The first Saturday of June is always International Tabletop Games Day! My family and I love playing board, dice, and card games together — especially horror-themed ones! — and I wanted to share my picks for the five best horror-themed tabletop games.
These are all games we’ve repeatedly played and enjoyed and I’m ranking them based on overall fun levels (how entertaining they are as a game), general coolness/visual aesthetic (how rad they are to look at), and ease of learning (how accessible they are to introduce to new players).
5. Gloom
Straight up: Gloom is an excellent card game that’s a lot of fun to play, but it would’ve been higher up on my list had the 2020s not played out as they had/have thus far. You see, in Gloom, each player is in charge of a family of kooky characters and the overall goal is to make them as absolutely miserable as possible before they inevitably die. Having experienced multiple losses – most familial in nature – this decade, we admittedly haven’t been playing Gloom as much as we used to (and, therefore, I put it last on my list).
THAT SAID, before the 2020s happened, my husband and I were ALL ABOUT Gloom! We absolutely LOVED it (and I anticipate, with a little distance from current events/pains, we will again!). It has a very Charles Addams-ish art style and sense of humor. And the clear cards are a fun visual gimmick that totally works.
During gameplay, you overlay cards on top of each family member (yours OR other players’!) and try to get their happiness score as low as possible. So, you end up placing things like “Got Trapped on a Train -20” onto your own hand of cards and “Was Delighted by Ducklings +20” onto your opponent’s family of cards. It’s goofy, macabre fun for 2-4 players and takes about an hour to play.
Tip: Gloom lovers may be excited to learn that this card game has multiple expansion packs available to add variety and new gameplay elements… DON’T USE THEM ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Hahaha. We made that mistake and it got overlong and overwhelming. It was a perfect example of the old Strong Bad quote, “Too much of a good thing is an awesome thing. But too much of an awesome thing is…umm…really, really dumb and bad.” Implement any expansion packs you get one at a time and you’ll be thrilled though!
4. Betrayal at House on the Hill
Betrayal at House on the Hill has been around for nearly 20 years now (the first edition came out in 2004) and its held its own as a unique horror board game experience! Each playthrough is a little different with over 50 possible scenarios that can play out. (You and your friends/family may find yourselves betting ala Cabin in the Woods on which monster/killer/other is going to wreck your group THIS time! Hahaha).
The gameplay in Betrayal at House on the Hill starts out cooperative (everyone working together) until a randomized event causes a massive shift and one of your teammates BETRAYS you!! From that point forward, it’s the Heroes playing cooperatively against the Traitor (who usually has plenty of minions or powers to make it an even/fair fight!).
There are scenarios to cover nearly every horror genre imaginable from vampires to slashers to banshees to cannibals to zombies to elder gods… You’re going to face-off with (or become!) your favorite (or most feared) horror trope eventually. Plus, the haunted house game board is also different every time you play as you and your fellow players build it piece-by-piece AS you play!
And those who love RPG video games or more hardcore/traditional tabletop games will also love the character choices and how their stats can shift. There are a total of 12 characters (represented by six character/player tokens – each figure represents two possible characters) and they each have their own unique stats, playing up typical horror movie “victim” tropes (The Jock, The Smart One, etc.). You’ll need to really lean into whichever character you chose and use their assets (speed, intelligence, strength, whatever) to your advantage and try to work around their weaknesses. And, of course, events within the game can cause your stats to shift (if you fail a skill check to keep your nerves steady when confronted by a ghost, for example, your sanity may take a hit and drop you closer to madness!).
Betrayal at House on the Hill is pretty complex as far as board games go and may have a bit of a learning curve for players who have never played anything RPG-like before. It also requires at least three players. And an average of three hours of your time. However, if you DO have the patience to learn how it’s played, the required number of players (3-6; ages 12+), and the time to spare… It’s an unforgettable horror game experience!
3. Horrified: American Monsters
My family and I are absolutely in love with Ravensburger’s Horrified board games!! On any given Saturday, you’re bound to find the four of us gathered around one of our copies of Horrified.
Horrified: American Monsters is the second game in the Horrified board games series, with Horrified: Universal Monsters being the first. As such, it’s a tad more difficult than the original (upping the skill level just slightly to appease diehard fans wishing for just a smidge more challenge without making it completely inaccessible to newbies), but the overall gameplay mechanics between the two games is the same.
A fully cooperative game (no traitors here!), you and your friends/family work together to defeat 2-4 monsters. Since this version of Horrified is based on American Monsters, the baddies you’re facing off with are all American-based cryptids! You’ll get to tangle with the Mothman, Bigfoot, the Jersey Devil, a Chupacabra, the Ozark Howler, and/or the Badlands Banshee.
And the gameplay pieces are absolutely gorgeous! The sculpts on the cryptids are stunning:
Depending on how well you and your teammates work together, Horrified: American Monsters can be played in 45-90 minutes. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up, can be played with up to 5 players, and can be tailored to different experience levels as each monster has a unique difficulty rating (and takes a different strategy/style to overcome!).
If you’re lacking in willing friends and/or family members (no shame – as an only child myself, I totally get it!), you’ll be happy to know that Horrified: American Monsters, like its predecessor, can be played SOLO!
2. Horrified: Universal Monsters
Nearly everything I just said about Horrified: American Monsters also applies to Horrified: Universal Monsters. So, why did I rank this one just slightly higher up on my list? Well, as the first game in the Horrified board game series, it’s a little bit easier for new players to get into (and I think accessibility is extremely important), not to mention it has recognizable characters from the Universal Monsters movies to create an instant connection with and atmosphere of excitement that lends to a really fun gaming experience for monster kids.
And it’s not “just” the Monsters! In addition to having antagonist tokens of Frankenstein’s Monster, The Bride, the Wolfman, Dracula, the Mummy, the Creature, and the Invisible Man; you’ll also recognize many of the villagers you’ll need to rescue from their monstrous mayhem! Dr. Reed from The Creature of the Black Lagoon, Dr. Frankenstein’s fiancée Elizabeth, Dracula’s bug-eating minion Renfield, flower-loving Maria, and even Bud Abbott and Lou Costello reprising their roles as Wilbur & Chick from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein! And I didn’t even name them all!!
Even the in-game cards are tailored for Universal Monsters movie fans! You may get a perk card with Wilbur & Chick at their baggage handling job that allows you to transfer items between players more easily. Or an event card that shows the famed Universal backlot, complete with a nod to where Quasimodo was tied up.
Once again, Horrified: Universal Monsters features cooperative gameplay for 1-5 players (yup; you can play solo!), is suitable for ages 10 and up, and takes between 45-90 minutes to complete.
1. Steve Jackson’s Zombie Dice
My award for the absolute BEST horror-themed tabletop game goes to Steve Jackson’s Zombie Dice. While the Horrified board games are my absolute favorites, they’re admittedly not as easy or accessible to ALL players. Friend and film star, Daniel Roebuck loves the overall look of the Horrified games but said the gameplay was too complex for his liking… That is NOT a problem with Zombie Dice!
Zombie Dice is THE easiest, most casual horror-themed tabletop game to play! An ACTUAL zombie could play Zombie Dice and do extremely well. And that’s a tabletop game we all need on hand for those days where you want to have fun as a group but feel sloooooooow in the thinking department.
You really do play AS a zombie for this dice game! You have a baggie of dice with brains, footprints, and shotgun blasts etched into them and you reach in and pull out three random dice to roll. From there, you count up how many brains you got (yum!), how many times you were shot (arrrggh!), and how many footprints (victims on the run). You can then choose to tally whatever brains you got and pass the dice bag to the next player, or take a risk and keep rolling — rerolling any footprints you got (they won’t get away this time!) and adding in more dice as needed. Just remember: If you’re shotgunned three times before you lock-in the number of your collected brains, you’ll lose all of the brains you’d gathered that round and have to start again on your next turn!
The first person to get 13 or more brains wins (with other players getting one last chance to tie or beat their score with their own final rolls).
Zombie Dice can be played with 2-6 people of any age (that dice aren’t a choking hazard for) and each match takes an average of 15 minutes. And, since the simplistic graphics on the dice aren’t overtly scary/gory on their own, you can easily introduce this game to your non-horror-fanantic normie friends as well!
Have You Played Any of These Games? Do You Have Any Recommendations?
My family and I love tabletop games! These are our favorite horror-themed tabletop games, but we know there are a TON more out there. If you have any recommendations, feel free to share in the comments’ section below! (I also reviewed a neat mystery game recently, if you’re in the mood for something a bit more “True Crime”-themed then check that out too!!).
Have you played any of our favorites? Do you agree with my ranking…? Let me know!
Become a Patron!Images are our own and taken from our at home Family Game Night play sessions! 😀 (And, yes, I can see the board piece in Betrayal at House on the Hill that’s placed incorrectly… it bugs me too 😛 It got shifted and I didn’t notice it was wrong in my photo until after everything was packed up again). Also, another reason I listed American Monsters slightly lower than Universal Monsters is because in the 1st edition (ie our version!) the Badlands Banshee has a gameplay balancing issue due to a typo in the rulebook lol. If you need our fix for it, feel free to email me! -L*
