NO ONE EVER LEAVES

ABOUT

Imagine a home. Imagine laboriously and painstakenly building one piece by piece for you and your family. A place where you have a strong sense of self and identity. A sense a safety and belonging. A place that is yours, a place that protects you. Sturdy walls around a warm hearth to keep out the cold and the damp.

Now imagine being made to suddenly feel like a stranger in your home. Having your sense of place and comfort taken away from you piece by piece. The walls no longer keep the monsters at bay. Worse yet, you are made to believe that you yourself might be the monster. This is what means to be haunted: for a sense of the uncanny to invade your sense of home.

This is a game. Just by reading this you are already playing. Welcome.

It is a haunted house game where each turn a new family moves into the old house, is haunted by its previous occupants, and ultimately joins their ranks to haunt the next owners.

It is a solo journaling horror game designed specifically to support succession play.

SAFETY

This is a horror game. It is designed to evoke strong feelings including creeping despair, acute terror, isolation, and dissociation. Hopefully that sounds like a good time to you!

Of course you’ll be the one creating these feelings for yourself so you have a modicum of control over the situations you find yourself in. But be careful nonetheless.

After every couple of hands return here and see how you’re doing. Take an emotional and physical self-inventory using the lists below. If you’re mostly in the green, then continue playing if you like. If you are in the yellow, then proceed with caution. If you are in the red, take a little break before playing again.

GREEN

• This is awesome!
• Yes please!
• This should be a movie
• That was so cool
• So curious what happens next
• I am really connecting with this character right now

YELLOW

• I feel alert but relaxed
• I got totally absorbed in this moment
• Lost track of time
• I feel transported
• I felt challenged but in control
• This really tapped into my feelings and I liked it

RED

• I didn’t feel in control of what was happening
• I feel tense and nervous
• My heart rate is speeding up
• Fidgety and restless
• Fear or anxiety
• This really tapped into my feelings and I didn’t like it

GETTING STARTED

You will need:

• This book so you can refer to its rules and tables.

• At least one standard deck of 52 playing cards.

• A journal, paper or digital, or some other a way to keep notes such as dictating to a scribe or notetaker.

• And a pen or other favorite writing utensil. If you don’t have a favorite writing utensil then use your least favorite.

• Time and space to read and think and write and feel.

OVERVIEW

This game is like your favorite 7-layer dip: it’s got layers!

The game consists of turns. One turn is a complete playthrough during which a family will move into the house, have experiences, and ultimately succumb to the haunting. Think of it as season 1 of “Haunted: The Televison Series” where subsequent turns / seasons tell the story of other families encountering the same house and the ghosts of families from previous seasons.

The house will appear in different time periods from turn to turn. It may appear in physically different locations, in different neighborhoods, in different towns, states, or countries. It may look very different from turn to turn with different a floor plan and layout, and in different states of repair and upkeep.

At the start of a turn, you will create a new family for awful things to happen to. They will be fleeing something from their old life, and in search of some kind of a new beginning. Each family member will have a distinct personality that will make them capable of having complex reactions to experiences.

Once a family is created, the turn continues with phased play. Each turn is made up four distinct phases that escalate in spookiness and in severity of consequences for the family: the move in, the haunting, the perilous phase, and the finale.

Each phase of play consists of an average of 4 dealt hands. A hand is a self-contained thematic scene of related experiences. It is a three-part act:

1. The family gets to have a number of experiences, either individually or as a whole.

2. And then they (and the haunts involved) react to the experiences.

3. Based on their reactions and convictions, the tension will either escalate or deescalate during the fallout of the experiences, creating some kind of outcome as you get ready to transition to the next hand.

At the end of each hand, each family member creates memories based on the experiences they had. These memories can become beliefs that guide their behavior during play, and that they will take with them into the afterlife as haunts.

When all of the hands in a phase has been played, then it’s time to move on to the next phase.

During the final phase, the finale, drawing KING_SPADES at any time immediately ends the game. The family succumbs to the house and is added to the ledger, the list of haunts. You get to write an epilogue. The memories of the existing haunts have a chance to fade.

Then you can start a new turn. Or if you are playing the succession rules, you can pass the game on to the next player.

HOW TO PLAY

Sound fun? Here’s how to play!

1. FAMILY: At the start of each turn, shuffle your cards and create a new family

2. PHASES: Separate your deck of cards into four suits. Shuffle each suit separately, and keep them separated. There is one suit for each distinct phase of play: first clubs, then diamonds and hearts, and finally spades.

3. OVERTONE: At the start of each phase, draw a card to establish the overtone.

   Hint: when drawing for tone or making other auxiliary or supplemental draws (draws that are not for experiences), draw from a suit / phase pile that is currently not being used so that you don’t deplete your current hand of experiences.

4. EXPERIENCES: Deal c6 cards facedown into a single hand. Turn the cards in hand face up one at a time, looking each one up on the Experiences Table. Resolve them one at a time, or consider them together all at once.

5. JOURNAL: Pause to consider your experiences and make a note in your journal. Add your experiences to your memories if you can.

6. REACTIONS: Decide or randomly choose which family member(s) and haunt(s) are involved in, or most affected by, the experiences from this hand. Have each of them react and then add up all of their conviction together. If the total is greater than zero, things get complicated and the tension gets worse. If it is zero or less, then things let up. Some of the tension resolves. The larger the number the greater the effect.

7. OUTCOME: After the reaction, there is an outcome or fallout. Some logical conclusion of experience plus reaction. Write it down.

8. MEMORIES: Add experiences to character memories, rephrasing them as you like.

9. CONTINUE: Repeat until you have finished the clubs phase. Then continue with the diamonds, hearts, and spades phases. The risks should get riskier with each subsequent phase. The haunts more severe. Whenever you turn over KING_SPADES, your family immediately succumbs to the house. Add them family to the Ledger so they can haunt the next family.

10. EPILOGUE: Write about the final moments of your family, or what happens afterward to them, the house, the neighborhood.

11. FADING: Erode the memories of the existing haunts in the Ledger.

12. REPEAT

When playing, be sure to skip forward and backward as needed, adding and revising details as you like to characters, experiences, etc. Don’t feel like you need to address and incorporate every single card you draw if you don’t want to. If it doesn’t spark inspiration, set it aside for now. You can come back to it later to address it after the fact once you’ve gotten inspiration for how to interpret it. Or you can ignore it entirely. The rules and the cards are here to assist you and guide your intuition. Not bind you. If you perceive or intuit something that will make the story better or make the game more fun for you, then that takes precedence over the rules as written.

TONE

Look, this is a haunted house story. It’s always going to be kind of dark and spooky. But the tone is more nuanced than that, and it changes over time. A shift in tone marks shift between scenes, and gives each one its own specific flavor of spookiness.

At the start of each phase, draw a card to establish the overtone. Allow this overtone to color your experiences and inform the overall mood throughout all phases of play.

Feel free to draw an optional undertone at the start a new hand and consider the combination of overtone and undertone. Perhaps a moment of quiet resolve and determination in the midst of a chaotic and thrilling chase. Or maybe a sudden outburst during a scene of quiet melancholy.

RANDOM NUMBERS

Playing cards can be used with little to no effort to simulate rolling four-sided, six-sided, and ten-sided dice.

That said, it is even less effort to use dice if you have them around. So, optional rule: you can use dice if you want to.

But the default rules are to use cards. So here’s how to do that!

A NOTATION FOR RANDOM NUMBERS USING CARDS

But first:

The phrase “Draw on the ‘Random Number Between 1 And 6’ table” or even “draw a number between 1 and 6” can grow to be tedious and verbose. Let’s develop a convenient shorthand.

To roll a six-sided die is to “roll d6.” So let’s say that to draw a random number between 1 and 6 is to “draw c6.” Where d = dice, c = card.

Let’s use this notation from now on. When you see “draw c6” now you’ll now what that means. And if you see “draw 2c6” you’ll know that means to draw twice on the ‘Random Number Between 1 And 6’ table, and so on.

NUMBERS BETWEEN 1 AND 4

You can use cards to simulate a four-sided die to get a random number between 1 and 4.

NUMBERS BETWEEN 1 AND 6

This one is the most complicated because it requires a little math (dividing and rounding). But it’s not that bad and you’ll get the hang of it once you do it a few times. You got this.

To use cards instead of a six-sided die, divide a card’s value by 2 rounding down. Ignore aces.

NUMBERS BETWEEN 1 AND 10

Getting a random number between 1 and 10 is simple. Draw a card and look at its value. A = 1, 2 = 2 … 9 = 9, 10 = 10. Ignore face cards (jacks, queens, kings) and draw again.

CREATE A FAMILY

1. Draw an era for this haunting. The house is simultaneously present in the past, present, and future all at the same time. Just like you are.

   Make up a location for the house that is interesting to you. You can be familiar with it or not. What does the house look like in this time? What do the neighbors think of it? Does it have a nickname that the neighborhood children call it? Are there any interesting landmarks nearby? Does it have any interesting lawn features like a gazebo or a vegetable garden or a small pond? Write it down.

2. Family size should be a couple humans. Around 1 - 3 give or take. Give them some names, ages, pronouns, etc. Why did they move here? What new start are they looking forward to? What are they leaving behind? Write down what the family is fleeing, and what they are in search of.

3. Fill out the Reaction Wheel for each family member.

4. Age and gender: you may already have an idea of the age and gender for each family member when you are create them. But if you don’t, and would also like to leave such things to chance, draw on the gender table, and draw c6 * 10 + c6 for age. (E.g. FOURCLUBS, THREESPADES = 2 * 10 + 1 = 21.) (See age table.) Optionally, when you draw an ace, discard it and draw again as usual, and multiply the result of the new card by 2 for the rare chance of a 132 year old resident.

REACTIONS

Both occupants and haunts are nuanced and unpredictable people capable of a variety of reactions. Each reaction has a likelihood, its chance of occurring, and a conviction, how strong the reaction is and whether it is calming or intensifying.

1. Draw on the Reactions table

2. Draw on the Conviction table. Positive numbers will escalate tension and negative numbers will deescalate tension.

3. Draw c6 to determine a reaction likelihood between 1 and 6. Fill in that number of pie segments on the character’s reaction wheel. Label it with the Reaction + Conviction.

Example: Below is a blank reaction wheel. It has ten segments.

Let’s fill it out.

I start by drawing 3 cards for reaction, conviction, and likelihood.

I drew TEN_CLUBS, NINE_HEARTS, and QUEEN_CLUBS. That’s Manipulative +1 with 6 likelihood. So I’ll fill in 6 segments and label it, and will keep drawing three cards at a time until all 10 segments are filled.

Next hand is SIX_CLUBS, ACE_CLUBS, and SIX_DIAMONDS. That’s Jealous -3, 3 So I’ll fill in the next 3 segments with “Jealous -3”.

Only 1 segment left. It doesn’t really matter what my Conviction is; this next hand will complete the track.

QUEEN_DIAMONDS, NINE_CLUBS, ACE_DIAMONDS = Friendly +1 … and we normally would need to redraw the ACE. But again, there’s only one segment left, so it doesn’t matter.

Now we have a complete Reaction Track! From now on, When you are uncertain how a haunt or occupant would react to a situation, draw c10 on this wheel, and then you’ll know!

Note: You don’t always have to draw on the reaction wheel every time! During play, if you there is an obviously logical or interesting way for a family member or haunt to react to a situation, then have them react that way! The reaction wheel is merely a tool to help you if you are uncertain.

EXPERIENCES

Optionally, you may draw c4 for Proximity for an experience.

MEMORIES

A memory is a container for experiences, a way to periodically summarize a character’s experiences in the house. The character will carry their memories with them into the afterlife when they become a haunt, at which point their memories will slowly erode until they eventually lose touch and forget what brought them here.

A character has four memory slots.

Each memory can hold up to four experiences.

You can add experiences to memory slots in any order, grouping them thematically, crossing out experiences and adding new ones, etc. Memories change over time after all.

When a memory is complete, when it holds four experiences and seems stable, write a short line summarizing it. This will often naturally be phrased as a new belief based on the collection of experiences. And these new beliefs may guide and influence that charaters’s choices and behaviors as the game continues.

Here’s an example of one memory slot from my first playthrough belonging to eight year old Guillermo.

• I fell and hurt myself skating
• Gomez got hurt protecting us from coyotes
• My mom has gone crazy from the house
• The house is hurting
• SUMMARY: I guess pain and suffering is a part of life

Consequently, Guillermo grew to expect pain and disappointment and developed an unflinching acceptance of it. Poor kid!

For haunts, memories erode at the end of each turn. For each haunt draw c6. On a six, cross out one extant experience, or one empty memory for that haunt.

What does it mean when to cling to a memory or belief when you can no longer remember any experiences to back it up or justify it? What happens to a haunt who longer has any memories?

APPENDIX: GLOSSARY

Conviction:

A number between -3 and +3 that describes how strong a reaction is. When added together with all other convictions at the end of a hand, determines whether the scene ends with escalation or deescalation.

Experience:

A single thing that happens during a single scene. Corresponds to a single draw during a game phase. Usually happens in groups of experiences called hands.

Hand:

One scene. A single deal of 1 - 6 experiences. Hands are dealt repeatedly until the current phase is over.

Haunt:

A ghostly resident of the house. A shade of a former occupant made up of fading memories and strong reactions.

Journaling game:

A game where you read prompts and then think about them and then write about your thoughts and feelings and experinces. Each entry can be a few words or a few sentences or much longer.

Likelihood

A number between 1 and 6 associated with a reaction that is both how many segments of a reaction wheel a reaction occupies, and also the percent chance that a character reacts that way during a hand.

Memory:

Comprised of up to four experiences. Memories are built up during an occupant’s time in the house, and then slowly decay over time after they become haunts.

Phase:

One of four periods of play comprised of a number of hands

Reaction:

A reaction or temperament, but also its conviction and likelihood.

Reaction wheel

A ten-section clock, wheel, or track that tracks the likelihood and strength (conviction) of a character’s possible reaction to a scene.

Solo game:

A (role-playing) game that you play by yourself. There are lots of reasons to play solo: you want to play Right Now and don’t have any friends around; you want to play soon-ish but can’t seem to schedule time with friends; you want to play at your own pace, your own speed, and have private experiences; you want to experience something that is for you and you alone; etc. In a solo game you adopt the role of, and play as, either a character that you create for the express purpose of playing the game, or some approximate version of yourself (you, but older or younger or braver or stronger, etc), or some kind of combination of the two.

Succession game

A style of play where the game is played using the solo rules, but also passed each turn from player to player in succession. It is a kind of “group play with solo rules.”

Tone:

Bright vs Dark. Each phase has an overtone that describes the overall vibe or mood of a scene.

Turn:

One complete playthrough of all four phases. A complete narrative experience of a family moving in, being haunted, and succumbing to the house. During succession play, the end of a turn is when the game is passed to the next player.

APPENDIX: MAP OF THE HOUSE

APPENDIX: CARD MEANINGS

Additional meaning of cards inspired by tarot and numerology. If you are ever looking for a little extra inspiration, then draw a card and consider its meaning based on your own intuition, or based on the tables here.

This is a hierarchical order from the tarot based on social clout and social status: clubs represent artisans and laborers, and are the lowest rank; diamonds are the merchant class; hearts the clergy; and spades, the military and nobility, rule the suits. This is also, come to find out, the same order used for contract bridge.

An alternate order based on the tarot symbolizes the manifestation of the spiritual (clubs/wands) to the physical (diamonds/pentacles), through emotion (hearts/cups), and intellect (spades/swords). The classical elements associated with these realms are fire (clubs), water (hearts), air (spades), and earth (diamonds). Using this sequence, low to high (diamonds, spades, hearts, clubs), to evoke the sublimation of the physical to the spiritual is certainly appropriate for this game as you guide your families from their earthen forms to their new ghostly ones.

APPENDIX: BASEMENT DELVING

DO NOT GO INTO THE BASEMENT! But sometimes you just might have to go into the basement to retrieve an artifact or a loved one, or to seek hidden information, or just to explore its hidden depths. Note that “basement” can refer to almost any part of the house that is spooky and that is much larger than it should be. It can be the actual basement, or the attic, or that one boarded up bedroom nobody is allowed in, or even a wardrobe.

You will need:

• A deck of cards
• Maybe a small token like a coin to mark your place on the map.

Remove KING_SPADES from the deck and shuffle the remaining cards. Deal out 24 cards face down. Set the deck aside. Add KING_SPADES to your 24 cards so that you now have 25, and reshuffle. KING_SPADES represents your GOAL, your reason for entering the basement. (Make sure you know what your GOAL is before proceeding.) Deal the cards into a staggered 5x5 grid:

  A B C D E
0   o   o 
1 o   o   o
2   o   o
3 o   o   o
4   o   o
5 o   o   o
6   o   o
7 o   o   o
8   o   o
9 o   o   o

Flip the bottom middle card face up. This is the basement entrance. If / when you turn over a card of the same color and face value, this is an exit to a deeper level of the basement. For example, If the basement entrance is FIVEHEARTS, then FIVEDIAMONDS is an exit.

When entering a new room, turn that card over and look it up on the exploration table. With the cards remaining in the deck, draw 3c6 to determine the exit locations for that room/area.

     1
   .---.
 6 |   | 2
   |   |
 5 |   | 3
   '---'
     4

Exits:

1. North
2. Northeast
3. Southeast
4. South
5. Southwest
6. Northwest

Doubles = A dark, winding hallway (10 x pips) feet long

Triples = No exit!

The layout of the basement is bewildering and disorienting. You will often find doors leading back into rooms where there was no door before.

Some rooms are not reachable by any door or hallway. Remove them from the grid.

For inspiration draw on the experiences table or draw a card (or two) and look it up on the suit meaning and card meaning tables.

APPENDIX: NO CARDS NO PROBLEM

Featuring patent pending FINGER JAB technology! All you gotta do is close your eyes and jab your finger a few times at this table, or bounce the eraser of your pencil on it a few times, or wave your pen around over head a few times and then let it fall where it will on the page. There! Now you have a random card.

3H 2S 6S 3H 0D 9S QC 3C 9H 4H 0S KH KD 9S 6C 6C KC 6H 3S QC
2D 2D 3C 3C 8H 9H KC 9D 2C 3H 9D AH 5H AC KH QD 8D JD QH QS
JC 2H KD AH QS 7D 7D 3H AH 7D 6C 9C 4S 9S KH JS 8C 5C 7C 6H
QD 4C 6S 7S JS 5D AD 3D 0D 3C JS AS 9S 9C 2D 3D 9C JS 2C 0H
7S JC 2S 7C 7C 0C KC 5C QS AC 4H QS 9C 4H AC 2D QH 5S 0C 6C
7H 8H 4S 7S 6S 0D QD KH AS 5H 0C KC 5D 9H 4C 4D 4S 4C 5C KS
5S 2S 0H 6C AC QC 0D JC 5C 5D JH JC QC 0S 9D 8S 0H 4D 8S QD
AD AD QH 5D 9S 7H 3D 5S KD 5H 8D QD JD 0S 6H 3H QS 8C 7C 5S
QS 4H 5C 5D 5C 8D 0C AC 7H KH 5S 8C 3D KC 9D 9H 9C AH 8S 6D
AC KC 0C 4H QD 2D 2C 0D 0C 8S 7H QC 8D 8H 2S KH KS 2D AD 5H
2C KS 8C AC 8C JC 9H 4S 5D JD JD 5D 0H 6D 9S AH 7D 9H 8D KC
2C 9D QS 4D 2S KS 0D 2S QC 5D 5D KC JD AS 6S 3D KS 3C QC 6S
9H 0S 7C 4H 3C 7C 3S 5H 4H 8C 2H 8H JH AD 6S JC 9C 8D 3S 2H
KH 3S 0S AS JH 8C 4H QH 5H 6D 3D 6H 7C KC AD 4D AH 3S 5C 0S
5H AC JD JC 4C 6C QD QC KC JH 6D QD 0H 6C 6C 8S 8C QD JH 7H
6C 4S JS 5C 6D 3C 4D 2H 8D JS 0C KS 9H 2C 3D 3S 6H 8D KS 9H
2D AS QS 4H JH 8S 7S 9C 7D JS QH QD 2C 5S 6D 7C 8H 0S 5S 8D
2H 4H AS 4C JD 9C 6D 8S 2H 3H 2C 8S 5S KD JS 9C 3S AD JC 7D
4D 6H 9H JH JD QS AS 9C 2H 4D 7H 8S KC QS 3S 7S 8D AC 4S 0H
JH 9D 0C 0C AS 2H 7H AD QS 4C 0S 5D 2S 4S QH 5H 0H 7H KS 0H
JS 0D 3D 6C 0D 2C 8S KD 6H AD 9D 9D 3S 4S QH 2S 7D QH 5H JD
0H 5S KH JH 2H 4S 2C 8H 0D 3C 4D 4C AS 0D 6C 9S 3D 5D 9S 2C
4D KH JS AC KH QC 6S AS 2D KD 2H 7S 7C JC 7C 9H 4C JD 6H 4H
0C QH 6H 3D 5H 2S 2S KD QH KD 7H 7D 8H 7D 4C AS QD 4C 2D 3H
3H QC 2S 0S 5S 0H 5C 2H AH 4D 4S JC 6H 7S JS 3H 8H 4C 7D 2D
4S 7H 5C AD 0H 6D AD QH QC KD KS 8C 6D 6S KS 8H 9D 6S 7S 2D
3H 7H 6S 7D AH 3H 0S 9D 7S KD 8H 9S 3C 8C JH 8D 8C 0C 3S 3S
5H JC AH AH 7C 5S 9C 5C 8S 6H 6D 9S 3D 7S 0S 3C 3C KD 8H AH
9S AC 4D 7S JH 9D KH 6D 6S 0D KS JD 4H AS 4C JD 9C 6D 8S 2H

APPENDIX: CREDITS AND INSPIRATION

Stuff I have been reading, watching, playing, thinking about while making this

Haunted Houses

American Horror Story Murder House

House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski

Succession Game

Boatmurdered (Dwarf Fortress Game):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boatmurdered

Card and Dice Mechanics

Alone Among The Stars:
https://noroadhome.itch.io/alone-among-the-stars

The Quiet Year:
https://buriedwithoutceremony.itch.io/the-quiet-year

Swords Without Master:
https://epidiah.itch.io/worlds-without-master-issue-3

No Cards No Problem:
https://serialprizes.itch.io/no-cards-no-problem-0c0p

One Page Solo Engine:
https://inflatablestudios.itch.io/one-page-solo-engine

Memories as Inventory

Thousand Year Old Vampire (One of the spookiest and best solo journaling games there is):
https://timhutchings.itch.io/tyov

Safety

The Support Flower
https://the-act-apart.itch.io/the-support-flower

Reactions and Conviction

Cloud Empress Solo Rules:
https://cloudempress.com/

Card based exploration

Cardtography:
https://koboldpress.com/howling-tower-cardtography/

Carta SRD:
https://peachgardengames.itch.io/carta-srd