Trick or treat!

Going door to door in costume at Halloween grew out of older customs in Scotland and Ireland, where children went "guising" in disguises and sang, recited or told a joke in return for apples, nuts or coins. The words "trick or treat" first appeared in print in 1917, in a newspaper in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

How to play

• On your turn, roll the pumpkin die and walk that many stones along the street.
• Stop at a house with its porch light on and you get a treat. Dark porches mean nobody's home.
• Collect one of each of the five treats: caramel apple, candy corn, chocolate, popcorn ball and toffee. Then you can head home. The first one home with a full bag wins. If you reach home without a full bag, keep going round.
• Owl stones give you another roll. A black cat brings good luck and the treat you need most. At the pumpkin patch you can swap a spare treat for one you're missing. Watch out for the gusty corner, where the wind blows your hat back two stones.

Feel the game

Every event has its own rhythm. With Buzz on (Android phones), you feel it; with Sound cues on, you hear it; and the dots under the board flash it. In Feel mode, tap anywhere to roll and hold anywhere to feel your bag, so the game can be played by touch alone.

• Your turn: short, then long.
• Your roll: one buzz for each step, in groups of three (5 is three, a pause, then two).
• Each stone you pass: a tiny tick.
• A treat: a quick double. Nobody home: one long buzz. An owl, roll again: a quick triple. The wind blows you back: long, long.
• Your bag: hold to feel how many treats you still need. A heartbeat means it's full: head home!
• You win: da-da-da-DAAA. Someone else wins: two low hums.

Keyboard: R rolls, B tells you what's in your bag.

The music

The creeping tune is "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg, written in 1875 for the play Peer Gynt. It plays from a public-domain edition by the Mutopia Project, on a simple piano sound made in your browser.

• Mutopia Project: In the Hall of the Mountain King, Op. 46 No. 4 (public domain)