Get Spooked. 6 horror games to "enwitch" your scary eve...

Halloween is coming up and, despite being natives of the southern hemisphere, it's always fun to pull out the scarier titles and build an evening around the spooky night of our northern counterparts. So, here's a few game that can help set the mood.

1. Arkham Horror: Third Edition

The brand-new edition of Fantasy Flight's classic Arkham Horror may release the day after Halloween on 1 November, but that doesn't mean you can't pick up this great horror game in time for a weekend horror party.

The new edition of Arkham Horror sees a complete overhaul to the game, with a new modular map that changes with each scenario, and an ever changing codex of goals that reveal themselves as you play, meaning you never know what the final goal is.

2. Betrayal at House on the Hill

We'd be in big trouble if this game didn't appear on the Halloween list. Betrayal is a semi-cooperative game for 3 - 6 players that starts you out as a group of misfits exploring a strange house together. Eventually though, the haunt will be revealed and one of you may turn on the rest, forging your own way to a different goal. Combine this with the Widow's Walk expansion, and you have 100 possible scenarios to play out over your night of fear and terror.

If you're keen to play Betrayal in a campaign format, you can always preorder a copy of the upcoming Betrayal: Legacy that is due out by the end of the year.

3. One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Ah yes, the classic horror game Werewolf. A game where everyone takes on a role within a sleepy little village, but some of those villagers are secretly werewolves, and every night, they go out and kill a villager. Well, what if it all happened in just 10 minutes?

One Night Ultimate Werewolf condenses the classic traitor hunt game into a fast, and thoroughly-engaging, one-round event, with the village choosing to lynch someone in a single morning. There's no moderator (the narrative is made simple by a smartphone app), no waiting for the game to end when you die, just one night to win or lose.

4. Dread

Dread is the stress-inducing roleplaying game that I always pull out around Halloween. The physical tension created by this game once has a player on the floor crying, and another screaming and running to the kitchen. But what makes it so good? The Tower.

You see, Dread isn't a roleplaying game that uses dice or cards. It uses a single Jenga tower in the middle of the table. If a player needs to perform an action that could have a negative outcome (like jumping over a gap while an inferno rages beneath) or an action that their character may not necessarily have the skill for (like fixing a bullet wound), they pull a block from the tower. If the tower falls, their character dies.

This is a must have for the halloween table, and is made even better if you can set the mood with the right lighting and a great soundtrack. There currently isn't a phsyical version of the game available from us but you can pick up a pdf version from the Drive Thru RPG Store.

5. Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is the original and ultimate role-playing game of intrigue and horror. Taking on the role of Vampires in a modern world of darkness, you must walk the razor edge of your thirst for blood, going slowly mad until you consume what you must to keep going.

All the while, you deal with the political intrigue and subtle machinations of the dark underworld of modern society, both the mundane, and the mythical. The latest edition of Vampire: The Masquerade modernises the game's rules so that it's easier than ever before to get your world of darkness role-playing fix.

6. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition

Like Betrayal at House on the Hill above, Mansions of Madness sees you delving into a haunted house of mystery and horror, but, unlike Betrayal, there is no traitor. Instead, you and your fellow players work your way through the game with a digital application acting as your game-master, giving you the narrative, and acting as the enemies you encounter.

Working together, you uncover the mysteries behind the Mansion, and, hopefully, locking away the old ones for centuries to come.