In our search for fun family games that are a great fit for a Halloween celebration with the whole family, we came across Run, Ghost, Run – known as Pas Vu Pas Pris in French territories and Spokenchaos in Dutch-speaking regions. Essentially a cross between hide and seek and a board game, it stars a bunch of ghosts looking to stay hidden from the human eye as they get through a fully furnished hotel.
Designed by Amine Mohamed Rahmani and Phil Vizcarro with lovely illustrations and art work from Sylvain Aublin, the game is being published internationally by Asmodee. A typical game takes about half an hour and the game was designed for two to four players. The official age range is 8+, but we found that younger kids can have an absolute blast with the game as well as long as they partner up with an older player.
The goal of the game is pretty simple – get your little (color-coded) ghosts of various sizes across the hotel lobby. Bigger ghosts are harder to spot, so if you get them across safely they’re worth more points than the smaller ones. They’re not safe either though, as you’re not just dealing with any hotel lobby – this one’s haunted, so furniture can move around by other players, exposing your ghosts again.
Whether or not your ghosts can be seen depends on a few factors – the most important of which is the large keyhole that’s part of the game. When it’s your turn to look through it, all ghosts in sight get caught and get taken out – while the ones that are hidden still have a chance to get to the other side and score points. Hiding behind furniture is important, and some of the furniture even lets you hide inside as long as you’re small enough.
An extra nice touch is the mirror, which when placed strategically gives you a peek at what’s otherwise obscured from vision when looking through the keyhole (which also moves around). It makes Run, Ghost, Run a fun and easy to understand game with a surprising amount of depth for what’s essentially a supernatural take on the classic hide and seek formula.
The theme makes it a perfect fit for a Halloween game night, and the cute artwork makes it extremely family-friendly as well. The fact that the game board’s layout is dynamic (with its moving furniture) keeps things interesting for the five rounds it takes to complete a full game, while also adding replay value as no two rounds are the same. In additional, the instructions also explain how you can change things up by tweaking the number of cards and ghosts that are in play. And while “haunted hotel” makes us think of The Shining, this is a lovely family-oriented take on the formula that families should consider for their Halloween game night.
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