This fun Halloween spooky story game is a hilarious game that works for anyone who can read and write! Play it in the classroom, play it at a party for kids, or even at an adults only party with more challenging topics!
It’s inexpensive to setup, easy to learn, and fun to see what kind of stories people come up with!
I’m always trying to come up with new Halloween games to play so that we aren’t doing the same thing year after year.
I’ve already shared a number of new games this year including our DIY ghost bowling and this fun bone to pick game.
Both of those games are super active, so I thought it would be fun to share a Halloween game that is a little less active and a little more thinking.
This spooky stories game has players writing spooky stories that include totally random words, in a hurry! It’s hilarious to see the different stories people come up with, especially when forced to write fast!
We did this with adults but you could also do it with teens or kids who can read and write! I actually think it’d make a perfect addition to a classroom Halloween week (or the Halloween party!) because it’s fun but still has kids practicing their creative writing skills!
Game Supplies
You really only need a handful of supplies to play this game.
- A pen or pencil per player
- A piece of paper per player
- Lists of Halloween words and phrases (see the section on coming up with lists below)
- Containers to hold the words – I used little paper books from Dollar Tree that were perfect! You’ll need one per player.
Spooky Stories Setup
Before you get started playing, you need to setup the game by creating your word lists and putting the words into containers to get ready for the game.
You need one container of words or phrases per player so if you have six people playing, you’d need six containers filled with Halloween words and phrases.
You can either create the lists ahead of time and fill the containers or you can let your guests help you create the lists – just know this will eat into your playing time if it’s limited.
I did one category per container so that on person didn’t end up with say all the candy bars. I’ve included a bunch of category options for words below – feel free to use what you want and skip the others.
Important!
You will need one category per player and within each category, you will need one word per player. So if you have six people playing, you will need six categories with six words in each of the categories.
Or use them all! We used the top six below.
- Candy bars – Snickers, Mounds, 100 Grand, etc.
- Halloween movies – Hocus Pocus, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.
- Halloween creatures – ghost, mummy, witch, Oogie Boogie, etc.
- Halloween songs – I put a spell on you, Monster Mash, etc. Here’s a great list of Halloween party songs if you need it!
- Halloween verbs – scaring, trick or treating, dancing, etc.
- Halloween locations – Haunted house, Haunted Mansion, cemetery, etc.
- Halloween words – costume, candy, party, etc. You could use any of these halloween Charades words.
- Halloween colors – black, orange, green, purple, blood red, etc.
- Halloween foods – mummy dogs, Halloween punch, witch hat cookies, etc.
- Classic Halloween monsters – Frankenstein, werewolf, Dracula, Creature for the Black Lagoon
- Types of Halloween events – costume party, haunted house, fall festival, etc.
- Halloween phrases – trick or treat, happy Halloween, grim grinning ghosts, etc.
- Halloween liquids – witch’s brew, blood, poison, potion, etc.
- Halloween noises – howl, boo, creak, etc.
- Halloween adjectives – scary, spooky, boo-tiful, haunted, creepy, etc.
- Halloween words that start with any letter – skull, spook, shriek, skeleton, slime, spider
- Gross things – eyeballs, spiderwebs, cemeteries, worms, etc.
- Magical things – witch, wizard, spells, cauldron, etc.
- Orange things (could also do black things) – pumpkins, candy corn, costumes, etc.
- Halloween animals – black cat, owl, lizard, etc.
Once you’ve created your list of words, put one category of words in each of the containers. I used books but you could use bowls, bags, Ziploc bags, or whatever you want. You just want it to be something you can get the words out of quickly since this is a timed game.
How to Play this Spooky Stories Game
Now let’s talk about how to play!
The first thing you need to do is split your group if it’s too large!
Have the group sit in a circle (or sitting around a desk group is fine too) at a table or somewhere they have surfaces to write on.
Once your group is split, give each player a pen, a piece of paper, and a container of words. Tell them not to look at the words.
Group Size!
While you can play this game with as many people as you want, I recommend sticking to groups of ten or less players. If you have more than that, split into two or three groups. This will make creating your categories less time consuming and will keep people interested in the game throughout the game, not just for the first few rounds!
Set a timer for 15-20 seconds and when you say go, everyone has to pick their first word out of the container they are given.
They should read it and use it to write the first line in their spooky story on their own paper. Then they should just put the word down on the table and leave it there (don’t put it back in the container).
When you say time is up, each player should pass their container of words clockwise and then repeat the same thing, adding a second line with a new word, passing the containers, then adding a third sentence, and so on.
Tip!
The time is intentionally fast so people aren’t thinking about what they’re writing in their stories – this makes the final results so much funnier! If you’re playing this with younger kids, you can increase the amount of time per pass but I wouldn’t just give them unlimited time. You want this to be fast so people are just writing what they think of quickly, not after thinking about it a lot!
Keep going until everyone has picked a word out of each container (the containers should be empty if you did one word per person in each container) and the stories are finished.
Then go around the circle and have everyone read their silly spooky story from start to finish.
It’s hilarious to hear what people come up with. We had one very short and silly story and one very long and dreamlike story.
More Halloween Games
If you want some more fun Halloween games to go with this spooky story game, try out one of these Halloween activities!
- Halloween bingo – another classic Halloween classroom favorite!
- Halloween trivia – tons of Halloween trivia questions geared at both kids and adults!
- Halloween punch game – this ghostbusters themed Halloween game is always a hit with any age!
- Halloween would you rather – silly and spooky questions choosing between Halloween scenarios.
- Truth or scare – a spooky version of truth or dare with scares instead of dares!
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