Something Wicked This Way Comes! 5 RPGs to Play This Halloween

Halloween lands smack-bang in the middle of the weekend this year, which means it's time to clear the table, turn the lights down low, pick up some of those battery-operated candles from KMart, and run something creepy for you and your friends! Some of you have been playing the same D&D campaign for years and fancy a detour into the Mists, and some of you have a friend who has never rolled a die but would happily turn up for a night of vampires and terrible decisions. There's something on the shelf at Vault Games for both.

Below are five roleplaying games you can pick up in store or online right now, from a full D&D horror toolkit through to a game you can learn and finish in a single evening, with a little on what kind of night each one suits.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

Does your group already play Dungeons & Dragons? Then this is the easiest way to give your table a scare without anyone learning a new system. Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is the updated D&D 5.5 rules supplement and setting guide for the Domains of Dread, the pocket nightmare realms of the Shadowfell where each Darklord is trapped inside their own personal horror story. It's been out since June, so if you haven't flicked through it yet, Halloween is a fine time to start.

The book covers 16 different "Domains of Dread", including Innsmouth, a new domain built around cosmic horror, along with stat blocks for 17 Darklords (the legendary Strahd von Zarovich among them, of course). Your players get seven new character subclasses including the Reanimator for the Artificer and the Hollow Warden for the Ranger, four new lineages in the Dhampir, Hexblood, Lupin and Reborn, plus some perfectly spooky horror backgrounds like Haunted One and Spirit Medium, and Dark Gifts reworked as feats for you to take. For the Dungeon Master, there are chapters on running horror at the table and tools for building your own domain and Darklord to throw at the party, with genres like body horror, folk horror, and ghost stories.

For a Halloween one-shot, pick a domain that suits your group's taste in fear, have everyone build a character with a Haunted One or Investigator background, and drop them headfirst into the Mists.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is $84.99, and the alternate cover is the same price if you'd like the moodier look on your shelf. If you prefer to run your structured encounters on a grid, the Horrors Within Map Pack is also available for $34.99.

Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu from Chaosium is the classic pick for a horror night! You play as investigators, ordinary people who stumble into the Lovecraftian Mythos, travelling to strange places, uncovering cults and their plots, and learning things about the universe you would have been happier not knowing. The game's signature setting is 1920s New England, and its Sanity system tracks how well your investigator is holding together as the horrors pile up.

For a Halloween one-shot, the Keeper Rulebook is all you need to get going. Along with the core rules, a bestiary of Mythos entities and the full Sanity rules, it also includes two complete scenarios with handouts and pregenerated characters, so you and your players can sit down and start investigating straight away. The Investigator Handbook is the book for players wanting to dive into custom character creation, with expanded rules, over 100 occupations and advice for new and returning players. It's handy if your group wants to keep going after the 31st.

If you're after the whole lot, the Call of Cthulhu 50th Anniversary Slipcase Set puts the Keeper Rulebook, Investigator Handbook and Keeper Screen Pack together in a collector's slipcase with new cover art celebrating Chaosium's 50th anniversary. The Keeper Screen Pack adds two more ready-to-play scenarios set in 1920s New England, large full-colour maps (including Lovecraft Country and Arkham) and the Keeper Screen itself.

The Keeper Rulebook is $99.99, the Investigator Handbook is $82.99, and the 50th Anniversary Slipcase Set is $243.99, which also gets you free delivery if you're ordering online.

Pirate Borg

Skeleton pirates, undead hordes and ships made from bone and flesh: Pirate Borg isn't exactly subtle about the kind of trouble your crew is getting into. It's a rules-light, art-heavy game designed by Limithron and published by Free League. Built on the Mörk Borg rules and set in the Dark Caribbean, your crew of greedy, filthy pirates shares the water with hordes of undead, ships made of bone and flesh, and nameless things lurking in the deep. It's grim, it's grubby and it's silly, which suits an evening play-through nicely!

The Starter Set is the easiest way in, and it's built for groups of 2 to 7 players. Inside you'll find the Player's Guidebook, which has the rules and full character creation, and Trapped in the Tropics, an adventure with GM advice and enough material for several sessions. You'll also find dice, tokens, poster maps, character sheets and dry-erase markers, everything you need to start playing that night. The adventure drops your crew right into the middle of a battle between Redcoats and zombies, which is about as good a Halloween opening as you could ask for.

If your crew wants more once the box is done, Down Among the Dead is an expansion for Pirate Borg with three new adventures, modular rules, and location generators.

The Pirate Borg Starter Set is $84.99 and Down Among the Dead is $69.99.

Alien: The Roleplaying Game (Evolved Edition)

For a group that likes their horror with airlocks and motion trackers, Free League's Alien RPG is a great fit for a night in. The Evolved Edition is the updated version of the game, released late last year, and it's compatible with everything printed for the original edition.

The core rulebook has life path character generation, revised rules for stress and panic, reworked combat, and weapons, ships and locations from the latest entry in the film catalogue, Alien: Romulus. It also includes the Tartarus Sector as a campaign setting, along with Last Survivor, a solo mode for playing without a GM (or as Alien RPG calls it, the Game Mother).

For Halloween, pair the core book with Rapture Protocol, a self-contained cinematic adventure in the style of the original Alien film. Your players are the crew of a small star freighter on a resupply run to a remote industrial colony, and you can probably guess how well that goes for them!

The Alien RPG Evolved Edition Core Rulebook is $99.99 and Rapture Protocol is $73.99.

Eat the Reich

If you want something loud and silly for a group of mixed experience, Eat the Reich is the one to grab. It's 1943, and your players are a squad of vampire commandos coffin-dropped into occupied Paris, with one objective: drink all of Hitler's blood. It's written by Grant Howitt, who also wrote Honey Heist and Spire, and illustrated by Will Kirkby.

The game is built to be played from start to finish in one to three sessions, with pregenerated characters, so nobody needs to do homework beforehand, and a session fits very nicely into a single night. The rules are a simple d6 dice pool: you work out how many dice you get (usually around six), roll them, drop anything that shows 3 or less, and spend what's left on pushing toward your objective, tearing through defenders, protecting yourself, and filling your vampiric stomach on the way. It's quick enough to teach in a few minutes and is perfect for an evening where half the table has never played a roleplaying game before.

It's deliberately over the top and very violent, so it's worth a quick check with your group before you pitch it. Eat the Reich (Neon Green Edition) is $54.99, and this printing has neon green page edges.

Grabbing a Copy

All five are available in store at Brisbane City and Clayfield, or here online with free in-store pickup or delivery. If your table is short on dice, the Castle Ravenloft Treasure Packs from Sirius Dice are $39.99 in-store and suit a gothic horror night nicely.

Whichever one you run on the 31st, come and share how it went (or how badly your party fared) in the Vault Discord at discord.gg/vaultgames!