Modular solo board game Final Girl from Van Ryder Games has been making a splash since its release in 2021 following a highly successful Kickstarter. It has since followed up with two further seasons of content and fans are eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of the Series 3 Kickstarter.
Final Girl takes its name from the classic slasher movie trope of the one female character left alive after she has bravely stopped the killer (though of course, the killer is never as dead as she expects). Think Laurie Strode in Halloween, or Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Even Ellen Ripley in Alien! The player controls the Final Girl as she struggles to rescue survivors, avoiding or fending off the killer until the final bloody confrontation.
What is Final Girl?
Final Girl‘s design thrives on its modular nature: it has a core set that gives you the basic rules and pieces to play. You add one or more of the themed feature film boxes to create a customizable trio of a final girl, a killer, and a location. There are even booklets with a storyline for each combination of killer and location within a series so you can follow your Final Girl through deadly campgrounds, haunted houses, and evil carnivals. With eleven film boxes currently released (ten from the Series One and Two Kickstarters, plus the special Christmas-themed North Pole Nightmare box) and five more on the way from Series 3, there’s a lot of content to choose from.
Final Girl is a game with strong core mechanics and each feature film boxes adds its own new mechanics: for instance, Frightmare on Maple Lane is inspired by Nightmare on Elm Street, and the Final Girl has to stay awake lest she be dragged into the dreamworld to fight the monstrous Dr Fright.
Starter sets, expansions, and what to buy first
You’ll need to pick up the core set for Final Girl and at least one feature film box to be able to play. The easiest introduction is the Final Girl: Starter Set, retailing at $39.98, which includes the Final Girl Core Box and The Happy Trails Horror. The Happy Trails Horror is, for all intents and purposes, the ‘basic’ feature film with only the core mechanics, but no less rich for that. It showcases the satisfying gameplay so you can figure out whether you want to invest in any further film boxes. You’ll still get plenty of fun out of avoiding the Butcher, especially as each feature film box includes two Final Girls, each of whom has a secret envelope for repeat play.
If you want to get a couple of feature films, I would suggest finding an extra feature film from Series 1, as you can get a surprising amount of mileage out of two film boxes. If you expand out your collection, you can buy a booklet of scenarios that give a story setup for each combination of killer and location within a series, which adds great replayability. Personally, I really enjoy Frightmare on Maple Lane, as the suburban setting and the dual waking and dream states are brilliantly realised. Every new box expands your options quickly, and they’re reasonably priced at $19.99 to make excellent gifts. Series 2 has some really fantastic boxes as well, like a mutating monstrosity in an Arctic base and a werewolf stalking through fairy tale woods. You can combine the core box with any series, so choose the feature film box that sends a shiver down your spine!
