TEXT: I
   n the grand hallway looming around you is a magnificent 
  central staircase, with red carpet and gilded banisters 
  glinting softly in the glow of the fire burning lazily in the 
  ornate fireplace. The walls are dark oak panels, and oil paint-
  ings of muted green and grey tones hang there; familiar faces 
  surveying confidently the hazy room, pressing in on you. You 
  know this place. You can feel a nagging unease in the pit of 
  your stomach — you have explored here years before, child-
  like and wide-eyed — but you can’t quite put your finger on it. 
  Something is different now though. Moving forward, images 
  bubble under the surface of your consciousness as long re-
  pressed memories struggle to swim upwards from the murky 
  water and up and out into the shifting firelight. 
  The surface breaks. You involuntarily draw in a sharp breath.
  Behind the painting here, this panel, you remember there is 
  something special about this panel — something is behind 
  it. Doubts and fears rush through you as you start to lift the 
  painting off the wall…
  A house is A mAjor Archetype in dreAm symbolism. it’s A 
  universAl symbol embedded in the subconscious. usuAlly 
  these types of dreAms occur when there is A lot going on 
  in your life: chAnges, stress, upheAvAl or new beginnings. 
  A house generAlly represents you in your dreAms. 
  you Are the house, believe it or not, And All the different 
  pArts of it represent different Aspects of yourself. All the 
  different things in the rooms represent different issues 
  you’re going through. —vick belonogoff
  -
  Rooms is a roleplaying game for two or more players, one of 
  which takes on the role of the gamesmaster (GM). A run of 
  the game will last for a couple of hours, and will be longer 
  the more players are involved. It is an advanced and fairly 
  demanding game, both on the players and the GM, and is 
  not recommended for the inexperienced or the faint of heart. 
  The action takes place inside a large and mysterious 
  house that the players are exploring, wandering around in a 
  dreamlike state. They do not know why they are there or who 
  they are: all they know is that this place is eerily familiar. As 
  they wander the rooms they start to find echoes of their past 
  hidden around the house — in letters, maps, old jewellery, 
  and other such items — and so start to piece together their 
  own identities. 
  It gradually becomes clear that each of them has some 
  dark secret or guilt that they have buried here, and as it 
  comes again into the light it starts to physically manifest in 
  the house. The players must work together to defeat their 
  own nightmares by using the happy parts of their past they 
  have recovered along the way.
  getting stArted
  Like in most tabletop RPGs, the players direct their own 
  actions and development of a single character, whilst the GM 
  plays the rest of the world. However, there are two important 
  differences that make this game different. 
  First off, the characters being directed are either asleep 
  and dreaming, manifesting in someone else’s dream, moving 
  in some kind of shared consciousness space; or indeed some 
  other possible interpretation of the situation (we deliberate-
  ly do not specify which). You do not remember the start 
  of a dream. You are simply there. Likewise your characters 
  should not start by panicking that they have lost their mem-
  ories as in clichéd amnesia stories. They are just there in 
  the house, moving through the rooms, and starting to grow 
  more uneasy and self doubting as their past is brought up 
  and examined.
  Secondly, in most games the background of your charac-
  ter is decided upon and fixed before the start of play, either 
  by yourself or by the GM. Your characters development is 
  from then on governed only by what happens to them, and 
  this is not always as in your control as it could be. In Rooms, 
  you develop and shape your characters past as the game con-
  tinues. This is a two way process. The GM provides simple 
  hooks that you find inside the dark corners of the dream 
  house, but then the narrative switches to the players who 
  get to decide on how to interpret these fragments and weave 
  them into a cohesive story. The one requirement of each 
  characters story as it will eventually stand, is that they have 
  a dark secret or guilt that haunts them. Eventually they must 
  face this head on as the dream becomes a nightmare.
  This means that both GM and players get to create the 
  plot. The storytelling in this way is much more of a collabo-
  rative process than a traditional RPG.
  stAges of the gAme
  The game is broken down into three stages or acts.
  In the first act, the players wander a neutral and pas-
  sive environment, moving between the rooms, collecting 
  fragments, and combining some to move deeper into the 
  mysterious house in the hope of discovering more. Unbe-
  knownst to the players, some of these fragments are not true 
  memories, but negatives — lies the characters have told to 
  cover up their own guilt or worries.
  In the second act, the nagging guilt that is starting to 
  grow in the characters causes apparitions of people or even 
  objects from their past to appear and verbally attack them. 
  These apparitions twist every little guilt or inadequacy of 
  character into grave and hurtful accusations, sparing no quar-
  ter and going to great lengths of rhetoric and hyperbole in 
  order to cow them. The players use scenes they have already 
  created, or combine fragments into new scenes in order to 
  defend themselves from these attacks. Between confronting 
  the ghosts of the past, they are still exploring the house and 
  can discover new fragments and make new scenes. 
  In the final act, the dream truly becomes nightmarish 
  and the undefeated figures grow increasingly bestial until 
  they have become terrifying monsters. The scenes the play-
  ers have constructed turn into physical weapons, armour, 
  and other survival tools; and the players must use force to 
  overcome their macabre assailants and escape. The house, 
  no longer a safe space, morphs and twists to hinder them.
  Act i — explorAtion
  The players explore the dreamlike house. By finding 
  certain items, seeing familiar images, or even just getting a 
  ‘feeling’ at certain points in the house, the players collect 
  memory fragments. A memory fragment is a simple idea or 
  symbol, for example ‘the image of a rose’, or ‘a forced ad-
  mission of fault’.
  For example, a player is in a shadowy bedroom and in 
  the centre of the wall is a full length mirror in which they 
  can see the reflection of the moon through the shuttered win-
  dows. The player moves to look in the mirror. The GM then 
  tells the player they have found the fragment ‘The Mirror’. 
  (This could just have easily been ‘The Moon’ or ‘Inner Re-
  flection’, or even something with a less obvious connection 
  like ‘Teenage Angst’.)
  The trigger for finding the fragment might involve direct 
  action on the part of the player as above, or something more 
  involved such as actually getting into and lying in a bed, look-
  ing under a table or other furniture, leafing fully through a 
  journal etc. When a player finds a fragment they should write 
  it down. Fragments are not transferable.
  A player may, when they wish to do so, combine two or 
  more fragments that they hold into a scene from their mem-
  ory. The scene should include manifestations of the ideas 
  contained within the fragments. The player then describes 
  narratively the scene from their past. So combining the ex-
  ample fragments above — ‘image of a rose’ and ‘forced admis-
  sion of fault’ — a player might give the following narration:
  I had been put out to play again. It was June, and I was 
  ten, I think. My mother kept putting me outside to play, but 
  I wanted attention and kept coming back inside the house. 
  She was busy and wouldn’t play with me, so I went into her 
  bedroom and went through her things. Under her bed I 
  found a wooden jewellery box with a fine inlaid rose, which 
  I forced open; and inside was a lot of money, her spare keys, 
  and a number of personal treasures. When she found it bro-
  ken she forced me to confess and I cried for a long time.
  The memory scene, thus combined and realised, forms a 
  device the player can use to further explore the house, using 
  memories of keys or secret passages, as well as a defence 
  when later apparitions from their past appear and denounce 
  them. Now the above memory has been discovered, for ex-
  ample, the player might find the box and the keys. Locked 
  doors, locks on diaries or drawers, hidden passage behind 
  bookcases, finding ladders to get into lofts, safes hidden be-
  hind paintings, all might be found or circumvented this way.
  Two or more players can opt to pool a number of their 
  fragments into a single shared scene which involves both of 
  the characters and interweaves their stories. In this case one 
  of the players elects to go first and narrates part of the scene, 
  using their own fragments only, then points to another of the 
  players to in the scene to take over the narration. This ‘tag-
  ging’ process continues until the fragments are all used and 
  the players are satisfied with what has been described. This 
  combined scene can then be used by any of these players, 
  but might be weaker against certain obstacles or accusations. 
  The more fragments are used at once the more likely that 
  one is a negative.
  Some of the fragments are negatives, but initially only 
  the GM knows which. A negative fragment is not a true 
  memory, rather it is an inverted, or even subverted, cover up 
  for a memory the character has tried to forget. When a nega-
  tive fragment is used to make a scene, the scene is therefore 
  not actually a true representation of what occurred. The GM 
  notes this down along with the darker, more troubling truth 
  that the player or players have purposely misremembered to 
  try and protect themselves.
   - Rooms - 
  by  Vic Smith
  
   - Rooms - 
  Act ii — elucidAtion
  After some time in the house, apparitions start to ap-
  pear. Under control of the GM, they denounce the players, 
  calling them out on their innermost fears. The players must 
  use the details from their memory scenes to verbally defend 
  themselves. If they roleplay this sufficiently well, the GM will 
  reward them by having the most relevant scene become an 
  item or weapon the player can use to defend themselves in 
  the final act. These apparitions are most likely to be char-
  acters, alive or dead, from the characters past; people that 
  they have wronged or worried that they have wronged. But 
  they might be objects, such as an old abandoned violin or a 
  discarded present from a jilted lover.
  For example, a player goes to look inside a large oak chest 
  hidden in a corner of the room and away from the firelight. 
  But before he gets there, the chest opens, and from it rises 
  the image of his mother in grave clothes.
   the mother: When you were little you broke my things, 
  then you grew old and broke my heart. Why should I wel-
  come you now? When you were five I dried your tears when 
  little Martha called you names, when you were twelve I sup-
  ported you when your teacher upset you. At twenty you came 
  crying to me without a job or a house, and I helped you, nur-
  tured you. But you have never helped me. Where were you 
  when I was abandoned, hurt, alone. You left me to wither 
  and rot, your own mother! I bore you but you renounced me.
  The player must stand up to the accusations by utilising 
  details from the scenes he has already created, and roleplay-
  ing an appropriate response:
  plAyer: Mother! I’m sorry I left. But I’ve always remem-
  bered you, written to you. You kept my letters in your rose-
  wood box under your bed. Day on day I wrote and shared 
  my fears with you and invited you to share with me. But 
  you were always closed, you locked away your thoughts and 
  wouldn’t let me in to help. I could only watch as you with-
  ered away.
  If the GM decides that the player has roleplayed their 
  own defence sufficiently, then the player is rewarded. The 
  memory scene forms into a real tangible object inside the 
  house, and the player takes it.
  gm: The apparition shrinks, cowed. The memory of the 
  rose resonates within you, and lo — heralds come forward 
  shouting your name and bearing before them an elegant 
  sword of silver with roses adorning the hilt. They bow low 
  before you and present you with this ancient heirloom of 
  your house.
  Possible items include swords, shields, potions; anything 
  from a more traditional fantasy setting. They are a precursor 
  of the violence to come. The properties of the items will 
  be ascertained by which fragments went into their making 
  (as detailed in the next act). When shared scenes turn into 
  items, all the players receive a similar item (although they 
  needn’t be exactly the same, as the GM can decide, but the 
  whole will be greater than the some of the parts).
  If the player cannot defend themselves then the must flee 
  in terror. The GM will take over their character during this 
  time, and the focus can shift to the other players.
  New scenes can still be formed during this act, and new 
  fragments can still be found as the players continue to ex-
  plore the rooms. The items cannot be used until the next act.
  Act iii — escApe!
  The apparitions grow angrier, and the house grows 
  darker and more menacing. Creeping in the shadows, the 
  figures transform into the stuff of nightmares; vicious beasts 
  with red eyes and claws, they stalk and attack the players. 
  The characters know instinctively there is a way out and so 
  they turn and flee; but the house, once neutral, turns against 
  them — rooms twist onto their side, doors and windows slam 
  open and shut repeatedly, corridors stretch out to mind bog-
  gling length, and dark chasms open in the floor. Fighting 
  they monsters as they go, the players near the exit, but they 
  cannot cross until they defeat their greatest fears waiting for 
  them at the threshold.
  This last act bridges the emotional narrative side of the 
  game into a more traditional action sequence. In the house-
  dream, metaphor becomes reality. The plight of the sleepers 
  has led to the chance of a physical catharsis. 
  No more memory scenes can be made now: the players 
  now have only the items they gained in the last act. Players 
  can fight the monsters with these, but if they hang around 
  long they will get devoured. The players know where the exit 
  has appeared, and they know where it is in the house. So 
  they must head there, fighting only the monsters in the way.
  Each player starts with 50 hit points (HP). The monsters 
  should have 10 – 20. An attack has a base chance of 40% 
  on a D100 of hitting, and will deal damage equal to the sum 
  of the digits rolled. A roll of 39 hits and deals 12 damage. 
  A roll of 45 misses. The players do not know their own HP 
  count until the final encounter. 
  Note that because different items have different modifiers 
  that the players don’t know (to both hit chance, damage, and 
  possibly other aspects) the player rolls the dice and the GM 
  tells them whether the attack hit and describes the damage.
  The properties of the items are defined by the fragments 
  that went in to create them. It is most interesting if the prop-
  erties tied to each fragment have been predecided, but the 
  GM should feel free to fudge if the combination would be 
  boring or unlikely. For a weapon these properties might be 
  +10% to hit, +3 damage, etc; for armour it might be -3 dam-
  age to hits against you; a health potion might restore 10 
  HP. The GM keeps these details secret, the players must 
  work them out by seeing what happens when they try and 
  use them.
  An item made from a scene containing negatives either 
  causes D6 damage to the user when invoked, or has a strong 
  negative effect like -20% to hit. (Again these are best pre-de-
  cided.) The players do not know they are receiving this dam-
  age — it is tracked by the GM and revealed at the start of the 
  final encounter.
  This final encounter happens in front of the grand and 
  foreseen exit-way. All that is between them and egress into 
  safety is a final monster each, formed of their greatest fear. 
  These final monsters have forty HP each. The fear they 
  represent will be chosen for that player by the GM, taking 
  into account all that has happened, and the form of the beast 
  will be its physical embodiment. The GM should award the 
  players additional combat buffs for each part of the fear the 
  can roleplay the character overcoming as he fights. The play-
  ers can help each other, especially those who are burdened 
  by negatives. Will they be able to escape, or will their fear 
  ultimately conquer them?
  plAyer Advice — frAming scenes
  Remember, despite there being a win condition at the 
  end, the true winners are those who create meaningful sto-
  ries, the kind you will remember for years to come as  you 
  retell the amazing things that happened that time in your 
  game. Everyone has a stake in the game going well.
  When roleplaying a scene a number of things should 
  be borne in mind. The two modes of expression — the ex-
  ploration of the dark and mostly unknown interior of the 
  house of the night, and the brighter snatches of memory 
  framed around dramatic events and taking place largely in 
  the light of day — are part of what makes the game exciting 
  and different.
  Framing a scene is the process of starting and ending 
  it. The principle of show don’t tell applies here, but it is 
  possible to go too far. Scenes can start in media res (i.e. in 
  the middle of the action) or with a simple description: It 
  was dark, I was alone. Similarly it is better to end the scene 
  partway through action and thus maintain more mystery and 
  drama. This is a game about emotions and symbolism, so 
  making use of well known tropes and simple bookending 
  techniques is a good thing.
  gm Advice — nArrAting dreAms
  This game is a collaborative storytelling process. In  most 
  RPGs the GM crafts a story, and directs, and sometimes 
  even coerces the PCs along his plot as he covertly reads it out 
  from behind a screen. In this game, however, both the play-
  ers and the GM are responsible for creating the story. The 
  stories created are also largely stories of the past. The rooms 
  are not the stage of drama, instead the house is a metaphor 
  for the characters own personalities and memories. 
  Maintaining the dreamlike experience of the rooms is 
  very important to keep the feel of the game, and part of that 
  quality comes from shifting emotions attached to the differ-
  ent aspects of each room. Description is a vital part of this. 
  Each room should have its own feel, its own tone, and there 
  should be a definite and tangible change as the players move 
  between them. Use of different styles of language can real-
  ly help, both in describing the rooms, and in playing the 
  various apparitions. Some might use old language and man-
  ners of address, others might snarl and spit. Some may use 
  cunning logic and strong wording to cow the player, others 
  might use a pitiful sadness to make them feel the guilt. Your 
  imagination is the limit, (but be aware that some themes 
  might be too much for some players — communication be-
  forehand is key here). Take the time you need, and let the 
  players have the time they need too.
  Prepare the fragment names and their eventual proper-
  ties; ideas for rooms, and concepts for apparitions before-
  hand. Many horror films, TV tropes, and authors can pro-
  vide plenty of inspiration. (The Circe chapter from James 
  Joyce’s Ulysses has lots of great ideas, for example.) 
  Every time the players are narrating a scene, take notes 
  on it in gloss form. Eg “Age 5, ignored by mother, broke jew-
  ellery box and found keys.” When the scene has a negative, 
  gloss a possible true memory. Whenever ideas for appari-
  tions come, write the down immediately.
  Running, and playing, this game can be challenging — 
  but ultimately very rewarding. Let your mind sink down into 
  the realm of dreams in order to truly know yourself.           -
  by  Vic Smith
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Other (Unique) Systems/Top Secret Games Two Page Tabletops/Rooms.pdf