Escape From Ghost Castle is a great spooky board game by Tactic games that has players working together and against each other to help a family of ghosts locate an intruder inside their castle!
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Aim Of The Game
A group of ghosts has been cursed to wander the halls of their home until they manage to capture an intruder that unwittingly enters the house. If they catch an intruder the curse will be lifted!
The game is played in rounds with each player taking it in turns to be the intruder and hide in the castle whilst the other players play the ghosts trying to find the intruder. Once everyone has had a turn at being the intruder points are added up and the player with the most points wins the game!
Contents Of Escape From Ghost Castle
There’s very little plastic apart from a thin plastic wrap that covers the box when it’s new. Plastic wrap around the pack of cards and a grip seal bag to keep the plastic holders for the ghost characters. THe internal insert is made of thick cardboard.
The game contents include;
- game board
- 44 castle cards
- 9 graveyard cards
- 2 caught you cards
- 4 ghost characters
- 4 plastic holders for the ghost characters
- a sand timer
- 64 eye tokens
- intruders floor plan
- cardboard glasses
You will also need a pen or pencil (not included in the game).
How To Set Up Escape From Ghost Castle
You need a fairly large space so everyone can sit around the game board and be able to have a few eye tokens and cards laid out in front of them.
Place the game board in the center and give everyone a ghost character. Separate out the castle cards, shuffle them, give each player 3 cards placed face down so no one else can see them, and place the rest on the castle card spot on the game board.
Shuffle the graveyard card and put them on the game board graveyard placeholder.
Place the eye tokens around the board so everyone has easy access to them. And give the player who will be the intruder first the 2 caught you cards, cardboard glasses, sand timer, and intruders floor plan!
The Intruder Hides
The intruder puts the cardboard glasses on and chooses a square in the castle that they will hide on. They then mark the square on the intruder floor plan with their initials. Next, they choose a square in the graveyard and add their initials to that graveyard on the intruder plan as well. They must not show this to the other players!
How to Play Escape From Ghost Castle
As mentioned, the game is played in rounds so that each player has a turn being the intruder.
With each round the player who is the intruder secretly picks a square in the castle and in the graveyard, hiding behind the cardboard glasses so no one sees where they are looking!
Then, with the sand timer turned over, the ghost players take it, in turn, to use their castle cards to search the castle grounds and locate the intruder.
The ghost is placed on a square in the area the player wants to search and depending on the castle card and the intruder has to answer yes or no as to whether they can be found there… they do not say which square!
If the intruder says no (they are not located in that area) the intruder player gets to keep the card played and adds it to their scoring pile. All the ghosts , also quickly add an eye token to the spaces that the intruder isn’t in and the next ghost takes a turn.
If the intruder says they are located in that area. the player gets to keep the card and adds it to their scoring pile. The next ghost takes its turn.
Castle Cards
The castle cards consist of three types;
Direction (creaky floor board Cards) – These cards search the area shown on the card with the circle representing where the ghost character card is placed.
Object Cards (dark corners & ghostly treasures) – these cards search all the squares that have the objects on the card in them
Door Cards (not many of these) – these cards search all the spaces in a room of your choice!
Sand Timer
When the sand timer runs out the intruder shouts “stop” and everyone stops what they are doing!
The intruder then takes the top card from the castle card pile and adds this to their scoring pile. The sand timer is then turned over and the game continues.
Ending The Round
When there are no more than three spaces left ( with no eye token on them) the next ghost player must guess which space the intruder is in.
If they guess correctly the intruder is caught and the ghost player gets the ‘Caught You‘ ghost card to add to their scoring pile.
If the guess is wrong the intruder escapes to the graveyard and adds the ‘Caught You‘ card to their scoring pile. Players must now use the graveyard cards to locate the intruder.
In the graveyard, the same three-space rule is applied and the round ends. Each player adds up their scoring cards and writes their total on the intruder floor plan sheet.
The game is reset and the next round begins
Game End
The game ends when all players have had a turn at being the intruder. the scores from each round are added up and the player with the highest score wins!
What did we think of Escape From Ghost Castle
Escape From Ghost Castle is a real breath of fresh air when it comes to family board games. On the one hand, players work together to find the intruder but they’re also working against each other as the winner is the player with the highest score.
It’s fantastic for helping develop spatial perception and lateral thinking. Puzzle-solving is a strong part of the strategy required as players have to work out which castle cards will give the biggest gain. Along with deciding when is the best time to play them.
There is of course some luck involved, as players don’t have control of which cards they pick up!
The timer adds a nice bit of tension, but it can get chaotic with everyone trying to put on the eye tokens quickly. Having said that, it’s also very easy to adjust the game to not include the timer for younger players to get the hang of how the game is played and to give more thought to which cards to play.
Another bonus is it’s also a relatively quick game, taking around 30 minutes depending on whose playing. Plus setting up the game is straightforward.
Available From
Escape From Ghost Castle is available from
- The Works
- Phillips Toys
- Amazon UK