Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters aka Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister

One of my friends recently told me that our local Toys R Us was having its liquidation sale. It was bitter sweet, picked through aisles, leftovers and kids riding around on bicycles. As I looked around I found a hidden treasure. 

I turned into the remnants of what used to be the board game aisle when I found the English language version of the amazing award winning German board game Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister. Re-named Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, I knew I had to have this game. I was first exposed to the original by one of my friends who had gotten it as a gift. We had to google the instructions in English but it was pretty self explanatory. 

You are a treasure hunter who goes exploring a house for treasures. But the house has a ghost problem. And the problem is getting worse. As you explore the house, more and more ghosts populate the rooms. As a team you need to get out all of the treasure before 6 rooms become haunted. A room doesn't become haunted until three ghosts show up and form into a “Haunting” a large red ghost that takes at least two hunters to fight. 

This was the first cooperative game I had ever played. And it was hard to turn off trying to win mode. I quickly caught on playing with a group of adults. But how would a 9&7 year old react to the concept?

For starters the ghost figurines which are the color of very light wasabi sauce and the clear red hauntings were certainly hits with my kids. The game play was really easy to explain. And we were off, in our first game we battled ghosts and hauntings all over the house and as a team found our way out of the house right before we were overwhelmed. This was going to be too easy. 

We played a second game and it didn't go as well. Even though we came up with a plan to get the treasures out, our rolls didn't work out the way we planned. And six red hauntings stood in the house and we were defeated. But then they wanted to play again. Next time we will use the advanced rules which will make it a lot harder. I'm sure they are up for it. 

Geister, Geister, Schatzsuchmeister or Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, or whatever (there is also a licensed Ghostbusters version) you want to call it is such a fun game that can be played by kids, adults or even adults and kids together.