It's interesting how rarely I come across PnP horror games.
Being privileged enough to play lots of new print-and-plays, at least 7-10 games per month, horror is not quite the genre that I see game designers tapping into as much. Only a few come up off the top of my head.
Forsaken Souls: Hidden Ward, a spine-chilling PnP escape room, comes to mind. An adorable little horror game called Doom Cat also comes to mind, where your cat is messing up your witchcraft and releasing all the demons that you trapped, haha. Cool concept, this one.
And I shall be cursed by my own self if I don't mention Escape the Living Library, my own creation. Yet another spooky game where you're trying to escape a 'living' library.
That's just 3 games. And none of them are from this year. Like I said, horror is not exactly the field I've seen PnP game designers explore as much. At least based on the games I've come across.
But thanks to Bob, I'm not only getting to add a 4th game to my tiny PnP horror list, but I've also found myself a friend in its antagonist.
Meet Zumoffa!
He's the Lord of Night, just like me. After all, I'm a night owl!
7 To Midnight is a cute horror game that I recently printed, and it totally won me over before I even got to play it, thanks to its amazing artwork and the even more amazing lore behind it. The preview copy I received included a comic book that walks through the backstory of the heroes, the antagonist, and the universe this game belongs to.
After the story and the artwork of the game won me over, I reached out to Bob Whitely, the creator of 7 To Midnight, to know about what went into creating this horror game:
Bob:
It's hard to think about 7 To Midnight without Midnight Showdown coming to mind. They are separate games, but are intimately linked. In fact, the Midnight Showdown Battle Game comes free with 7 To Midnight. They are games 1 & 2 in my Lord of Night series, based on an epic storyline set in my Toonaria universe, home of all of my tabletop designs.
The Midnight Guardians Board Game was designed first, but I paused plans for its Kickstarter campaign when the tariffs skyrocketed. If it wasn't for the tariff crisis, I would never have designed 7 To Midnight or Midnight Showdown. Let me unpack the situation a bit.
When I want to design a game, I first review the stories and personalities I've created over the years for my Toonaria universe and pick one to make a game about. The story I chose for Midnight Guardians was so big that I didn't take long to realize I had way more than one game's worth in my hands. I slipped back 16 years in the storyline and set about designing a small game that might thrive even if the tariffs didn't go away. Midnight Guardians is about rescuing critters, so I started there.
Originally titled "No Time To Breathe", due to literally having only 7 minutes to rescue all of the critters trapped in a maze, I changed the name to 7 To Midnight. Ultimately, I dumped the timer, as I wanted to add a little more meat to the game. It played well. In the canon storyline, the heroes went on to battle Zumoffa, but I didn't want the game to include combat. That's where Midnight Showdown steps in. It began as an overly simplistic 2-3 minute skirmish.
With the playtesters at Dice Tower West
Feedback was very positive, but folks wanted Midnight Showdown to be a tad more epic (just like the real story is). I wanted to keep it fast-moving, and brainstormed ways to up the awesome. I believe I've done that. Defeating the Lord of Night is not easy, but the game mechanics are!
7 To Midnight is where the heroes prove they're heroes by saving little critters out in the middle of nowhere when they didn't have to. They could have walked away, let Zumoffa eat them, and then escape through the Midnight Gate, but they made a choice. Midnight Showdown is that choice, that pivotal moment where the heroes make a deep impact on the future of Toonaria. Not everyone walks away from that showdown!
The two games can be played separately, but belong together, because they are part of something bigger, and so the Lord of Night series was born. Midnight Guardians is an even bigger part of the story, but it will be published later. I'm still out of work from being laid off, money is still tight, and these first two games in the series have been well received. Print and Play editions seemed the next logical move, so here we are!
Playtesting 7 to Midnight at OrcCon 2026
For those who don't know, Bob Whitely has been designing games for over 40 years: board games, card games, role-playing games, you name it. I’ve only been designing games for 8 years, so words won’t suffice for me to express my gratitude to somebody who’s been in the game for so long.
I simply cannot wait to try 7 To Midnight and share my take with you folks!
The campaign for the game went live on Kickstarter a few days ago. Do you dare to take on Zumoffa? Clickity-click then.
- Tas.
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