins!

I can honestly say I think we've only gotten 1 barrel on the shark the few times we've played.  We did manage to kill the thing at full health twice, though (though not without loss of life). 

This is a tense, frustrating game.  Sometimes tracking this damn fish feels impossible.  It feels right.  I love it.

[Lazarus]

Here's something a little more kid friendly.  Dawn Under!

I don't own this one yet, but it has a fun gimmick that caught my eye.  Here's the board:



What this image fails to convey is that the board is actually 2 layered, so the graves are recessed.  this is because you place various tiles in them, and then cover the tombs with lids!



I don't know much about it, but apparently the goal is to put vampires in graves that share a lid of that vampires color.  You can also put garlic in a grave to prevent other players from using it.  There's also a memory mechanic in play, as the graves never stay uncovered, and you need to remember what is where.  First person to deplete their stack of vampires wins.

The latest edition looks a little too Twilight for me, but the version I have in the picture is nice.  I hope to find one at some point.  Unfortunately the original edition has art that makes the vampires look like muppets made of human skin, and it's not good.

[Lazarus]

Renegade just put this up for pre-order on their site.  I have to say, this is not something I ever expected to see.

https://renegadegamestudios.com/american-psycho-a-killer-game/

It's a trick taking game, of all things.  2-5 players.  I'll definitely give this a try when it comes out. 

[TheMadScientist]

That's such a weird movie for a game, I might have to give it a look lol

[Lazarus]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRzV3ZnVWxM&ab_channel=DavidNiecikowski%2CPhD

Video of Trick or Treat studios upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre game!  They've been talking about doing licensed games since they've started the games division, and this is the first thing they've officially announced.  They've also said they're working on Halloween and Child's Play games, but nothing official had actually been put out until now.  I'm excited to give this one a try.

[Mike...In 3-D!]

My favorite a game called Betrayal at the House on the Hill.



It's a tile laying board game that starts as co-op then switches to a head-to-head game when one or more of your group "betrays" the others after an event is triggered. There are 50 different random scenarios you could end up playing depending on the circumstances. That, with the fact that it's a tile laying game so the board is never the same, makes the replay value on this insane.

There's an expansion as well called Widow's Walk that adds another 50 scenarios to the game.

[Lazarus]

Betrayal is a classic.  I have the second edition version too.  I still need the expansion though.