In the Shrieks & Creaks board game, players attempted to escape a haunted mansion by navigating 12 haunted rooms and avoiding misfortune.
GAMEPLAY
The goal was to be the first to reach the tower, a task complicated by black cats and haunted rooms that turned the journey into one of fear and anxious anticipation.
Before the start of a game, room keys were placed in each of the rooms. The twelve rooms included the pantry, library, kitchen, dining room, bedroom, bathroom, attic, butler’s room, parlor, living room, laboratory, and dungeon.
Players plugged the tombstone speaker into a cassette player and loaded the creature cassette. The key of host Sir Simon Shriek was inserted into the tombstone speaker, and the play button was pressed on the cassette player. The voice of Shriek welcomed players and introduced the game. Once his introduction concluded, his key was removed from the tombstone speaker, but the cassette was left playing.
The youngest player started the game, and play continued in the same pattern on each turn. Players rolled the dice and moved their pawns along the board. If a black cat appeared along the route, the player stopped, joined their key with the matching room key, inserted them into the speaker, and waited. If no voice was heard, that meant that the room was not haunted. The player could roll and move again.
If a sound was heard, that meant the room was haunted for that player. The voice of Shriek commanded the player to move to a specific spot on the board to finish their turn. The combination of the individual player and room key was a unique feature of the game. A room could be haunted for one player, but not another.
The creature cassette featured about 30 minutes of audio, mixing triggered instructions with eerie sounds like wind, clock chimes, organ music, and cawing birds.
The first player to reach the tower (no exact roll required) won the game.
IN THE BOX
A complete game included the talking tombstone speaker, creature cassette tape, gameboard, 12 room keys, 4 players keys, host key, 4 pawns, a sheet of labels, and dice. A setup guide and instruction sheet were also included. Players needed to provide their own cassette player.
COLLECTOR CONSIDERATIONS
Shrieks & Creaks wasn’t the first board game to use audio to set an eerie scene. Games such as Voice of the Mummy and Séance used the approach to create suspenseful atmospheres, immerse players in the story, and heighten the sense of mystery and tension during gameplay.
Watch a classic commercial for Shrieks & Creaks on the Toy Tales YouTube channel.
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