The Best Paranormal Board Games are those that, well, have the best paranormal stuff. The dictionary defines paranormal as not scientifically explainable. Some synonyms include metaphysical, otherworldly, preternatural, supernatural, transcendent, transcendental and unearthly. It is grounded in reality to an extent, but not quite explainable.
“Lore” tends to be a word thrown around, which are stories (true or exaggerated) that are told via word of mouth over many generations. If you have hit science fiction, you have probably gone too far. Think Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, Area 51, Frankenstein’s Monster, Ghost Hunters, and any other oddity that has surfaced over the last few centuries in our reality.
For this list, we chose games that nailed the theme and might have some lore that interests a paranormal fan, but at the foundation just great games that will not disappoint. This is the list of the best paranormal board games.
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#10 | Yeti
Yeti is the one and only family game on the list of best paranormal games, so don’t think you are going to get a satisfying strategy experience out of this one. What you do get in Yeti is an adorable game you can play with your kids featuring the Yeti (aka The Abominable Snowman) in an adorable adventure. Players are competing mountaineers, looking for traces of the legendary Snowman in the Himalaya. You want to find its footprints — or even better take photos of it — in order to collect points. To achieve this, you need to improve your equipment and enlist the support of the right Sherpas to help you up the mountains.
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#09 | T.I.M.E Stories
T.I.M.E Stories may skew a bit too sci-fi and futuristic, which is why it is not high up on the list of best paranormal games, but it is a fantastic one with paranormal elements so it gains points. You and your fellow players are agents of TIME set to go back and fix events of various times throughout history. There are some other games on this list that are more in the adventure / RPG category, but none are as much of a deep dive into story and role-playing as T.I.M.E Stories.
You are dropped into a very complex story (there are many) and you need to fight, search, discuss, and be clever and convincing to the characters you meet along the way. Some missions include saving an American city from a strange epidemic in 1992, Exploring A dark tale of ghosts in the burgeoning film industry if the 80s, or sales the seas as a pirate in 1685 in search of a supernatural force.
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#08 | Eldritch Horror
Across the globe, ancient evil is stirring. Now, you and your trusted circle of colleagues must travel around the world, working against all odds to hold back the approaching horror. Foul monsters, brutal encounters, and obscure mysteries will take you to your limit and beyond. All the while, you and your fellow investigators must unravel the otherworldy mysteries scattered around the globe in order to push back the gathering mayhem that threatens to overwhelm humanity.
Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which 1-8 players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One. Each AO comes with its own unique decks of Mystery and Research cards, which draw you deeper into the lore surrounding each loathsome creature.
FOR MORE: Eldritch Horror Page | Games Like Eldritch Horror | Buy Eldritch Horror on Amazon
#07 | Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories is a cooperative game in which the players protect the village from incarnations of the lord of hell – Wu-Feng – and his legions of ghosts before they haunt a town and recover the ashes that will allow him to return to life. Each Player represents a Taoist monk working together with the others to fight off waves of ghosts. This is another adventure game on our list of best paranormal board games, but with much more strategy than some of the others here. Players, using teamwork, will have to exorcise the ghosts that appear during the course of the game. At the beginning of his turn, a player brings a ghost into play and places it on a free spot, and more than one can come in at the same time. Time to get to work.
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#06 | Mansions of Madness
Mansions of Madness is a fully cooperative, app-driven board game of horror and mystery for 1-5 players that takes place in the same universe as Eldritch Horror and Elder Sign. Let the immersive app guide you through the veiled streets of Innsmouth and the haunted corridors of Arkham’s cursed mansions as you search for answers and respite. Eight brave investigators stand ready to confront four scenarios of fear and mystery, collecting weapons, tools, and information, solving complex puzzles, and fighting monsters, insanity, and death. It will take more than just survival to conquer the evils terrorizing this town. This adventure game is rich in stories and gameplay. It has its own unique gameplay and is in no way cookie cutter.
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#05 | Cryptid
You’ve studied the footage, connected the dots, and gathered what meager evidence you could. You’re close — soon the whole world will know the truth behind the Cryptid. Players are a group of like-minded cryptozoologists who have come together to finally uncover an elusive creature. Without giving away some of what you know you will never succeed in locating the beast, but reveal too much and your name will be long forgotten!
Cryptid is a unique deduction game of honest misdirection in which players must try to uncover information about their opponents’ clues while throwing them off the scent of their own. Each player holds one piece of evidence to help them find the creature, and on their turn they can try to gain more information from their opponents. Be warned; give too much away and your opponents might beat you to the mysterious animal and claim the glory for themselves!
FOR MORE: Cryptid Page | Games Like Cryptid | Buy Cryptid on Amazon
#04 | Mysterium
In the 1920s, Mr. MacDowell, a gifted astrologer, immediately detected a supernatural being upon entering his new house in Scotland. He gathered eminent mediums of his time for an extraordinary séance, and they have seven hours to make contact with the ghost and investigate any clues that it can provide to unlock an old mystery. Mysterium is really fantastic and just the fact that it centers around ghosts is the icing on the cake and a perfect fit for the best paranormal board games category. It is fun for everyone from the family to a group of hardcore gamers or a mix of both.
In Mysterium, one player takes the role of ghost while everyone else represents a medium (2 – 7 player games). To solve the crime, the ghost must first recall (with the aid of the mediums) all of the suspects present on the night of the murder. A number of suspect, location and murder weapon cards are placed on the table, and the ghost randomly assigns one of each of these in secret to a medium. Each hour (i.e., game turn), the ghost hands one or more vision cards face up to each medium, refilling their hand to seven each time they share vision cards. This is an incredible strategy game that tests the limits of communication. Great for entertaining or really for any occasion.
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#03 | Fury of Dracula
Fury of Dracula is a team-based, secret unit deployment, hidden movement, variable player power, adventure, deduction, fighting, horror, point-to-point board game classic. Now in the fourth edition, the game is bigger and better than ever and deserving of the bronze for best paranormal board games. One player secretly controls Dracula while the other three players are Vampire hunters cooperating to locate and defeat him. Dracula must move around the countryside, evading the hunters while leaving minions and encounters for them to uncover in his wake. If he can hide six new Vampires in Europe without the hunters destroying them, the dark prince will be declared victorious and rule the day! Originally from 1987, the game is based on one of the original strategy story event games, Scotland Yard.
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#02 | Horrified
If you are a fan of the Universal Monsters, then Horrified is a board game for you. Not only does it treat the monsters respectfully and properly, but it is also a well put together a cooperative strategy game. Players are pitted against iconic monsters that include Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. In the game, high-quality miniatures move around a board, bit players and monsters.
Every monster has its own specific way to go down, and it is up to the players to make the right decisions to make that happen. Horrified is a shining example of how you can take fantastic lore and story and mash it up with a fitting game and why it is so high on the list of best paranormal board games. The age-old mistake people do is just re-skin an existing game and maybe switch out a few pieces for monster ones.
FOR MORE: Horrified Page | Games Like Horrified | Buy Horrified on Amazon
#01 | Betrayal at House on the Hill
Betrayal at House on the Hill takes the #1 spot on the list of best paranormal board games because it has hours upon hours of amazing paranormal stories for you to play through. The depth and creativity here are unmatched. The game is great too. You and your team of 3 – 6 players all enter a haunted house to take on some supernatural force BUT about halfway through it is revealed that one of you is a traitor and it becomes an all-out battle of you versus them.
This is an adventure game so you are more along for the ride than making all the strategic decisions, but you are still exploring and making plenty of choices to make it your own. Scenario foes range dramatically but include things like mummies, ghosts, witches, possessed cats, the ghost bride, voodoo magic, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, assassins, cannibals and many many more.
