Under the Bed
A combination RPG / board game / card game

This is a game about kids trying not to get eaten by the monster under the bed. You play the kids. The GM plays the monster. You will probably get eaten.

Kids

Age
You begin the game as a child of (1d4+4) years old.

Talents
You have three different talents: Fast, Smart, and Will. Fast is used for getting away. Smart is used for out-clevering. Will is used in social contests and for being brave.

You have three dice to assign to your talents: a d6, a d8 and a d10. Assign them now.

Experiences
In your short life, you have gained some experience with things that lurk in the night. You initially have four dice to assign to your experiences: a d4, a d6, a d8, and a d10. If you are age 7 or 8, you also have a d12. You may split your dice: your d8 may be split into two d4’s, your d10 into 1d6 and 1d4 and your d12 into two d6’s. Choose experiences from the list below, and assign one die each.

	•	Convincing adults
	•	Investigation
	•	Slingshot
	•	Tip-toe
	•	Quiet and listen
	•	Hide
	•	Shadow Intuition
	•	Etc…

Useful Items
Most of your stuff is just useless toys, clothes and junk, but you might have something useful in your room. (Eg. flashlight, monster book, slingshot) Useful items let you optionally reroll one die if you can narrate how the item helps you. However, if you use a reroll and you fail, you may not gain a reroll from this item again for the rest of the current haunt; you’ve used up the item’s usefulness.

The number of useful items you start play with is equal to your starting age −4. Name them now, record on your sheet. These items may always be found in your bedroom. You may use items written on other PCs’ sheets if you’re in the same room, and it might also be possible to find a new useful item in the Kitchen, the Garage, or in the Basement.

Power Items
These are items that, although not necessarily useful, are meaningful to you in a way that bolsters your courage, making you more powerful when you wield them. Teddy bears, blankies, and lucky charms are power items. When using a power item, you may roll an extra die for your action if your power item is in hand. The size of your starting bonus die depends on how old you are:

5 or 6: +1d8
7 or 8: +1d6
9 or 10: +1d4

However, every time you use a power item, it permanently diminishes by one die size. A d4 power item becomes useless after it is used one last time.

Everybody starts play with only one power item. You may not share power items. You may optionally—at any time during play—deactivate your power item. This permanently removes it from play, but gives you a new experience with an equal die size to the deactivated power item.

The Haunt

At the beginning of a new haunt, the GM will draw some cards and place them face down in the different rooms on the house map. Kids’ bedrooms and the basement get 2 cards each, the parents’ room gets zero, and the rest of the rooms get 1 card each. These cards are the haunt’s Power.

The goal of the game is for the kids to survive the haunt by escaping the monster. Kids RP and take actions by rolling dice. When you try to do something hard, roll a talent die and add an experience die if you have one relevant. Throw 10 or higher to succeed. If your action is exceptionally difficult, the GM might stick you with a −5 penalty.

 If you succeed at three actions, you get to draw a card. Succeeding at a single difficult action will net you one card. You may challenge a room by flipping its Power cards and comparing the total of all the cards of the children present. If your cards total beats the room’s Power, you remove the monster threat from that room, making it safe. If you fail, you lose your cards, and the room cards remain on the board.

At the beginning of the game, the haunt starts with just normal spooky stuff. When a room is challenged, the nature of the haunt changes depending on the suit of the Power card:

Hearts: 		scaring
Diamonds: 	tricking
Clubs: 		trapping
Spades: 		hurting

Every 3 actions the PCs fail, the GM will draw a card into his hand. He must play all the cards from his hand if a room is challenged, adding them to the room’s Power. Kids can’t enter a room if it has more cards than they do. If the GM ever holds more cards than the number of children, one PC is randomly eaten, and the haunt ends.

Rooms of the House
Kids’ Bedrooms
Kids aged 5 and 6 sleep in the same room together, as do kids aged 7 to 9. If you do not share an age category with another PC, you have your own room.

The Hallway
All of the bedrooms of the house, as well as the bathroom and the living room, are connected by the hallway. There is a linen closet here.

The Parents’ Bedroom
The monsters don’t go in your parents’ bedroom. You’ll lose 1d experience if you wimp out though.

The Bathroom
You might have to go here. −1d experience if you pee the bed.

The Living Room
The living room adjoins the kitchen and the hallway. There’s a TV, a bookshelf and a big comfy sofa.

The Kitchen
If you can make it to the kitchen, you might be able to find one of your mom’s useful items.

The Garage
The door to the garage is in the kitchen. You dad keeps his useful items in the garage.

The Basement
The stairs to the basement are also located in the kitchen. There’s some really useful stuff down there.

Growing Up
The monster strikes once a year. If you survive a haunt, roll on the following table to see what your birthday present was in the year of downtime:

1-2	a power item
3-4	a useful item
5		two items of your choice
6		your own room (or nothing, if you already didn’t share)

Furthermore, upon aging one of your old items (chosen at random) is relinquished to the basement (erase it from your sheet), and you can advance an existing experience by one die step.