Pennywise Joins a Classic Horror Board Game

Sure thing! Here it goes:

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Okay, so you remember that game, Betrayal at House on the Hill? You know, where everyone’s palling around in a haunted house, picking up stuff, and then… bam! One of your pals turns out to be a traitor and is either killing you or doing something freaky like summoning a ghost or whatever. Anyway, now Hasbro and Avalon Hill are bringing a new twist. Get this: it’s got that creepy clown from It: Chapter Two—yep, Pennywise! The expansion’s called Betrayal at the Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise, and it’s dropping on Aug. 1. Sounds spooky, right?

Oh, and it’s $24.99 if you’re keeping track. This new thing lets 3 to 6 players run around Derry, gathering stuff like in the movie, until, surprise, surprise, you trigger one of five haunts. You might end up fighting Pennywise, or if you’re unlucky (or maybe it’s lucky?), you’ll get to control Henry Bowers—the big baddie against the Losers Club. Wild.

You can check it out at Gen Con this summer if you’re into that scene. Avalon Hill’s gonna have a booth there, and you can actually play and buy it.

And here’s a curveball! They’re demoing another game called Sanibel. Have you heard of Elizabeth Hargrave? She’s the mastermind behind Wingspan and The Fox Experiment. Well, she’s at it again, and this new game launches in early 2026. So Sanibel is a real place in Florida, known for seashells—people apparently scour the beach at sunrise with flashlights to grab the best ones. Sounds kinda magical, doesn’t it?

In this game, you’re on a beach board, collecting shells and shark teeth. Nice little race against the others to snatch the good stuff, and maybe you’ll have to retrace your steps now and then—like, oh, missed a shell over there!

These things are kinda symbolic, I guess? They go on this mat that’s basically your “bag,” and you gotta be strategic because scoring later depends on how you arrange ’em. Hargrave said at some conference thing that she used iNaturalist to make sure they got the popular shells of Sanibel right, and the shark teeth are a shout-out to her dad’s collection. Sweet touch.

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How’d I do?