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Spooky Games, part 2 · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where I
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorders, I step out of the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: library and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Welcome back or welcome to episode two
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of my four part Spooky Game Roundup. Thanks for joining me.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I'm walking home from the library. If you're not sure
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, please listen to episode one of
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: my Spooky Game Roundup, which you can find on the feed.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Two episodes before this one. I think I did a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: board game espresso in between, or that's my plan, so
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: it's probably two episodes before this one. Last episode, I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: talked about games that are genuinely themed around horror themes
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in which you are doing horrific things or having horrific
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: things done to you, or escaping her things or whatever
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: they are. Horror games. Episode three, I will do Cuthulhu.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: In episode four, I'll do zombie games. In this episode,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: episode two, I'm doing Halloween adjacent games. So these are
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: games in my collection that have thematic elements that feel
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: related to Halloween. Like if you were to do a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Halloween Things deemed around one of these games, no one
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: would say that's not Halloween, that's not spooky enough. But
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: these are not by themselves or on their own spooky games,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: or you're not doing spooky things in them is my
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: separation there. I will say I chose not to put
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: any of the four Harry Potter games that I have
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: on this list. I know some people associate Harry Potter
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: with Halloween. I don't. I think Harry Potter as just
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a fantasy story. It has enough stuff that happens at
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: other times that I don't think of it as a
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Halloween story or a Christmas story for that matter. It's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: just a story, and just having magic didn't feel like
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: enough to put it on this list. However, Brewing Potions does.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: First game I want to mention is Potion Explosion. If
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: you have not had a chance to play Potion Explosion,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: get on that. It is a fun game. Potion Explosion
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: is a game from like twenty fifteen, I think twenty sixteen,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: probably twenty fifteen. It was originally from Horrible Games. I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: think they've changed their name to the Horrible Guild because
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they realize calling their company Horrible Games was stupid. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: it is a game in which you I think Actually
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Simon put out an addition as well, in this game,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: you are students at a magical academy and you are
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: learning to make potions. The goal is to make potions
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: as quickly as you can. And the gimmick is the
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: game comes with a bunch of marbles and it uses
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: this sort of sliding marble tray. The sliding marble tray
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: is an excellent component. It's cardboard, so it's a little
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: on the flimsy side, but I haven't had any problems
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: with mine. And you put the marbles in and they
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: show up in a grid. And the whole idea is
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: when you take a marble out, it starts a chain
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: reaction and the two marbles roll down from the marble
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you took out or the marbles above it rolled down,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: And if two marbles touch and they are the same color,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: then they quote unquote explode. You take them out. They
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: roll down again. If the next two marbles that touch
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: are the same color, they explode also, you take them out.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And so you get these chain reactions where you get
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: to collect all these marbles. Now why would you want
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the marbles, Well, there are four different colors and you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: use them to build potions. The potions allow you to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: complete objectives, and each potion that you complete also gives
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: you a one time benefit, so there's a scaling up
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as you complete potions, you then can use the benefits.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: There are these tokens you can take that let you
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: take one extra marble. They're crucial in my experience. I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: use them, especially in the first couple of rounds, almost
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: every turn, every round because often taking that marble is
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the difference between finishing a potion that round or not,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and the game is a race to finish the most
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: potions as quickly as you can, so Potion Explosion definitely
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: worth playing if you can not really very spooky, I
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: will put in the category of not very spooky though,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: werewolf games or games themed around werewolves, like One Night
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Ultimate Werewolf. The theme is spooky, but the game is
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: not at all. It's just like it works literally just
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: as well as as Mafia. Right, it is the same game.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: There's no feeling of difference if it's were Wolves or Mafia,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: so it feels like a theme more than gameplay. One
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Night Ultimate Werewolf. But I would also put in that
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: category where Words Deluxe Edition, which is another game I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: have that is equally delightful, So those are my werewolf
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: themed games that I have. As you're thinking about magic
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and science, I do have a couple other games that
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: are themed around that that I enjoy. Broom Service is
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a game about bringing potions and delivering them. It is
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: it is so not scary that it's almost not reasonable
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: to put it on this list because it feels so distinct.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But it has a really neat mechanism and it's about
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: witches flying around delivering potions. So there's like a big
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: witch on the cover with a broom so it really
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: does feel magic eat to me. Another game about magic
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: school would be The Big Book of Madness. This is
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: one about a bunch of kids in the Magical Library
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: who have let loose some monsters and they need to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: put them back before they get out and cast too
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: much trouble. It's a really fun game. I like it
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of the co op, but it's too easy.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: We very very rarely lose, and we play on the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: hardest setting, so it's fun but too easy. That's the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Big Book of Madness, And those are the ones that
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: are sort of about Oh there's another one about a
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: school mythic mischief. This is the game I got. It's
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: from v I Labs. I think it's called Our VII Studio.
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  Speaker 1: It's a really wonderfully produced game, very fancy, and you
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  Speaker 1: play groups of school kids causing trouble around the magical school.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: There is a warden or a schoolmaster walking around giving
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you punishments if you aren't doing what you're supposed to
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: be doing, and generally it's a delight, a really fun time.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It's very take that, so it's not top of my list,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: but it's a fun game and I've kept at my collection.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: My son really likes it and probably something I should
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: break out here. But again adjacent, the different squads that
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you are are all like you can be mummies, you
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: can be ghosts, you can be witches. I think there's
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Frankenstein's like very much in the theme of like Scooby
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Doo monsters, so very Halloween adjacent. As you grow up
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: out of school, you become mad scientists, so let's talk
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: about games with mad scientists my father's work. This one
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: almost landed in the horror game category, but I didn't
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: put it there for a couple reasons. One, it is
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: primarily a eurogame that's got really great theming, and it's
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: very engaging as a story vehicle. But ultimately it's very
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: much a euro game, so it doesn't feel like a
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: scary game, and it's not really that gross. Like it's
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: more fun than scary. So my father's work goes in
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that one. And then I have Munga Invaders, mad scientists,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: and an atomic monsters attack the Earth. Now this one is
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a Kaiju attack game, but it doesn't feel scary. I mean,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: I guess Terror in Mevil City doesn't either. But I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: put this one on the thematically adjacent side rather than
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the monstrous side. I'm not sure if that was the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: right choice or not, but that's where I put it. Now,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: this is the game I have not successfully played. The
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: rules are difficult, it's old. I tried it once. I
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: tried it with the wrong audience. It didn't go over.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I've never gotten it back out again. But I keep
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it because I have ambitions. So that's Munga Invaders. When
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I think about scary stuff, I also think about like
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: creepy houses and creepily family that are thematically adjacent. So
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: thirteen dead End Drive is a game that I have.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I also recently played thirteen thirteen dead End Drive. I'll
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: talk about that in a board game Espresso episodes sometime soon.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: But in this game, you are trying to murder other
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: people with whom you are competing for an inheritance. It's
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a fun little game. It's got a little bit of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: deduction because you're trying to figure out who's controlling which characters,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and there's a level of silliness to it that I
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: think is pretty enjoyable. All in all. It's a fun game,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: but like it doesn't feel scary, but does feel scary adjacent,
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  Speaker 1: Like if you think of something like Ready or Not,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: which is a game about a bunch of people in
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a mansion trying to kill one person, it could easily
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: be a horror game. So thirteen Dead End Drive squeaks
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  Speaker 1: into the thematic adjacent element. The other one I wanted
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to put here was Gloom. Gloom is, of course, a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: game about sad families. It's sort of like the An
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Adams Family game. You have a bunch of family members.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: They have terrible lives, and your goal is to have
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: them die when they've had a particularly terrible set of
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: things happen to them, so they end up with negative points,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and your goal is to have the most negative score
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: you can or I positive. I don't remember exactly how,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: but you know scary points. When you kill the character,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: then their points are locked in, of course, because they're dead.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Gloom is the first game I played that had see
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: through cards, and still it still holds up. It's a
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: little slow, but pretty fun. I also have Cuthulhu Gloom,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: which I will mention briefly in the Cuthulhu episode. All Right,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I have just a couple more that are thematically adjacent
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: to Halloween, and I'll just talk about them. I don't
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: have a connecting thread here, but i'll talk about them.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Vampire the Eternal Struggle is a collectible card game in
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: which you are accumulating decks of cards and building decks
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: of vampire cards. You play an elder vampire running a
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: host of younger vampires causing trouble. It is themed in
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: the Vampire the Masquerade universe and follows all of the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: lore that goes with that game. So while it is
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: horror adjacent, it is much more adjacent to bombastic fantasy
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: roleplay games, so I don't feel like a horror it's
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: horror in the same way. You also as the vampires.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Humans don't really come into it at all. It's just
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: vampires fighting other vampires, so it doesn't feel horrific in
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the same way as other games might. So that's Vampire
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the Eternal Struggle. Vampire Queen is from twenty sixteen. This
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: is a game. This is a ladder climbing game from
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Wolfgang Kramer. So it is a straightforward card game with
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: a light vampire theme. And so definitely it like defines
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: vampire adjacent or defines horror adjacent because it's literally just
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: a theme pastes it onto a card game about numbers.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: But it's fun and I encourage you to play it
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: if you get a chance. Vampire Queen twenty sixteen. Let's
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: say I've got three left. Victoriana. Victoriana is I almost
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: didn't make this list at all. It's maybe not horrifying
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: enough because it's really more superhero adjacent. Victoriana is essentially
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: what if you had a game that was The League
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of Extraordinary Gentlemen the board game. In Victoriana, you play
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: one of several Victorian era heroes living in London trying
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to fight an emerging menace. You're running around town stopping problems,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: sort of pandemic style, and along on the course of
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: that developing power or accumulating power. The goal is to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: stop as many of these problems as you can while
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you're churning through the deck, to try to find out
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: what the bad guy's scheme is, who his main minions are,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and then stop him before you then fight the bad
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: guy himself. It's a fun game. It runs a little
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: bit long, and it's not it's pretty easy to have
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: it go badly, but really good theming. I think if
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it wasn't Old Tool who did the art, it share
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: looks like it was, So it's a really it's a
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: really lovely game with a cool theme, So Victoriana, if
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you get a chance to play it, I recommend all
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: right the last two. Demon Worker. Demon Worker is a
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: deck building game where you are there. It's a work
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: replacement game, but all your workers are cards, so it
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: feels a little bit like a duck building game, but
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: it's not. It's work replacement. You have these cards that
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: are workers and they are going out and doing stuff
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: for you. But the whole thing is you are a demon,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: they are demons. You're setting up a little army of
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: demons to go cause trouble to human beings. So thematically
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: that's the idea. Gameplay wise, it's it's just kind of cutesy,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: cutesy demons causing trouble for humans. It works pretty well.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: It's it's a pretty solid little work replacement game that
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: is built on a deck of cards. I only played it,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I think twice, but I did enjoy it, and I said, yeah,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: this is a keeper, definitely a game to play again sometime.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I haven't gone back to it, but I have enjoyed it.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: So that's Demon Worker. And finally, one of the first
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: games that our family really dug into and enjoyed. Used
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: to play it a lot. It's still in the collection
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: is Bring Out Your Dead. That's why E are And
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: in the game, you play I don't know the lone
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: surviving family member of a family in the Middle Ages,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and your goal is to sneak your family into the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: cemetery in a turn order and away such that you
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: will get them prime spots in the cemetery. You score
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: points for where your family gets buried. The whole thing
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: is that the grave digger their cart is a varying size,
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and if they don't have room on their cart for
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: your coffin when you put it out, they throw your coffin.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Your family's coffin in the river. So that's a real
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: drag to have your coffin end up in the river.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: It's very silly, obviously, that's a silly theme and kind
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: of morbid. But like kind of like the bloody in
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: which I talked about last episode or last episode of
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: the Spooky game roundup, it's cute and fun and interesting
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: and unique. Now it's a little imbalanced, but we have
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a good time with it whenever we play. So that's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: to bring out your dead publish right upper deck. I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: believe I don't remember who the designer is though. Well
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that's about it for me for horror adjacent games, do
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: tune in in the next couple weeks as I reveal
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the games on my Cuthulhu game list and the games
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: on my zombie game list. Now, if you can think
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of a horror game, then I did not mention the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: last two episodes, that's neither Cuthulhu nor zombie. I'd love
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: to hear about it. Head over to board game geek
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: gil three two sixty nine and start up a thread
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: there to talk about what horror games you love that
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: aren't Cuthulhu games or zombie games and we'll talk about
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: them together. Otherwise, I look forward to talking to you
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: next time. In the meantime, i've arrived home, so my
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: walk is finished. So I will say thanks for joining me,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and I hope your next walk is as pleasant as
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: mine was. Goodbye, brought to you by rattle box.