My partner and I are massive board game geeks. When I’m not making him watch whatever new horror film is in theaters, we’re at home, the dining room table taken over by our game of choice for the week. (Shoutout to our newest addition, Splendor Duel.) But with the way I’ve gotten him so thoroughly into horror since we met, there’s only one game in our collection that scratches that itch for the both of us, and its name is Camp Grizzly.
The semi-cooperative game was originally released in 2013 by Trick or Treat Studios, allowing players to take part in their very own slasher movie. (Think Friday the 13th, but bear-themed.) Set in 1979, players (anywhere from one to six) control various counselors at Camp Grizzly, all of whom are on the run from Otis, a deranged killer in a bear mask, with the goal being to defeat the terrifying slasher — or die trying.
This year, it got a brand-new revamp, thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $500,000. With updated designs, a new double-sided game board, and an extensive new set of cards and challenges, we knew we had to get our hands on it, if only to see its gorgeous artwork by game designers Jason Topolski and Austin Madison for ourselves.
Disclaimer: this article is not sponsored by Trick or Treat Studios, and we purchased Camp Grizzly with our own money. I just love yapping about board games.
To me, the most interesting part about Camp Grizzly is its replayability potential. The second edition includes numerous setup options in various difficulties, as well as a randomization setting for when you’ve exhausted all of them. But it’ll take a while to get to that point, as each setup has four potential “finales,” all with equal chances of surviving or being slain by Otis. It’s a brand-new game every time, with so many moving pieces that you’ll never be able to tell how things will turn out.
Within each game, players are able to move throughout camp, pick up objective tokens necessary to complete each finale, and draw “cabin cards,” which feature items, weapons, and campers they can use to their advantage. But, within that stack also lies various obstacles, like rainstorms or fires that affect their health or ability to move — or worst of all, an Otis card, which means players must fight or flee for their lives. (Full disclosure: I choose to flee almost every time. I would not survive a horror movie.)
Players can either choose to play as a single counselor in what the new edition calls “modern murder mode,” or control multiple at once. Each corresponds to a particular slasher archetype — my personal favorite is Tracy, the scream queen and camp vixen — and comes with unique abilities. Each player also has the opportunity to “tempt fate” or “fool around” with certain cards, as teens in a horror film are wont to do, meaning you might not be able to control how stupid your counselors act.
But you’re not the only ones on the board. In addition to the counselors and Otis, various “cameos” can appear, featuring everyone from “Detective Haddon” (who bears an eerie resemblance to Donald Pleasance) to a counselor’s overbearing boyfriend to the aptly named “Jon the Carpenter.” They become obstacles in players’ way, adding another level of difficulty to an already complex gameplay experience.
With all of those elements at play, pulling cards and moving around the board has a genuine element of fear to it, because there’s a solid chance that whatever you pick will screw you over in some way — if not outright kill you. I’ve sworn more than once upon pulling an “Otis Strikes!” card, and with endless possibilities, it’s fun to scheme with your fellow players on how best to escape his clutches. Or figure it out on your own — very rarely do single player board games crop up, and between this and Final Girl, horror’s got that market pretty much cornered.
If that’s not enough to tempt you, the new edition also includes a whopping eight special expansion packs along with the base game. Each new set adds cards to the deck and characters to the board, which both increase the difficulty of the game and offer different and unique options for endings. Players can choose to Spin the Bottle, which adds more potential for fooling around, Jump the Bear, which mixes in cards that represent the shift from ‘70s to ‘80s horror, play a Rated R round, which adds much more disturbing cards to the already intense game, or deal with Family Matters, which adds Otis's deadly family members to the mix.
As an avid collector, I’ll fully admit that I’m not the biggest fan of co-op games when it comes to what I like to play. It’s the same reason I’m lukewarm on Dungeons & Dragons: I like to control what I’m doing, rather than leaving things up to chance or the decisions of others. But Camp Grizzly is such a well-designed experience that the decision-making becomes part of the fun.
If you dislike one of yours or other players’ counselors, you can leave them in the dust as a sacrifice for Otis. (The first game we played, my partner and I “Home Alone’d” the Kevin character by abandoning him, which actually won us the game!) Alternately, you can choose to screw another player over, or join them in a fight to save their lives. There’s so much detail layered into each piece of the story that, if you and your fellow players know horror movies well enough, you can work together to challenge genre norms to become the ultimate final girl — gender notwithstanding.
I can’t possibly go over every Easter egg they’ve managed to cram into Camp Grizzly, but trust me, there are a ton. We have yet to exhaust every card and expansion in the deck, and it’s a joy to discover all the little bits of love Trick or Treat clearly has for horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s, immortalizing them in a way that makes every game a fresh experience. From Carrie to Evil Dead to Teen Wolf, I recommend getting your hands on a copy to see how many you can spot — and then give me a call so we can play a round together.
Camp Grizzly is available now from Trick or Treat Studios’ Amazon store.
