Two-Gun Pixie's Legendary Gaming Presents: Our Favorite 10 Halloween Filler Games...

Salutations and we'll met fellow survivors of the Nerd Wasteland! Samhain is skittering up on us faster than a game of Oregon Trail takes to lose, er... I mean play. As everyone gets their Halloween plans in order and their costumes ready the atmosphere thickens and turns to pitch. Images of zombies, blood suckers, and bleak elder things claw through our minds... And on to our tabletops!

BOO! Halloween can always be the cause for great parties. It's the perfect time o' the year for costumes, scary stories, and all-night events. In fact there is usually so much to do that, like the titular creatures in Stephan King's Langoliers, gaming time can be lost to us; eaten away. Unless one is specifically at a gaming Halloween party there simply won't be enough time to whip out Mansions of Madness, A Touch of Evil, or Dead of Winter and start everyone rolling some dice and throwing down cards. You love being with your buddies for a good party but you also want to get some gaming time in. What to do?

Thankfully, The Great Grognard and the Twenty-Sided Warriors have played more games than anyone can remember. Not just the big epic games like Eldritch Horror but plenty of small, quick, filler games. Some of which that will fit in perfectly with some of your Halloween plans.

So fellow nerds & nerdettes, without further rambling...

Two-Gun Pixie's Legendary Gaming presents...

Our Favorite Halloween Filler Games

Be sure to click on the review picture of any game you like to learn more about it ;-]

Zombie Dice by Steve Jackson Games

This fast-paced push-your-luck dice chucking game offers a quick fix for your ever-lovin' zombie fun. Zombie Dice is incredibly easy to learn and teach. Games usually go for about 10 minutes.

Each player is a zombie trying to catch/eat 13 brains in order to win. Each turn the active player blindly chooses three dice from the game container and rolls them. There are three choices for each die rolled; Brain, which means you have eaten/collected a brain, Shotgun Blast, this symbolizes that you have been shot, three shots per turn. Feet means that the poor human escaped your clutches. Decide if you want to pursue those escaping. If you push-your-luck and re-roll those feet beware... you may just be damning yourself if they come up shotgun blasts! If you enjoy this game be sure to check out the two expansions: Zombie Dice 2: Double Feature which adds three more dice; the Hunk, the Hottie, and Santa Clause! Zombie Dice 3: School Bus which adds a big twelve-sided die to the dice pool! Everyone LOVES using this die when we play. If someone doesn't we start to chant, "Get on the bus, Zeke!" until they do. Hey, push-your-luck games are all about goading the other players to keep risking everything, right?

Chupacabra: Survive the Night by Steve Jackson Games

Do you like to chuck dice? Do you like the sound of those dice rolling over the table top? Do you like to mess with your friends? Yes, then you need to check out Chupacabra: Survive the Night. These dice are beautifully crafted. They are black with yellow designs of chickens, goats, bulls, and the evil glowing eyes of the Chupacabra. Yes, glowing eyes! These dice DO glow in the dark! This quick filler game offers you the chance to fill your hands with dice and steal from the other players. In this game ALL players roll their dice simultaneously and compare rolls. The first player uses any Chupacabra they rolled to claim the chickens, goats, and bull dice from the other players; 1 Chupacabra can take 2 chickens or 1 goat. Two Chupacabra can take 1 bull. As you take dice from opponents they become your dice so everytime you roll and succeed you get more dice to roll next time. The dice themselves actually act as your victory points. When one player has all the dice they win.

Cthulhu Dice by Steve Jackson Games

Madness vs insanity meet in this game of cultist power and ambition. Each player is a cultist trying to gain the favor of the great Cthulhu. The players start with 3 sanity points represented by clear beads. On each player's turn they choose another player to cast a madness spell at. Then roll a big 12-sided die decked out with Lovecraftian iconography. The specific symbols have specific results such as; Caster loses a sanity to Cthulhu, the caster gains a sanity marker from the opponent, the caster gets a sanity marker from Cthulhu.

The game die comes in a variety of looks and colors from standard green or purple to blood and metal.

Thank you Steve Jackson Games for also actually including clear plastic beads to use as sanity points. This game may be the fastest play game on this list as games here at Two-Gun Pixie have ended in minutes. Obviously a fast-play game that can fit in your pocket and go anywhere... like Halloween parties and convention lines is always worth it to have in your collection.

BANG! The Dice Game: The Walking Dead by USAopoly

Also available as a card game (as well as a cowboy themed game) BANG! delivers the unsure, itchy trigger-finger you may expect from the world of the Walking Dead. Like the original Wild West version of BANG! this is a game of hidden roles. Every one knows who drew the role of the Leader but nobody knows who anyone is; Survivors, Loners or from Hilltop. As the gun fight gets worse always beware of the zombie horde just waiting on the fringes to sate their flesh-addicted appetites. This game will get the attention of any fan of the Walking Dead, or of the original BANG! Game excited. Trust and distrust are always deep personal issues between characters in the Walking Dead comic books and the TV shows and let me tell you, this game really does delivers that sensation, maybe than any other Walking Dead game out there.

Shark Island by Lunch Break RPG

This is the only Print & Play game to make the list this year.

Remember that scene in Jaws where the shark is eating Quint legs first while Quint watches. $#!+ Yeah, well Shark Island is all about not getting eaten by sharks. Hey, I'm all for that. In the near future players are trying to escape the prison island, Manhattan. In order to get away they must swim through waters laid heavy with genetically mutated man-eating sharks. This game consists of a rules sheet, a tracker sheet for movements, and that's it, you supply your own standard Six-sided die. Each turn players will roll to see what happens to them for the turn; guards shooting at them, items found, sharks attacking, etc. They then roll their strength against the attack to see if they dodge/fight off the attack or take damage. The first player to survive to the last round AND make the last challenge check to climb the slick, sharp rocks out of the water wins! A great game that can fold up into your pocket.

Nosferatu by Eagle-Gryphon Games

Nosferatu brings another fun game of hidden roles and secret traitors to your tabletop, this one with a horror theme. One player is chosen to play the vampire's servant, Renfeld. He secretly chooses the roles of the other players and everyone keeps their secret from everyone else (a hunter or the vampire). Players then take turns drawing and playing cards trying to figure out who the vampire is before a total of 5 bites are dealt between the hunters which is a win for the evil team of Renfeld and the Vampire. The hunters must be careful, if they choose unwisely and kill a fellow hunter the game is over and evil wins. If they are observant enough and clever enough they may just choose wisely and kill the vampire, winning the game for the side of good! A nice mechanic is the introduction of the clock Deck. After each player goes Renfeld turns over the top Clock Card; night means the round continues. Dawn signifies the end of the current round - even I'd all the players had yet to act. At dawn the players may choose to use the stake if they are sure who the vampire is. A great game in a tiny box that takes moments to learn.

Zombie Fluxx and Cthulhu Fluxx by Looney Labs

The Fluxx games have been big hits ever since they debuted on the board game

scene. Today there are many versions, skins, of this game. At its core the game itself is constantly in a state of, well... flux. Players draw cards into their hands and play them in an attempt to make a matching set of cards to win the game. However, some cards alter the rules while others outright change the winning conditions - usually just before you gain the winning combination of cards in your possession. Two Fluxx games make perfect light, quick-play games for any Halloween party. Zombie Fluxx finds the players scrambling to survive the Zombie Apocalypse while Cthulhu Fluxx brings the morbid and squamish world of Lovecraftian Mythos to life. These tiny box games will travel well and play hard.

Ghost Blitz by 999 Games

A visual matching game of speed and dexterity centering around colors and shapes all wrapped up nicely in a ghostly veneer of paranormal fun. The game comes with wooden miniatures of a white ghost, a green bottle, a cute grey mouse, a blue book, and a comfortable red chair. Cards depict images revealing certain colors and objects. Simultaneously the players need to observe what is presented correctly (ie White Ghost not a Green Ghost) in the card and be the first to grab the appropriate components in order to beat the other player. The winner gets to claim the card and then draws the next one. The game ends when all he cards run out. The player with the most cards is the winner. This is a great game for kids and families; even the adults will enjoy this game. Besides being light and small to take almost anywhere this game will stay in your collection for a long time.

Are You A Werewolf? by Looney Labs

A social game of deception, paranoia, and mob rule.

This game is a version of "Mafia" party game. 7-16 people can play this game. Each player is assigned, secretly, a role card that they must keep secret from the other players. The player who draws the Moderator Card reveals their role as they need to direct the others. Up to 3 (depending on the number of players) will end up drawing a Werewolf Card, 1 will draw the Seer Card while the others will draw Villager Cards.

The game plays in two phases. During the night phase the Werewolves will decide which other player to kill off. The day phase let all the players argue, debate, and accuse each other of being the werewolf culminating in one of the players being declared the werewolf and put to death. If it WAS the werewolf who was killed the villagers win, if it was no the game continues with another night then day phase. This continues until the werewolves are killed or they equal the amount of villagers and overrun them.