With the release of The Haunting of Bly Manor still a month away, finding the right entertainment to scratch that spooky itch can be a conundrum. While other horror shows and movies may offer a glimpse of that aesthetic, the best way pass the time until its release might be with the right spooky tabletop game that lets players get involved in the horror in a more interactive way.
These three games evoke the Halloween atmosphere in cool ways and are perfect to play while waiting for Bly Manor to drop. They tell scary stories through interactive gameplay, making them perfect for players who love this time of year. They also feature important components of The Haunting at Bly Manor's story, including ghosts, murders, tragic families and, of course, the titular haunted houses.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Nothing is more Halloween than the haunted house, and Betrayal at House on the Hill invites players through the creaky front doors of the best haunted house in tabletop gaming. Players explore a house that is randomly-generated and different for every playthrough. As players uncover rooms, they also collect items and experience spooky events, ultimately uncovering the exact nature of what is haunting the house.
Where Betrayal at House on the Hill excels is the horror-rich atmosphere it creates. It is also unique in tabletop gaming in that it starts out as a co-operative game, with all characters working together to explore the house, but ultimately turns one player against the rest, making it both a co-op and competitive game.
The name of the game is clearly meant to reference Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House, which also provided the source material for the season preceding The Haunting of Bly Manor. Not only is Betrayal a spooky game, perfect for this time of year, but it's also a perfect tie-in with the Bly Manor series, making it a great game to play to tide people over until the season's release.
Mysterium
Mysterium plays a little bit like the old stand-by boardgame Clue in which players try to solve a murder by identifying the location, weapon and culprit. Unlike Clue, however, players are being fed information about the murder from the victim themself. One player acts as the ghost, passing visual clues to each player to help them solve the case. The game offers each player their own murder-mystery to solve but plays collaboratively overall, especially in the end.
Mysterium is also perfectly-designed to give off spooky vibes. Not only are players communicating with a ghost and dealing with murder, but all of the image-clues have a surreal, ethereal nature to them. The Haunting of Hill House featured possibly hundreds of ghosts, and the secrets behind the deaths of certain characters were central to the story it was trying to tell. Mysterium touches on many of these key components while also setting the perfect spooky mood, making it another great option to tide players over until The Haunting of Bly Manor.
Gloom
Gloom provides each player with an eclectic family and asks them to author their misfortunes. This card game is visually intricate, with the see-through cards building onto or covering up underlying content. Like golf, players work to give their characters the lowest possible score with negative event cards. Unlike golf, however, their goal is to destroy their characters once they've reached their lowest score.
Gloom is a fun card game with some interesting mechanics, but what truly sets it apart is the unique characters and the morbid scenarios the game sets for them. The unusual, haunted families that are the basis of each game are reminiscent of the Crain family, with sad fates and difficult relationships. The Haunting series has always been about tragic characters, and Gloom can help provide players with similar narratives.