Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, which is my traditional new-post day. However, it was overshadowed by the passing of two Star Trek legends. Here’s a more seasonal message.
For starters, I wish October was three months long. Where I live, it’s the best month of the year. The leaves change, it finally cools off, the bugs die down, and it’s just plain wonderful outside.
I’m also a big fan of spooky stuff. Not pure horror necessarily, but spooky-fun stuff. Pumpkins, skeletons, spooky-scary-cozy movies. And games, games too. There’s some good games to play in October.
This year, we played Mörk Borg – Rotblack Sludge
It’s a fun and creepy adventure in the nasty Dying World of world of Mörk Borg. Our group enjoyed it. I tried to make it be gross, but not too revolting. Though one adventurer did find a sack full of knuckle bones when searching for treasure. That he promptly retched into. It dripped onto his shoe.
Another option that we didn’t get to (but still may) is Famous Monsters (1981) by Heritage USA. Roebeast over at roebeast.blogspot.com is a steward of the game, and will grant you access to them if you ask nicely. And I have so been anointed and made a print-and-play copy.
It looks like an interesting game. The idea is that most characters inhabit or move around the board in secret and are revealed if they run into each other, with a fight ensuing, probably ending with a human being thrown from a second-story castle window to their death.
Another solid choice is Cursed City. Vampires, zombies, getting buried alive; what’s not to like? I love the theme, minis, boards, it’s all great.
Last year we played Little Monk’s Castle of Darkness. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t quite finish all of the quests before spooky season was over.
As with the WHQ Adventure Book, the quests are all essentially one-shots. Sure, you can loop them in somehow on your own, but there’s no built in link between quests, or cumulative build up to an ultimate showdown.
I’ve been kicking around an idea for a WHQ expansion that ramps up as the adventures are played. I think it’d be fun, just need to spend some time fleshing it out.
So that’s it. Happy Halloween! I don’t generally like pretending it’s a different time of year, but maybe, just maybe I’ll pretend it’s October just a little longer.
