17 at the UNO Park Community Center for an evening of Horror themed games. Thanks to Armando for curating this annual event for the 3rd Halloween in a row.

IN: Steve & Sandy, Sean & Wendy, Tony & Rachel, Kenneth & Rachel, Armando, Tim, Sean K, Danny, Julie, Reimi, Rob, Carol, Katie 

Skull 2x (led by Tim/Armando)  2011 game of pure bluffing. Each player plays a face-down disk, then each player in turn adds one more disk – until someone feels safe enough to state that he can turn a number of disks face up and get only flowers and no skulls. Other players can then overbid them, saying they can turn even more disks face up. The highest bidder must then turn that number of disks face up, starting with their own. If they show only flowers, they win. If they reveal a skull, they lose, randomly placing one of their disks out of play and possibly losing their own skull moving forward. Two successful challenges win the game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull

Horrified (led by Sean K) A cooperative game of fighting golden era movie monsters. A random selection of monsters is decided before the game, changing the difficulty and strategy. Players become heroic archetypes, each with a special move. The monsters roam the locations of the town, attacking heroes and villagers alike. Each monster is unique, and they require different strategies and tactics to be defeated. Each monster has a unique “advance” track, that players can use to soften them up for defeat. And a final “defeat” condition that must be attempted in a specific way or place to finally rid the town of the menace. Each player turn starts with hero actions — but then each turn ends with the monsters taking action. A monster attacking a player or villager successfully ticks the clock another notch towards doom.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282524/horrified

Small World (led by Sean) 2009 area majority/influence game where players vie for conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all. It is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, Amazons, giants, orcs, and even humans, who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth. Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires – often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/40692/small-world

Mysterium (led by Tim) 2015 cooperative deduction murder mystery game game with limited communication and storytelling aspects. Sort of a mixture between Clue and Dixit. One player is the ghost and the other players are mediums trying to solve the mystery by receiving “visions” (Dixit style cards) from a ghost who has been murdered. Detectives use the visions to pin down the “who”, “where”, and “what” of a particular murder. The Ghost has only 8 rounds to pull this off with all detectives, otherwise everyone loses the game. Additionally, Detectives can openly discuss any information and even vote on if they agree/disagree with any other Detectives’ decisions to gain extra clairvoyance. 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181304/mysterium

Nocturne (led by Armando) 2024 bidding and set collection puzzle game where players are fox mystics casting magic spells to collect an assortment of enchanted items. Players compete against rival mystics, each deciding when to cast the most powerful spells to move through the forest most cunningly to secure the best collection. Each turn players decide which items are most valuable to them and when to hold the other mystics back. Through two rounds (twilight and moonlight), players compete to collect the strongest sets of magical items like firebird feathers, creature skulls, glowing mushrooms, mysterious eggs, and rare herbs. These items have value when collected in specific sets, but can also be combined to fulfill recipes needed for concoctions, scoring players more prestige.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393175/nocturne

The Bloody Inn (led by Sean) The Bloody Inn is a card game in which you play one member of a family of greedy, murderous innkeepers. At the start of each round, cards are placed face up to fill the inn with guests. Each card carries a cost representing how many cards a player must discard from her hand in order to take an action related to that card. Certain guests have an affinity for particular actions, so those cards return to a player’s hand after being discarded. Cards also show how much money, in francs, each guest possesses. A round has two phases in which players take one action each, in turn order. At the end of the round, if any room of the inn contains one of the police, then they conduct an investigation; if a player has any unburied victims, then he must pay 10F per victim to the local gravedigger to hurriedly — and quietly — bury the bodies!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180593/bloody-inn

The Night Cage (led by Armando) 2021 co-operative, horror-themed tile-placement game that traps 1-5 lost souls within an unnatural labyrinth of eternal darkness. To win, players must each collect a key, find a gate, and escape as a group. 

The Game 2x (led by Tim) 2015 multiplayer co-op with limited communication. Players add numbered cards (from 2-99) to 4 piles with 2 of them ascending and 2 descending. Get rid of the entire deck (or close to it) and the team wins. If anyone is unable to play a card, the team loses.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/173090/the-game

 

Steve