Top 5 Horror Board Games For Even When It’s Not Halloween

Nemesis

For many folks out there, ‘Horror board game’ and Nemesis might as well be synonyms. Not only is it a highly-rated, multi-award-winning board game for the gameplay alone, but it’s equally great at creating a looming sense of fear among the players.

Players work together to survive after they awake from hibernation on their malfunctioning spacecraft. They must repair the ship and figure out who might be a saboteur while also trying to figure out what those mysterious noises deeper in the ship could be.

Nemesis is a 1-5 player space survival game with incredible miniatures and clever, immersive rules that include cooperation, bluffing, backstabbing, and all other elements of an iconic science-fiction horror adventure. The crew Wakes up from hibernation. The damage report States there is a critical system failure and the ship cannot continue its cruise. The task to find the damage, repair it and safely return to earth. The problem: one crew member is dead. Somebody ripped open his hibernation pod and pulled his body out. To make matters worse, you can hear noises in the vast corridors of the ship. They sound unlike anything you have heard before. When faced with ultimate horror, will you trust your crewmates?

Hunt A Killer

There’s been a murder! It’s up to you (and as many friends as you want) to rifle through documents, photographs, receipts, and more scraps of documents and trash to piece together what happened. Hunt A Killer is part of a long series of games, each with its own mystery to solve.

I’ve done several of these myself and can personally guarantee that they are a great time. They are just in the right spot of difficulty, so each time it feels like a trail is going cold, another clue pops up. I’ve done Death at a Dive Bar, Renfaire Regicide, and Supernova and would absolutely play more, given the chance.

Hunt A Killer’s second horrifying season of Blair Witch is now available as a complete box set! This full season will test hardened and new detectives, alike. After the events of Blair Witch Season 1, a team of podcasters arrives in Burkittsville, hoping to find information on the Blair Witch. But when the team vanishes on a seemingly routine trip into the woods, you must help Ed Barrett solve the mystery of what happened to them. Return to the Black Hills Forest for one more creepy mystery. Solve puzzles, decode ciphers, find evidence, and discover what is really happening in Burkittsville. This is a standalone season, and you do not need to have played Blair Witch Season 1.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

It wouldn’t be a complete list of horror board games without some Cthulhu in the mix. Arkham Horror: The Card Game has been going strong for a while now and has a very avid fan base, including our own Adam Harrison, who’s been playing the game for years.

Players work together to fight off the minions of the Great Old Ones. Each investigator will have their own set of cards to use and pros and cons as a party member. It’s up to the team to maintain a grip on their sanity as they complete the multitudes of scenarios available through expansion and scenario packs.

For new players that haven’t yet experienced the cooperative investigations and gripping campaigns of Arkham Horror: The Card Game, there’s no better place to start than the Revised Core Set! With a single copy of the Revised Core Set, players have everything they need to start playing with one to four players—just by picking a pre-built investigator deck and leaping into the first scenario of the Night of the Zealot campaign included in this Core Set.

Final Girl

Perhaps the most literal understanding of “horror” in this list of board games, Final Girl, is about surviving in a slasher-style movie. It’s a full solo game, but once you’ve got the core box, there are plenty of other scenarios to play through. You’ll play the odds by knowing what cards to discard when, and press your luck with dice rolls. Each success will feel great, but each failure will weigh heavy. Can you survive the night?

Ever wanted to star in your own horror movie? Now’s your chance! In Final Girl, YOU become the heroine of the story. This is a solo game like no other that brings your favorite horror movie tropes to life using the innovative (and endlessly replayable) Feature Film Game System! Every second counts as you manage your time and actions.

Play cards and roll the dice to move around the board, search for items, and even attack the Killer. Each card can be a success, an overwhelming success, or a crippling failure. Card management is crucial; manipulate the odds by discarding other c ards from your hand, or save them to purchase more powerful cards for later use. The decisions won’t be easy, but they are yours and yours alone!

Betrayal at The House on The Hill

I absolutely love this game for so many reasons. Players work together to explore a haunted mansion until one of them suddenly snaps and betrays the rest of the group. How exactly that happens is based on a few different factors. But outside the game, players literally split into separate rooms while they figure out and discuss how to deal with the traitor. No hidden roles here, which makes the betrayal all the more satisfying.

The House on the Hill still sits abandoned, and fearless group of explorers has been drawn to the house to discover its dark secrets. Immerse yourself in the narrative gameplay as you take on the role of one of those explorers. The Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition cooperative board game includes 50 chilling haunts and dozens of danger-filled rooms that will terrify even the strongest among you. At first you’ll work together, but beware…one explorer will betray the others and then the haunt begins.