Hellraiser is coming to the table, and the RPG is the one to watch
Salt Entertainment is making a Hellraiser tabletop line for Halloween 2027, with a Francesco Nepitello RPG and a Michael Shinall board game. Every game announced so far, ranked.
Hellraiser is coming to the game table. Salt Entertainment announced on October 29, 2026 that it has signed with Clive Barker and Park Ave Ent. LLC to develop and publish a line of officially licensed Hellraiser tabletop games, including board games, a tabletop roleplaying game and original games for retail. According to Salt's announcement, the first games are planned for release starting Halloween 2027, timed to the 40th anniversary of Barker's 1987 film.
I have wanted a proper Hellraiser game at my table for a long time, and I was braced for a licensed party game with Pinhead on the box. That is not what this is. This is a slate, and two of the names attached to it are the reason I am writing about it.
Every game announced so far
Salt describes it as "a broad tabletop program rather than a single release." Here is what has actually been named, pulled together from the announcement and ICv2's trade report. The last column is mine.
| Game | Type | Designer | Designer's track record | My interest (out of 5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Untitled Hellraiser RPG | Tabletop roleplaying game | Francesco Nepitello | Co-designer of The One Ring Roleplaying Game and War of the Ring | 5 |
| Untitled major board game | Board game | Michael Shinall | Bloodborne: The Board Game, Marvel Zombies, A Song of Ice and Fire: Tabletop Miniatures Game | 4 |
| Untitled escape room game | Escape room style tabletop game built around the Lament Configuration | Not named | Not named | 4 |
| Untitled social deduction game | Hidden roles, shifting loyalties | Not named | Not named | 3 |
| Untitled dice game | Fast push your luck game about temptation and risk | Not named | Not named | 3 |
Salt calls the last three "accessible retail games," which reads to me as big box store friendly, shorter and cheaper. The RPG and Shinall's board game sound like the hobby end of the line.
Why the RPG is the one to watch
Nepitello's One Ring is one of the best licensed RPGs ever made, and the reason is that it does not try to simulate Middle-earth's battles. It is built around hope, weariness and the slow cost of the road. That is a designer who knows that a license is a set of themes, not a monster manual.
Hellraiser needs exactly that approach. The Cenobites are not a boss fight. The horror is a person who wants something badly enough to open the box. Salt's description of the RPG leans that way, promising stories built around "temptation, desire, consequence and the terrifying unknown." Nepitello's own line in the announcement was, "I can't wait to open the box with the players." If his game makes your character's desires a mechanic, something you track and that pulls you toward the puzzle box, this could be the horror RPG people talk about for years.
The Cenobites are not a boss fight. The horror is someone who wants something badly enough to open the box.
The Shinall board game
Shinall's credit list is the clearest preview of the board game. Bloodborne: The Board Game is a campaign game with a nasty sense of humor about how badly things can go. Marvel Zombies and the A Song of Ice and Fire minis game are both miniatures heavy. So my bet is a miniatures forward game with Cenobite sculpts, which will probably mean a crowdfunding campaign and a premium price. Salt says its tabletop division publishes for "retail, hobby and crowdfunding audiences," so that would fit.
Shinall's quote was pure fan service, and I loved it: "In short, I have such sights to show you." Anyone who quotes Pinhead in a press release knows the source.
The escape room is the sneaky good idea
Here is the one nobody is talking about. The Lament Configuration is a puzzle box. An escape room game is a puzzle box. Salt's own president, Geoff Skinner, made the point in the announcement: it is "literally a puzzle that opens a door you probably shouldn't open." If they lean into physical components you manipulate at the table, this could be the easiest Hellraiser game to get non horror friends to play.
What we do not know yet
- Titles, art, prices and player counts for any of the five games.
- Which games launch at Halloween 2027 and which come later. Salt says releases begin then, not that everything ships at once.
- Whether any of them go to Kickstarter or Gamefound. Salt's site lists its Tasting History board game as heading to Kickstarter, so it has done that before.
- How graphic the art direction gets. Hellraiser is body horror. Retail games tend to soften that. The RPG may not.
- Whether Barker is involved beyond the license. His statement is warm, but the announcement does not give him a design role.
Where it fits
The franchise is having a busy year. Bloody Disgusting points to the new comics and the Hellraiser: Revival video game, which split the critics three ways when it launched. On the tabletop side, horror licenses with a real designer attached have been the bright spot this fall. The Interview with the Vampire RPG is building its rules around messy, emotional play, and Arkham Horror Remastered passed $1.5 million on Gamefound in a day, which tells you how much people will pay for a well made horror box.
My read
Five games is ambitious for a first license, and I expect at least one of the small retail games to be forgettable. But Salt hired the two right designers for the two games that matter, and Nepitello on a horror RPG is the most exciting tabletop hire I have seen this month. A year is a long wait. Pick up the original film again in the meantime and start thinking about what your character would trade to open the box.
How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.
How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.
Original commentary based on public reporting. Not a reprint. Editorial standards.