ICOTALEOfficial
Funny spooky · d20 rulebook
Sighing Manor
- 2–4 players
- Difficulty 1 of 3
- Not recommended under 10
- Available in: Français, English, Español, Deutsch, Italiano
You are the monsters of the house: vampire, ghost, skeleton, werewolf. The manor is crumbling, the living are getting closer, and the family honour must be saved — by scaring them properly.
The rulebook at a glance
- d20 + attribute
- 4 attributes
- The jitters gauge
Choose an adventure
- One-shot
Halloween Night
1 session · humour, shivers, family · most played
Cost: 1 Die for the whole table
Create a table - One-shot
The Inspector of Hauntings
1 session · humour, improvisation, pride
Cost: 1 Die for the whole table
Create a table - One-shot
Aunt Agatha’s Wedding
1 session · humour, family, race against time
Cost: 1 Die for the whole table
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By the Icotale team
The world
- PlaceThe Manor of SighsThirty-two rooms, a staircase that creaks in the right order, a leaning tower and an attic where nobody goes, not even the ghosts.
- PlaceThe village of MoonbiteAt the foot of the hill: curious living folk, a bakery, a school, and a Halloween party every year where the manor is the main attraction.
- PlaceThe basement cryptThe family coffins, the ancestors’ tea room and the biscuit sideboard, forbidden to skeletons, who drop half of them.
- PlaceThe atticThe only room even the family avoids. They say an old vacuum cleaner lives there.
- FactionThe Bureau of HauntingsThe office in charge of haunted houses: bespectacled inspectors, a scale of shivers, a star rating. Downgraded, a manor becomes a country bed and breakfast.
- CharacterAunt AgathaFamily ghost for two hundred years, lady of the house, head of etiquette. Sighs every three sentences.
- CharacterMr PépinThe manor’s living caretaker, deaf in one ear, who has never noticed a single thing in forty years of service.
- CharacterThe children of MoonbiteA gang of ten-year-olds with caps and torches, who bet every year on who can stay longest in the manor.
The rulebook
Resolving actions
- Roll 1d20 and add the attribute modifier: 10 or more pulls off a small effect, 13 a good shiver, 16 an unforgettable terror.
- A natural 20 makes the chandeliers tremble all over the manor; a natural 1 pulls off…
- something ridiculous, and everyone sees it.
Initiative : 1d20 + Mischief modifier
Attributes
- Fright FRI
- Scaring people: howling, popping out, making the right door creak.
- Mischief MIS
- Tricking, setting traps, distracting the living.
- Charm CHA
- Convincing, charming, sweet-talking an inspector or a ghostly aunt.
- Carcass CAR
- Taking hits, carrying things, sticking yourself back together after a fall down the stairs.
Special rules
- The jitters gauge
- Every living person who enters the manor has a jitters gauge from 0 to 5, kept by the Storyteller. A good shiver raises it by 1, an unforgettable terror by 2. At 5, the living person flees and tells the whole village about the house: that’s glory. Nobody ever gets hurt: we scare, we don’t harm.
- Already dead
- Monsters don’t die any more: at 0 HP, you are "in pieces" (scattered, evaporated, dislocated) and you stick yourself back together at the next stroke of midnight, a little crooked. Sunlight, holy water and the caretaker’s vacuum cleaner count as dangers.
- Family tradition
- Once per session, calling on a manor tradition ("in our house, we howl on the third step") gives +3 to the roll that applies it — and the Storyteller writes it into the history of the house forever.
Character creation
Roll 4 dice with 6 faces per attribute, keep the 3 best · 2 rerolls allowed4d6kh3
Origins
- Of the founders’ bloodline
- Has haunted the manor since its first stone; +1 Fright.
- Brought back from a trip
- Mummy, creature or cursed trunk that arrived by post; +1 Mischief.
- Married in
- Married into the family, or a guest who never left; +1 Charm.
Vocations
- Vampire
- Elegant, touchy, allergic to garlic and to badly worded compliments.
- Ghost
- Goes through walls, not through conversations: hears everything.
- Skeleton
- Light, noisy, always loses something on the stairs.
- Werewolf
- Hairy on full-moon nights, helpful the rest of the month.
Derived values
- Hit points
- 8 + Carcass modifier
- Defense
- 10 + Mischief modifier
- Initiative
- 1d20 + Mischief modifier
Starting equipment
- A three-branched candlestick
- A sheet that has seen better days
- A key that no longer opens anything
Veils
Topics kept off screen: the Narrator never shows or describes them.
- gore
- cruelty to animals