Creepshow Board Game Announced (Exclusive)

Skybound Tabletop has announced a new board game based on the Creepshow franchise. ComicBook can exclusively announce that Skybound will release Creepshow: The Suspense Building Game later this fall. The new game, which is based on the Creepshow TV series by Greg Nicotero (which was expanded with a comics anthology series published by Skybound), involves players building a story using Story Cards, with the goal of filling those stories with Suspense. Players can try to sabotage each others’ stories, though, bringing both push-your-luck elements and sabotage mechanics to the game.  You can check out a look at the game below: 

To find out more about the new Creepshow game, ComicBook spoke with Garima Sharma, VP Licensing, Skybound Entertainment, via email about the new game. 

ComicBook: How does one distill a horror anthology like Creepshow into a tabletop game? What aspects from the comics did you look to translate via game mechanics? 

Garima Sharma: Adapting Creepshow into a tabletop game meant capturing the key elements of the anthology: the blend of humor and horror from the Creep’s narration, rising tension leading to gruesome payoffs, diverse horror tropes, and the fantastic art put together by the Skybound Editorialteam. We aimed for players to embody Creeps rather than characters, focusing on building satisfying horror stories with bad protagonists, making the game unique compared to survival horror games. 

How does the Suspense and sabotage mechanics work within the game?  

Sharma: Story cards work together to form a chain that tells a story for each Villain in three Acts. Suspense cards are the fuel that makes the story work! The “plus sign” on Story cards means add Suspensecards to that Story. Usually the “plus sign” is followed by a number and the Suspense symbol to denote how many Suspense cards are added. 

Ultimately, there are three ways to earn points and win the game: 

1.      Place high Suspense cards onto Villains and claim them when their story is done. 

2.      Push your luck with Suspense-Checking cards by correctly guessing the value of Suspense on a story. 

3.      Sabotage stories with low Suspense cards, making rivals end a story too soon and giving you points. 

How long will the game take to play? 

Sharma:  Depending on the number of players and how horrific/hilarious the stories turn out, each gameplay session should be about 40-60 minutes long. 

Will we see references to other parts of the Creepshow franchise, such as the TV show or the original stories written by Stephen King? 

Sharma: Our game is based on the license of Greg Nicotero’s Shudder TV series Creepshow. While there are no direct references to stories written by Stephen King, we aimed to capture the essence of the long-beloved franchise. The game’s storytelling mechanics, suspense-building, and illustrations all pay homage to the franchise’score elements, ensuring fans feel right at home in this spooky, entertaining experience. 

Did you receive any feedback or input from Greg Nicotero about the game? 

Sharma: We work with an excellent licensing team on our Creepshow tabletop game and comics, which includes Cartel Entertainment, Striker Entertainment, and Greg Nicotero’s Monster Agency Productions, all of whom collaborate to bring the property to life for fans. We asked Greg to comment directly for thispiece and he said, “I was very excited to be a part of continuing the CREEPSHOW brand with this game.  I mean who doesn’t love designing monsters for games and getting a chance to put more exciting ghoulish fun out there.”