Howl to Play

Halloween Inside Doesn’t Have to Be a Bore,
We Can Still Go Trick-or-Treating Door-to-Door!

2-8 PLAYERS
AGES 5+

Are you brave enough to roll the die and venture into the haunted neighborhood, where the flip of a card could determine your fate? Will you get a sweet treat, or a spell-binding trick? If luck is on your side, you’ll be the first trick-or-treater to reach the haunted house where the graveyard ghosts are waiting to scare the lemonade out of you. But don’t worry, they’ll share their candy too. 

BEFORE THE FUN BEGINS
  1. POUR a large bag of FUN-SIZE Halloween candy into a community bowl. Assume you’ll need at least 25 pieces of candy per player – it is Halloween, after all! 
  2. DOWNLOAD the PLAY TRICK-OR-TREAT GAME BOARD and PRINT it LANDSCAPE on (4) 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper or card stock (card stock recommended). 
  3. DOWNLOAD the PLAY TRICK-OR-TREAT GAME CARDS and PRINT them PORTRAIT on (9) 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper or card stock (card stock recommended).
  4. FIND ONE traditional six-sided die from one of your other fun board games.
  5. CUT OUT the game board pieces then tape them together, connecting the trails. (Witch’s tip: consider gluing the game board to a large piece of cardboard to make it even sturdier.)
  6. CUT UP the TRICK & TREAT cards and shuffle them together into a single stack. (Witch’s tip: give your kid(s) a pair of scissors and have them walk, not run, to cut out the cards. The messier the cuts, the creepier the cards.) 
  7. PROVIDE EACH PLAYER with something they can keep their candy treats in while they play. 
THE SET UP

PLACE the GAME BOARD and WELL-SHUFFLED TRICK & TREAT GAME CARDS on a table and gather your friends and/or family around.

  1. EACH PLAYER selects a piece of candy from the community candy bowl to use as their PLAY TRICK-OR-TREAT game piece. (You’ll each want to pick a different candy so you don’t confuse your game pieces.) Note: If two players want the same piece of candy and cannot come to a reasonable compromise, roll the die. The player with the lowest roll gets to choose their piece first. 
  2. EACH PLAYER gets to start with 5 pieces of candy. Do NOT eat these candies – you may be tricked out of them soon enough!
  3. PLACE five pieces of candy from the community candy bowl onto THE GRAVEYARD section of the game board (THE GRAVEYARD works a lot like a JACKPOT!, the winner gets the JACKPOT or what’s left of it). Mmmmm…Graveyard candy.
HOW TO PLAY
  1. Each player places their candy game piece at Happy Halloween house (see “START HERE” on the game board).
  2. The youngest player gets to PLAY TRICK-OR-TREAT first, and the player order continues clockwise.
  3. Taking turns, each player rolls the die and moves their candy game piece forward, per the number shown on the die.
  4. When a player lands on a door they:
    • Exclaim, “DING DONG! Trick or Treat!” 
    • The player to their right will pick up the top card from the Trick & Treat card pile, reading it aloud to the trick-or-treater (like real trick-or-treating when someone answers the door). 
    • The player must then follow the instructions on the Trick & Treat card and return the card face-up to the bottom of the pile.
    • When you reach the face-up cards in the pile, reshuffle the cards and place them face-down again. Players may eat a piece of their candy while they wait.
  5. PLAYERS GET TO TRICK OR TREAT AT EACH AND EVERY DOOR regardless of the number on the die. For example, if a player is two spaces from a door and rolls a five, they: 
    • Move their piece forward 5 spaces
    • Then trick-or-treat per #4 above
  6. MY GOURD! Suppose a player lands on and/or passes TWO DOORS during the same turn? Sweet sugar skulls! They get to Trick-or-Treat TWO TIMES in a row UNLESS THERE’S HALLOWEEN MISCHIEF in the air and they get tricked out of a turn at the first door. For example:
    • SKIP A TURN: if the first card says “SKIP A TURN” the player does not get to pick the second card and their turn ends. When it’s their turn again though, they don’t have to skip it since they already skipped it. THE PLOT THICKENS. If the first card says:
    • MOVE BACK… the player still gets to Trick-or-Treat at their second door, but they do not get to Trick-or-Treat while moving backward.
    • Players can only knock on doors while moving forward. If a door is passed while moving backward players DO NOT get to trick-or-treat at that door. (Womp, womp) 
  7. player’s turn is over after they’ve rolled the die, moved their game piece forward per the number on the die, and selected a Trick or a Treat card (if applicable by LANDING ON or PASSING a door). Then it’s the player to their left’s turn to PLAY TRICK-OR-TREAT.
eNDING THE GAME

Players will continue taking turns until one player makes it to the haunted house at the end of the trail. When a player arrives at the haunted house, they must draw ONE LAST Trick or Treat card. The player also gets to collect ALL THE REMAINING CANDY in THE GRAVEYARD (so long as the card they drew wasn’t a Trick – moving them back any spaces).

Runners-up get ONE LAST TURN to roll the die and pick out the number of candies from the community candy bowl that matches the number on their die.

SPECIAL NOTES
  1. All candy comes from the COMMUNITY CANDY BOWL unless stated otherwise.
  2. WINNERS SHOULD BE KIND AND LEAVE NO FRIEND BEHIND. Was the neighborhood-magic on your side? Did you end up with a BOUNTY OF SWEET CANDY BOOTY? Perhaps you’d be a good witch and share some with the less-fortunate souls who saw more tricks than treats. 

“Piece of carp. The game fell apart in my claws.
2/10 would not recommend.”

Local Swamp Thing


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