Parapest

A popular board game based around the quartet of paranormal beings in the world: ghosts, aliens, fairies, and zombies.

History

Parapest came out in 1973, at the height of Fantasma's (the real paranormal pest control company), popularity in the media.
Fantasma attempted to sue the game manufacturers for copyright infringement, but their case was unsuccessful. Fantasma later released their own (much flashier-looking) version, with the Fantasma brand all over it, but it was never as popular.

Execution

Players take on the roles of paranormal pest control. They must move about the board collecting pests and avoiding penalties. The winner is the person with the most of their chosen pest (minus points for unwanted pests still in their possession), when the timer goes off. (Games last thirty minutes and looking at the timer or any clocks is cheating. This is because you could actively try to get rid of unwanted pests towards the end of the game).
At the start of the game, players choose a figurine to represent them on their journey. Players can choose between the Fairy's Wand (meaning that they are hunting fairies specifically, and any other pests collected will be deducted from their score), the Grave of Ghouls (hunting ghosts), the Deathly Virus (zombies), and the Extra Ordinary (aliens). There are enough figurines for all four players to go after the same thing.

Components and tools

The board is divided into habitats: a forest, a farm, a city, caves. the sea, and various houses. Each habitat has areas where paranormal pests may be found. There are certain areas where any of the pests may be found and certain areas where only certain pests may be found. The squares players land on lead them through the different habitats, although there are other ways of getting to (and staying in) a preferred habitat. There is space between habitats where no pests, or unexpected ambushes of pests occur.
There are three decks of cards involved in play. Pest, Player, and Habitat. Pest cards offer a chance at capturing a particular pest. This depends on dice rolls combined with player stats. Player cards provide player narrative and act as a wildcard. They contain random things like: "Move directly to Mouldtown," or "Miss a turn,". These are usually fleshed out with more player narrative like, "Your grandmother has died and you have to return home to Mouldtown for her funeral. And to ensure she doesn't come back from the dead." (This would come with a payment the player has to make.) There are some interactive cards as well, requiring dice throws to determine the outcome. Habitat cards move the player directly to stated habitats, occasionally to habitats of the player's choice. Landing on a habitat card within a habitat you want to remain in is annoying, because the cards all demand you move somewhere other than where you are. (If you're in Mouldtown and you get a "Move to Mouldtown," card, there will be a statement telling you where to go if you're already in the first habitat.
Pests are represented by small figurines in different colours.
Player Stats are based on an individual's Player Stat roles, which depend partly on what they choose to hunt, and partly on dice rolls at the beginning of the game.
Capturing pests requires a Parapest Throw, using a special, ghost-white, glow-in-the-dark dice to determine if the player succeeds at capturing pests and if there are any penalties. (You injured a civilian, you got injured, a pest escaped, lots of them escaped, or you completely failed the throw and must leave the number of pests you were attempting to capture out for the next player to land there.)

Participants

Someone has to act as Parapest Inc, as well as play the game, much like the Banker in Monopoly or Game of Life.