Halloween is almost upon us. The shops are bursting with orange tinted sweets, your neighbour has strung up a ghost in their front garden, and the evenings have turned into that brand of chilly which demands a blanket and a steaming drink. It is the perfect excuse to gather your favourite people, brew a pot of tea, and bring out a game that leans more towards cosy than chilling. These are not the titles that will keep you awake at night. They are the ones that will make you laugh, relax, and feel perfectly snug as October rolls towards Halloween.
BOOooP (Halloween Edition) : Feline Fun Without the Frills
Published by Smirk and Dagger, BOOOOOP is a two player puzzle with the elegance of an abstract classic dressed up in bedtime story charm. Games last around 20 to 30 minutes which makes it ideal as a warm up before supper or as a friendly filler between longer adventures.
The rules are simple but devious. Place a kitten on the quilted bed board and every surrounding kitten gets nudged one space away. This sounds harmless until your opponent nudges your carefully planned line into disarray. Line them up cleverly and your kittens graduate into cats, who are more stubborn and harder to move. Achieve three cats in a row and you win.
What makes BOOOOOP so appealing at Halloween is its gentle mischief. There is a calm joy in sliding pieces around, punctuated by bursts of laughter when a cunning boop ruins an opponent’s grand design. It is light, clever, and endlessly replayable. Pair it with mugs of cocoa and ginger biscuits and you have a perfect pre Halloween evening.
Autumn Harvest: A Tea Dragon Society Card Game : Tea Time Delight in Card Form
Deck building games can sometimes feel daunting. The Tea Dragon Society brushes away all that intensity and offers something soft, approachable, and enchanting. Autumn Harvest plays with two to four players in around 30 to 60 minutes.
Each player tends their own tea dragon, collecting memories, seasons, and special events through cards. As you gather experiences your dragon grows, and your deck becomes richer and more interesting. There are no ambushes and no nasty surprises. Instead, the pleasure is in nurturing a story that quietly unfolds as the seasons turn.
The artwork glows with knitted scarves, steaming cups, and golden leaves. It is a game of gentle growth, as much about the shared experience as the final score. Brew a pot of chai, serve some shortbread, and this game will wrap your evening in the same warmth as a fireside story told under autumn skies.
Marrying Mr Darcy: Undead Expansion : Regency Romance Meets Friendly Frights
What happens when Jane Austen meets a shambling horde of zombies? Erika Svanoe’s Marrying Mr Darcy already invites two to six players to compete for Regency suitors in a witty send up of manners and marriage. With the Undead Expansion the ballroom suddenly has some unwelcome guests. Games last around an hour, but the memories linger long after.
Players still gather accomplishments, cultivate traits, and try to catch the eye of eligible gentlemen. Yet between country dances and card draws, the undead might stumble across your path. The mix of prim propriety and light horror is irresistible.
Best of all, the table talk is riotous. Picture Elizabeth Bennet brandishing a hefty novel at a lurching corpse, or Lady Catherine maintaining that even zombies ought to observe proper etiquette before barging into Rosings. Add a plate of scones, a dollop of jam, and perhaps a sparkling drink, and you have an evening that is more playful than perilous. It is Halloween fun seen through the eyes of Austen, and it works marvellously.
Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors : Autumn’s Buzzy Gentle Celebration
Honey Buzz was already a delightful blend of tile placement and resource management. Two to five players build honeycombs, send out bees, and sell their golden wares to woodland creatures. The base game runs to about an hour and a half, striking a lovely balance between strategic depth and relaxation.
The Fall Flavors expansion adds five optional modules that can be used separately or together. Fall Fruit lets you harvest apples and pears alongside nectar. Autumn Leaves decorate your hive with bursts of colour for extra points. Nectar Caps encourage clever long term planning by sealing off cells for the winter. The Harvest Festival allows retiring workers one final flourish or toast. And the Sunset track introduces a graceful countdown to the end of the game.
It is the thematic equivalent of wrapping the original in scarves and cinnamon. If you are after something longer and more immersive for your Halloween evening, this is the one to settle into. Brew pot after pot of tea, share a slice of pumpkin loaf, and let the hive grow as autumn deepens outside your window.
Whirling Witchcraft : Covens Chaos and Cauldron Splendour
Halloween would not be complete without witches, and Whirling Witchcraft puts them firmly at the centre of the table. Published by AEG, it plays with two to five in about 30 minutes, which means it is perfectly suited to brisk, back to back rounds that leave everyone cackling.
The recipe is deliciously simple. Choose cards, turn ingredients into new forms, then pass your bubbling cauldron to the player on your right. If their workbench cannot cope with the flood, the extras spill into their Witch’s Circle. Accumulate five cubes there and you claim victory.
The fun lies in the chain reactions. Eye of newt becomes spiders, spiders become hearts, and suddenly you are catapulting potions around the table like it is a particularly competitive kitchen experiment. The energy is quick and playful, never dragging and always full of laughter. Add bowls of popcorn dusted with cinnamon or sticky toffee apples, and the experience becomes a kitchen party worthy of Halloween.
A Toast to Cosy Nights and Spooky Delights
So picture this. The kettle is whistling. The windows glow with candlelight. Outside, the wind rustles through golden leaves while inside the room is warm with blankets, friends, and a table laid for games.
BOOOOOP brings sly chuckles with every misplaced kitten. Autumn Harvest provides gentle storytelling and sleepy dragons. Marrying Mr Darcy: Undead Expansion adds absurd Regency mayhem with a hint of horror. Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors fills the table with autumn charm and a sense of seasonal plenty. Whirling Witchcraft whirls everyone into a cauldron of giggles and cackles.
Together, they offer the perfect way to mark the days before Halloween. Laughter, tea, and just enough spook to keep the season alive. Forget jump scares, this is autumn gaming at its most comforting.
