H TALES SO TERRIFYING THAT WE GUARANTEE ONLY

ONE PLAYER WILL SURVIVE - WITH ALL-NEW STORIES!

o
r Bad
r
o Decisions
r AN RPG BY SCOTT SLATER
 Bad
Decisions
Game Design: Scott Slater
Game Development: Michael Faulk and Jeff Mitchell
Illustrator: Michael Faulk
Layout: Jeff Mitchell
Editor: Meg Slater
Photography: Brandt Waldemar, Ben Hershey, Yeshi
Kangrang, Javier Garcia, Nathan Wright, Ian, Aswathy
N, Rowan Freeman, Dario Bronnimann, Error 420, Tom
Podmore, David Clode, Gabriel P, John Jacobsen, Connor
DeMott, Kyle Johnson, Joshua Sukoff, Jeff Mitchell

Playtesters:
Caleb Baldauf, Doug Cole, Jarad Demick, Jeremy
Gannon, Sean Gomez, Dolly Haddad, Jim Hildenbrand,
Dave Kopchick, Tim Looney, Ian McCallum, Myk Meyer,
Heather O’Neill, Chris O’Neill, Meg Slater, Moira Slater,
Corinne Taylor, Adriel Wilson

Where to find us:

@arbitriogames
facebook.com/arbitriogames
patreon.com/arbitriogames

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not
be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without
the express written permission of the designer except for the
use of brief quotations in a review.
 Descending down the darkened
stairs into the basement. Fleeing
deep into the woods, farther from
help. Splitting the party. There are
many examples in tales of horror
when the protagonists could have
chosen wisely. But this is not the
time for such existential luxuries...
this is the time to lead them in their
regretful acts as they are pursued
and ultimately reach their demise.

Bad Decisions is a GM-less game about 2-6

characters who find themselves in a horror
story. Instead of making optimal choices, your
characters are going to get themselves into more
and more trouble. Just as things go from bad to
worse in a horror movie, at some point, it gets
deadly. As the tale comes to a head, each player
finds themselves meeting a grizzly end. When
only two remain it's a showdown between
The Final Girl and The Mastermind.
But which are you?

Bad Decisions 1
 You need:
A Pen/Pencil per player
Index Cards
5 six-sided dice for every player
Cups for dice rolling (or cupped hands)

Preparation:
All players take an index card and write 1 through 6, leaving
enough space so that you can place a die on each number.
Place all the dice in the center of the table. Choose the first
player and then in clockwise order, each player takes a die
from the center and places it on their index card to match
their order in the round. For example, if Jason is the third
player, he will put his die in the third box with the three
facing up. Those numbers are now covered.

2 Preparation
Phase One: How’d we Get here?
Have a brief discussion about the desired tone of the game
- do you want this to be gonzo, or serious? What kind of
horror movie are you aiming for? Make sure there is general
agreement between all players.

Even more important than establishing the tone is the

employment of safety tools, especially for a horror style
game. John Stavropoulos’s X-Card is an excellent example
of a tool to use (http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg), so that
each player knows that they can pause the action if there
is content that makes them uncomfortable. In all honesty,
the X-card talk is often more impactful than the X-card itself.
Here’s how you do it - simply say these lines.

“I’d like your help. Your help to make this game fun for
everyone. If anything makes anyone uncomfortable in any
way… [ draw X on an index card ] …just lift this card up, or
simply tap it [ place card at the center of the table ]. You
don’t have to explain why. It doesn’t matter why. When we lift
or tap this card, we simply edit out anything X-Carded. And if
there is ever an issue, anyone can call for a break and we can
talk privately. I know it sounds funny but it will help us play
amazing games together and usually I’m the one who uses the
X-card to protect myself from all of you! Please help make this
game fun for everyone. Thank you!”

Phase One 3
 Characters: You will be taking on the role of a participant in
the tragic tale. How have you managed to find yourself in
this situation? Certainly not because of GOOD decisions! If
it’s not obvious enough, you are a character in a game about
making bad decisions, so if you find yourself trying to figure
out what the safest or most optimal move would be in a
given situation, take a step back and think to yourself: “Self,
what decision could I make that would cause someone to
shout exasperatedly at a movie screen for me to stop?”

You can establish your

characters from the jump,
or let them evolve over the
course of play. We’ve had
fun playing ourselves in
heightened horror movie type
situations, but we also know
that’s not for everyone. We’ve
created a series of tables,
on page 22, to help you get
started if you would like. They
are, of course, totally optional.

Select someone to be the

first narrator. If the person who brought this game to play
isn’t interested in going first, the first narrator should be
the person who questioned the plot of a horror movie most
recently.

4 Phase One
 Phase Two: The Shape of
Things to Come
The first narrator takes a die from the center pile (think of
it as the symbol of their narrative authority). They set the
scene and narrate the action until a meaningful potential Bad
Decision has been made. Choosing avocado toast may not be
meaningful in most scenarios, but going off alone, or hitting
the radio to make it work, should be.

EXAMPLE: The group has decided that the game will take
place at the end of the season at Sunnyside Lake. Although
most people have closed their cabins for the season, a small
group of friends are trying to squeeze in one last day of fun.

Jacob’s player begins narrating:

It’s late morning on our first full day there. Miguel, my

boyfriend, has made a passable brunch that we’re all picking
at. I’m just like...middle-distancing out the window while
chomping on some over-cooked bacon when I see a boat
barrelling toward the shore. There’s a woman in it, and she’s
just rowing at break-neck speed. She’s also barely paying
attention; her head’s just looking all around frantically. I tell
the others to wait here and I run outside to meet her.

Sounds like this might be a Bad Decision, right? The group

agrees and Jacob rolls.

Phase Two 5
 When a Bad Decision appears in the story, the narrator rolls
the d6 they’ve been holding, and compares it to the numbers
covered on their card.

If the number DOES NOT MATCH a number covered on the

card:

1. Place the die you rolled over the corresponding number

on your index card. Continue to narrate the result of the Bad
Decision.

2. Narration then passes to the player on your left, who takes

a die from the center, and continues the tale.
If the number does not match, Jacob’s player narrates:
So, I head down to the lake and this woman is standing next
to the boat, staring-off. We get a good look at her now and
she’s just absolutely covered in mud, leaves, dirt, everything.
She sorta snaps out of it and then just charges at me with the
paddle. She’s just babbling and swinging wildly.

Lindsey writes down “Chekhov’s Boat Paddle”. We'll get

to what that means in a bit (page 10).

Even though Jacob won narration rights, he chooses to

play up his ineptitude.

Now, Jacob made it to green-belt, so I employ some rusty ka-

rate to deflect the paddle but I mostly fail. I get really bruised
up, but eventually I knock her to the ground. As she falls, the
only bit of gibberish we understand is the word “Mama”. But
she gets knocked-out when she hits her head on a rock on the
beach.

Play then passes to Miguel’s player who is to the left of

Jacob.

6 Phase two
 What is a Bad Decision?
What is success and failure? Rather than enrolling in a
philosophy course, for the purposes of this game, a Bad
Decision is something that drives the story forward, and
is a potentially risky thing for your character to do. Most
of the time, it will be obvious, but if you think there is
something that constitutes a Bad Decision, feel free to call
it out.

When you roll the die and evaluate the result, you’re either
going to have control of the result (generally regarded as a
success) OR someone else at the table will have control of
the result (failure, for fans of brevity).

It’s important to remember that narrative control isn’t so

binary as all of that - when you control the narrative, your
job as a player is to make a resolution that is part of an
interesting story. Sometimes that means that nothing bad
happens and you simply whistle past the graveyard - but if
you do that too often, it makes for a sort of boring horror
movie. This works on the other end of the resolution
spectrum as well. If a negative consequence stops the
action dead, it’s kind of boring (“Oh, the door is locked,
and there’s no way to open it. Guess we’ll try another
one”).

Another way to stop the action dead is to grievously

injure someone in the first part of the game. If you break
Miguel’s neck, but leave him alive and gurgling, he’s
effectively removed from the action - that’s not fun for
Miguel’s player. Save your glorious mayhem-ridden deaths
and dismemberments for Phase Three.

Phase two 7
 If your number DOES MATCH:

1. You must give your die to someone who has that number
uncovered on their index card. That number becomes
covered.

2. That player takes temporary control of the narration to

resolve the outcome of the Bad Decision.

3. Once this player narrates the result of the Bad Decision,

narration immediately passes to the player on the left of the
original narrator as it would have before. They take a die, and
begin to narrate.

If the number does match, Lindsey’s player narrates:

Jacob heads down to the lake leaving everyone else to won-

der if he just abandoned them. He gets to the shore where the
rowboat is but maybe it’s just completely empty? Jacob spends
a few minutes scouring the shore and the boat. The boat has
some blood stains on it, but nothing else notable. The rest of
the group watches Jacob walk confusedly back up to the lake
house. BUT! Lindsey begins frantically pounding on the win-
dow to get his attention because she sees that the woman is
crawling on all fours a few feet behind him. He doesn’t seem to
realize she’s there. Uh-oh!

Play then passes to Miguel’s player, who is to the left of

Jacob.

8 Phase two
 Phase two 9
When you ARE the Narrator you have control of where
the action is going, but you should only role-play as other
characters within reason. Forcing them to do something
through your words CAN have good narrative impact, but
if it’s completely out of what they’ve established for the
character, it’s probably not cool. You can call for suggestions
if you are stuck for something to happen.

When you are NOT the Narrator you can react to situations,
interject pithy commentary and roleplay conversations, but
from a story perspective, you’re not allowed to change the
status quo (for better or for worse). You can roleplay your
struggle to survive, but you can’t resolve anything unless you
have the narrative authority.

Chekhovs: When you’re not the Narrator, something else you

can do is call out a piece of description that you feel is very
evocative. This is a way to praise the Narrator for introducing
a juicy bit of fiction, and it’s also a way to make sure you
remember all the dangerous stuff that is lying around when
Phase Two begins. When you do this, jot it down on a piece
of paper or index card, and put it out on the table. We call
these Chekhovs (Y’know, like the gun).

Phase Two Injuries: When you are resolving someone

else’s Bad Decision: It’s okay to injure people (sprains, cuts,
bruises), but no one should die until Phase Three.

Phase Three is triggered when

Nobody has an uncovered number of the number you
rolled, or...
anyone manages to cover all six numbers, or...
no dice remain in the center.

10 Phase two
 Phase THREe: The Long, Sad
Layla Outro
Phase Three marks a change in the story. We go from being
lost in the woods to being chased by a monster. We go
from exploring an abandoned amusement park to clinging
precariously to a rickety Ferris Wheel. Whoever rolled the
die that triggered Phase Three has a special role in the game.
That player must describe how the situation has suddenly
grown deadly (Did the masked killer appear? Does the mind
control fungus begin giving orders? Do the cultists drop
their normal-person pretense?). Once they narrate how the
story went from dangerous to deadly, they roll any dice that
remain in the center, and sort them out by number. Now you
all must survive!

Each player gathers the covered dice that they have collected
over the course of Phase Two, rolls them and then quickly
conceals them underneath their cups (or cupped hands). The
player who triggered Phase Three then makes a guess as to
how many dice (both showing and hidden) display a certain
number. Sixes are wild, and count for any number - but the
first bid in a round can’t be a six. (Example: Lindsey’s player
states that of the 25 dice that exist in this game, seven of
them are fours)

The player to the left then either increases the bid, or calls
the bluff of the player who has made a guess. To increase the
bid, you must add to either the total number of dice, OR the
faces of the dice showing. (Example: Scott must now decide
if he wants to guess EIGHT fours, or seven FIVES, taking into
account the wild sixes).

Phase three 11
 If a player calls the bluff, everyone reveals their
dice and they are counted up. If there are as
many dice (or more) than what the bluffer bid,
the caller dies and the bluffer narrates his
death. If the caller is correct, the caller
narrates the bluffers death, building off of
what has transpired, as well as any Chekovs
that people called out during the first phase.
Whoever has died pushes their dice into the
center and rerolls them all. If the bluffer died,
the caller makes the next first guess. If the caller
died, the bluffer makes the next first guess.

We push the dice into the center to

increase the collective knowledge of the players. You lose all
your dice at once (unlike many Liar's Dice variants) because
horror movie deaths should be sudden, and not drawn out
over many rounds - also, Liar's Dice isn’t the star of the show.
Your spooky talk is!

Eventually, only two players will remain. The outcome of this

call will determine the final twist of the game and wrap our
blood-stained box up in a neat, little bow.

If the bluffer is correct, then they were The Mastermind

behind the whole thing all along. Reveal yourself to the caller
and narrate their grisly demise. If you would like, tell what
your success ultimately means.

If the caller is correct, then they are The Final Girl. Explain
how the bluffer dies moments before escape and then tell
how you managed to survive. If you would like, give a hint
that the danger may not be quite done with you yet.

12 Phase three
We’ve found it fun to name the tale at the end, and have it
relate to the events of the story you have built together. “The
Rowing Class” or maybe “Well, Braise my Buttermilks, that’s
a Lady Monster!” (Full disclosure, we’re gonzo goofballs and
like silly names, but this can just as easily be, “The Thing
From the Lake.”) If a title isn’t finding purchase in your
collective imaginations, it’s also fun to finish the game off by
revealing the moral of the story. “And that’s why you never
leave brunch until everyone is done.”

Phase three 13
 Variants: small ways to
change the game

Over the course of playtesting, we played the game in a

bunch of different ways. Sometimes it was something as
simple as a little narrative twist or a way to make the game
playable with 2 people. One is a style shift from horror
movies to an “Over the Hedge”-style food-acquisition caper.
These are all totally optional but could be fun for your table.

VARIANT #1: Narrate Each Possible Future

We’ve played rules-as-written most often, with a quick
round of Liar’s Dice followed by the resolution narration
during Phase Three, BUT- a fun variant can be that you make
a short description of what horrible thing could be coming
up if you win. This is for folks who are into making off-the-
cuff narrations, rather than people who need a minute to
compose their thoughts.

When you play it this way, it resolves a little bit like the end
of the movie version of Clue - sometimes it’s fun to see what
COULD have happened.

Each player should say one or two sentences about what will
happen to the next person in order, if they call their bluff and
are wrong. It’s like narrative bullying!

14 Variants
 VARIANT # 2: Two Players
Playing with two players is gonna take a little bit of extra
collaborative story building, but it is totally doable.

You’re still going to set up index cards in front of you, but

you’re also going to make-up a third card for a dummy player.
We’ll call him Todd (but if you know and love a Todd, you can
make it someone else). Unlike in a normal game, everyone
will start with all of their spaces open (instead of covering
one with a die to start).

Narration passes between Player A and Player B, back and

forth. When one of you reaches a Bad Decision point, you
roll your d6 as usual but if you can’t take a die and Todd can,
he must take it; you may not give it to the other player. The
narration is still handled by the other player, but instead of
something bad happening to you, when Todd takes
a die, he does something unpredictable
and dangerous as dictated by the Todd
Table (page 16) driving the story
ever closer to Phase Three.

During your narration, either player

can use Todd to advance the plot, or
generally cause chaos (because Todd is
an agent of chaos). Todd is usually well-meaning, but has a
petty streak in him, and he doesn’t like to be condescended
to, despite making decisions that are ripe for condescension.
When narrating an outcome and you need to hurt someone,
try to make it one of yourselves instead of Todd. You’re not
bullies; he is (sometimes).

Variants 15
 In this version, Phase Three only starts after two cards are
completely filled. If a number cannot be placed (because it
has been rolled 3 times already), it becomes a Wild and can
go on any space (Player’s choice). The narrative result of
these Wilds should always be high stakes.

Phase Three for two players involves a single round of dice

bluffing. Todd’s dice are not rolled until after a bluff is called.
Once we see that one player has won and one has not, we
roll Todd’s dice to see if he can spoil the victory. If Todd’s roll
does not change the outcome, the winner gets to narrate
both Todd and their partner’s grisly demise. They are either
the Mastermind or Final Girl, as per normal rules. However,
if Todd’s roll does change the outcome in either direction,
Todd becomes the Mastermind. The two players should
collaborate together to figure-out what Todd’s plan was and
how he gets each of them killed.

Todd Takes a Then Todd...

1 ...loses something important or useful. How are things
immediately worse off because of it?
2 ...hears a noise and goes darting out of line of sight to figure out
what it is. What danger does he lure closer to you?
3 ...activates an established Chekov (or if there are no Chekovs, he
makes one). How does he hurt himself with it?
4 ...thinks this sucks and decides to head back. What impedes his
way when he tries to leave?
5 ...stomach rumbles, and he decides to look around for food.
What has he mistaken for edible food and what are the
consequences?
6 ...finds something valuable and immediately either breaks it or
plans to steal it. What third-party has been angered by
this?

16 Variants
 VARIANT #3: Bird Decisions
You’re a bird. Life is pretty good. Hollow bones? Not so
great, but you have the power of flight. No one expects
you to have a job or opinions. Enjoy sunny days, splash in
puddles on rainy ones, fly south when it gets cold. Very
carefree -

Until you see that french fry. That god-damned french fry.
You look over to your bird friends, and you know they see it
too. The race is on!

Mechanically, Bird Decisions is played identical to Bad

Decisions. You set up the same way, roll a die when you come
to a decision point, and either keep it & narrate your result,
or give it to someone else and they narrate what happens to
your bird as a result of the decision. Once a card is filled, it
shifts over to bidding and Liar’s Dice. All that stuff stays the
same.
Variants 17
 Narratively, Bird Decisions plays out a bit differently than
Bad Decisions. You as players are seeking to do the most
“bird” thing you can possibly do. You can squabble, flap,
pick through garbage, decide that something shiny is worth
keeping. The single driving force, the thing that just hotwires
and hijacks your little bird brain, is the promise of food. And
like birds, your satisfaction comes at the expense of your
fellow bird. In Phase Two, you cannot find food. You can get
tantalizingly close, you can hint at it, or even put down food-
related Chekovs to utilize later. No food discovery until Phase
Three hits.

When you shift into Phase Three, instead of things turning

deadly, you discover a piece of food and you & your bird
friends have to squabble over it to figure-out who gets it.
Each turn, as players are eliminated, the winner of the bluff
and call narrates how the loser is taken out of the action.
Maybe they’re thrown clear of the squabble or are forced
to fly away for some other reason (if the idea of characters
dying is unpleasant to you, you can also use this rule in the
normal game. Instead of a death, a person can be taken out
of the action in some way). Whoever is the last one standing
gets the piece of food, and gets to describe how wonderful
and/or disgusting it is to all the other birds who have been
eliminated.

Unsurprisingly, we have some tables in case you’re having

some trouble picking out a bird or a piece of food. We’ve left
birds of prey off the list, because it gets a little dark (your
mileage may vary). Plus, you don’t normally see a hawk
fighting for a piece of cotton candy or something. In our
mind’s eye, the setting for this is a public park of some sort,
because interacting with humans can be funnier and there is

18 Variants
more of a capacity for chaos than you’d find in the untouched
wilderness. If you don’t feel like rolling a die, you can just
pick one you like. Bird Drives are designed to give you
roleplaying cues for Phase Two (pre-food discovery). It goes
without saying that once food is on the table (or ground), the
bird drives turn into getting that FOOD.

d6 Species Food Trait Drives

1 Pigeon Cheese Puff Selfish Look for suitable
or Dry Junk Food nest components

2 Pelican Worm Curious Need to wash off

after a dusty day

3 Sparrow Dropped Ice Cream Arrogant Get close to a

or other sticky food human, but not
too close

4 Seagull Bread or Crackers or Conniving Get your mating

French Fries call and dance
JUUUUST right

5 Crow A bird feeder that a Distractible That is a shiny

squirrel cracked open object!

6 Duck Just... garbage. Birds Collaborative Keeping a lookout

can be gross for enemies

Variants 19
 Louis the Pigeon’s player narrates:

Loius is bumbling around a seaside park minding his own

business. He sees his friend Janice the Seagull swooping
around doing her bird thing. He decides to go see if the guy on
the bench is feeding anyone.

Because it’s Phase Two he won’t be - but Louis’ drive

is to get close to humans, so he’s playing into that. His
decision to approach the human triggers the roll. He
rolls a five, which he does not have open space for, so
he hands the die off to Janice’s player, who narrates the
results.

The man is holding a bouquet of flowers and looking sad - no

feeding today. When he notices Louis, he shoos the pesky bird
away. Someone decides they like the bouquet of flowers as a
juicy and exploitable detail for later, so they write it down as a
Chekhov.

Play passes to Janice’s player.

She narrates that she is swooping around and looking for

something shiny. What she spots is in the benchweeper’s upper
pocket - perhaps a shiny ring? She swoops down triumphantly
to claim it.

Janice’s player rolls and gets a three - she keeps it and

narrates her successful swoop and grab, and she writes
down “Chekhov’s Engagement Ring.”

Karla, a sparrow, sees this action going on, she doesn’t much
care for it. She’s not actively engaged with the others, which is
fine, because they’re all a part of this rich avian tapestry of life

20 Variants
 on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the park. Karla narrates
hopping over to the fountain, and decides to splash around a
little to wash the dust off.

She rolls, it’s a four, and she has nowhere to put it, and
also no one to give it to. This triggers Phase Three.

The sparrow spies on the far side of the fountain a squirrel,

just going ham on a bird feeder that was not meant for him. It
comes loose with a plasticine POP, and time slows down as the
squirrel, feeder, and birdseed begin to cascade down towards
the ground. Karla had been avoiding the feeder because of
that pesky squirrel, but now… the race is on.

Variants 21
 Phase One: Scenario Tables
Bad Decisions can be made by anyone and happen in any
location. You can use the following tables to assist with creating
your cast of characters and the places where dangerous
things will happen. Roll on the first table to create your group,
then use the next three to outline the type of location. At the
end, you will have a scenario similar to the example shown
below. Feel free to roll up a couple locations and pick the one
the groups likes best. All tables should always be viewed as
optional.

You Are... at a(n) Adjective...Location... Where...

A scout troop Secret Farm Animals won’t go

22 Tables
 4d6 You Are...
4 Yourselves, but dumber
5 On a high school senior trip
6 Family on a road-trip
7 Co-workers travelling together
8 Teen detectives
9 A scout troop
10 Amateur ghost hunters
11 A touring band
12 Sobering up after the bar
13 Running from the cops
14 Skipping school
15 Following a jam band for the summer
16 On a foreign vacation
17 Fraternity/sorority pledges
18 E-sports team
19 Video bloggers
20 Camp counselors
21 Laboratory assistants
22 Party crashers
23 Con artists
24 A wedding party on rehersal night

Tables 23
3d6 Adjective
3 Abandoned
4 Burnt-Down
5 Flooded
6 Overgrown
7 Condemned
8 Fog-covered
9 Sinister
10 Ominous
11 Silent 5d6 Location
12 Reopened 5 Mall
13 Rust-covered 6 Amusement Park
14 Spider-filled 7 Train yard
15 Secret 8 Hospital
16 Guarded 9 Church
17 Inhabited 10 School
18 Inescapable 11 Olympic Village
12 Prison
13 Old Copper Mine
14 Boat on the Sea
15 Cabin in the Woods
16 Island on the Lake
17 Tent on the Mountain
18 Off-season Beach House
19 Colonial Reenactment
Village
20 Dinosaur Golf Course
21 Summer Camp
22 Corn Field
23 Farm
24 Gas Station
25 House on a Hill
26 Ski Resort
27 Jungle Expedition
28 Cemetery
29 Research Station
30 Ghost Town

24 Tables
 3d6 Where...
3 People see those lights in the sky
4 Those kids went missing
5 They found all those fingers
6 Animals won’t go
7 That shit is haunted
8 The grounds shakes for no reason
9 The thunder storm is raging
10 The snow keeps coming down
11 It always smells like wet dog
12 There wasn’t one before
13 There’s something stalking you
14 Everyone feels a little nauseous
15 There are occult symbols on the ground
16 Livestock was found mutilated
17 It always smells of sulphur
18 There are holes in the ground everywhere

Tables 25
 Phase One: Catalyst Tables
Use this table to give the characters a reason to immediately
act. In some cases, this might not be compatible with the
scenario you generated. You can use this instead of the scenario
generator or go full exquisite corpse and mash them together.

26 Tables
5d6 Catalyst
5 You are strangers at a dinner party, but find the host dead before
the second course
6 You are lost and out of gas
7 Your only baseball has sailed over the fence and into the window
of the abandoned house on your street
8 You have entered this place on a dare
9 You just encountered a crazy old man who warned you not to go
into this place. You have ignored him
10 Your keys fell down a sewer grate and you can’t quite reach them
11 It’s the last day of summer vacation, and you are gonna make this
COUNT
12 You’re adrenaline junkies. The Will, Rope, and a Skyscraper:check
13 You bought an allegedly cursed souvenir, and are unwilling to
admit the uncanny things that are now happening to you
14 You hit a hitch-hiker with your car
15 You have made a promise to your subscribers that you will never
chicken out
16 Your best friend SWEARS this is where aliens abducted him
17 Your grandfather left you a map that leads you into the middle of
the woods
18 A car ran you off the road
19 You suddenly realize it’s been hours since you’ve seen anyone
outside your group
20 Your little brother has gone missing
21 While trick-or-treating you realize that some of these monsters
are real
22 The power has suddenly gone out and you just heard a scream
23 Something big and bright fell out of the sky and you’re gonna
investigate
24 You all wake up buried in individual coffins
25 You’ve been invited to a party at a stranger’s house, but the vibe
is all wrong
26 You’ve broken into the very wrong house to rob
27 Your friend found a hatch in the woods, opened it, never came
out
28 A car has been chasing you down a winding back road
29 Your friend thinks their house is haunted, so you’re spending the
night
30 Someone got hurt and you can’t find the hospital

Tables 27
 Phase One: Character Tables
Having trouble getting into character? To round out an
individual character, the following tables provide good
reasons to make hapless decisions and traits to lean into while
roleplaying.

4d6 Personality Trait 4d6 Compulsion

4 Jealous 4 Opens every door
5 Overconfident 5 Goes into every basement
6 Shifty 6 Runs with the knife
7 Pure 7 Eats any food
8 Shy 8 Forgets to bring important
9 Stoned things
10 Sarcastic 9 A real (shitty) McGyver
11 Edgy 10 Alway looking down, never
12 Short-Tempered looking up
13 Curious 11 Argues and storms off
14 Easily Annoyed 12 “You stay here, I’ll go on
15 Always Joking ahead.”
16 A Loner 13 Picks up ANYTHING
17 Entitled 14 Wants to pet any animal
18 Hapless 15 No flight, only fight
19 Superstitious 16 Never has their cellphone
20 Super Religious 17 Butterfingers
21 Too Skeptical 18 Headphones on and
22 Pessimistic oblivious
23 Optimistic 19 Just likes to break stuff
24 Horny 20 Never the front door,
always a window
21 Slower than everyone else
22 Very easily startled
23 Always filming
24 Show-off

28 Tables
 Chad watched like a dejected Labrador as the frisbee,
born upon the perfect wind, sailed ever-outward toward
the derelict sea structure.

“Bruh. Gotta retreive our ‘bee.”

Tables 29
 Phase Two: action Tables
If you have trouble on your turn deciding what to do, you can
make something weird happen by rolling on either table.

30 Tables
6d6 Something Weird is Found
6 A small golden idol
7 A gun and its violence lay on the ground, waiting anxiously
8 You find a journal that you wrote about tonight
9 A mirror with one and a half lines of cocaine
10 A Live, Laugh, Love sign, but the O has a photograph with the
eyes gouged out
11 A black cat with too long legs
12 A book of nursery rhymes you don’t recognize and shouldn’t read
to children
13 Really fresh meat
14 Hey look! A taser
15 A signed baseball card from the 50s
16 A set of watercolors that only get wet if you put blood on them
17 A child’s drawing depicting acts of violence
18 Six fingers with six class rings, each from a different, ascending
year
19 An old nudie mag, but the bodies are all wrong
20 A list of random numbers - that MUST mean something
21 A winning scratch off lottery ticket, with bloodstained edges
22 An incomplete booby-trap, foreshadowing a future accident
23 A photo of you on vacation with a family you’ve never met
24 A puppet from a children’s television show that looks just like you
25 A very comfortable looking bean bag chair
26 A video game arcade cabinet with a high score that you’re
PRETTY sure you can beat
27 A hastily improvised ritual circle and the chalk that was used
28 A painting like “The Scream” but from a weird angle, as though
you’re under the bridge
29 Taxidermied wild life, stuffed too full
30 Claw marks that terminate in embedded fingernails
31 A wooden harlequin’s mask, made to look melted
32 A salt circle, unbroken, with a ringing cell phone in the center
33 A locked trunk, something inside tapping out morse code
34 A recently hung missing child poster displaying your image from
when you were very young
35 A candle that refuses to be extinguished
36 Apropos of nothing, a perfect sandwich

Tables 31
6d6 Something Weird Happens
6 A glowing orb floats by, leading you to danger
7 A Shadow Figure gestures to something hidden
8 The walls begin to bleed
9 A mirror reflects someone else’s image
10 You see a long-dead relative at a distance, disappointed and
scared
11 Someone’s eyes grow sunken and lifeless
12 Something written suddenly changes, revealing an unwelcome
truth
13 A wall vanishes when you briefly look away
14 An aged painting of you as you appear right now hangs on the
wall
15 Haunting singing from nearby mentions your name
16 Twin girls appear in the hall, drop something wet, and then
disapper
17 Smoke billows violently from under a door, pleading to get out
18 Painting and photo images begin to melt, yet the frames and
glass show no sign of distress
19 A glass in the room shatters, the shards spell something
20 Gravity reverses for people, but the objects remain unchanged
21 A wall appears when you briefly look away
22 You suddenly can’t remember any details from your childhood,
but you don’t want anyone else to know
23 Something catches fire, its smoke becomes intoxicating
24 All of the doors and drawers in the room fly open, releasing flies
and vermin
25 A secret passage is revealed, shown only in a mirror
26 You remember something from your childhood: dark, shameful,
and relevant
27 You hear an unfamiliar voice say, “Hey over here”
28 One of you leaves and then immediately re-enters from a
different, impossible direction
29 You begin vomiting something you shouldn’t be able to
30 There’s a knock on a door that’s been nailed shut
31 You see the speeding headlights of a car approach
32 Everyone’s voice speaks with an echo, except for one person
33 An impossibly large blur runs past an upper-story window
34 A sawing noise comes from the attic, ending abruptly with a thud
35 A tv suddenly turns on blasting loud static, even when unplugged
36 The air grows thin and a yellow fog crawls across the floor

32 Tables
Phase Two: Atmosphere Tables
Not every night is "just" dark and stormy. To make the setting
more concerning, use these tables to embellish your scenes.
2d6 Weather
2 Clear Skies
3 Black as Pitch
4 Pummeling Winds
5 Soupy Mist
6 Driving Rain
7 Pounding Storm
8 Fluffy, Fat Snow Flakes
9 Light Snow Fall
10 White-Out Conditions
11 Pebble-sized Hail
12 Golf-Ball Hail

2d6 Concerning Sound Generator

Roll once in each column
2 A chainsaw revs Off in the distance
3 A sudden, meaty thump Just out of sight
4 A snarl and teeth snapping Right behind you
5 The laughter of children From below
6 “Click” But only your hear it
7 A gunshot Suddenly right in front of you
8 Something collapsing As other sounds go silent
9 A cry for help Inside a too small container
10 A whisper with a warning As the sun sets
11 The crackling of a fire On the other side of the wall
12 A door creaking open From the darkness

Tables 33
 4d6 Bad Smell Generator
Roll once in either column or one each
4 Feces Magic Marker
5 Chlorine Tires
6 Urine Cinnamon
7 Copper Campfire
8 Rotten Eggs Citrus
9 Sea Water Hay
10 Rotten Meat Gasoline
11 Sewer Coffee
12 Burning Flesh Petrichor
13 Bad Breath Vanilla
14 Skunk Lavender
15 Wet Dog Roses
16 Body Odor Bacon
17 Curdled Milk Stinky Cheese
18 Melting Plastic Cigarette Smoke
19 Burnt Hair Cigar Smoke
20 Disinfectant Garlic
21 Cooked Meat Tar
22 Electrical Fire Curry
23 Spilled Beer Basil
24 Dumpster Grease Ozone

34 Tables
 A short list of Fears
Use this table to add a trait to your character or a theme to your
session. Thanks to our Kickstarter backers who shared with us
the dread they wish to see in the world.

6d6 A List of Fears

6 Confined places (Claustrophobia)
7 Being blinded (Scotomaphobia)
8 Forgetting someone or of being forgotten (Athazagoraphobia)
9 Clowns (Coulrophobia)
10 Being watched and judged
11 Eternity; the infinite (Aperiophobia)
12 Scurvy
13 Spiders (Archacnophobia)
14 Food (Cibophobia)
15 Ostriches (Strouthokamelophobia)
16 Teeth; Loosing Teeth (Odontophobia)
17-18 Heights (Acrophobia)
19 The ocean (Thalassophobia)
20 Speaking in Public (Glossophobia)
21 Death; dying (Thanatophobia)
22 Snakes (Ophidiophobia)
23-24 Injections; needles (Trypanophobia)
25 Closely-packed holes (Trypophobia)
26 Locked-in syndrome
27 Pain (Algophobia)
28-29 Being alone or ignored (Monophobia or Autophobia)
30 Authority Figures
31 Utter insignificance compared to something far greater than
yourself
32 The way voices sound underwater
33 Wasps (Spheksophobia)
34 Pediophobia, the fear of dolls
35 Watching someone you love in pain
36 Bridges (Gephrophobia)
37 Michael Faulk (Rude)

Tables 35
 A shortER list of Fears
So much dread was shared, we rolled it into a second table.

4d6 A List of Fears

4 Mascots (Masklophobia)
5 Bees (Melissophobia)
6 Beards (Pogonophobia)
7 Being stared at (Scopophobia)
8 Fear of cute fluffy bunnies! (Leporiphobia)
9 Slivers
10 Squids (Teuthiphobia)
11 Balloons (Globophobia)
12 Televisions turning on in the middle of the night to pure static
13 Tickle torture
14 Fear of calm/deep/murky waters and what lurks below them
15 Falling in Love (Philophobia)
16 Fear of falling into an endless pit of darkness
17 Some kind of beast that can mimic a person
18 Finding someone where there shouldn't be anyone
19 A beast mimicking a person
20 Fear of the dark parts of the self and letting it out
21 Trapped in rubble/buried alive (Taphephobia)
22 Chickens (Alektorophobia)
23 Certain words (Onomatophobia)
24 Home invasion
Tommy woke to find himself bound and gagged.
As his head pressed against the rails he felt the
vibration of the approaching train.

Angela whispered in his ear,

"Now YOU'RE the damsel in distress."
 Having a party at the
abandoned factory on
the edge of town. Night-
swimming at an isolated
cabin on a silent lake.
Exploring that closed,
country gas station just
as your car’s needle hits
E. “Let’s get out and look
around a litttle... What’s the
worst that could happen?”

BAD DECISIONS
is a horror-themed story-
telling RPG, where players
are encouraged to become
the hapless characters you
shout “NO! DON’T GO IN
THERE!” to during a movie.
At first, it seems innocent
enough, but as the story
unfolds and everything goes
sideways, life and death
hinges on the roll of a die.
What’s the worst that could
happen? Well, in the end
A ONE-SHOT RPG WHERE
only one person will be left
GETTING IN OVER YOUR
HEAD IS KIND OF THE POINT standing.