Analog Halloween
5 ideas for staying in
This Friday is Halloween! I love the vibe, but as a current homebody, I do not have much inclination to go out and about. Below are a few alternatives to big parties, downtown barhopping, and other populous events.
Charades
Hear me out! In the midst of organizing a charades session for my college students (who love it), I invited my family to play to help me test the prompts and a new way of playing. We have not played in years, but it was really fun and a great, non-digital ending to the day!
I wrote the prompts on index cards, and they included: movies that we were familiar with, actions like making a potion, passing out candy, and riding a broom. I was going to share my list here, but I think compiling a list together based on the groups’ known interests and the knowledge base is the way to go. Your crew might have encyclopedic knowledge of horror films, Shakespeare, or candy types. Lean in those quirks, make the list together, and then play.
About the play! I learned a new version that adds novelty and collaboration. All the players face one way. BEHIND them is the “ghost,” who is the person in charge of picking a card and acting out the prompt. But no one can see the ghost, so a “medium” who stands in front of the group translates the ghost’s message. The medium has no idea what the prompt is - they are simply copying the ghost. We were unsure about this gameplay, but it upped the fun!
Play a TTRPG (tabletop role-playing game).
Look for a physical TTRPG on itch.io. (needs a little preplanning). Buy it (some are just a few dollars), print it out, and play. I have been playing these with my students for the last few years, and they are a phenomenal way to connect, create, and collapse time. My library is packed with games, there are so many! Some favorites are:
Anamnesis - this is a solo tarot-based (although you can use a standard deck of cards, where you wake up with no idea who you are, where you are, or what happened. I like to play it in a group, pick the same prompts, and then share at the end. You can adjust it in any way you want to make it work. No rules!
This Wretched House - I just played this today! Another solo game that can be adapted to a group. We just played as the same person and took turns moving the story along. Extra fun because it uses a Jenga tower to add suspense as you explore a haunted house.
A Perfect Rock - You and your crew explore planets looking for a new world. Great world-building game with simple mechanics. Can be as sci-fi or cozy as you wish!
Read an Edgar Allan Poe story aloud.
Pick one or two ahead of time, copy and print out, and read aloud around a fire if you can. I’ve done it! It can be amazing and rekindle a deep connection to humans’ love of storytelling (better than SORA!)
Listen to records (maybe opera or something dramatic) and play exquisite corpse.
If you have a record player, pull out the vinyl you have not listened to in a while and play it while drawing monsters. Esquisite corpse is where you pass the drawing around the circle (one for each person) and you fold over your addition, just letting a few lines show as a guide to the next artist. You can also do this with stories, which is really wild! Instead of lines, you let a sentence or phrase show for the next person to write from.
For the extra-adventurous ….
Play Alice is Missing.
This game. Oof! You are solving a mystery about where high school Alice has gone. The whole thing is done in silence and through text. Each player is a character in the story; you change your WhatsApp or text names and pull cards at certain moments that reveal details to certain other members. An amazing expereince, especially if you play with folks who will go all in. There is a soundtrack, and people have been known to cry at the end because the world and relationships feel so real. Someone has to read the directions (or watch a YouTube tutorial), and it is not that hard, but you should prepare. Here is the link to buy it on Amazon in case you need it right away. If you are not going to play for a while, I recommend buying from your local gaming store or the game publisher.
Great round up of fun and thematic options. Love esquisite corpse: the drawing and the storytelling version. One year we went to a poetry reading of Poe's The Raven held in an old Victorian house/museum. It was fabulous and how easy to recreate something similar at home.
Oh, thanks for the recommendations for the TTRPG’s…we’ve been playing Magic the Gathering lately (although it’s more of a trading card game) and are always looking for new games! Usually for Halloween, we bake sugar cookies and decorate bats, ghosts, and pumpkins. 🎃