It’s a big month for Dungeons & Dragons (Wizards of the Coast)
GameCentral takes a look at the best new tabletop games of the season, including the 2024 D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide and a Discworld RPG.
Spooky season is upon us once again, as proven by the wealth of horror video games hitting the shelves at the moment, from the Silent Hill 2 and Until Dawn remakes to movie tie-in A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, retro style frightener Fear The Spotlight, and the very promising-looking Slitterhead. But there’s also plenty of new tabletop games out right now, all with a suitably horrific tone.
If you’re looking to add some eerie fun to your tabletop collection, we’ve rounded up the top new Halloween board games for 2024, including innovative twists on classic horror themes and fresh, spine-chilling mechanics.
From battling across the dinning room table, at the head of your own rat army, to navigating a house of horrors, and fighting each other with feisty Mexican food, there’s something for every group, age, and budget.
Zombie Burritos
Throw Throw Burrito was a staple Saturday night drinking game in my house, until my ferrets got an appetite for foam. Talking of appetites, Zombie Burrito has the same frenetic mechanics as the first game but now you have a meat shield card to protect yourself from the undead!
In this new, fleshy revamp you and your friends are split into teams of zombies or survivors. You need to speedily rifle through your deck of cards to collect sets of three matching cards, with some providing special abilities to the survivors, others benefiting the zombies, and some triggering intense battles between each side.
During the battles, players throw their squishy burritos to try and hit their opponents across the table; get hit with a burrito and you’re out of the battle. The first team to win three battles wins the game!
Out now – RRP £24.99
Horribly good fun (Ravensburger)
Horrified: World Of Monsters
In this fourth instalment of the Horrified series, the game mechanics have changed and now instead of being humans battling monsters, players are now monsters as well. But good monsters! Horrified: World Of Monsters is a standalone co-operative game and you move around the locations on the board solving puzzles to defeat bad monsters. My favourites of the hero monsters are the Guardian Robot and the Buccaneer Skeleton.
The roster of bad guys includes a reclusive Yeti with avalanche powers trying to rescue its children, the ravenous Chinese vampire Jiangshi, the riddling Sphinx, and the most infamous of the old gods: Cthulhu. Each monster presents a unique challenge, such as finding Jiangshi’s moon shrine and building a coin sword – the only weapon that will defeat him. You can face them individually or in combination, with players’ pooling their unique skills to solve puzzles inspired by the monster’s individual lore.
I loved the new mechanic of the multi-phase Cthulhu boss battle, where the Old God rises from his void in the middle of the board and must be manacled by special items, so he doesn’t disappear. For fans of this board game series, you can now mix and match monsters with those in the last game, Horrified: Greek Monsters, such as Medusa and the Minotaur, which makes for a Halloween-tastic monster mash up. There’s even a Krampus limited figure available at certain retailers, for those who are already in the Christmas spirt!
Out now – RRP £39.99
Dungeons & Dragons 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide
Want to design your own fright night? Consider volunteering as the Dungeon Master for a nightmarish campaign at your local D&D club. This couldn’t be easier with the upcoming revamp of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Touted as the Dungeon Master’s best friend, it’s now much more intuitive and includes some handy real-world examples of common pitfalls for novice Dungeon Masters, along with suggestions for how to keep your party on track and make sure everyone’s having fun.
This chunky tome is a toolbox with new adventure hooks and maps you can personalise to set your players up for success (or death?). This is the first Dungeon Master’s Guide to include a full campaign setting, with an exclusive prewritten adventure situated in Greyhawk – which is the very first D&D setting designed by creator Gary Gygax and a perfect way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D&D.
This is the first new Dungeon Master’s Guide in 10 years and includes 15 new, ready-to-use, reusable maps for homebrew adventures, plus more than 300 new and improved treasures and magical items. This is shaping up to be the definitive contemporary guide to how you design and play within fantasy worlds.
Out Now – RRP £59.99
Nocturne
My bank account is still trying to recover from the recent release of Bloomburrow, the cosy cute animal offering from Magic: The Gathering. If you want something similarly stunning, and just as competitive, in board game form Nocturne is perfect for you. You play as a fox mystic, such as Abigail Bushtail or Sage Mistpaw, casting different value magic spells to collect an assortment of enchanted baubles – such as firebird feathers, creature skulls, glowing mushrooms, mysterious eggs, and rare herbs – which will award you the most points and win the game.
You compete against rival mystics and their differently-valued spells, as each turn sees you try and place adjacent higher value spells than the last player. If your spell casting comes up short, you can always make an offering to the forest sprites – magical mice that have their own cache of treasures they may share with you, giving you further options to expand your collection.
One night and two rounds with twilight and moonlight goals, along with concoction cards and special player abilities in each game, provide great variety, so that no two games of Nocturne play out the same.
Out now RRP £39.99
Magic: The Gathering – Duskmourn
The must-have Magic: The Gathering cards this Halloween are the Bride Of Chucky ones from the Chucky Secret Lair set. But if they sell out (as Secret Lair drops tend to do) you can always pay a visit to the house of horror that is Duskmourn. Build your deck and enter the giant haunted mansion ruled by the demonic Valgavoth; after you enter, you’re trapped within the walls and the only way out is getting competitive with your card skills.
Why even enter this hellish house? You’re searching for Nashi, the son of the Planeswalker Tamiyo, who has vanished through a diabolical door and there’s only one clue to his whereabouts: a glitchy, warped recording of a new world full of terrors. Watch out for cards featuring Glitch Ghosts and also some cool looking ‘Double Exposure’ artwork that made me come across all The Evil Within.
Creepy Cards to look out for include Marvin, Murderous Mimic, and Meathook Massacre II, making this a must have for Halloween. Plus, you can splash out on the CRT TV styled Nightmare Bundle box, if you’ve got some leftover creepy cash.
Out now – pre-release pack RRP £42.45, booster packs around £4
Vizzik Skour, Prophet of the Horned Rat – that’s a big rodent (Warhammer)
Warhammer Battletome: Skaven
There was a collective roar of approval this month from tabletop fans, as Twitch added the new category Miniatures and Models to its roster of livestreams. Now if you’ve already hacked and slashed your way through Space Marine 2 you can sit sedately and watch people paint Skaven instead. It’s the first time these whisker twitchers have shown up in Age of Sigmar and they are looking to cause some problems as the new agents of Chaos.
The new Skaven Battletome and Warscroll cards offer roles for the impressive new roster of models, such as the humongous Vizzik Skour, Prophet of the Horned Rat – who has a Death Frenzy Prayer which subtracts from an enemy’s attack.
There’s also Skrye Units with Warpspark Weapons that are almost guaranteed to win against those do-gooder Stormcast Eternals. Skaven deserve some good press and a makeover, and this should see them become your new favourite legacy army. Roll out the Doomwheel this Halloween.
Marvel: Crisis Protocol – Monsters Unleashed Character Pack
Take my monster money! These guys don’t come out till November but it’s Halloween all year round with all the new monsters coming to Marvel: Crisis Protocol. It’s going to be hard to put away Apocalypse, who’s been wreaking havok across the tabletop in my last couple of tournaments, with his Biomorphic Arsenal attack and Only the Strong Remain healing ability. Plus, his Rejuvenation Chamber is the best bit of scenery I’ve seen this year, just don’t be stingy with the sand.
This new monster four-pack pre-order has me drooling blood, as it contains Dracula; N’Kantu, The Living Mummy; Frankenstein’s Monster; and Werewolf By Night – making for the best beastly box set of miniatures you can get your hands on this Halloween.
Werewolf By Night is great to buddy up with Dracula but rather than just acting as a minion he will slash through your opponent’s using his Pounce and Midnight Massacre abilities. Frankenstein’s Monster moves around the table surprisingly quickly for a big guy and will wallop you with his Thick Skull ability if he gets his hands on you. N’Kantu, The Living Mummy sucks your opponent’s life away with his Captured Soul Tokens, which fuel his big attack special card Service to Anubis.
Dracula wields the unholy powers of vampirism to transform into the creatures of darkness, such as a bat, a wolf or just evaporate into mist, all of which give him unique abilities. His Blood Feast and Ancestral Blade make him the star of this box.
If you’re feeling rich, the Tomb of Dracula Terrain Pack thematic terrain pack can also double as the centrepiece of your Halloween party. Featuring Dracula’s Tomb, a cutaway of the iconic gothic castle, it’s reminiscent of classic movies and a must-have for those keen on the upcoming remake of Nosferatu, coming to cinemas this Christmas.
Out 8th November – RRP £59.99
OK, this one is only mildly horrific (Ravensburger)
Disney Lorcana: Ursula’s Return Set 4 – Deep Trouble Illumineers Quest
Ravensburger are really spoiling us with the fast and furious release schedule for Lorcana, which has stretched and shaped the trading card game since its launch last August, and with Ursula’s Return, you have a whole new way to engage with it.
The unique new Ursula card is on the big size, just like the lady herself, and she also has her own gold-backed deck with three different difficulty options. I would have loved this to also include a playmat, given the hefty price tag, but there is a gold-wrapped treasure pack – the ‘crowning’ card of this deck for you to open once you defeat Ursula.
Deep Trouble gives you a new challenge and an excellent way for single-players to access Lorcana, while also being a stunning-looking spooky gift for any tabletop enthusiast.
Out now – RRP £54.99
Survive The Island!
Unlike Lorcana, there’s no Moana to save you in Survive the Island, only plenty of kaiju, sea serpents, and sharks. The elements are against you too, as you try and escape with as many survivors as possible before the island’s three volcanoes erupt. A rework of the awesome Survive: Escape From Atlantis board game, that came out 30 odd years ago, I loved this updated new game. Who needs Indiana Jones video games when you can play as a treasure hunter on your tabletop, wearing a suspiciously similar hat.
Each player has a team of 10 adventurers, carrying varying amounts of treasure which you need to get across the water to a safe beach. The more treasure they carry, the more points you earn at the end of the game.
Each turn, players perform three actions. First, they move their adventurers closer to safety; then select a tile to remove, revealing either a dangerous creature or a powerful special ability; and finally, they activate one of the monsters on the board, who can protect you or attack other players and scupper their boats.
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Out now – RRP £28.99
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld RPG: Adventures In Ankh-Morpork
If you like absurd, rather than scary, fantasy adventures this pun-filled tabletop adventure for Discworld will be right up your Ankh-Morpork Street. The designers of this role-playing game have honoured the wit, tone, and fabric of Terry Pratchett’s writing to a T, with ridiculous plans underpinned by wicked wordplay and fourth wall-breaking footnotes.
The bespoke Narrativium role-playing system is based on polyhedral dice and built specifically for Discworld, allowing the game to be centred around words and storytelling rather than numbers. It’s paired with some familiar, highly detailed pencil sketches that are highly reminiscent of the books.
The lack of hard stats and reliance on traits allows you, with some arm twisting of your Dungeon Master, to craft a complex but not necessarily mentally stable character. The cost varies on your pledge level, from £40 to £350, with the Kickstarter due to launch on 15th October until 7th November.
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