So, here’s my Top 5 – I like most of the games on Sam’s list, but I have a much different idea about a top 5. I only put 1 boardgame on this list, but that’s for 2 reasons; first, the other games are mostly available through PDF, so for a few $$ you can try them out this Halloween; second, if there was one boardgame that NEEDED to be on these lists, that’s the one!

#5 – Call of Cthulhu RPG
http://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-rulebooks-print/

This is THE horror classic; focussing on the world created by HP Lovecraft and telling stories about the rise of dark gods at the turn of the 20th century. The only reason this game ranks 5th on my list is because it does get a little bit of over-play by its fans; but for those who have never tried it, it is a truly horrific jaunt into the dark and mysterious world of the elder gods.
In this RPG, players take the role of investigators who are looking into an evil secret; usually in a coastal town, usually in the 1920’s. The actual roles are up to your discretion – sometimes they are a society of supernaturalists looking for the truth, sometimes they are a group of house guests, sometimes they are random strangers. The game tracks stats and health points like most other games, but intriguingly, it also tracks sanity – there’s only so much someone can handle before they break.

I always liked starting tales in a sea-side tavern that has the same tired, greasy-haired woman and the same crooked, old man running things – but what, oh what, will the player find when they step outside into the rain?

#4 – The Savage World of Solomon Kane
https://www.peginc.com/product-category/savage-world-solomon-kane/

What says Halloween more than a 17th century puritan witch-hunter on mission to rid the world of darkness? In this game you play previous companions of Solomon Kane, people who have worked and learned from him and now keep guard of things when he isn’t around. The time period is flexible but is aiming for what the English might call the Elizabethan times – Europe is embroiled with strife over who will take best advantage of the New World; the Ming dynasty has just fallen, leaving china in ruin; The dutch east india company is forging new frontiers for trade and conquest; the first Tokugawa is securing his Shogunate; tension rises between Native Americans and Settlers; and Africa is still ruled by powerful, African kingdoms.

It is a world of strife and upheaval, exploration and war. Dark monsters still lurk in the openness of the moonlight or gather their powers in dark caves. It is your solemn duty to purge the world by blade or by shot!

#3 – Don’t Rest Your Head
http://www.evilhat.com/home/dont-rest-your-head-2/

Don’t rest your head is an extremely fun little game that centers on characters who can fuel wondrous powers and abilities, but only by increasing their madness and exhaustion. This is not a game that I would recommend for beginners, it has mature themes and requires maturity to make it really work, but when it works… wow! How far will you go to stay alive? How far is too far? I probably can’t say anything better than what they have on the back of their book:

“You can’t sleep. It started like that for all of us, back when we were garden variety insomniacs. Maybe you had nightmares (God knows we all do now), or maybe you just had problems that wouldn’t let you sleep. Hell, maybe you were just over-caffienated. But then something clicked.
That was when you took a long walk down the streets of the Mad City, stopped being a Sleeper, and started being Awake. But that click you heard wasn’t from the secret world snapping into place. It was the sound of the Nightmares flicking off the safety and pointing a gun at your head.
They can smell you. The Paper Boys are closing in, and you’d better pray you don’t become a headline. You’re chum in the water, my friend, and it’s time you got ready for it… before the clock chimes thirteen again. Now that you’re one of us, there’s just one simple rule left that must dominate your life.
Stay Awake. Don’t Rest Your Head.”

#2 – Dead of Winter – A cross roads game
http://www.plaidhatgames.com/games/dead-of-winter

Dead of Winter is getting a lot of press lately and a lot of fan hype as being one of the best games of the year, if not the decade. While I feel the praise is well deserved, I think the bulk of the success has to do with combining many of independent innovations in board-gaming and a mature understanding of the theories of games and play. That shouldn’t detract from the appeal of DoW; I’m not saying it’s just a copycat, I’m saying that the guys at plaid hat are the Edison of boardgames: I’ll see your incandescent light generator, and your direct current distribution methods and raise you, the light bulb.

In Dead of Winter, players take the role of survivors of the zombie apocalypse. You’ve made it to the relative safety of a small town school, but the season is changing and winter is looming – cold winds, starvation and zombie hordes are at your door. Players take turns sending their survivors out into the town to try to scavenge for loot, but every turn, more and more goes wrong for them and the lives of everyone in the colony balance more and more on the decisions you make. Added to this, is the fact that not everyone has the colony’s best interest at heart…

It’s not as chilling to play at the table as some, but if you haven’t played it you should – it’s an amazing game with really innovative story telling.

#1 – Dread
http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/dread/index.html

Until you have played this, you just don’t know; you weren’t there; the horror, the horror….

Dread is an RPG that has no dice and no cards, there is literally nothing random. It is a very open ended Horror game; you can play it in any genre and with just about any story. The crucial rules of Dread are that you must have tension and you must have difficult choices. How does Dread do it? Jenga. The central mechanic of Dread is that the gamemaster is in 100% control of the story, he can decide what happens and, to a certain degree, what befalls your characters. In a normal RPG, you might say “The werewolves are chasing you” and then everyone rolls and determines if their rolls match the number they need to run away. In Dread, the GM might say “The werewolves are bounding down the hallway, they are going to catch you” Players then have to accept their fates or pull a jenga stick. If a player knocks over the Jenga tower, their character is out of the game – eaten, arrested, shot, put in a mental hospital – just out of the game. The tower then resets.

It is really hard to describe the amount of tension and apprehension of this game… your character is hanging by his fingers from a window ledge, hoping the maniac doesn’t notice him, the jenga tower looks like a dilapidated tower of pisa, your hand is a little sweaty and shaking just a bit…

I personally like the modifications that I’ve made to the game – there are 10 random ‘power’ blocks hidden in the deck, players who pull them can then use them; the most plentiful is called ‘sorry, nothing personal’ and it gives the player the ability to make another player pull his block – imagine escaping a zombie horde, realizing you might not make it, and kicking your friend in the back of the knee – you better hope they collapse the tower…

Some people complain that the game sucks as it eliminates players through the evening and I think that’s fair, but be upfront about what the game is, it’s not a game of winning or losing – it’s the telling of a story – I find that emphasizing this keeps everyone (alive or dead) at the table – you can also share the story-telling aspect with dead players, let them take part in the scenes.