Are You Afraid of the Dark board game episode

"I stumbled into this place, just like you. And when I played, I lost. I’ve been stuck here ever since....If you don’t play, then they’re stuck too. But as soon as somebody wins, they’ll go free… if they survive."

Three years since we last saw the Midnight Society, Gary, Betty Anne, David, Kristen, Eric, Kiki, Frank, Sam and Stig have gone their separate ways. Tonight, however, Gary’s brother Tucker returns, closely followed by Quinn, Megan, Andy and Vange. Tucker invites them all to find a log to sit on; repairs the stone chair, takes a seat, and opens the first meeting of the new Midnight Society. As he speaks, the campfire, seemingly of its own accord, whooshes into life. From a nearby hollow tree stump, he takes the pouch of Midnight Dust. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls his story “The Tale of the Forever Game.”

One autumn day, Peter, younger sister Monica and friend Mark bike through the woods On a hidden path lies an abandoned bike. The ride down it. Further along, they find another abandoned bike, this one badly rusted. They pass a short, gnarled tree - and some time later, find themselves back before it.

Peter suggests they each take a different path. Reluctantly, Mark and Monica head off in separate directions. Curious, Peter approaches the gnarled tree. As his hand touches it, his entire body, with a flash of white light, warps, ripples, and is dragged, seamlessly, into the tree.

In some sort of cavern, he approaches a small, round, wood-carved table, set with an elaborately detailed model of forest, set with a miniature lake and a round dial. Across the miniature forest floor are numerous small discs, like board game pieces.

From behind, Nathaniel welcomes him; invites him to play, and gestures to the tree stump, in whose miniature lake suddenly appears an overhead view of Mark and Monica. Nathaniel spins the dial, takes a piece, and moves it. The disc on which it lands glows white. The miniature lake shows Mark and Monica, who are suddenly astounded by a sudden rain of small, soft, multicoloured objects - flower petals.

Peter has a turn. His piece lands on a disc marked with a fork of lightning. Back on the trail, Mark and Monica, from a sudden peal of thunder and flash of forked lightning, flee beneath the trees. Monica understands that in the event of lightning, one should stay close to the shorter trees.

Nathaniel has a turn. His piece lands on a counter marked with a theatrical frowning mask - once Burden Beast is called, he never goes away.

Beneath a suddenly clear sky, Mark and Monica emerge into the open. From nearby comes a feral snarl. Ahead of them looms a hair-covered figure with a leathery pink face, primeval brow, bat-like nose, vicious fangs and monstrous claws. Mark and Monica run.

From the board, Peter tries to remove his piece - but it’s stuck. The game has to be finished; whereupon the winner gets to leave - and the loser has to stay. Peter spins the dial. His piece lands on "Sticky Pit."

Mark suddenly sinks chest-deep into the ground beneath him. Monica grabs a branch, and proffers it. When Nathaniel spins the dial, Mark pulls at the branch, he finds himself hurled back onto the once more solid forest floor. Mark and Monica find themselves back at the gnarled tree. With a snarl, Burden Beast bounds into view.

Nathaniel takes a turn - and lands on Instant Night. As Mark and Monica run, they instantaneously find all around them plunged into night. Soon enough, they’re back at the gnarled tree.

Peter takes a turn, and lands on "Switch": whereby someone in the forest switches places with him - either his sister or his friend.

Since the tree looks dead, Mark suggests they try to knock it over. Above the tree flashes fork of lightning. Burden Beast bounds into the clearing. A bolt of lightning hits the tree. The lightning won't stop until Peter spins - but he's in no hurry. Lightning flares onto the table. The game explodes.

In a heavy cloud of smoke, Peter and Monica find themselves on the forest floor - in daylight. Ahead of them is Peter. From behind Peter calls the voice of an elderly man - Nathaniel, taller, grey-haired and bearded. He now plans to return to the old neighbourhood, from which, back in 1929, he ran away.

Peter, closes Tucker, earned a respect for his younger sibling’s survival skills - and they all beat the game together.

No confirmation on if the pool creature from Dead Man’s Float made it in or not. Zeebo did make it it though.

Any hip 90s kids like myself probably also stayed up late on Saturday nights with their babysitter to watch SNICK before their parents got home from date night. For everyone else, SNICK was the late night programming block for Nickelodeon. And it was a very big deal for me, which I will show by adding very subtle references throughout this article. Try to count them all.

Of the shows on SNICK, one stood out from the rest: Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, a young adult horror show, in the likes of Goosebumps. But check out this intro and tell me this wouldn’t freak out any 8 year old.

Keep in mind, this show came on after Ren & Stimpy! What a crazy shift in tone from the lighthearted antics of Ren & Stimpy, am I right?

In this scene, Ren is contemplating breaking Stimpy’s neck in his sleep, but suffers a psychological break instead.
You know, fun kids stuff.

Are You Afraid Of The Dark? was very good (and still mostly is), but how does the board game hold up?

Are You Afraid Of The Dark? is a competitive dice rolling game with push your luck mechanics and stat collecting, I guess? The objective of each player is to be the first to get each of their stats up to 6, then return to the campfire.

Player’s stats and equipment are tracked on each player’s individual player sheet.

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On each player’s turn, the roll the die as many times as they want to move that many spaces. However, the die has 1 through 4, a white star, and a black star. Rolling a number adds to the amount you’re able to move in the turn. Rolling a black star immediately ends your turn and you don’t move at all. Rolling a white star lets your draw a tool card at random and gain that tool, which will be useful when taking secret passages.

Anytime a player lands on a yellow dot on the board, they draw a Secret Passage card, which offers the player an option to turn in a Tool for entry to a location and bonus stat points.

If a player moves into a Destination, they roll to gain the stat bonus listed at that location, plus any bonus stats from the Secret Passage card, if they have the right Tool. All of the locations are direct references to a location in one of the episodes, which doesn’t really add much, but it’s a nice touch. They could have very easily just gone with Super Spooky Woods and called it a day.

Drawing a Skull or being landed on by another player sends you to The Pit, where you will stay until you roll either star.

Once a player has 6 in every stat, they move back to the campfire in the center of the board. The first to complete this, wins!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this one isn’t terrible. It was released in 1995, so it had some pretty big competition that year. The push your luck mechanic is pretty decent and the idea of equipment collecting is an added bonus. The game is still certainly at the whims of the dice, but at least you have some control over it. I could see this being a fun nostalgia trip to play this with some classic episodes playing in the background.

Sounds like a fun Saturday night while your parents are away on date night.

Thanks for reading!
Did you ever watch Are You Afraid of the Dark? What was your favorite episode?
I remember really liking The Tale of Badge.

Author: Matt Sall

Matt has loved games of all kinds his whole life: board, video, war, roleplaying. He's worked as a writer for BoLS since 2017. He's worked as freelance editor for board game rulebooks and has designed many of his own games as well.