Reaping the Rewards: ‘Girls vs Ghouls’

It’s time for trick-or-treating! Ghouls are trying to lure kids to their haunted houses, but the neighborhood girls are working together to save the younger kids.
In “Reaping the Rewards,” I take a look at the finished product of a crowdfunding campaign. Girls vs Ghouls was originally funded through Kickstarter in October 2024, and was shipped to backers starting in September (shipping to European backers is still in progress). It is now available to order from the publisher. This review is based on my original Kickstarter alert, updated to reflect the final product.

What Is Girls vs Ghouls?

Girls vs Ghouls is a hidden identity game for 4 to 7 players, ages 14 and up, and takes about 40–60 minutes to play. It retails for $59.99 (or $87.99 for the deluxe edition) and is now available for purchase from Holly House Games; the Hidden Talents expansion pack is also available for $14.99. Although the box says 14 and up, the gameplay is simple enough that younger kids should be able to pick it up — I played with my 11-year-old — but the trickiest part could be the social deduction, which can even fool adult players. The setting and illustrations are generally family-friendly.
Girls vs Ghouls was designed by Tess Evans and Tyler Phelps and published by Holly House Games, with illustrations by Tess Evans.

Girls vs Ghouls components. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu

Girls vs Ghouls Components

My review copy of Girls vs Ghouls is the deluxe edition; I’ll note the differences between the standard and deluxe edition in this section.
Here’s what comes in the box:
— Game board
— 40 Orange cubes
— 40 Black cubes
— 50 Trick cards
— 75 Treat cards
— 3 Victory Point cards
— 7 Identity cards
— 8 House tiles
— 12 Character standees
— Start Player token
— 12 Reference cards

The Hidden Talents mini-expansion. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
The Hidden Talents expansion pack includes 16 Hidden Talent cards and the Advanced Reporter Scoring card, and comes in a little paper wrapper made to look like a candy bar.

House tiles are double-sided, with Girls on one side and Ghouls on the other. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
The entire game is illustrated by Tess Evans, and her style is delightful — it looks like something from a picture book and helps to set the Halloween mood. The house tiles are double-sided, showing some girls in costumes welcoming trick-or-treaters and a floating ghoul holding a bowl of candy at the entrance to a haunted house.

There are various treats ranging from -4 to 3 in value. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
The treat cards have various types of items which are worth positive or negative points, from full-sized candy bars to toothpaste. The controversial candy corn can be played as either positive or negative, which is a fun detail. There are a couple of different treats (or anti-treats) for each of the values just for variety.

12 different costumed kids to pick from! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
The kids in costumes are really cute — I love the little details, like the fact that the sheet ghost is wearing crocs, and I also love that there are two mermaids, one with a fish tail and one with a fish head. The deluxe edition includes acrylic standees and the standard edition includes cardboard standees.

An unpunched acrylic sheet from the deluxe edition. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
One note about the deluxe edition is that the standees actually come unpunched from the acrylic sheet — I’ve never actually seen this in a game before! They are pretty easy to punch out, but I did find that some of the pieces had partial sprues that I could scrape off, and they also have that weird plastic protective film on them that you’ll want to peel off.

The rulebook looks like a composition book. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Even the rulebook looks great — it’s designed to look like a composition book, and the pages inside are even lined.
There are a couple other differences between the standard and deluxe edition: the first player token is a chunky wooden meeple in the deluxe edition instead of a cardboard tile, and the cards and board have some spot gloss on them to make some elements shiny. The deluxe edition also includes the small trays for the black and orange cubes. Finally, the box itself is a little fancier, with spot gloss and a printed interior.

How to Play Girls vs Ghouls

You can download a copy of the rulebook here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is for your team (girls or ghouls) to score the most points — a combination of winning the point cards and having houses flipped to your side. With an odd number of players, there is also a reporter player who wants the two teams to tie (or can score points if playing with the advanced rules from the Hidden Talents expansion).

5-player setup. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Setup
Lay out the board and place the house tiles on the eight spaces of the cul-de-sac, flipped to the side shown on the board itself so that there are alternating girl and ghoul houses. Place the point cards in the center, stacked so the 1 point is on top and 3 points is on bottom. Shuffle the trick cards and treat cards and place them nearby, along with the orange and black cubes.

Identity cards: girl, ghoul, or reporter? Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Each player chooses a character and places the standee on the house closest to their seat at the table. Make a set of identity cards that is half girls and half ghouls; if there’s an odd number of players, include the reporter card. Everyone gets an identity card — keep it hidden!
The player who most recently ate candy gets the first player marker.
Advanced play with the expansion pack: give every player 2 hidden talent cards. Everyone may choose one to keep (face-down) and discard the other back to the box. Also, put the “Extra! Extra!” card in between the 2 point and 3 point cards.

Trick or treat! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Gameplay
The game will take 3 rounds. At the beginning of each round, every player draws 3 treat cards and 2 trick cards.
On your turn, you may optionally move up to 2 spaces, and then you may trick, treat, or peek at your current location.
Trick: play a trick card face-down next to the house (on top of any other trick cards at that location, if any).
Treat: Play a treat card on your house, adding cubes as needed and then discarding the card. Orange and black cubes cancel each other out, so each house should only have cubes of one color at a time.
Peek: Discard a card from your hand to peek at all of the tricks at your location — put them back in the same order, without rearranging them.
Sneak: Discard a card to move to any space on the board.

Hidden talents give each player a unique special ability. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
If playing the advanced game, players may have hidden talents. At any point in the game, a player may reveal their hidden talent card, and from then on they may use its ability. Some talents have restrictions on how often you can use them, and some do not.
The round ends when everyone has played all of their cards.

There are four types of tricks. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
At each house, flip the stack of trick cards over to reveal them, and resolve them one at a time, starting with the earliest played card:
— Invert Value: swap the cubes for the other color
— Double Value: double the cubes that are currently at the house
— Flip House: flip the house tile over
— Trick Trap: cancel the next trick card played after this (if any)

At this house, the Trick Trap cancels the Invert Color, but then the Flip House will change it to a girls house. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Once all of the tricks have been resolved, look to see which house has the most orange cubes and which has the most black cubes. (If there are ties, the first player chooses one of the tied houses.)
The house with the most orange cubes gets the top victory point card, which is placed in front of the house (where the tricks are played). This house is now closed, and no more cards may be played on it in future rounds. (If no houses have orange cubes, the house with the fewest black cubes gets the point.)

In Round 1, this ghouls house got the most orange cubes, so it earned the 1 Point card. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
The house with the most black cubes gets flipped over. (If no houses have black cubes, no houses are flipped.)
Clear all of the cubes and trick and treat cards from all of the houses, pass the first player marker, and start the next round.
Game End
The game ends after three rounds. Each team gets points for having the victory point cards in front of their houses, and also each team gets 1 point for each of their houses. Players reveal their identities — the team with the higher score wins! In case of a tie, the team with more victory point cards wins. Special rule: If playing with an odd number of players, the reporter wins if the two teams tie.

The ghouls have 8 points (6 houses + 2-point card) and the girls have 6 points (2 houses, 1-point card, and 3-point card), so the ghouls win! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Advanced Reporter Scoring: In the advanced game, there is some additional scoring before you reveal the tricks in the last round — the “Extra! Extra!” card is a reminder.
First, on a count of three, everyone points at who they think is the reporter, and then the reporter reveals their identity. The reporter loses 1 point per correct accusation.
Then, the reporter guesses each player’s identity (girl or ghoul) and scores 2 points for each correct guess.
Finally, the reporter places their identity card on the house they think will win the 3 point card. If correct, the reporter also scores 3 points.
The team with the most points wins — if there is a tie of any sort, the Reporter wins.

Why You Should Play Girls vs Ghouls

I love when October rolls around and I have an excuse to break out my Halloweeny games! Okay, I know you can play spooky games any time of year, but it feels extra appropriate to play games about trick-or-treating when the air is crisp and the leaves are starting to change. Girls vs Ghouls is a great new entry for my list — oddly enough, I don’t have a lot of games that are actually about trick-or-treating (Ghosts Love Candy is another favorite).
Girls vs Ghouls has pretty simple gameplay — walk around, play cards that add cubes to houses or play tricks to manipulate things — so it’s easy to explain the basic idea and get playing quickly. Just because the rules are simple doesn’t mean there isn’t room for some shenanigans!
Treats are public — when you play a card, everyone knows what it is and you immediately update the cubes on the house. Oh, you’re playing some lollipops on a girl house? Looks like you’re a girl. But wait! On your next turn you played a trick on the same house … are you planning to double the value of those lollipops, or are you inverting the value so they turn into black cubes?
And since I don’t know for sure whether you’re on my team, it’s hard to say whether I should run over to that house and follow up with my own tricks or treats. Many a time I’ve tried to flip a house over, only to find that another player had the same idea, so the house just got flipped back and forth and we canceled each other out!
Ultimately, each round you’re trying to make sure that one of your houses has the most orange cubes, and one of your rivals’ houses has the most black cubes. That gets you the point card, and then converts another house to your team. The rest of the houses on the board won’t get affected by cubes, but they could still get flipped with trick cards, so you have to keep an eye on them. Even with only 2 players per team, it can get confusing tracking who played what trick, though if you can remember then it may help you identify the players on each team.
You’re also limited by how fast you can move, though the sneak action lets you jump anywhere (at the cost of a card). Otherwise, you can only move at most 2 spaces per turn. So if you see another player dumping a bunch of toothpaste at one of your houses across the board, you have to decide whether it’s worth giving up one of your cards to get there, and still have enough cards to make a difference. It pays to spread out your team … if only you knew for sure which players those were! In one game, I figured out who my teammate was, but she thought I was working against her, which meant the other team got away with a lot of sneaky actions.
The reporter is an interesting role: in the basic game, you just want to make sure the scores are tied at the end, but that’s easier said than done. It feels doubly important to figure out who’s on which team, so that you can work to balance out the scores. The advanced rules in the expansion pack give the reporter more options — now you can win by getting the best score, but you can still win by forcing a tie. On the other hand, if you’re too obviously playing both sides, then you’ll lose points because too many players guessed who you were!
Keeping your identity a secret does take a little sneakiness, and the first time I played it we were all too obvious in the first round — the first three players put toothpaste (-3) on rival houses and then left the next turn without playing any tricks, so it was pretty easy to figure out who was who. It’s still a fun game even then, because you still don’t know exactly what tricks people are playing and how they’re trying to manipulate the houses, but I had even more chaotic fun in another game when several players were being a bit more confusing with their actions.
The peek action is a bit of a gamble: it takes an entire turn and burns one of your cards. Early in the round, there may only be one trick to look at, so it feels particularly wasteful to spend a card just to peek at one. But later in the game, you have fewer cards in hand — if you wait too late to look at a stack of tricks, you won’t have a lot of options left to put your own twist on that house.

So many treats! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu
Since you only get five cards per round, you’re somewhat limited in what you can affect. For instance, if all of your treat cards are negative, you’ll have to decide whether you want to try dumping them all on a rival house to flip it, or see if you can find an “invert value” to turn them into positives for your own team. It can be a dilemma deciding between focusing all of your attention on one house, or trying to move around to play cards on several houses in a round.
Girls vs Ghouls is an entertaining mix of sneaky tactics and hidden roles, and the Halloween theme is a great fit. If you’re a fan of spooky (and spoopy) games, it’s certainly a treat you won’t want to miss!
For more information, visit the Holly House website.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a prototype of this game for review purposes.