Board to Death – A horror board game review
“Goth: A Game of Pure Gothic Horror” by USAopoly
Looking for a simple horror game to pass the time? Here is a good trivia game that has been around for about 10 years if not more. I believe the game is no longer in production, but used versions of it go on Amazon for about $22.
Number of Players: 2-4
Age range: 13+
Set up time: 3 minutes
Playing time: 1 hour +
Contains: 1 board, 1 die, 4 playing pieces, 52 tombstones, 200 trivia cards
Objective: Answer questions correctly in order to get a tombstone for your graveyard plot. The player must get 13 tombstones to win the game. The players start in one of the four corners of the board, represented by a pool of blood. The graveyard plot directly in front of the pool of blood becomes the player’s plot where they will place the tombstones they earn. The player rolls the die and move in a counterclockwise direction from their respective plot. A correct answer awards the player a tombstone which they place in their plot. An incorrect answer does nothing, unless the player is on a “Full Moon” square.
Question Catagories:
Movie Mayhem – Questions about horror movies, such as actors, directors, release years, and scene specific questions.
Alchemy – Miscellaneous questions, dealing with anything from real-life serial killers to autopsy terms.
Music Macabre – Questions about music, usually staying within the hard rock and metal genres, dealing with band names, song recognition, and band members who have died.
Bloody Tales & Poetry – Questions about old horror poems and horror novels. Poe, King, Dante, Milton, and Lovecraft are plentiful.
Stiffs – Questions from any of the above categories, however these questions are very specific and usually very difficult.
Wildcard – If a player rolls a six, it is a wildcard and they get to choose the category of the question they want to answer.
Special Squares:
Dead – “Lose a Turn”, signified by a skull with bat wings (also the game logo). The player does not get to answer a question if they land on a this square and game play continues to the next person.
Full Moon – Signified by a full moon coming out of the clouds. If a player lands on a Full Moon square and answers the question incorrectly, they lose a tombstone that they have already earned. However, if they answer a question correctly, nothing happens and no tombstone is rewarded. If the player has no tombstones to lose, the square is treated as a normal question square.
Grave Robber – This square is both a blessing and a curse. It is signified by a shovel digging into a grave. If a player lands on a Grave Robber square, they get to steal another player’s tombstone. If there are no players with any tombstones to steal, the square is treated as a normal question square. Note: A player may NOT grave rob the winning thirteenth tombstone.
Pool of Blood – While also the player’s starting point, the four pools of blood also varies which question is asked. If a player lands on another player’s pool of blood, that player gets to choose the category the current player must answer. They must choose the category before reading the questions. However, if a player lands on their own pool of blood, it is akin to rolling a six, and they get to choose the category.
This game is the perfect combination of what happens when you Frankenstein Monopoly with Trivial Pursuit. On a down side, other than the specific “goth” culture that surrounds the atmosphere of the game, there is no originality. This game totally rips off of the foresaid games and replaces the Monopoly dog or Trivial Pursuit pie with a colored…what the hell is that thing anyway? I think that some simple thought could have been placed into making the pieces something better, like a candle, a skull, a coffin, even a black cat or raven. But instead we are left with, uh, this thing-a-mo-bopper.
What is good is that the game play is easy and the layout of the game is simple. If you are looking for a horror related board game and do not want to spend a lot of time setting up this is the game for you. Also I have used the 200 cards with questions as a car travel game if you don’t want to set the whole game up to play. Some questions are a little harder than others. Example: “What is Anne Rice’s real name?” vs. “Name the hockey masked killer in Friday the 13th”. Others are “What is the scientific study of the skull shape and contours and how they affect behavior and personality?” vs “What did serial killer Albert Fish once dub his own bundle of murder weapons?” With that being said, I’m not really sure how horror and murder questions end up in a game called “Goth”, but whatever.
Overall I suggest that you light a few candles and strategically place your polyresin skull by your side while you softly play a Midnight Syndicate CD in the background to this game. It will put the “Fun” back into “Funeral”!