Ginger Wald
The main protagonist. When she and her younger twin brothers get lost while hiking, she has to deal with them as well as protecting them from the Beasts.
- Big Sister Instinct: She is willing to protect her younger brothers in the forest, especially against the Beasts.
- Determinator: No matter what stands in her way, whether it be snakes, bugs, moving trees, or even giant beasts, she doesn't let them make her sweat when it comes to saving Nat and Pat and win the game.
- Disappointing Older Sibling: When they first get lost, Nat and Pat expect Ginger to help them get back to their campsite because she attended nature camp. However, because she got poison ivy on the first day and therefore failed to pay much attention for the rest of nature camp, she is unable to help her brothers get back to their parents' camping site, much to their frustration.
- Fish out of Water: She may be very adaptive of being one with nature, but she is understandably not used to dealing with the unfamiliar terrain that the Beasts live in. She has to ask for help from other Beast players, who reluctantly do so.
- I Warned You: When the Beasts realize that they aren't normal players after they get tricked by Nat and Pat being twins, Ginger says that she told them that she didn't want to play their game.
- Kid Hero: She saves Nat at one point from an angry living tree by tickling it so much that it releases him.
- Only Sane Man: Given that she has to deal with Nat and Pat, how can she not be this?
- Outdoorsy Gal: When she is not having to deal with her annoying brothers, she adapts pretty well to the wilderness. She gets her hands dirty from it, but that doesn't phase her much.
- Slapstick: She suffers many misfortunes throughout the book. Nat spits on her from above while climbing trees, she has her hands muddied with many different colors of nature, she is almost bitten by a mound full of snakes, she trips and falls down a deep hole, she gets thousands of bugs swarming all over her while hiding at one point, and she is carried in an embarrassing way to the cooking pot by the Beasts.
- Together in Death: Subverted. She almost dies by being cooked alive along with her twin brothers, but then they are saved by a fluke in the game.
- Too Dumb to Live: Because she didn't have the sense to put marks on trees in order to give her and her brothers signs on how to get back to their campsite, she ends up getting herself, as well as her brothers, lost.
- Uncertain Doom: She is presumably tagged again, and it's unknown if she won this second round. Although, now that she and her brothers know the way out, there's nothing suggesting they can't simply sneak away instead of playing. The story is narrated in past tense first person perspective from her viewpoint, and it never implies Posthumous Narration.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: They manage to escape the game through a loophole, and are able to start walking back home. However, a beast who happens to be another level three player says tag to Ginger, presumably taps her and makes her play the game all over again, this time at NIGHT. Unless of course she decides to just sneak away instead of playing.
Nat and Pat Wald
Pat (left) and Nat (right)
Two identical twin brothers who drive Ginger crazy.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Have brown hair and brown eyes in the book, but in Goosebumps:Horrortown, they have strawberry blonde hair and green eyes.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: They are much less bratty in Horrortown.
- Always Identical Twins: They both look insanely alike to the point that they at times are confused themselves. They even wear matching outfits to confuse people even further!
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Are they ever! Their parents even ask Ginger to take them for a hike so they can't bother them, much to her chagrin.
- Coordinated Clothes: They always go around each day wearing the same clothes, including shirts with slogans that hardly anyone can understand. This is certainly quite the contributing factor in the Beasts believing that the two cloned.
- Gender Flip: For some reason, in Horrortown, Pat is a girl and a fraternal twin with Nat. This really contradicts the book, considering that their identical twin theme led to a pivotal plot point.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As bratty as they are most of the time, they really do care about each other and their sister, especially when it comes to making sure none of each other are harmed.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Nat was at one point put into a large cage lifted high above the ground for receiving a penalty. Later on, he shows up having been able to break through the bamboo bars and climb down.
- Polar Opposite Twins: They are both bratty, yet they have very different distinct personalities. Nat is very brave and likes to climb trees, while Pat is a bit wimpy and likes to play video games.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Pat is the Sensitive Guy while Nat is the Manly Man.
- Theme Twin Naming: Are named Nat and Pat for short.
- Twin Switch: When the two twins are brought together, side by side, this confuses the Beasts. This act makes the Beasts think that the two are clones of each other, which is a level three move.
The Beasts
A race of ferocious bear/possum hybrids who play a bizarre game with their victims to choose who gets eaten.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: As Ginger says, they play for keeps.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Downplayed, since unlike the Horrors, they actually have some sense of honor.
- Attack the Tail: Gleeb is the beast with a smashed tail.
- Bears Are Bad News: Ginger views "the Teddy Bear's picnic" in a whole new light after this adventure.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Of The Beast From The East.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Everything they do is determined by the rules of their strange game, which certainly doesn't help our confused protagonists.
- Calvinball: They don't make up the rules per se, they just hardly define them.
- Child Eater: Losers of the game get eaten, and they will not make exceptions for children. One shouldn't think too much of who else stumbled upon this game...
- Cloud Cuckooland: The neck of the woods they live in is full of oddly-colored plants and Mix-and-Match Critters. It may even be an Eldritch Location, based on Fleg's comment about a path that "leads back to your world".
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's never explicit, but they do seem to care for each other, since Spork is shown keeping watch over an infant beast in the middle of the dangerous game.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Beasts strictly follow the code of the game, and thus will give their victims another chance should the rules condone it.
- Eye Scream: Spork's right eye is missing, leaving an empty socket, which he has a habit of picking at several times through the story. Ginger remarks it's probably from an earlier fight, and that she'd hate to see the loser.
- Fair-Play Villain: They give all potential victims a sporting chance at survival.
- Genius Bruiser: They're huge, tough monsters that also happen to be skilled with building booby traps and handling wild animals.
- Hulk Speak: The one that appears in the newest video game has very stilted and primitive dialogue. This might be explained by his "Universal Language Translator" malfunctioning.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Giant blue bears with tails like badgers, and builds like gorillas.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: We can assume that based on the rules of the game, they eat each other when there are no humans available.
- Proud Warrior Race: That play tag?
- Psychopathic Man Child: Despite initially appearing to be ferocious hunters, their mentality is more like a group of angry, stubborn 3rd graders who refuse to play fair. Judging by the reveal that they're only level two players, they might not even be much older than the kids they terrorize.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The beasts don't play this game out of malice, but because it's ingrained in their culture. Spork even admits it gets boring at times, which gives Ginger a chance to tag him.
- Worthy Opponent: Brutal as they are, they'll still treat you with respect if you prove to be the better player. Good luck with that, though. Ginger's victory came with sheer luck.
- You Don't Look Like You: In the book, they're described as being completely covered with blue fur, having long tails, fairly long necks, narrow heads and a single protruding fang. The cover illustration goes off in a wildly different direction.
