Boo Who?
A bluffing party game for 4–8 players where everyone knows your role but you. Your card faces the table. Read the Boos piling up in front of you, then run if you're Living or stay if you're a Ghost.
- Players
- 4–8
- Genre
- Bluffing · Party · Simultaneous Action
- For fans of
- Scape Goat · Skull
- Length
- About 15 minutes · 3 rounds
- Components
- 17 role cards · 8 scoring cards · 8 card stands · 24 Boos · scorepad
- Box
- Tuck box
Overview
The pitch
You can read every card at the table except your own. Each round, everyone puts a 3, a 2 and a 1 on three other players, all at the same moment. Then everyone points at once: at yourself to run, at the table to stay. Call it right and every Boo on you is a point for you. Call it wrong and every Boo on you pays its owner the number on it.
A Boo is a gift and a trap
Every Boo you hand out is a point for that player if they call it right, so nobody boos for free. Your 3 earns most on someone who's about to get it wrong.
The cards set the odds
The deck is one Living card per player plus one or two more Ghosts than Living. Count the Living you can see and you know roughly where you stand. The pile in front of you tips it.
Any mix can turn up
One round there are three Living at a five-player table, the next there are none. You can never just count heads and know.
Nobody waits
Boos go down on a count of three, and everyone runs or stays together. A round takes about four minutes, and there's no turn order to track.
Right call: 1 point for each Boo on you, whatever the numbers.
Wrong call: you score nothing, and each Boo on you pays its owner its number.
Components
Seventeen cards and a stand each
Nine Ghosts and eight Living. A four-player game uses 4 Living and 6 Ghosts, a five-player game 5 and 6, and so on up to 8 and 9 at eight players. Your stand holds your card facing out, so the only side you ever see is the back.
Number side, and the BOO! side that hides it at Midnight
In the box
- 17Role cards, poker-sized: 9 Ghost and 8 Living, with one shared back
- 8Player boards, each a card-sized punchboard: a two-piece stand that slots together, and a 3, 2 and 1 Boo in that player's color
- 8Scoring cards, one per player: how a right and a wrong call score, and the three rounds of the night
- 1Scorepad and a rules sheet, folded
Mockups show a proposed production version. Everything stacks to about 18 mm, so the game fits a standard tuck box. A deluxe edition could swap the cardboard stands for gilt frames with a slot along the top.
Mockups
Rendered from the card, box and stand art.
Play
Run, or stay?
The game runs below. No download or account needed.
Sell sheet
One page for your review meeting
The hook, one round told in three panels, the game on the table, the box, the numbers and a QR code to the playable demo, on a single landscape page ready to print or forward.
Print and play · on request
Want it on your table?
A 12-page kit: three pages of rules, all 17 role cards with matching backs, scoring cards, Boo tokens, card stands to glue onto cereal-box card and a scoresheet. Email me and I’ll send it over.
Deal
Build the deck from one Living card per player plus extra Ghosts: 6 Ghosts at four or five players, then 7, 8 and 9. Deal everyone one card face down. Without looking, set it in your stand facing the table.
Boo!
Pick one of your Boos in secret. On “3, 2, 1, boo!” everyone sets theirs in front of another player. Do it three times, a different player each time and never yourself. At four players you only have the 3 and the 2.
Run or stay?
On “3, 2, 1, boo who?” everyone answers at once: point at yourself to run, or at the table to stay. Then everyone flips their own card.
Right call
A Living guest who ran has escaped; a Ghost who stayed is haunting. Either way, score 1 point for each Boo in front of you.
Wrong call
A Living guest who stayed is scared to death; a Ghost who ran is spooked. You score nothing, and each player who booed you scores the number on their Boo.
The night
Play Dusk, then Midnight with every Boo placed face down and flipped before scoring, then the Witching Hour at double points. Highest total wins; tied players share the win.
Interested in Boo Who?
Ask for a prototype or a walkthrough call with your team, or meet me at a convention.
