The Legend of the Wendigo: A Spooky Campfire Game for the Family
I absolutely adore just about anything with a spooky theme - especially things like books and games I can share with the kids. I’ve always been a fan of being scared. I grew up reading scary books like Goosebumps, and watching Are You Afraid of the Dark, and it’s no coincidence that two of my favorite board games ever are Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters and 13 Dead End Drive.
So, naturally, I’ve been spending the last 7 years of my life trying to introduce our kids to the fun of spooky things - and trying to slyly win them over to my side. Over the last month I’ve made one colossal blunder pursuing this quest, but I’ve also experience one gigantic success.
The blunder, in case you were wondering, was trying to get my 7-year-old son to like Are You Afraid of the Dark by showing him hands down the scariest episode of them all - Laughing in the Dark with Zeebo the Clown. Woops. That one kind of backfired and he wasn’t in too big of a hurry to try another episode. We might have to shelf that idea for a couple of years.
The success, on the other hand, came in the form of a spooky board game called The Legend of the Wendigo - published by IELLO and Scorpion Masqué. It has a simple plot: the famous Wendigo monster has infiltrated a scout campout by disguising itself as one of the campers. Each night the Wendigo steals another camper - and it’s up to everybody to identify the imposter before it’s too late.
I appreciate the short elegance of the setup story. It’s effectively scary in a very short amount of time. After reading aloud this short synopsis, the spooky atmosphere was appropriately set in our house, and both of our kids were intensely invested in this game.
And, speaking of atmosphere, everything about this game screams that it would be perfect to play on a picnic table around a campfire in the middle of the woods. I think we’ll have to add it to our list of games to bring camping. The game is set during a scout campout after all, and if we’re trying to get good and spooked, I can’t think of a better way to do it.
The gameplay itself is just as quick and elegant as the story, and I always very much appreciate a quick setup. All you have to do is spread out all of the camper cards and choose one player to be the Wendigo. Personally, I love being the Wendigo. It generally turns out that whenever we play asymmetric games, it’s everybody against me. And that doesn’t bother me one bit. It’s like a fun twist on cooperative games that works well for us.
As the Wendigo, it’s your job to secretly replace one camper card with a Wendigo card (every single camper card has a matching camper card with a Wendigo on the back). During the daytime phase, everyone studies the board and tries to memorize as much as they can, and then try to guess which card is the Wendigo. During the night phase, everyone closes their eyes, and the Wendigo takes away one camper card from the board and moves the disguised Wendigo to take its place.
That’s really all there is to it. If the Wendigo successfully steals 5 campers then he or she wins, but if the Wendigo is found before that then everybody else wins. It’s a devilishly creative memory game that reminds me of playing old group card games like Mafia or Werewolves, and it’s a blast to play with the kids who are always very excited.
It’s also simple to make the game easier by including hints each round or using less campers, and I do always love it when family games have different difficulty levels like that. But our 7-year-old certainly doesn’t seem to need it this time, because he has proven to be quite the expert monster hunter, and has been known to find the Wendigo in the very first round.
One lasting side effect to playing this game is that our son with his big imagination has been hesitant to go upstairs or downstairs by himself lately. And just the sight of the red eyes on the box is enough to make our daughter scream. But their fear of the Wendigo hasn’t stopped them from being obsessed with the game. Just today we played 5 more times.
I love seeing their imaginations at full blast - and it’s obvious to see that their fear of the Wendigo is still safely on the side of having fun instead of going too far. (Unlike Zeebo the Clown - woops again.) This is probably especially true because the entire aesthetic of the game is quite cartoony and innocent and aimed at children as young as 6.
I’m very happy to announce that we’ve discovered such a perfectly-crafted spooky game for young kids. The Legend of the Wendigo is definitely going to be a go-to camping game for years to come. And, on a personal note, I think it’s gone a long way in helping me introduce the fun of being a little spooked to my kids.
You can find The Legend of the Wendigo at your friendly local game store, order straight from IELLO, or buy on Amazon.
Have you tried The Legend of the Wendigo yet? Do your kids enjoy spooky themes or being scared? Let us know in the comments!
