2

From all of us at Spectrum Games, we hope you have a ghoulishly

fun time with this roleplaying game!

Designed and Written by Original Playtesting by

Cynthia Celeste Miller and Joseph Lastowski,
Barak Blackburn (original Jen Eastman-Lawrence,
Intention System rules) Mike Gendreau, Ellie Hillis,
David Martin, Andy Ashcraft,
Edited by
Nat “Woodelf” Barmore,
Norbert Franz and
Barak Blackburn Lotzerm, Steven Yap,
Scott Gentry
Graphic Design by
Cynthia Celeste Miller New Playtesting by
Shelly Bateman, Troy Greene,
Cover Art by Nikki Linnebur,
C. Michael Hall Lindsey Babineaux

Interior Art by Hosted by

Bradley K. McDevitt, Nolan The Grave Hag
Segrest and
C. Michael Hall

Anthology-Style Horror 4 Skulls 17

Important Concepts 5 Player Tips 18
The Cast 6 Grave Keeper’s Vault 20
Intentions 8 List of Story Frames 24
Confrontations 13 Sample Installment 28
The Three-Act Structure 14 Example of Play 31
Grave Tokens 15 Epilogue 39
Triggering Flaws 17 Sheets 40

www.spectrum-games.com
2807 Grand Ave., Parsons, Kansas 67357
Copyright 2016 by Spectrum Games. Artwork copyright 2016 by C. Michael Hall and Bradley K. McDevitt and is used under license by Spectrum
Games for publishing and advertising purposes. All Rights Reserved. This material (art, logos, illustrations, character concepts, text and game
mechanics) is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or art-
work contained herein is prohibited without the express written consent of Spectrum Games, except for the purposes of reviews and for the
blank sheets, which may be reproduced for personal use only. The reference to any companies, products, characters, television shows, motion
pictures or other properties in this book is not meant to challenge the trademarks or copyrights concerned. Some graphic elements in this
product are taken from comic books that are in the public domain and thus are legal to use.

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 Conventions of the Genre
Anthology-Style Horror While it’s impossible to explore all the tropes from all
the different sources, we can discuss some of the most
Greetings, fiends and foes! I’m common ones.
the Grave Hag and I’ll be
your hostess for this grue- • Dark Humor: Dark humor pervaded many series
somely grim roleplaying and films, even if only from the dialogue of the host.
Sometimes, this brand of humor was brought to the
game, as we slide deeper forefront, but more often than not, it was dialed back
and deeper into the pit of and used as a counterbalance to particularly gruesome
depravity, desperation, de- stories. Not every series or film utilized humor at all,
spair and, of corpse, good preferring not to “dilute” the horror.
old-fashioned bloodshed. With
Stories from the Grave, you and your friends will • Flawed Characters: The stories were chock-full of
emulate anthology-style horror in an authentic characters were flawed, whether they had rather mild
and faithful manner. So, stick around, kiddies, faults (jealousy, greed, etc.) or were flat-out terrible
and bask in the sheer terror that awaits you. You people who committed all manner of atrocities. Some-
times, they were the central characters!
won’t be disemboweled… err, I mean disappoint-
ed! Reh-heh-heh-heh! • Karma: What comes around goes around. Karma
has a way of biting wrong-doers in the ass and deliver-
Anthology-style horror is best described as a series of ing its own brand of poetic justice in these tales.
stand-alone, unrelated tales, often—but not always—
linked together by a host who bookends each install- • Moral of the Story: Each installment often came
ment. The genre covers different mediums, primarily with a message; a lesson to be learned. Often, that les-
comicbooks, television shows and movies. Let’s take a son was made apparent by the host at the end. Other
look at each one: times, it was a subtler affair.

• Logic Schmogic: The most important aspect of the

• Comicbooks: Largely a thing of the past, anthology tale was the scare. If getting that scare meant abandon-
horror comics contained between two and four stories. ing logic, well, that’s life. Or death.
Examples include Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of
Horror, The Haunt of Fear, Eerie Comics, Weird Terror, • Twist Endings: The story leads toward an inevitable
Crypt of Shadows, etc. conclusion, but then, at the last possible minute, we
throw something in that changes everything.
• Television Shows: Not as prevalent as they once were,
anthology horror television shows presented one new • Unsettling Content: Whether it was gore or creepy
tale per episode. Example include Tales from the Crypt, imagery, the stories almost inevitably had content that
The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Hitchhiker, Tales made viewers shiver.
from the Darkside, The Outer Limits, etc.

• Movies: Still going strong, anthology horror mov-

ies typically consist of between three and six stories.
Unlike the other mediums, the stories in the film are
sometimes related to one degree or another. Examples
include: Tales from the Crypt, Creepshow, Campfire
Tales, Black Sabbath, Trick ‘r Treat, All Hallows’ Eve, etc.

Other mediums have embraced anthology-style hor-

ror as well, including old-time radio shows and novels.
But this game focuses on the three detailed above.

4
 er takes on the role of one primary character (or PC)
Important Concepts involved in the story. If you aren’t overly familiar with
how roleplaying games work, look it up on the internet,
So, just because you now as there are numerous crash courses to be found there.
understand what antholo-
gy-style horror is, you Stories from the Grave works best with a Grave Keeper
think you’re ready to play and one to three players. One player is preferable, as
the game, eh? Wrong. this type of horror tends to focus on one character.
DEAD wrong, in fact. But
never fear: read this sec- In addition to participants, the group should have a
tion and you’ll be ready in slew of “tokens” (beads, buttons, coins, poker chips,
no time. Actually, scratch that. etc.) and at least five 6-sided dice. There should also
You should ALWAYS fear! be a character sheet for each player; if you’re playing
out more than one tale (see Installments below), play-
Participants and Supplies ers will need one for each tale. Pencils and scrap paper
There are two types of participants. One participant are necessary as well.
is the Grave Keeper (or GK); they act as the lead sto-
ryteller in your twisted tales of eerie fun, coming up Installments and Scenes
with plot ideas, verbally leading the flow of the story When you and your group sit down to play, you will
and playing the roles of the supporting characters (or be crafting your own episode or issue of a fictitious
SCs). The other participants are the players. Each play- comicbook called, of course, Stories from the Grave.

5
Alternatively, you can play the television series or
movies based on that comic. It’s up to you. Whatev- Each of you (i.e., the players) selects a charac-
er the case may be, each story is called an installment ter provided by the Grave Keeper. The character
in order to avoid having to use the ever-cumbersome sheets won’t have much on them at this point,
“issue/episode/film” in the text. The game is designed but one of the things you’ll find is that the Back-
to accommodate tersely-paced tales, allowing you and ground section is filled out. This is one of the jobs
your group to play out more than one installment in a of the GK.
single setting.

Each Installment consists of any number of scenes. A

Casting
scene is generally thought of as the action in a single
location and continuous time. If the installment is the Casting is the look and tone of the character, summed
“story”, scenes are the mini-stories that occur within up in a short paragraph. An example: “Good looks
a story to propel it forward. The Grave Keeper deter- but hides his impending baldness with a toupee, dark
mines when a scene begins and ends. brown hair, average build, wears flashy clothes when
in public”.
The Cast
You receive up to 25 words for Casting. You
You simply can’t have horror should therefore choose those words carefully.
without victims. Did I say Casting needn’t be given in full sentences.
“victims”? I meant to say
“characters”. That’s right,
without characters, there Traits
would be no one to butch- Each character possesses four Traits that largely deter-
er, maim, decapitate, dis- mine how good they are in certain areas. The Traits are
embowel or drive completely Flesh (all aspects of a character’s physicality), Brains
insane. But I digress. The point (their mental faculties), Tongue (their charisma and
is that any work of fiction requires characters gift of gab) and Guts (their willpower). Each Trait is
and Stories from the Grave is no exception. rated from -1 to 2.

Primary Characters Choose one of the following three options and

Primary Characters are the stars of the story and are
allocate the given ratings to the four Traits as you
largely defined by the aspects discussed below. We’ll
see fit.
explain what it all means and show you how to create a
PC. This section is written specifically for the players,
so that’s who it is addressed to. • Option A: 2, 1, 0, -1
• Option B: 1, 1, 1, -1
Background • Option C: 1, 1, 0, 0
This is a concise description of the character’s role
within the series. Think of this as the editor-in-chief ’s • A value of -1 indicates that the character is
or show producer’s notes on each character. An exam- underdeveloped in that Trait.
ple: “Fast-talking but cheesy-as-hell ladies’ man who • A value of 0 establishes the character as more
thinks his pick-up lines could unthaw the most disin- or less average in that Trait.
terested woman on the planet. He lives alone in a sad • A value of 1 illustrates that the character is
little second-floor apartment and works as a grocery very gifted or well-trained in that Trait.
sacker at a local supermarket, a sharp contrast to the • A value of 2 expresses that the character is a
image he tries to cultivate when he’s out clubbing.” master or expert in that Trait.

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Descriptors and Flaws
Traits paint a view of the character’s capabilities in
broad strokes, giving a generalized view of what they
can do. Descriptors and Flaws allow us to focus in on
the specifics. Each Trait that is rated 1 or more will
have one or more Descriptors that reflect areas of ex-
Optional:
pertise or talent, while each Trait that is rated -1 will
Pre-Generated PCs
have a Flaw that reflects an area of weakness.
Grave Keepers looking to
run more than one install-
It’s up to you to create your character’s Descrip- ment per session might con-
tors and Flaws. There is no definitive list; just use sider creating the PCs them-
your imagination. selves, as the group won’t
have to pause between each
installment while everyone
• A Trait with a rating of 1 or more will have a creates new ones. The Grave
number of Descriptors equal to the rating. Keeper can simply create
them all beforehand and
• A Trait with a rating of 0 will have no Descrip- allow the players to choose
tors or Flaws. which ones they play before
each new installment begins.
• A Trait with a rating of -1 will have one Flaw.

Sample Descriptors and Flaws

In case you’re having trouble coming up with your own Descrip-
tors and Flaws, here’s a list to kick your imagination into high
gear. Use them “as is” or reword them to suit your character.

Flesh
Descriptors: Strong, Fast Reflexes, Stealthy, Shooting, Fisti- Special Abilities
cuffs, Agile, Athletic, Tough as Nails, Driving, Physically Fit,
Nimble, Graceful, Swimming The Grave Keeper may intend for one or
Flaws: Weak, Sickly, Clumsy, Wheelchair-Bound, Trembly more of the PCs to be supernatural or para-
Hands, Wimp
normal in nature. Perhaps the character is
Brains a vampire, a wolfman, a zombie, a sorcerer
Descriptors: Wise, Scholarly, Knows About [subject matter], or whatever. In such cases, the “powers” that
Scientist, Investigator, Perceptive, Inventor, Intellectual, Ex- the character would possess are given to the
perienced, Memory character by the GK in the form of Special
Flaws: Ditzy, Not Very Astute, Uneducated, Inexperienced,
Abilities. Most of these are treated as being
Doesn’t Pay Attention
their own Trait (minus any Descriptors).
Tongue There is one Special Ability that is a bit dif-
Descriptors: Gift of Gab, Persuasive, Intimidating, Manipula- ferent. It’s called a “Trait Enhancement” and
tive, Con Artist, Liar, Leadership, Seductive instead of a rating, it will simply instruct the
Flaws: Gets Tongue-Tied, Socially Awkward, Terrible Liar,
player to add a certain amount to one of the
Shy, Anti-Social
character’s four Trait ratings.
Guts
Descriptors: Stubborn, Brave, Nobody’s Fool, Cool Under
Pressure, Hard to Intimidate, Unflinching
Flaws: Jittery Nerves, Easily Rattled, Sucker, Naive, Coward,
Fear of [animal/object/condition/etc.]

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Supporting Characters
Supporting characters are the people that the primary Intentions
characters encounter in one form or another. They ar-
en’t as detailed as primary characters. Some are more Now we’re really getting to the
detailed than others, however. gristle of the game system:
Intentions! These rules
help you find out if your
Mundane SCs
character succeeds, fails
The majority of the SCs (known as Mundane SCs) are
or falls somewhere in be-
just regular people and can be summed up with one
tween. Mmmmm. Now I’ve
number, called the SC rating. This rating determines
got myself a killer craving
their overall effectiveness and plays into the Intention for a gristle-and-gruel sand-
rules (see pages 8-12). The higher the number, the bet- wich… with a few severed ears and plenty of
ter they are. grave mold to top it off, naturally. Bone appe-
tit, kiddies!
Principal SCs
Supporting characters that are more important to the Understanding Intentions
story are called Principal SCs. They are slightly more When a PC wants to or is forced to do something that
detailed and tend to be the main antagonists of the might be challenging, an Intention may be in order. But
story, though not always. Principal SCs have the same we’re not always just talking about one action. As often
four Traits that PCs have. There are two differences, as not, we’re dealing with a series of actions meant to
however. The first difference is that they are graded collectively accomplish a specific goal. The player tells
identically to the SC ratings for Mundane SCs. The the Grave Keeper what the PC’s overall goal is and the
second difference is that they do not have Descriptors. GK will, in turn, determine which one of the four Traits
is being put to the test. But before we start getting into
Principal SCs may have Special Abilities just like PCs, the technical aspects, let’s look at a quick example.
but they are rated the same as their own Traits.
Grave Keeper: What is your character trying to do?
Player: He is trying to sneak up behind the witch while
she is doing her incantation.
Grave Keeper: That’s not what I’m asking. What is your
character’s goal in this scene. Surely, you’re hoping to
do more than just sneak up behind the old crone.
Player: Oh, I see. He wants to sneak up behind her and
dispose of her so that she can’t finish her incantation.
Grave Keeper: Much better! That will require an In-
tention using your character’s Flesh rating.

As demonstrated above, the game system isn’t worried

Ratings for SCs about making a separate roll for every little step of the pro-
cess. It focuses more on the end result of the task at hand.
Most SCs or their Traits are
rated between 0 and 2, though That said, An Intention might be just one focused ac-
some SCs are so powerful that
tion (disarming a bomb), though even this Intention
they have 3 or higher!
might well be affected by what is happening around
0: Normal the character. Most Intentions, however, are likely to
1: Good be a culmination of several actions, summed up with
2: Great a single Intention from each character involved (using
3: Enhanced the same or different Traits to accomplish their various
4+: Supernatural
roles in the task).

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Rolling the Dice tion. Perhaps your character wants to shove another
When making an Intention, you’ll roll a certain num- character off a balcony but the would-be victim al-
ber of dice, take two of the results and add them to- ready suspects that they may be up to something. Or
gether. The higher, the better. maybe your character is trying to seduce someone who
detests them. Or it could be that your character is at-
The Trait being used determines the number of core tempting to be stealthy in broad daylight. Or someone
dice you roll and how many you keep. your character is attempting to murder is armed with
a weapon. Each of these instances would probably be
• A rating of -1 means that you roll 3 dice and add to- considered an Obstacle.
gether the lowest two results.
• A rating of 0, means that you roll 2 dice and add both Each Obstacle effectively subtracts 1 from the rating of
together. the Trait being tested for this Intention.
• A rating of +1 means that you roll 3 dice and add
together the highest two results. One type of Obstacle is more variable: Supporting Char-
• A rating of +2 means that you roll 4 dice and add acters! If a PC’s action is directly opposed by a SC or if
together the highest two results. the PC’s action is an attempt to prevent a SC’s actions,
the SC becomes the opposing SC. The SC will have a
And so forth. Certain circumstances can effectively rating that represents the modifier to the amount sub-
increase or decrease a Trait’s rating. Check out the In- tracted from the PC’s Trait rating for this Intention.
tention Result Table.
• For Mundane SCs, subtract the SC rating from the
Benefits and Obstacles PC’s Trait.
The number of dice rolled can be modified by Benefits • For Principal SCs, the Grave Keeper will determine
and Obstacles. which one of their Traits would logically be used. That
Trait’s rating is subtracted from the PC’s Trait.
A Benefit is a situation that makes it easier for the
character to succeed in their Intention. Perhaps your The more characters opposing the Intention, the hard-
character wants to shove another character off a balco- er the Intention becomes to succeed in. Use the most
ny and the hapless character is already leaning over the effective SC rating or appropriate SC Trait rating as the
balcony. Or maybe your character is trying to seduce main Obstacle. Each opposing character beyond that
someone who already has a bit of a crush on them. counts as an additional Obstacle of 1 (up to a maxi-
Or it could be that your character is attempting to mum of 3).
be stealthy and it’s very dark. Or your character may
wield a weapon while trying to murder someone. Each Does the Grave Keeper Roll?
of these instances would probably warrant a Benefit. Stories from the Grave is a PC-driven game in that the
players do all the rolling. If a SC attempts an action, no
Each Benefit effectively adds 1 to the rating of the Trait Intention is required; the Grave Keeper decides wheth-
being tested for this Intention. er they succeed or fail, based on the needs of the story.
If their actions can be opposed by a PC, they generally
An Obstacle is a factor or circumstance that makes it succeed unless the PC can make an appropriate Inten-
more difficult for a character to succeed in their Inten- tion to prevent it.

How Many Dice Do I Roll and What Do I Keep?

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
6 dice 5 dice 4 dice 3 dice 2 dice 3 dice 4 dice 5 dice 6 dice
(add together (add together (add together (add together (add together (add together (add together (add together (add together
the 2 lowest the 2 lowest the 2 lowest the 2 lowest the two re- the 2 highest the 2 highest the 2 highest the 2 highest
results) results) results) results) sults) results) results) results) results)

This table is open-ended in both directions. Simply keep adding an extra die to the roll and keep the two lowest results or highest results, whichever is appropriate.

9
Interpreting Intentions must describe how or why the character fails. If the
What does your roll mean? Consult the Intention Re- failure, as described by the player, is barely a failure at
sults Table below to find out once you have your total. all or is too implausible even for anthology-style hor-
ror, the Grave Keeper may require a rewrite (see the
Rewrite sidebar).
Intention Results Table
EXAMPLE: Going back to the above example, we’ll
Die Total: What Happens:
say that Max’s player got a result of 8 and that they
2-6 Failure selected Controlled Failure. The player could sim-
7-9 Controlled Failure ply state that the floor boards wouldn’t budge.
or Or maybe the attempt to pry up the floorboards
Conditional Success prompted the cannibal to peek into the room to see
10+ Success if anything was amiss, forcing the character to pre-
tend to still be unconscious.

Conditional Success
Failure
The character succeeds, but there’s some kind of com-
The character fails to do what they were attempting to
plication. The Grave Keeper is in full control of how
accomplish. The Grave Keeper is in full control of what
they succeed and exactly what complication arises.
how they fail and what that entails; anything short of
death (we’ll get to that later). The player has no
“say” in the matter. The failure should always
put the character in a worse position or situ-
ation than they were in before attempting the
Intention.

EXAMPLE: Let’s say that the character, Max

Simmons, had been captured by a cannibal and
placed in a windowless room. The player con-
cocts a way to escape by tearing out some floor
boards and crawling beneath the house. Unfor-
tunately for poor Max, the player’s final result
was 5. That a Failure. The Grave Keeper gets
to decide exactly how the failure occurred and
what the ramifications are. He could say that
the madman heard him tearing out the boards,
entered the room and knocked him out with a
crowbar. Or they could have decreed that Max
successfully tore out the boards and slipped
under the house, only to find that the house’s
foundation is concrete with no exits whatsoev-
er; that hole in the floor is going to be hard to
hide because some of the boards had actually
snapped off. Both of these results are failures,
but each one has very different ramifications.

Controlled Failure
The character fails at the task, but the player is
allowed to dictate the narrative of the failure; in
essence, they keep control of their character but

10
EXAMPLE: Using the already-established scenario PC-vs-PC Intentions
presented above, we’ll step back and say that Max’s Should two PCs go up against one another, things must
player had a result of 8 and that they selected Con- be handled a bit differently. Both players make their
ditional Success. The Grave Keeper might determine Intentions as normal, but once the roll’s total is deter-
that Max made it through the floor and exited via a mined for them, compare their totals via the PC-vs-PC
crawl-hole in the house’s foundation… but that the Intention Results Table to determine what happens.
cannibal heard the racket and knows that he has es-
caped. Or they could have allowed him to escape the If Character A succeeds or partially succeeds, Character
A’s player narrates the results. If Character B succeeds
house and scramble into the backwood house’s lawn…
or partially succeeds, Character B’s player narrates the
just in time to see the cannibal’s entire family arrive
results. The Grave Keeper narrates all other results.
for supper.
Success here doesn’t indicate that one player has defin-
Success itively won the entire conflict, but it means this partic-
The character succeeds just as envisioned by the play- ular mini-conflict is resolved. Another one may come
er. The player narrates the outcome. If the narration again, either immediately or soon.
goes too overboard, however, the Grave Keeper may
require a rewrite (see the Rewrite sidebar). For example: Jack succeeds in his Flesh Intention
against Jeff. Jack’s player describes Jack pushing the Jeff
EXAMPLE: Utilizing the situation above, let’s say that off a cliff. The scene ends. In the next scene, we might
Max’s player ended up with a total of 11, which is a see Jeff pulling himself back up the cliffside, preparing
Success. The player may describe Max prying up the to engage his foe yet again.
floorboards, crawling underneath the house, finding
The determination of what success means is up the
an exit and beating feet out of the area. What happens
Grave Keeper. Perhaps a character suffers a signifi-
next remains to be seen.
cant penalty to a Trait or to all dice rolls. Perhaps the
scene ends, or perhaps the conflict is resolved. If you
want the failing character to have a chance to contin-
ue, make them work for it. End the scene. Maybe they
have to find a way to use Brains to defeat the opponent
or at least to try and re-engage the opponent.
Rewrites

When a player is allowed to take over PC vs. PC Intention Results Table

narrative duties to describe the results
of an Intention but favors their charac-
Character A:
ter in a way that is detrimental to the
2-6 7-9 10+
story (see the Controlled Failure and
Success sections for specifics), the Grave 2-6 Both fail, the Character A Character A
Showrunner partially suc- succeeds.
Keeper may require the player to make decides what ceeds, charac-
a rewrite. When this happens, the play- happens; either ter B suffers a
er has to start the narrative over again, they are both -1 penalty.
fixing whatever it was that was out of out, or they
may continue.
Character B:

line. Furthermore, one Grave Token is

7-9 Character B Draw! char- Character A
removed from the pool and is collected
partially suc- acters may succeeds.
by the player’s character. ceeds, charac- continue, both
ter A suffers a suffering a -1
-1 penalty. penalty.
10+ Character B Character B Draw! Char-
succeeds. succeeds. acters may
continue.

11
 Once the final result is calculated, consult the Grave
Failure Table, below.

Grave Failure Table

Die Total: What Happens:

Up to 4 Game Ending
5 or more Non-Game Ending

Game Ending
A Game Ending result ends the game for the character.
That usually means death or madness.

Do-Overs Non-Game Ending

Unless stated otherwise by the Grave Keeper, charac- A Non-Game Ending result could mean almost any-
ters cannot try the exact same Intention again imme- thing the Grave Keeper desires—the character is cap-
diately after failing at it. Think about it in context of tured, is knocked unconscious, enables the strange hu-
comicbooks, TV shows and movies. How entertain- manoid to escape, etc. As long as the ramifications are
ing would it be to watch a character attempt the same bad, the possibilities are almost endless.
task over and over? It wouldn’t be entertaining at all. It
would be dull.
Single-PC
In the case of failure, the character will have to try Installments
something else. They can’t keep going back to the well
time after time. If the installment has
only one PC in it or if
only one of several PCs
Grave Intentions remain alive and sane,
Some Intentions are so dire that the character making do not roll on the Grave
it faces the very real threat of death or utter madness- Failure Table during
Act Two. It automat-
-the vampire has the character cornered with nowhere ically counts as Non-
for them to run, the character hangs off a cliff by one Game Ending.
hand, the character reads a blasphemous tome written
by unknown aliens. These Intentions are called Grave
Intentions. The Grave Keeper decides what constitutes
being labeled a Grave Intention and announces it to
the players.

Grave Intentions cannot occur during Act 1.

If a character gets a Failure result for the Intention, the

player must roll two dice, adding them together. The
roll is modified by the following factors:

• -1 for every two full Grave Tokens the character has

currently collected.
• -2 if the installment is currently in Act 3.

12
 Confrontations
What kind of horror game would
this be if nobody can be at-
tacked, mutilated, maimed
or otherwise disposed of
by other characters in a
suitably grotesque fashion?
Not much of one, if you ask
me! Even Romeo and Ghou-
liet had its fair share of violence.
Don’t get me wrong: killing with kindness is okay
and all… but an axe gets the job done faster and character is a PC, the player controlling that PC makes
messier. And I never feel bad when someone gets the roll instead. If the PC making the Grave Intention
chopped up into itty-bitty pieces. I guess I’m not fails and their life was in danger, the player rolls on the
much of a mourning person. Grave Intention Table for their own character.

Understanding Confrontations If the PC fails in the Grave Intention and their own life is
A confrontation is defined as any scene that involves at stake, the PC’s player rolls on the Grave Failure Table.
characters trying to harm one another. Confrontations
are carried out with Intentions, though a few points So what happens if more than one “side” being acted
need to be discussed. against has more than one character and is forced to roll
on the Grave Failure Table? That’s up to the Grave Keep-
Characters needn’t roll for every punch, bite, slash or er. The GK can opt to roll for all the members of that
chop made. As with any Intention, we’re looking at the side (either separately or all at once) or make only one
bigger picture here. If the goal is to kill that zombie, of them roll. It should depend on the circumstances. Af-
then we aren’t interested in every step it took to get the ter all, if the PC is using a flamethrower on a group of
job done. The end result needs to be determined… the critters, it will likely affect more than one of them.
details are simply in the narration.

When there is a question of which “side” acts first, it’s

the PCs, unless the Grave Keeper feels that there’s a
reason for it to be otherwise, such as an ambush. The
side acting first simply gets to declare what they want
to do first.

If lives are in danger, the Intentions made will usual- Optional:

ly be Grave Intentions. It’s ultimately up to the Grave Easy-to-Kill Mundane
Keeper. Unlike with most Grave Intentions, though, SCs
the Grave Keeper must declare which lives are in dan-
The Grave Keeper may enact
ger, using logic as their guide. For example, if the PC this optional rule, which will
takes after a SC with a knife, but the Grave Keeper make Mundane SCs easier
states that the SC is going to flee, the GK might state to kill. Whenever they would
that only the SC is in danger of being harmed. be forced to roll on the Grave
Failure Table, assume that they
always receive a “Game End-
If the PC succeeds in the Grave Intention and the ene-
ing” result.
my’s life is in danger, the GK rolls on the Grave Failure
Table (see page 12) to see the SC’s fate. If the opposing

13
 Every installment follows the three-act structure that’s
The Three-Act Structure so common in fiction. It is up to the Grave Keeper to
announce when each Act ends and another begins.
Time is such a precious comm-
ODD-ity, isn’t it? One min- • Act One is the story’s setup. It’s where we meet the
ute, you’re fine and then the PCs and establish who they are, what they do and
next minute, you’re dead! what their situation is. It’s also where the inciting in-
cident (an event that sets the rest of the story in mo-
Well, my dreadful hor-
tion) occurs.
rorphiles, time is also im-
portant in Stories from the • Act Two is where the PCs try to deal with the ram-
Grave. The comicbook writers ifications of the inciting incident and make things
didn’t have many pages in which to right… or at least survive the ordeal. This Act makes
tell their tales and the movie-SLASH-television up the bulk of the tale.
writers had only a short amount of scream—I
mean “screen”—time. Since this game emulates • Act Three is the climax of the tale, where the main
those sources, you and your group will have re- tensions of the story are brought to their most intense
point and resolved, either leaving the PCs alive and
strictions on your time as well. That means not
well, dead and buried, or insane and committed.
much time to kill.

14
These Acts are very important to the game, as things
become more and more dangerous and challenging Grave Tokens
with each successive act. Here’s a quick run-down of
how Acts affect the game. You can’t expect to get some-
thing for nothing, especially
in a game like this! Case in
• Some Story Frames (see page 21) have special rules
point: Grave Tokens. In the
that only apply to certain Acts.
short term, they can help
a Primary Character over-
• Collected Grave Tokens (see Grave Tokens, below) come some ghoulish bumps
can potentially be purged after each Act. in the road… but in the long
term, these little helping hands
• When PCs fail Grave Intentions during Act Three, just might be the death of them!
they have a higher chance of getting a Game Ending
result (see page 12). At the beginning of each installment, the Grave Keeper
must place a number of counters (beads, coins, poker
• It’s a good way for the Grave Keeper to organize the chips, etc.) on the table, within easy reach of all the play-
events in the game and maintain a proper flow. ers. These are called Grave Tokens and the collection of
them is called the Grave Token pool (or just “the pool”).
The number of Grave Tokens in the pool is equal to the
number of players, plus 2. More can be earned later.

If you’re playing more than one installment during a

session, only the first installment of the session will
have a pool determined as above. The starting Grave
Token pool of each subsequent installment will be
equal to the number of Skulls the previous installment
garnered (see pages 17-18 for more about Skulls). If
the same group (or nearly the same group) is gathered
for the next session, the first installment of that session
will have a pool equal to the number of Skulls the final
installment from the previous session garnered.

Spending Grave Tokens

The Grave Token pool is communal in nature. That is,
any player can dip into it throughout the game in or-
der to help their characters out. There are two ways
that they can be spent: Scene Editing and Boosting.

Scene Editing
A player may spend a Grave Token to add a detail to a
scene. For example, if the PCs find themselves trapped
in a dark basement without any means of illumination,
a player may ask if they can spend a Grave Token for
their character to suddenly remember that they actu-
ally had a flashlight on their person. The Grave Keeper
may veto scene editing that is too outlandish or that
would severely damage the integrity of the installment.

15
Boosting Adding Grave Tokens to the Pool
Each Grave Token spent adds 1 to the final result of the Over the course of an installment, the Grave Token
Intention. Grave Tokens must be spent before rolling pool will shrink and surge. We’ve already discussed
the dice, however. So, for example, let’s say the player how to make it shrink, but not how to make it surge.
rolls three dice, taking the two highest. They roll 2, 4 The following methods will allow you to add Grave
and 4. The player takes the 4 and 4 and adds them to- Tokens to the pool.
gether to get an 8. But before they rolled, they spent two
Grave Tokens, making the total result 10 instead of 8. • The Grave Keeper can trigger one of a character’s Flaws
(see page 17), adding one Grave Token to the pool.
Once spent, the player places the Grave Counter near
their character sheet. The PC has collected it. Collect- • Once per Act, each player can trigger one of their
ed Grave Counters can have a detrimental effect on the character’s Flaws voluntarily, adding one Grave Token
character (see page 16). to the pool.

Players can increase the effectiveness of spending a • If a player has their character do something partic-
Grave Counter for boosting by exploiting a word, ularly clever, true to the genre or that drives the story
phrase or sentence of the PC’s Background or Casting, forward in an entertaining way, the Grave Keeper can
or even one of their Descriptors. To exploit one of these add one Grave Token to the pool.
elements, the player has to explain how it would help
with the task at hand. The Grave Keeper has the right Purging Grave Tokens
to veto any explanation that is too much of a stretch. At the end of each Act, each player may try to purge
their character’s Grave Tokens. Purging requires a
• If the exploited element is a segment of the charac- player to roll a die for each Grave Token their char-
ter’s Background or Casting, the Grave Token adds 2 acter has collected. Every die that rolls a 5 or 6 purges
to the final result of the Intention instead of 1. one Grave Token; purged Grave Tokens are removed
from the game. Do not place them back into the pool
• If the exploited element is a Descriptor, the Grave upon being purged.
Token adds 3 to the final result of the Intention in-
stead of 1.
Collected Grave Tokens
As we mentioned earlier, collecting Grave Tokens can
A single exploited element can only affect one Grave
make a PC’s life a living hell. The Grave Keeper can
Token. In other words, if you spend two Grave Tokens
remove collected Grave Tokens to do one of the fol-
and exploit a segment of the character’s Background,
lowing effects:
one Grave Token will provide a bonus of 2, but the
other one would only provide the normal bonus of 1.
• Penalty: Before the player rolls for the Intention, the
Grave Keeper may remove up to three Grave Tokens
collected by their PC to give a -1 penalty to the Trait
for each Grave Token removed. This penalty is for that
Optional: Intention only.
After-Boosting
• Reroll: Remove three Grave Tokens to force the play-
With this optional rule, players may boost er whose character had collected the removed Token
after the roll for an Intention has been to reroll one of the dice rolled for an Intention. The
made. Every two Grave Tokens grant a +1 new result must be accepted. The Grave Keeper may
boost to the final result. Players cannot ex- remove more than one Grave Token to force the player
ploit when after-boosting. to reroll additional dice; the amount removed for this
effect must be declared at the same time. The new re-
sults must be accepted.

16
 Triggering Flaws Skulls
Nobody’s perfect… well, except Nobody likes critics. In fact, most
yours ghouly. Many characters creative types have a big bone
have Flaws that represent the to pick with them… maybe
various ills, woes and other even a femur. Like them or
detriments that plague them. not, critics play a large role
Don’t worry! Your old pal, in Stories from the Grave,
the Grave Hag, won’t hold
as the players must try to
your Flaws against you.
impress them at every turn.
Immediately before a PC makes an In- For most players, this is all new
tention, one of a PC’s Flaws can be triggered by the Grave terror-tory.
Keeper or the player of the PC who has the Flaw. There are
some restrictions: The overall goal of the game isn’t for players to have
their characters survive… it’s to collectively tell an en-
• A PC may not trigger more than one Flaw per Act. tertaining and chilling story. An installment’s quality is
• The triggered Flaw must be one that would logically measured by Skulls, just like many critics use “stars” to
cause complications for the task at hand. rate the quality of comics, shows and films. An install-
• The triggered Flaw must be attached to the Trait be- ment may have as few as 0 Skulls and no more than 5
ing used for the Intention. Skulls. When an installment begins, it has no Skulls;
you have to earn the fans’ approval.
When the Flaw is triggered, two things happen:
Each installment will have a list of things that will add
• A Grave Token is placed into the pool. or subtract Skulls should they occur; players are not
• Subtract 2 from the final result of the Intention.

17
privy to this list. If something happens during the in-
stallment that the Grave Keeper feels makes for a bet- Player Tips
ter or worse story, they may add or subtract a Skull,
even if it’s not on the list. Sooooo, you think you’re spe-
cial just because your char-
The Grave Keeper secretly keeps track of Skulls during acter is the star of the show,
play, check-marking the boxes provided on the In- do you? Guess what, cre-
stallment Sheet. The players should not be told when tin? You’re not special at
Skulls are gained or lost; only at the end of the install- all. In fact, there’s a good
ment will they learn what the final number of Skulls is. chance your character will
end up being little more than
As mentioned in the “Grave Tokens” section on pag- a juicy, succulent feast for vul-
es 15-16, Skulls will impact how many Grave Tokens tures and rats! But don’t you worry your little
the pool will have at the beginning of each installment severed head about it! Read on and you’ll learn
(except the first installment). Plus, it’s simply an over- things that might help your character survive.
all measure of “how well” the players did. But then again, probably not.

The Gratuitous Content Skull Tip #1: It’s Okay to Die

One constant way to earn a Skull is to include gratu- Yes, this goes against everything that roleplaying
itous content to the installment. This can be done by games have taught us over the years. Yes, it’s some kind
the Grave Keeper or by the players when they have of primal instinct for us to keep our characters alive
control of the narration. It doesn’t matter as long as throughout the whole “adventure”. Yes, it feels like
there is excessive gore, sexuality, bondage or whatever
“losing” when our characters kick the bucket.
other sordid material you can think up!
Now, take all those notions and throw them in the
trash can. Better still, take them outside, start up a
bonfire and burn them to ashes… because they simply
don’t belong in Stories from the Grave. Have you ever
heard the silly old adage, “The play’s the thing”? Well,
as corny as the saying is, it rings absolutely true in this
game. The goal is to cooperatively tell a spine-tingling
tale and if your character croaks in service to that sto-
ry, so much the better. Some stories are flat-out better
if the main characters buy the farm.

In order to get the most out of this game, try to detach

yourself from all those notions that have been ingrained
into you since you started playing RPGs. Dying isn’t los-
ing if it enriches the story. Besides, installments aren’t
long. You’ll be on to the next tale soon enough anyway.

Tip #2: Prepare to Play All Types of PCs

Anthology-style horror isn’t often about heroic people
doing heroic things. They’re usually just average, hap-
less folks who get swept up into bad situations or, just
as often, crummy people who act unscrupulously. As
a player, you can pretty much expect to play these two
types of people far more than daring do-gooders. It’s
simply the nature of the genre.

18
This shift offers roleplayers a unique challenge Tip #5: Failure Can Be Better Than Success
though; an opportunity to step into the shoes of very When you have a choice between Controlled Failure
different sorts of characters than they’re accustomed and Conditional Success, you shouldn’t automatically
to. It also allows players to experience an entirely choose Conditional Success simply because the word
style of game play! “success” is included. Remember, “conditional” is also
included! Those conditions are often extremely dif-
Embrace your character and all of their faults, quirks ficult to deal with. Alternatively, if you choose Con-
and outlooks, whether they’re murderous criminals, trolled Failure, you still have narrative control of the
poor schmucks who find themselves over their heads character, which allows you to dictate the terms of the
or even the rare goodie-good. This diversity will keep failure instead of the Grave Keeper being able to throw
the game from being stagnant and will give your role- a monkey wrench into things.
playing skills quite a workout.
Instead of instinctively choosing Conditional Success,
Tip #3: Familiarize Yourself with the Genre stop for a moment and ask yourself if you have a cool
It’s not even remotely difficult to get your hands on idea for how you could narrate the failure. If a cool idea
anthology-style horror. A trip to the video store or a comes to you, you should strongly consider choosing
streaming video service like Netflix or Hulu will reap Controlled Failure. If not, then Conditional Success
plenty of films and TV shows. You can purchase old might be the way to go, as the Grave Keeper may have
horror comics, collected in convenient trade paper- a fun idea for narrating the success. Put the story first.
back format, for very reasonable prices. Many of the
horror comics of the 1940s and ‘50s have fallen into
the public domain and can be read legally online for
free. The material is out there and it’s easy to acquire.

Familiarizing yourself with the source material will

give you a more intimate understanding of the tropes
and conventions that make anthology-style horror so
unique. Additionally, the pacing of these short tales is
drastically different than the pacing in games that en-
courage longer stories. Delving into the source materi-
al will help you grasp this pacing.

If you want to become a better player in the game, this

is how to do it. There is a treasure trove of resources
right in front of you.

Tip #4: Spice Up Your Narration

The game system places a lot of narrative control in
the players’ hands… so make sure those hands are
capable. No one is asking you to become a master
orator or anything, but when it’s your turn to nar-
rate your character’s actions, do it with a bit of gusto!
Speak with enthusiasm and drama and avoid sound-
ing monotone. Put a little bit of detail into your nar-
ration as well, but only when it adds to the mood.
Mentioning the bright yellow moon looming over-
head is never a waste of words.

19
 Installments
Grave Keeper’s Vault An installment is what many roleplaying games refer
to as an “adventure”. For our published installments,
Welcome to my lair. I think we use a very specific format, as we’ve found it to be
you’ll find it cozy… in a the most convenient way of presenting the necessary
creepy sort of way. Don’t information. You’ll find a blank installment sheet in
mind the dust. Just don’t the back of this book for you to use when creating your
disturb it. I would hate own installments.
for you to have a cof-
fin fit! Reh-heh-heh-heh! Title
Sometimes, I really kill me! Every tale needs a name. Try not to divulge too much
What a great sense of tumor I to the players with the name, as it can spoil the surprise
have! Anyway, since you’re here, we might as of what’s in store for them. “The Werewolf of Soggy
well crack open the tome of knowledge and teach River” may sound evocative, but the players are going
you all the ins and outs of being a good Grave to know right off the bat what they’re walking into be-
Keeper. What can I say? I like big books and I fore the game even begins. If you’re okay with that, go
cannot lie! Reh-heh-heh-heh! for it. Otherwise, such titles should be avoided.

20
Story Frame Skull Modifiers
It’s best to think of a Story Frame as the foundation and This section is devoted to providing a list of events
skeleton upon which your installment is constructed. that will alter the installment’s final number of Skulls
It provides structure so that you can craft your tale earned. You should look at the Story Frame’s suggest-
without worrying about whether or not it follows the ed list before determining exactly what will net the in-
source material in spirit. You’ll find a selection of the stallment Skulls.
most common Story Frames on pages 24-27.
Skull Collection
Each Story Frame offers a general description of what This section allows you to keep track of an install-
it entails as well as a breakdown of each Act to help ment’s Skulls after the game is over, in case you want
you organize the events of your installment. You’ll also to keep record.
be presented with common ways for the installment
of this type to earn and lose Skulls; when making your Grave Keeper Tips
own installments, feel free to modify these, ditch them What follows is a collection of tidbits that will help you
or add new ones to customize the list for your story. become a terror-ific Grave Keeper.
Lastly, most Story Frames have at least one special rule
that applies to the installment. Tip #1: Keep It Moving
Those who have run roleplaying games in the past are
Remember that Story Frames are guidelines; tools for typically accustomed to “adventures” that span the en-
you to use. Don’t hesitate to change them to suit your tirety of a session or even ones that stretch out into
needs or even create all-new ones! multiple sessions. Stories from the Grave is a different
beast altogether, as the intention is to play at least two
Quick Summary or three installments during a single session. This will
This short synopsis lets you know what the installment be quite a change for veterans of other RPGs, as the
is about in a very general sense. In most cases, it should stories have to maintain a deft pace.
be kept to 100 words or less.
If the players slow the pace down to a crawl, speed
Primary Character Backgrounds them up by threatening to start taking Grave Tokens
This section presents the Background for each of the from the pool or, even worse, to force each charac-
PCs. You should write them down on the players’ char- ter to collect a Grave Token. That should get them to
acter sheets or let them do it themselves. move along.

Supporting Characters For your part, give enough details in your narration
Quick write-ups for each of the SCs, along with their to get the point across and set a mood, but if you go
game stats, can be found here. overboard, the game’s pace will slow to a crawl. When
it comes to dialogue, keep it short and sweet. The sto-
Intro From the Grave Hag ries told in the source material had a good amount of
This should be read aloud to the players right before character interaction, but every word had a purpose
the game begins. You’d better start cultivating your and got to the point so that the tale could carry on. You
“crusty old lady” voice! should endeavor to do the same.

General Notes Tip #2: Don’t Be a Slave to the Installment

This section is for notes that don’t apply to any specific Stories from the Grave is a game that gives the players a
Act. You can write special rules that pertain only to this great deal of narrative control, which means they can
installment or anything else you feel should be noted. send the story veering off into completely unexpect-
ed directions. That’s half the fun of the game! If you
Acts railroad them back on course, you’re basically saying
Each Act has its own space devoted to what happens that their narration doesn’t matter. Don’t do that. You
during it. can gently try to steer them back to the areas covered

21
by the written installment, but don’t ramrod them. In-
stead, come up with a way to make their “new direc-
tion” fit into the story and run with it.

Our published installments are written with a specif-

ic course of action in mind, though we try to cover
some of the more common swerves that players may
throw into the mix. Still, it’s best to think of our in-
stallments—and indeed installments of your own cre-
ation—as being a set of guidelines rather than a set-
in-stone blueprint that must be adhered to at all costs.

Tip #3: Carefully Deal with Large Groups

This game is geared toward having one to three play-
ers, due to the types of stories told in anthology-style
horror. Does this mean that you can’t handle more
players than that? Of course not. It just means that you
have to tread very carefully in order to maintain the
feel of the source material.

One strategy is to develop a brand new Story Frame

that will accommodate extra players (or just use “One
Of Us”). You could also modify an existing Story
Frame with a little work. Another strategy is to divide
the players up into separate groups, with each group
participating in its own installment. Since installments
don’t generally take too long, the wait will be tolerable.
Besides, it can be a lot of fun to watch other install- using the narration to drive the story into uncharted
ments unfold. (but awesome) territory. Whatever form it takes, the
PCs should be rewarded.
Tip #4: Use the Grave Hag
Not every comicbook, TV show and movie had a host The most obvious reward is to add a Grave Token to
or hostess that spewed out prologues and epilogues af- the pool. Sometimes, though, you may want to do
ter each story, but many of them did. Using the Grave something extra special for a player when they create
Hag (or even creating your own host or hostess) can such a moment. You could give them an automatic
add to the authenticity of the game all the while em- Trait bonus to the next Intention or grant a free re-roll
bracing the genre. of one die during an Intention. Go off the beaten path
and do something cool for them. They will more than
Our published installments use the Grave Hag, but likely strive to earn such rewards again, to the benefit
there’s no reason you can’t swap her out with a host or of the story.
hostess that you invent.
Tip #6: Aim For the Perfect Ending
Tip #5: Reward the PCs The stories told in anthology-style horror almost al-
One of the biggest thrills of acting as the Grave Keep- ways had fantastic endings; endings that sent shivers
er revolves around those moments in which the PCs down the spine and left the readers slack-jawed. Obvi-
do something that truly enhances the story. There’s ously, this is a much easier task when writing fiction.
no way for us to quantify or classify these moments. After all, the author controls every facet of the story,
You’ll know one when it happens and it’s a beautiful making it a simple matter to line everything up per-
experience. It can be fantastic roleplaying or it can be fectly to set up for the ending. This is a luxury Grave

22
Keepers do not have. Since the players can snatch the can use that in Act Three as a possible way for a karmic
narrative reins away, thus being able to make fairly ending (the PC’s most cherished possession burns up
major changes to the story’s direction, you can’t always in a fire, the PC burns to death, the PC finds out that
plan exactly how things are going to wrapped up. they burned the wrong person and in truth it was a
loved one, etc.). Keep a mental catalogue of things that
But that’s okay. In fact, it’s better than okay. It’s exciting! happen along the way, because when things go askew,
you’ll still want a great finish to the tale.
The installment itself will suggest one or more ways to
end it and even if things go completely off the rails, these Tip #7: Immerse Yourself in the Source Material
endings can often be modified to work with whichever We’ve tried to steer you in the right direction, but
way the tale is headed. Should that fail, fly solo and come there’s no substitute for watching or reading the TV
up with something entirely new; look for opportunities shows, films and comicbooks. While immersing your-
to arise that will make for a tantalizing and terrifying self, try to think of the stories in terms of the game.
conclusion. Thinking on your feet will become second What Story Frame does the episode/issue adhere to?
nature to you sooner than one might think. What stats would the SCs have? Where does one Act
end and another begin? What would likely happen if
The trick is to pay close attention to all the little details the main character took a different course of action? By
that can be tied to the end. If, for example, the PC lets a analyzing the source material, you’ll become more at-
character burn to death earlier in the installment, you tuned to the genre, making you a better Grave Keeper.

23
 “Consequences”
List of Story Frames The PCs do something unscrupulous, but they may
very well regret it by the time it’s all over… if they sur-
vive. Karma is a harsh mistress.
“Careful What You Wish For”
This Story Frame works best for one PC. The PC wants The Acts
something and will go to any lengths to get it. • Act 1: This is the Act in which the dirty deed(s) is
established.
The Acts • Act 2: During this Act, we see the consequences of
• Act 1: During this Act, it is established what the PC the PCs’ actions arise and cause major problems for
wants and why they want it. The inciting incident is them. The bulk of the Act will involve the PCs trying
to find a way to negate the ramifications somehow.
something that prompts the PC to pursue whatever it
Things often get ridiculously chaotic.
is they want.
• Act 3: Possible solutions are found, but will they work
• Act 2: In Act 2, the PC tries to acquire the “object” of
or will Karma get them in the end?
their desires. If they receive it, it should be at the end of
the Act. If they don’t receive it, move on to Act 3 with Suggested Skull Modifiers
a final, desperate effort to acquire it. • +½ for each PC that suffers a Game Ending result.
• Act 3: If the PC receives whatever it is they were af- • +½ for each PC whose Game Ending result is some-
ter, they learn that there’s some kind of downside to how Karmic or poetic (in addition to the +½ for a reg-
it; something happens that makes them wish they had ular Game Ending result).
never sought it out. If they didn’t receive it in Act 2, • +1 if one or more of the PCs act truly reprehensible
they try to acquire it in Act 3 and will either fail, with in Act 1.
the installment ending, or will find out the downside • -1 if none of the PCs suffer a Game Ending result.
at the end of the Act as a “shock ending”.
Special Rules
Dire Climax: When making Grave Intentions during
Suggested Skull Modifiers
Act 3, players must re-roll the highest-rolling die,
• +1 if the PC puts a lot of effort into obtaining what
keeping the new result.
they desire.
• +1 if the PC suffers a Game Ending result. (if more ----------------------------------------
than one player is playing, change this to “+½ for each
PC that suffers a Game Ending result).
• +1 if the player triggers one of their PC’s Flaws vol-
untarily during the game (if more than one player is
playing, change this to “+1 if at least one player triggers
one of their PC’s Flaws voluntarily during the game”).

Special Rules
Increasing Difficulty: During Act 2, the PC suffers a
-1 penalty to their Guts-based Intentions that involve
whatever it is they desire. During Act 3, that penalty
becomes -2 instead.

----------------------------------------

24
“Hapless” “Mystery”
The PCs are normal, everyday people who find them- There’s a mystery afoot and it’s up to the PCs to solve it.
selves in a terrifying situation. Can they find their way
out or will their fate be an unpleasant one? The Acts
• Act 1: The nature of the mystery is revealed and the
The Acts
PCs are drawn into it. The inciting event typically hap-
• Act 1: This is the Act in which we meet the PCs and
establish their personalities and what they were doing pens shortly after the mystery becomes known to the
before being pulled into the horrific situation. The in- PCs and it can be virtually anything.
citing incident is the event that kickstarts their descent • Act 2: In this Act, the PCs search for clues while
into terror. dealing with any adverse events that stem from
• Act 2: In this Act, the PCs must deal with their tragic their investigation.
turn of events and try to escape, change their situation • Act 3: During this Act, the PCs get to the source of
or simply survive. the mystery and, hopefully, solve it… or perish trying.
• Act 3: During this Act, the PCs find out the catalyst
of their situation and attempt to rectify it or simply es-
Suggested Skull Modifiers
cape back to their normal lives.
• +½ for each clue the PCs find and decipher.
Suggested Skull Modifiers • +1 if one or more of the PCs act heroically at some
• +½ for each PC that doesn’t suffer a game Ending point during the installment.
result (unless the PCs show themselves not to be good • -1 if none of the PCs survive (unless the PCs show
people, in which case ignore this altogether) themselves not to be good people, in which case this
• +1 if one or more PCs act against the cause of the becomes +1).
problem rather than simply try to escape. • -1 if none of the mystery goes unsolved and doesn’t
• +1 if one or more of the PCs act heroically at some have a twist ending.
point during the installment.
• -1 if none of the PCs survive (unless the PCs show
themselves not to be good people, in which case this Special Rules
becomes +1) Deeper and Deadlier: Whenever the PCs find and fig-
ure out a clue, every PC collects a Grave Token (not
Special Rules from the pool).
Good Karma: Any PC that proves themselves to be a
good person throughout Acts 1 and 2 may, at the end ----------------------------------------
of Act 2, purge their collected Grave Tokens on rolls or
4+ instead of 5+.

25
“One of Us” Who is the Killer? Before the scenario begins, the
Someone is threatening the PCs. The someone is one Grave Keeper must decide who the enemy is, or rath-
of the Primary Characters. This Story Frame works er, what will determine who the enemy is. Within the
best with 4 or more players. structure of Act 1, there must be some trigger to deter-
mine who is the enemy. The Grave Keeper must write
The Acts this trigger down and seal it in an envelope. At the
• Act 1: The PCs have a common enemy. The enemy is conclusion of Act 1, after the Grave Keeper announces
threatening all of them. During this first Act, the po- that the enemy is one of the PCs, the Grave Keeper
tential damage must be illustrated, likely by killing at will write down the name of the killer on the envelope
least one SC significant to the PCs. At the end of Act and place this envelope inside another envelope and
1, the Grave Keeper will announce that one of the PCs leave it in plain sight. Must we clarify that the players
is indeed the enemy. The inciting incident makes clear should not see what is written on the envelope or in
that the enemy is in their midst. The Grave Keeper the envelope? In addition to the inciting incident, the
will not announce the inciting incident. (Inciting In-
Grave Keeper should write down a brief reason why
cident Examples: the character who doesn’t succeed in
this character is the enemy. This backstory might be
beating up the nerd; the character who first opens the
tragic or sinister.
door to the spooky mansion; the character who first
says something witty and salacious after the first body
is found.) The inciting incident should not be a total Killer Dice: The killer does not even know who they
giveaway who the enemy is. are… yet. The GM reveals a large bowl of d6s. These
are Killer Dice. These are for the killer (enemy) and
• Act 2: Now that the players and the PCs know that the killer only. Any player may attempt to use one, but
the enemy is in their midst, they have to try and find only if trying to determine who the killer is, either by
the enemy and survive. If the killer is known, they can gathering of clues, or blatant violence. After a player
attempt to kill any other PC. Once the killer is known, uses one, the Grave Keeper will narrate the resolution
the Act will have as many Intentions remaining as their of their Intention, and reveal whether or not that PC
are PCs (if there are 4 living PCs when the identity of is the killer. If they are the killer, the Grave Keeper will
the Killer is known, there will be only 4 Intentions for open the envelope, show the name, and hand the sec-
the rest of the Act). ond, unopened envelope to the killer. If the player is
not the killer, they may not withdraw from the Killer
• Act 3: Any character can be killed by the Killer. This Dice pool again. Once the Killer has been discovered,
Act will have 10 Intentions, and then it is over. If the only the killer may draw dice. If a player draws from
killer did not kill everyone, the Grave Keeper will nar- the pool and is not the killer, now that character can
rate how the remaining PCs were rescued. die! This death can be at the hands of the killer or a
. different PC.
Suggested Skull Modifiers
• +½ for each clue the PCs find and decipher. Killer Dice act as a bonus die for a player to roll, negat-
• +1 for every PC killed by another non-killer PC. ing a low rolling die. A player will still only keep the
• +½ for every Killer Dice played by a non-killer.
results of two dice, but this gives them a better chance
• +1 if the last surviving character is not the killer.
of getting a higher number.
• +1 if the Story ends and the Killer is not killed and
there is a surviving non-Killer PC.
The KIller is Me: If the killer is killed, the PC who
Special Rules killed the killer becomes the killer, and can utilize the
Time Management: For Acts 2 and 3,the Grave Keep- Killer Dice.
er must keep track of the number of Intentions made
collectively by the players. This determines when these ----------------------------------------
two Acts end.

26
“Revenge” “The Item”
This Story Frame works best for one PC. The PC or An object comes into the PCs’ lives. At first all seems
someone the PC cares about has been wronged and it’s well, but things turn sinister.
about time for some payback. But will the revenge be
as sweet as they had hoped… or will it be sour instead. The Acts
• Act 1: During this Act, the item is introduced. The in-
The Acts citing incident is usually when the first sign that some-
• Act 1: The main goal of this Act is to highlight why thing is wrong occurs.
the PC wants revenge. The “jerk” should be portrayed • Act 2: In Act 2, the strange events escalate, causing the
as reprehensible. The inciting incident should be the PCs to do something about it (researching the object,
final straw; the one thing that causes the PC to go on getting rid of it, destroying it, etc.). Nothing works.
their quest for vengeance. • Act 3: In this Act, there’s a breakthrough of some
• Act 2: This Act is all about setting up the revenge and kind, allowing for the possibility that the problem can
potentially continuing to demonstrate the jerk’s awful- be solved. Whether it works remains to be seen.
ness. The PC should have to overcome various compli-
cations in their quest. Suggested Skull Modifiers
• Act 3: During this Act, the PC has their chance to get • +½ for each PC that doesn’t suffer a game Ending
revenge. It may play out how the PC envisioned or it result (unless the PCs show themselves not to be good
may go awry. If the revenge involves death, the PC may people, in which case ignore this altogether).
end up on the wrong side of Karma and get comeup- • +1 if the PCs come up with a creative and entertain-
pance of their own. ing way to solve the problem.
• -1 if none of the PCs survive (unless the PCs show
Suggested Skull Modifiers themselves not to be good people, in which case this
• +1 if the jerk receives comeuppance. becomes +1).
• +1 if the method of revenge is creative.
• +1 if the PC chooses a “Controlled Failure” result at Special Rules
some point. Hard to Get Rid Of: Each time the PCs attempt to de-
• -1 if the PC doesn’t get a Failure result during Act 3 stroy or get rid of the item during Act 2, every involved
(everyone loves a struggle!) PC collects a Grave Token (not from the pool).

Special Rules
None.

27
 I digress. In tonight’s story, we meet Henry Mason, a
Sample Installment man who finds love—or at least lust—in all the wrong
places… like a swampy, moss-covered graveyard, for
This is a ready-to-run installment adapted from a sto- example. It’s liable to make him go stark-graving mad!
ry found in the first issue of a comicbook called Weird
Terror (September 1952), which is in the public domain. General Notes: None

Title: “The Wage-Earners” Act One

The installment should begin with Henry driving on
Story Frame: Careful What You Wish For a road right next to an old graveyard. Describe the
fog and how creepy the graveyard looks, with its old,
Quick Summary: Henry Mason becomes supernat- moss-choked graves jutting from the ground at differ-
urally seduced by a strange but beautiful woman he ent angles and how the tree limbs that loom over the
meets in a swampy, fog-shrouded graveyard. She tele- road look like demonic hands trying to clutch the car
pathically urges him to kill his fiancée so he can be in their long fingers. Set a mood.
with her. What he doesn’t know, however, is that this
mystery woman is a vampiric swamp-creature who Henry’s fiancée calls him on his cell phone to see when
lures men to a grimy shack so she and her father can he’s going to be home. Portray her as a real sweetheart.
transform them into monstrous and nearly-mindless She should be presented as a sympathetic figure. Get
henchmen known as “wage-earners”. some roleplaying going.

Primary Character Backgrounds: Then, a Flesh-based Installment must be made to avoid

• Henry Mason: A young man who has lived in the hitting a beautiful woman who is walking across the
same area of Florida all his life. He lives a mundane ex- road. If Henry hits the woman, she’ll go flying into the
istence, working at a dead-end 9-to-5 job and engaged weed-riddled ditch and he’ll find a small amount of
to a wealthy woman, but only for her money.
Supporting Characters:
• Lucinda (SC rating: 0): Henry’s far-too-sweet-for-
her-own-good fiancée. She’s beautiful, loves Henry
deeply and is blind to anything he does.
• Amelia (F4, B2, T3, G3; Supernatural Seduction 4,
Vampiric Bite 4): A horrid creature masquerading as
a beautiful female human. She uses her Supernatural
Seduction to cloud the minds of others.
• Amelia’s Father (F5, B3, T0, G3): A Grim Reap-
er-like creature whose role in the overall scheme of
things is unknown and is best left that way to create an
enigmatic aura.
• Wage-Earners (SC rating: 0): Stooped-over green
humanoids that were once humans before being bitten
by Amelia. They are pathetic creatures who can only
speak simple, broken sentences and are completely
loyal to Amelia and her father.

Intro from the Grave Hag: “It’s story time, fright fans!
And, boy, do I have a tawdry tale for you!. It’s a yarn
about love, romance, longing and all that other dis-
gusting, sappy drivel! Yech! Give me good old eviscer-
ation, suffocation and dismemberment any day! But

28
green slime on his car instead of blood. If he didn’t hit Before parting company with him, she will suggest that
the woman and you control the narration, his car hits a they could be together forever… but he would have to
tree or gets temporarily stuck in the ditch. If the player get rid of his fiancée in “a most permanent manner”.
controls the narrative, be prepared to think quickly, as She says that he can come to the graveyard once the
Henry really needs to meet the woman. Perhaps she deed has been done and she’ll be there waiting for
can show up out of nowhere the next day or perhaps him. The rest of the installment depends on whether
she even goes to his home in Act Two.
or not Henry decides to kill his fiancée. If he received
a Failure result for the Seduction-based Intention, the
As soon as the Intention is made and narrated, Act
Two begins. player will have little choice; she has him in her evil
clutches, so the GM will take over the narration and
Act Two have him kill her. You’ll have to work up some way to
The woman introduces herself as Amelia, whether it’s handle the situation if he receives a Conditional Suc-
there by the graveyard or elsewhere (if Henry left the cess. Otherwise, it’s up to the player.
scene). She’s the most gorgeous woman he’s ever met
and is sultry as well. Regardless, she doesn’t seem bad- If Henry decides against murdering her, have Amelia
ly injured, nor is she terribly rattled by the experience. invade his dreams or otherwise taunt him into doing
what she wants. Feel free to force another Guts In-
Amelia explains that she had met with one of her fa- tention on him, though with only a 3 as an Obstacle
ther’s workers just beyond the graveyard to give them rather than a 4, as she’s not nearby. It’s okay if he wins
their paycheck, as it’s a centrally located place. She
out though.
was on her way back home when Henry came along.
If asked, she claims her father runs a business cutting
cypress trees. If Henry goes through with the murder attempt, role-
play it out. Let it be a disturbing scene. It can be run as
a Confrontation if you’d like or just a Flesh Intention
to seal the deal.

Do some roleplaying. Play Amelia as being persua-

sive and perhaps a bit elusive. She’s a woman of exot-
ic mystery. While she doesn’t throw herself at Hen-
ry, she tries to seduce him with her powers to make
him become infatuated with her. The PC must make
a Guts-based Intention, using her Seduction special
ability of 4 as an Obstacle.

29
Act Three
If Henry resisted Amelia’s attempts to manipulate him,
she will become more forceful by sending her father’s
wage-earners after both Henry and his fiancée while
they are at home, turning the climax into a suspenseful
“home invasion” situation. Amelia herself will even-
tually make an appearance as well. Feel free to throw
some Intentions Henry’s way to keep things tense.

If Henry offed his poor fiancée and goes to the grave-

yard to meet Amelia, she will indeed be there, just as
she promised. She will take him to her house, which
turns out to be a rickety old shack just behind the
graveyard. Once inside, Henry will see a dozen or so
wage-earners. If questioned, Amelia will be vague and
insist that her father will be home soon. If he tries to
escape, the wage-earners will become violent and will
restrain him unless he can make a successful Flesh
Intention with an Obstacle of 3. If his escape attempt
succeeds, ad-lib and go with the flow.

Whether Henry kills his fiancée or not, it’s important

for him to learn that the wage-earners were once men
like him, who were seduced into doing something ter-
rible and then drained of the rest of their humanity
with her vampiric bite that transforms them into these
pathetic humanoids. The big reveal is two-fold. Firstly,
when her father comes home, he is a tall skeletal crea-
ture that looks like the Grim Reaper. Secondly, Amelia
will, at some point, possibly after Henry is bitten if in-
deed he even gets bitten, tear off her “human suit” to
reveal that she isn’t human at all, but is in actuality a
skinny, almost-skeletal humanoid.

So regardless of how things progress, Amelia’s ultimate

goal is to sink her teeth into Henry’s neck and incapac-
itate him. Once bitten, he will slowly become one of
the wage-earners.

Skull Modifiers
• +1 if Henry kills his fiancée
• +1 if the PC suffers a Game Ending result.
• +1 if the player triggers one of Henry’s Flaws volun-
tarily during the game.
• +1 for Gratuitous Content.
• -1 if henry doesn’t stop the car after hitting Amelia
in Act One.
• -1/+1 if the Grave Keeper feels the installment was
particularly entertaining.

30
 of 11. According to the Intention Result Table, that’s
Example of Play a Success.

To keep things easy, the players’ names have simply GRAVE KEEPER: Henry knows the cause of the
been replaced with their characters’ names. Text in problem. Run with it. Just make up pseudo-scientific
quotation marks indicate “in character” dialogue. gibberish that sounds half-plausible and run with it.

GRAVE KEEPER: [In the Grave Hag’s voice] “What HENRY: I’ll give it my best shot. “It’s beginning to
was the awful thing which screamed and howled in the separate. The entire mass has crystallized. If we could
black vistas of the deep bayous? Henry Baxter learned only get the molecular structure to solidify, I’m sure
the horrible truth, but the discovery nearly cost him we would have it!”
his life.”
GRAVE KEEPER: That works for me. You both notice
HENRY: Hey, at least I know my character isn’t actu- the late hour. You’ve been at this all day.
ally going to die!

GRAVE KEEPER: Don’t be so sure. It’s

called post-production. It’s so easy to al-
ter that sentence if your character bites the
dust. Anyway, there’s a rambling old edifice
in the remote swamps of southern Georgia
that is the temporary laboratory of Profes-
sor Henry Baxter, a brilliant bio-chemist.
Beside the crumbling old mansion was an
abandoned graveyard, which many be-
lieved was visited by supernatural forces.
In his spacious workshop on the ground
floor, Professor Baxter and his assistant,
Rex Barton, worked day and night in an
effort to develop a longevity serum, to
prolong human life. Okay, you’re in the lab
and you’ve not made any progress.

REX: “How is the culture reacting, Profes-

sor?”

HENRY: “No good, Rex.” I was never very

good with science, so I’m just adlibbing
here. [chuckles]

GRAVE KEEPER: You could make a

Brains-based Intention to see if Henry can
get a grasp on what’s going wrong. There
are no Obstacles or Benefits here.

Henry has a Brains rating of 2, which

allows him to roll 4 dice and keep the
highest two. He rolls 2, 3, 5 and 6. He
adds the 5 and 6 together for a total

31
REX: “Well, let’s knock off for now, Profes-
sor. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

HENRY: “Yes, perhaps tomorrow will re-

veal the elusive secret we’re seeking.”

GRAVE KEEPER: I need you both to

make a Brains-based Intention to notice
something. But there will be an Obstacle
of 1.

Henry has a Brains rating of 2, which

would normally allow him to roll 4 dice
and keep the highest two. However, the
Obstacle reduces his effective rating to
1, so he rolls 3 dice instead. He rolls 1, 2
and 3. He adds the 2 and 3 together for
a total of 5. According to the Intention
Result Table, that’s a Failure.

Rex has a Brains rating of 1, which would

normally allow him to roll 3 dice and
keep the highest two. But that Obstacle
reduces it to 0, so he rolls 2 dice and
takes whatever he gets. Talk about luck!
He rolls a 5 and 5, which is a total result
of 10. A Success!

HENRY: What was the Obstacle for?

GRAVE KEEPER: It’s because of the fact

that it’s very dark outside. At any rate,
Henry is too busy putting up his tools to
spot it, but Rex notices a face peering in heard the commotion. “What’s wrong, Rex? I heard
through the window. It looks like the face of a rotting you shouting all the way in the living room.”
cadaver, with tangled, messy hair.
REX: “Oh, Gretta, I thought I saw someone or some-
REX: “Professor! Look! That face in the window!” thing glancing in the window, but I may have just
imagined it.”
HENRY: “What? I don’t see anything. There’s nothing
out there.” HENRY: “Certainly you imagined it, Rex. This weird
morass has probably worked on your nerves, as it has
REX: “But there was! I just caught a glimpse of it. It all of us.”
was ghastly!”
REX: “Perhaps so, Professor.” Henry isn’t really con-
GRAVE KEEPER: Okay, that was the end of Act One. vinced that it’s just his nerves though. He’s going to
No one has collected any Grave Tokens yet, so we can go outside to have a quick look around without trying
move right along. Gretta, who is Rex’s girlfriend and to alert the others that he still thinks he saw someone
the daughter of Henry, bounds into the room, having out there.

32
 inside and get some sleep. He’s now begin-
ning to wonder if his mind is just playing
tricks on him.

GRAVE KEEPER: I need Henry to make

a Brains-based Intention to try to find a
solution to the chemical failure over the
coming days. He will receive a Benefit of 1
since Rex is assisting him.

Again, Henry has a Brains rating of 2,

which would normally allow him to roll 4
dice and keep the highest two. Howev-
er, the Benefit increases his effective
rating to 3, so he rolls 5 dice instead.
He rolls 1, 1, 2, 3 and 4. He adds the 3
and 4 together for a total of 7. Accord-
ing to the Intention Result Table, he can
choose between Conditional Success or
Controlled Failure.

HENRY: That’s a tough choice, but I’ll go

with Conditional Success.

GRAVE KEEPER: In the days that fol-

lowed, the two men continued their work
with a renewed vigor. Finally, weeks later,
Henry pronounces, “This is it, Rex! The
molecular structure has locked into a sol-
id mass!! We’ve found it! Our longevity
serum is perfected!” But suddenly, the air
was rent by a horrible moaning sound.

REX: I’m guessing the creature coming

GRAVE KEEPER: Well, after each session, you usual- back was the complication stemming from the Con-
ly dispose of the failed serums in the graveyard beside ditional Success?
the house, so that would make a good excuse.
GRAVE KEEPER: You’re correct.
REX: Perfect! That’s what Rex does then. “There goes
another day’s hard work.” He says that just in case Possibilities
Henry or Gretta can hear him. Does he see anyone Let’s pull back the curtain and look at what might have
out there? been, had the situation (rolls, choices, etc.) been different
with the Brains-based Intention. Had it been a Failure, per-
haps the formula they were working on would have gone
GRAVE KEEPER: No, but he does see a peculiar crack awry and caused an explosion. Had Henry chosen Con-
in one of the headstones. It looks relatively fresh, like it trolled Failure, perhaps the serum simply wouldn’t have
had only begun to crack recently. worked, making the stretch of time a total waste of effort.
Success might have been similar to the way the events
REX: “That’s strange. That grave has started to crack turned out, except that the creature may not have shown
up so soon.
open. I wonder if it’s erosion or…” I think he’ll go back

33
HENRY: “Good Lord! What was that?” HENRY: Henry implores him: “It would be foolhardy
to go out there now, Rex. It’s as black as pitch! Wait
REX: “Where is the noise coming from?” until tomorrow and we’ll investigate together.” With a
sigh, Rex says, “Well, perhaps it would be best to wait.”
GRAVE KEEPER: The graveyard.
GRAVE KEEPER: Rex, you can attempt another
REX: “It came from outside, in the graveyard!” mini-conflict if you would like.

GRAVE KEEPER: Suddenly, Gretta bursts into the REX: No, I think Rex will head to bed. He won’t argue
laboratory. “Father, what was that horrible noise?” further and get everyone even more upset.

HENRY: “Don’t be alarmed, dear. I’m sure there’s a GRAVE KEEPER: The three retired for the evening,
logical reason for it.” but during the small hours of the night, Gretta was
suddenly awakened by the awful moans. She gets up
REX: Rex has the “Man of action” Descriptor, so he’s from her bed, and says to herself, “It’s started again!
going to rush outside and confront whatever it is that’s Coming from the cemetery!” She sees it, a huge con-
making this noise. torted creature. Freaking out, she yells out, “Father!
Rex! Come quickly!”
GRAVE KEEPER: For that, I’ll add a Grave Token
to the pool. I love it when players use things on their REX: Rex beats feet to her room.
character sheets, especially if it furthers the story…
and this certainly accomplishes that! Gretta urges Rex: HENRY: Henry does too.
“Come back, Rex! Don’t go out there!”
GRAVE KEEPER: Each of you need to make Flesh-
REX: He’ going to pay her no mind. “There’s some- based Intention. Since you were dead asleep when she
thing fiendish in that graveyard and I’m going to find yelled, you’re facing an Obstacle of 1.
out what it is!”
REX: Rex really wants to lay eyes on this thing so he
HENRY: Henry is going to try to talk some sense into can find out what it actually is. I’m going to spend a
him. Can I roll to convince him to stay inside? Grave Token from the pool. Can I exploit my “Man of
action” Descriptor to make my bonus a +3 instead of
GRAVE KEEPER: You’re going to have to make a PC- just a +1?
versus-PC Intention. It will use Henry’s Tongue rating
and Rex’s Guts rating. GRAVE KEEPER: Yes, you can do that. Henry are you
spending any Grave Tokens on this Intention?
Henry has a Tongue rating of 0, which allows him to
roll 2 dice and add the two rolls together. He rolls 5 HENRY: No. I’ll be happy if at least one of us can see
and 6. He adds them together for a total of 11. the creature or whatever it is. No need to waste more
Grave Tokens than necessary.
Rex has a Guts rating of 0 also, so he will only be
rolling 2 dice as well. He rolls a 2 and 3, which is a GRAVE KEEPER: I’m going to place a new Grave To-
total result of 5. ken into the pool in order to trigger Henry’s “Getting
up there in age” Flaw. That will give him a -2 to his
The Grave Keeper cross references the two results final result.
on the PC vs. PC Intention Result Table, with Henry
acting as “Character A” and Rex acting as “Charac- Henry has a Flesh rating of -1, so he rolls 3 dice and
ter B”. Looking at the result, the table says, “Char- takes the two lowest results. He rolls 4, 4 and 6.
acter A succeeds”. Okay, Henry, you get to narrate Ordinarily, he would have a result of 8, but due to
the results. the Flaw that was triggered, he only has 6. That’s
a Failure.

34
Rex has a Flesh rating of 1, so he rolls 3 dice and Many thoughts swirled about in their minds: “Who-
takes the two highest results. He rolls an abysmal ever was buried there is now liberated”, “It’s something
1, 1 and 2. His total result would have been 3, but he from beyond the grave”, “Logic tells me such things are
spent a Grave Token and exploited his “Man of ac- impossible but how can I doubt?” Okay, guys, these
tion” Descriptor, so that brings it up to 6. So close, thoughts are the kind of things that can drive some-
but still a Failure! one mad, so I’m going to have you both make a Grave
Guts-based Intention. No Obstacles or Benefits.
GRAVE KEEPER: In response to the girl’s screams,
the two men ran into her room and when Rex Henry has a Guts rating of 1, so he rolls 3 dice and
glanced out the window, nothing was out there. takes the two highest results. He rolls 4, 6 and 6.
They were too late. That’s a total result of 12… a Success!

REX: “It’s gone now, but I’m convinced whatever it Rex has a Guts rating of 0, so he rolls 2 dice and
was, it must be the same creature I spotted through the adds them together. He rolls 2 and 4… a total of 6.
window several weeks ago.” That’s a Failure!

HENRY: “It’ll be dawn soon. Perhaps we’ll

get to the bottom of this then.”

GRAVE KEEPER: Come the dawn, the

two men step forth to investigate. The first
thing they notice is that one of the tomb-
stones has been busted open.

REX: Was it the same one Rex saw with

cracks in it earlier?

GRAVE KEEPER: One and the same. Did

Rex tell Henry about seeing it that night?

REX: No. He was trying to be inconspicu-

ous at that point.

HENRY: “Say, what happened to that grave?”

REX: [laughing] Does anybody actually

start sentences out with “say”?

HENRY: [laughing also] Henry does, ap-

parently.

REX: “That’s what I’m wondering! A few

weeks ago, I noticed that this grave was split-
ting. Now it’s completely cracked open!”

GRAVE KEEPER: The terrible implica-

tions of the discovery weighed upon their
troubled minds, suggesting horrible con-
sequences, which they tried to suppress.

35
GRAVE KEEPER: Since this was a Grave Intention, GRAVE KEEPER: No roll necessary. As you listen,
Rex might go completely insane and be out of the in- you can tell that Rex has survived and is returning.
stallment. Rex, roll two dice and add them together for
the Grave Failure Table. HENRY: “No! He’s on the porch! He’s coming in!”

Rex rolls 4 and 5. This means that it is a Non-Game GRAVE KEEPER: Suddenly, the door bursts open and Rex
Ending result. collapses, inert, upon the floor, muttering incoherently.

GRAVE KEEPER: Rex doesn’t go insane, but he does REX: I’ve got an idea. We know the thing is proba-
panic and decides to act without thinking. And now, bly undead in nature, right? I mean, Rex saw a zom-
we begin Act Three. bie-looking critter at the window. Maybe we could use
the serum we’ve been working on. All those chemicals
REX: Uh-oh. That can’t be good. might dissolve the monster. After clearing his head a
few minutes, Rex says, “We’ve got to kill it! Get the lon-
GRAVE KEEPER: Probably not. Rex, you collected a gevity serum… it’s the only thing that can destroy him!”
Grave Token earlier. You can now roll a die to try to
purge it. HENRY: [laughing] How do you know it’s the only
thing that can kill it?
Rex rolls 4. He needed a 5 or 6 to purge it, so it
stays with him. REX: I don’t know. It just sounded dramatic.

GRAVE KEEPER: The terrible moaning phenome- GRAVE KEEPER: All this was too much for Gretta.
non continues to torment them until finally, Rex could She says, “I can’t stand it! I’m going out there before it
restrain himself no longer. He declares, “I’m going to comes in after us!” She removes her father’s pistol from
settle this thing once and for all, right now!” They try a drawer and runs from the house.
to stop him, but this time, they can’t. He barges out
the door. He is attacked by an unseen creature. I don’t HENRY: “Gretta, come back!” I want to make an In-
normally like to have so many Intentions, but it’s un- tention to coax her into coming back before something
avoidable here. Rex is looking at a Grave Flesh-based bad happens to her.
Intention. The creature’s own Flesh rating is 2, so that
is subtracted from Rex’s Flesh rating. GRAVE KEEPER: It will be Tongue-based and her SC
rating is 0, so there won’t be an Obstacle because of it.
Rex’s Flesh rating is normally 1, but because of the
monster’s Flesh rating, it counts as a rating of -1. Henry’s Tongue rating is 0, so he rolls 2 dice and
He rolls 3 dice and uses the two lowest results. He hopes for the best. He rolls 2 and 3, a total result
rolls 4, 5 and 5. That’s a total result of 9. Rex can of 5… a Failure.
choose between Controlled Failure or Conditional
Success. GRAVE KEEPER: She yells, “No! I won’t wait! I’ll kill
it! Kill it!”
REX: Well, the Conditional Success came back and bit
us on the butt last time, so I’ll choose Controlled Fail- REX: Yep, she’s gone goofy.
ure. At least I control the narrative that way. Inside the
house, Henry and Gretta can hear a sound of a strug- GRAVE KEEPER: When she comes face to face with
gle and then Rex screams out, “NO! STAY AWAY! the horrible thing in the fens, her resolution is turned
AAAGH!” into stark terror. For the first time, Henry and Gretta
lay eyes on the monster. It is a large mostly-skeletal hu-
GRAVE KEEPER: Scared out of her wits, Gretta says, manoid with a little bit of skin remaining. Outstretch-
“Listen, Father! It’s got Rex!” ing its boney arms, it clutches her… and it speaks in a
creaky, terrifying voice: “So, you will be next to feel my
HENRY: Henry is going to listen really closely. Do I wrath!”
need to make an Intention?
HENRY: “Good Lord, no! Let her go, you fiend!”

36
GRAVE KEEPER: The creature continues, “You all Subtracting the combined penalty of 4, the final
must die! But you shall be first, professor! It was your roll is 7. That’s a Non-Game Ending result! He was
accursed elixirs drenching my grave continually which very lucky!
resurrected this wretched body from the sod!” Gretta,
now fully captured by the monster pleads for her fa- REX: Can Rex come out of the house and help out? He
ther to help her. has been laying there on the floor recovering from the
earlier attack.
HENRY: Did Gretta drop the pistol?
GRAVE KEEPER: Yes, he can.
GRAVE KEEPER: No. She still has it in her hand, but
she’s too scared to use it. She’s panicky. REX: While the scuffling has been going on, Rex runs
to the laboratory to grab a glass vial of the serum.
HENRY: Could I spend a Grave Token to edit the Then, he heads outside to confront the skeleton guy.
scene so that she dropped the pistol?
GRAVE KEEPER: As the terrifying creature grasps
GRAVE KEEPER: Sure! the old chemist, Rex arrives on the scene.

HENRY: Okay, I’ll spend it then. Henry

Baxter retrieves the fallen pistol and fired
as the horribly emaciated thing advances
toward him.

GRAVE KEEPER: Since the creature is

coming toward Henry and Henry is also
shooting back, both are in peril. Make a
Flesh-based Grave Intention. The creature
has a Flesh rating of 2, so that will be -2
modifier to Henry’s Flesh rating.

HENRY: Since Henry’s Flesh is so low, I

want to spend two Grave Tokens to boost
the result. He doesn’t have anything I can
exploit though, so each one will only add
1 to the result.

Henry’s Flesh rating is normally -1, but

the beast’s own Flesh is 2, so the mod-
ified rating is -3. He rolls 5 dice and
takes the lowest two results. He rolls 2,
2, 3, 6, 6… a total of 4. But Henry spent
2 Grave Tokens to boost the result by
2… giving him a final result of 6. That’s
still a Failure, which means poor Henry
has to roll on the Grave Failure Table.

There are penalties for the roll. Since

the game is in Act Three, the roll is de-
creased by 3. Plus, for every two Grave
Tokens collected by the character, the
roll is decreased by 1; he currently has
three Grave Tokens, so it gives a pen-
alty of 1. Henry rolls 5 and 6. That’s 11.

37
HENRY: Before Rex interrupts, I’d like Henry to hit a REX: “Did you see that, professor? He turned into an
classic “old scientist” line that one might see in the old embryo and then vanished!”
comics or shows. He says, “No! Don’t! I gave you life!
Don’t do this to me!” HENRY: The entire pattern of life, enacted before our
very eyes, in reverse. This means we were on the wrong
GRAVE KEEPER: The creature retorts, “LIFE? Do trail, Rex! The serum we developed, overactivated the
you call this life? Can a man live without a soul? My glandular functions in the body and had digressive ef-
spirit departed when I died, but you have kept the rest fects!”
of me in a state of LIVING DEATH!” The monster is
so distracted by his own soliloquy that Rex can take REX: “Then all we have to do is reverse the formula
him by surprise. and we’ll have it!”

REX: Rex is going to lob the vial right in the thing’s face! GRAVE KEEPER: Gretta adds, “It’s ironic to think
that a harbinger of death was responsible for bring-
GRAVE KEEPER: Okay, it’s a Flesh-based Grave Inten- ing prolonged life to the people of the world!” Aaaand
tion. Only the monster’s ‘life’ is in danger, though, since that’s a wrap!
he is surprised and isn’t in a position to attack.
Remember, the critter’s Flesh is 2.Also, I’m
going to use the Grave Token you collected
to give you a -1 to your final result.

Rex’s Flesh rating is normally 1, but due

to the creature’s Flesh rating, it’s re-
duced to -1. He has to roll 3 dice and
take the two lowest results. He gets 5,
6 and 6! That would be 11 in most cases,
but the Grave Token used by the Grave
Keeper lowers it to 10, which is still
(barely!) a Success!

REX: Without pausing, the young scien-

tist flings the vial of longevity serum into
the creature’s face. “Take that, you thing
of darkness!”

The Grave Keeper rolls on the Grave

Failure Table.

There are penalties for the roll. Since

the game is in Act Three, the roll is de-
creased by 3. The Grave Keeper rolls 3
and 4. With the -3 penalty, the final roll
is 4… a Game Ending result!

GRAVE KEEPER: As the potent liquid

sank into that decayed flesh, an incredible
change took place; a metamorphosis the
likes of which no mortal had ever seen!
You see the creature de-age… from a dead
cadaver, to a young man, to a youth, to a
small child, to a baby, to an embryo and
finally into nothingness.

38
 tention System, which is the rule-set that powers our
Epilogue RPG, Retrostar. It’s a near perfect fit, due partly to its
narrative approach and also because it is based on the
For me, it all started with Creepshow when I was ten three-act structure that these stories used. It just need-
years old. Despite my tender age, I was already some- ed some yanking, adjusting and snipping to make it
thing of a horror aficionado, having cut my teeth on the perfect system for the genre.
films such as Halloween, My Bloody Valentine and
Happy Birthday to Me. But Creepshow was different; When I mentioned designing Stories from the Grave,
it was comprised of several different stories, each with people were very enthused and I was able to assemble
a eyebrow-raising ending and linked together by ani- a team of crack artists who love the source material
mated segments that evoked (unbeknownst to me at and were excited to make this product visually excit-
the time) the EC Comics of old. I watched it that movie ing! I owe C. Michael Hall, Bradley K. McDevitt and
just about every time HBO played it. It was enthralled. Nolan Segrest a massive “thanks” for all they’ve done!
I can’t leave out Norbert Franz and Barak Blackburn
Right around that time, I found around a half-dozen for jumping right into the fray and helping me get
issues of DC’s The Witching Hour at a garage sale and this game ready to roll. And lastly, I have to thank all
snatched them up. My first impression that each issue the playtesters. Without their short-notice work, who
was its own Creepshow and that appealed to me. Un- knows how well this thing would play?
fortunately, the small town I lived in didn’t have any
stores that carried The Witching Hour or any other So, here we are, exiting the grave… but not for the last
horror comics, for that matter. time. There will be more to come.

After that, I searched for anything that resembled an- --Cynthia Celeste Miller
thology-style horror, which led me to EC Comics back
issues, Tales from the Darkside and two series from
HBO: The Hitchhiker and, of course, Tales from the
Crypt. I’ve been a fan of this flavor of horror ever since.

Strangely, it never even occurred to me to design a

roleplaying game that emulated anthology-style hor-
ror. Perhaps it never dawned on me that it would be
possible until one day, I stumbled across a website that
discussed the death of EC Comics artist Jack Davis.
One thing led to another and I found myself bouncing
from link to link, reading old snippets from The Vault
of Horror, The Vault of Fear and Tales from the Crypt.
All the while, I was making a mental list of design
challenges for emulating anthology-style horror; stuff
that would seemingly make it impossible or at least not
very much fun. How could I overcome them? Would
it be possible to run more than one story per session
and, if so, what could I do to facilitate that playstyle?
How could I encourage groups to play to the genre?
What reward system could I put in place while making
it true to the source material? How could I replicate the
ultra-tight pacing of these comics, shows and films?

These design challenges were just too much for me to

ignore. I had to design this game… and in time for
Halloween, no less! The more I thought about it, the
more I began to gravitate toward Barak Blackburn’s In-

39
 Character Sheet Traits
Name:
Background:
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__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Flesh
__________________________________________ Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
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__________________________________________
__________________________________________
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__________________________________________ Brains Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
__________________________________________

Casting:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Tongue Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Guts Descriptors and Flaws

Character Sheet Traits

Name:
Background:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Flesh
__________________________________________ Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Brains Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
__________________________________________

Casting:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Tongue Descriptors and Flaws
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________ Guts Descriptors and Flaws
Installment Sheet Page 1

Installment Name: Skull Collection:

Story Frame:
Players’ Names:

Quick Summary:
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PC Backgrounds:
______________________________________________________________________________________
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Supporting Cast:
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General Notes:
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Installment Sheet Page 2

Intro from the Grave Hag:

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Act One/Act Two/Act Three:

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Skull Modifiers:
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 Index
After-Boosting 16 Mystery 25
Background 6, 16 Non-Game Ending results 12
Benefits 9 Obstacles 9
Boosting 16 One of Us 26
Brains 6 PC vs. PC Intentions 11
Careful What You Wish For 24 Penalty 16
Casting 6, 16 Players 5
Conditional Success 10-11 Primary Characters 5, 6-7
Confrontations 13 Principal SCs 8, 9
Consequences 24 Purging 16
Controlled Failure 10 Reroll 16
Conventions of the genre 4 Revenge 27
Descriptors 7, 16 Rewrites 11
Do-Overs 12 SC Rating 8, 9
Exploiting 16 Scene Editing 15
Failure 10, 12 Scenes 5-6
Flaws 7, 16, 17 Skulls 17-18
Flesh 6 Special Abilities 7, 8
Game Ending results 12, 13 Story Frames 21, 24-27
Grave Intentions 12, 13 Success 11
Grave Keeper 5, 20-23 Supporting Characters 5, 8
Grave Tokens 15-16, 17 The Item 27
Guts 6 Three-Act Structure 14
Hapless 25 Tongue 6
Installments 5-6, 20-21, 28-30 Traits 6, 8, 9
Intentions 8-12 Triggering Flaws 17
Mundane SCs 8, 9, 13

Well, kiddies, like an old mummy friend of mine once said, “that’s a
wrap”. I’ve enjoyed your visit to my subterranean crypt to listen to
my gut-spewing tales, but all things must come to an end... a brutal,
untimely end, that is! So until next time, don’t be haunted by fear
and never, ever delve into any vaults without expecting overwhelm-
ing horror! You’ve been warned. Scarewell! Reh-heh-heh-heh-heh!

43
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