Who doesn’t love a good haunted house story? You, and The House by Elizabeth Giosia is a short journaling game about what it’s like to live in a house that is haunted and decide whether or not you will stay.
You, and the House is a Princess Sword game. To play you will need a tarot deck, a d6, and method of recording the encounter.
I do wish they had a house generator table(s). While it can be fun to daydream and come up with your own idea of a haunted house (and that could always be an option), this took me longer than I wanted. Having a table to roll on to generate a haunted house would have been more my jam with the mindset I have today while testing. This sent me on a tangent of making a rolling table…
What does the house look like?
- Suburban Ranch Style
- Modern with ALL the Angles
- A Cozy Tudor
- Victorian complete with round tower
- A Simple Farmhouse
- A Townhouse sharing walls with neighbors
Something unique about the house that you might not have noticed fully until you bought it
- Slightly bigger on the inside than the outside
- A flower garden…all the plants are poisonous
- The house came with furniture that seems to shift places overnight
- A door at the end of the hall that can’t possibly open to anywhere…
- A walled up room
- There’s a window that isn’t looking out on the location it should be…
What’s the Building’s History
- A member of the previous owner’s family went missing in the house.
- The Realtor had to legally inform you the last owner was murdered in the house.
- It was built seemingly overnight.
- Perfectly normal but everyone in the neighborhood has nightmares of your house…
- The home of a doctor who did clandestine surgeries within
- Spiritualists did seances here at the turn of the century
I rolled a cozy Tudor with a window that isn’t looking out on the location it should be and its history is that it was the home of a doctor who did clandestine surgeries within.
What does the spirit want?
With that history, I think there are 2 spirits at least – 1 that just wants to continue/complete his work and another that wants to be put to rest.
Who am I?
I think I’ll play a single/child-free version of myself (mostly because I don’t like to imagine my real life loved ones in danger). They/them pronouns. Looking to live quietly in my new home with my pet corgi, Tasha, and work on my books (I’m a professional writer).
I rolled a 5 for the number of days +1 for the last day of the game.
Day 1
Card: The Chariot, reversed.
I know for certain the house is haunted now. I suspected as much after realizing the guest room window didn’t look out at the neighbor’s house but on an old out building that isn’t on my property. Today, in the living room, the lights began to flicker. The tv clicked on, its volume on the highest level, screaming the latest news report at me. It was so jarring and loud, all I could do was cover my ears with my hands and flee.
Poor Tasha hasn’t come out from under the bed since no matter how many treats I offer her. I don’t blame her. For a bit I was tempted to curl up under there with her and hide. Unfortunately, hiding won’t fix things.
I’ve doubled down on my research on the house. I know it was built by a local doctor in 1918 – perhaps to get out of the city during the Spanish Flu pandemic. He died of a heart attack or stroke or something in 1930 – perhaps related to the stock market crash? Who can say. That was the only recorded death on the property but nothing happened when I asked whatever is in the house if it was Dr. James Whitley.
No amount of horror movie watching as a teen prepared me for this.
Day 2
Card: 10 of Cups, reversed
The ghost attacked me in the bathroom this evening. I’m ok, nothing I couldn’t bandage up with some antiseptic and a few bandaids.
I was taking a hot shower when I felt like I was being watched. Finishing up quickly, I stepped out and saw in the fogged mirror a message – “Help.”
Walking to it, I touched the mirror – I don’t know why! Perhaps to make sure it was there, that I wasn’t dreaming. I feel crazy.
As soon as my finger touched the glass it shattered and flew all over me. Tiny bits sliced my face, hand, arm, and chest. I also stepped on a few and had to use tweezers to get them out.
Took a few hours to get everything cleaned up mostly because I was so shaken.
If I ever thought ghosts can’t hurt you, tonight proved me wrong.
Jordan, the realtor, isn’t answering my calls.
Day 3
Card: 4 of Wands, upright
I found myself in the guest bedroom again, staring out that damned window. No matter what I’m doing around the house, I seem to end up there, in a daze. This time I’d been sitting on the guest bed, staring out the window for 2 hours before snapping out of it.
The strangest part is what snapped me out of it.
The room still smells strange – lavender and camphor despite my best efforts to air it out and clean all the linens. The smell was very strong today as I stared out the window. A soft breeze filled the room despite the mugginess outside.
Then, at that strange outbuilding that can’t be there but is if I look out this window, someone entered. It was as if they were walking from the house to the out building.
I have no idea who it was. Certainly not Dr. Whitley unless the photo on the internet is wrong and he was in fact a much younger woman. She was plainly dressed in what I suppose was 20’s fashion – though my only knowledge of clothing in that time was flapper dresses and she wasn’t wearing one of those.
I called out the window to her but she never turned. Just went into the building and shut the door.
Day 4
Card: 8 of Swords, upright
I think I’m losing my mind.
I was making dinner, chopping up veggies for shepherd’s pie, when suddenly my vision shifted. Vertigo. Then, when my vision cleared, I wasn’t holding a knife and cutting carrots. Instead, I had a scalpel and was standing over a woman who was crying and looking up at me.
The vision only lasted a second but I am almost certain it was the same woman I saw go into the out building.
So shaken, I couldn’t eat. Tasha enjoyed what I’d already made for the pie and I made tea and spent the evening in the guest bedroom, staring out that window.
Day 5
Card: Queen of Cups, reversed
I took a bath to try and clear my head. No more steamy showers, though, since I haven’t replaced the mirror, I’m not sure exactly what danger I’m in now.
Dozing in the warm water, I had another one of those vision things. I’m either crazy or possessed…
I was in a tub of cold water. The water was turning red. Someone was saying, “I can’t stop the bleeding,” in a panicked voice.
I think I was dying…
I blacked out. When I woke up, or came to is perhaps the better way to put it, I was in the guest bedroom, staring out at the building.
Day 6
The Final Day
I climb through the guest bedroom window, carefully climbing along the lower roof and then down the trellis to the ground. Turning, the out building is still there despite the fact that I know if I had went out my front or kitchen door, all I would have seen in this direction is the neighbor’s fence and perhaps one of his cows.
Barefoot, I didn’t think to grab my shoes, I walked into the building. Inside wasn’t the shed I was expecting but a dimly lit but clean room with old fashioned looking cabinets, medical equipment, and a table.
I recognized it from the vision I had in the kitchen, holding the scalpel and looking over the woman.
She was there, lying on the table. So was Dr. Whitley, looking down at her with a sorrowful face.
“She wasn’t the only one I lost but…she stuck with me,” he said. I could only guess he was talking to me.
The woman turned to me, her eyes teary. She held out her hand and I took hit, holding it.
“You don’t have to stay here,” I told them. I don’t think they heard me though.
When I woke up, minutes, perhaps hours, maybe even a day, later, I was in the field, muddy and exhausted.
Jordan finally accepted my call. He didn’t understand why I couldn’t stay in the house but agreed to help me resell the house. There’s a developer who is looking at the area, he says. I didn’t really care enough to listen fully. The lights were flickering on and off in the living room.
