Aces Games
VHS – Very Horror Stories RPG
“I met this… six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and… the blackest eyes – the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply… evil. ”
[Sam Loomis, Halloween, 1978]
It is from the heart of the darkness, in the darkest hours and in the most grim of reaches of the world, that spawn demons, monsters and bloodthirsty assassins. Inhuman beings, hunters of souls who know only violence and, spurred by vengeance and spite, hunger for the suffering of their preys. For your suffering.
Grab your flashlights, venture in their realms and… prepare to scream.
VHS: Very Horror Stories is the Horror Roleplay Game inspired by classic horror movies from the 70’s to the 90’s, like Halloween, Hellraiser, The Thing and many others.
Press Play… and Scream!
VHS, Very Horror Stories: Setting
We should split.”
“Are you dumb? Best way to get picked off, one by one!”
“You’re right, and yet I feel it’s the best choice…”
[Jack Bergeron and Eva Lenoir in front of the Slaughter House]
A haunted house, the basement of an asylum, a village of fanatic zealots, a spaceship infested by an alien parasite. These and many other are the scenarios of VHS: more or less familiar places from our world. Places films and tales warned us against encroaching too close, places where fear dwells… and Monsters. And Monsters you will be called (or forced, most of the times) to fight. Sometimes the Monster is a demonic creature, a werewolf or a hungering beast from outer space, others it is a coven of witches, a masked assassin or an ever-smiling family who keeps pieces of their neighbors in their basement refrigerator.
But what can you against them? How many times, watching a movie, you yelled at the screen “Don’t split, you idiots!” or “He’s right behind you!” and “Not a chance I’d go there”? In VHS, there will be no need to yell (not for that, at the very least), because you will be right there, with the other survivors (or, if you prefer, aspiring victims), dealing with the horrors that lurk in the shadows. You will have to stop the summoning of a Kandarian demon. You will have to save yourselves and your companions from the torture dungeon of a bloodthirsty maniac and it will be you fighting a spirit that kidnaps the souls of the living.
All of this, immersed in the atmospheres and cliches of the films and stories that made horror history.
Will you survive the carnage and rewrite the end of the story, or will you join the endless throng of the dead? Your destiny is in your hands.
At least, as long as they remain on your arms.
VHS, Very Horror Stories: Game System
“It is known, that our reality is surrounded by infinite dimensions, almost each one of them with demons, monsters and entities that wish to visit us to take our most precious possession. What is that? Our soul, of course.”
[John Craven, occultist]
VHS mixes typical rpg elements, such as playing a character in a shared narrative, with boardgame ones, like tokens and boards.
As a role playing game, players take the scenes as characters whose objective is to survive the Monsters. To do so, they have a Character Sheet and 2 six sided dice (the only needed to play the game)… and of course their wish not die horribly.
On the other hand, the game master is as per usual called to referee and resolve the various gameplay events, interactions with non player characters (Support Cast) and the Monsters, which can take the fork of ruthless murderers, shape-shifting aliens, entities from beyond and so on.
Like a boardgame, however, VHS uses a map, or Main Set (a swamp, a village lost in the mountains, a colonial mansion, etc) and tokens to track the characters’ movements and anything of interest they may uncover.
The Character Sheet
Every character is expressed by 4 main Parameters, (Strength, Agility, Mind and Charisma), 4 Traits, a Special Ability, their Equipment and Wounds and Instability. The three conditions a character can be under (Calm, Fear or Shock) progressively alter the Parameters and Traits of the character and the more terrifying events they witness, such as the Monsters, the more their Instability score suffers.
The Main Set
Main Sets are the maps characters explore and find all manners of disturbing things in, from tense events (like discovering a corpse or witnessing a demonic apparition) to points of interest, useful items and, of course, the Monsters. Geography, rather than dice rolls, informs the characters’ movements, leaving it to their cunning to choose how to take on the board, where to explore, to look items, places or clues… and when to split themselves. Maybe a wise choice, maybe not. You will learn, one way or another.
The Monsters
Though not the only threat characters will face, Monsters are the main one. Ranging from psychopaths to the undead, from ghosts to demons, each has their own behavior, strategies to survive a close encounter and, who knows, maybe even ways to defeat them. A Monster can appear at any moment, drag the characters to his lair to torture them, take over their bodies or any other despicable and evil things me.
The Game Session
VHS sessions are made of multiple parts, some on the Main Set, some not. Like in any horror movie, there will be an introduction, dedicated to the first interactions between the characters and the arrival in the area, the moment when “something starts to go wrong” and some moments of detachment, where everything seems back to normal and the Main Set could be put away… but the Monster is not. Ready to start again?
A session includes one or more Main Sets, conditions (no phone service, being far away from the nearest town, etc), the player group and of course the Monster(s).
All of this brings the Film to life. A Film can be one or more sessions long; after all, sequels are frequent in horror franchises, right?
The Play Style
Everything in VHS, from character interactions to the main set they are set in, the rules and, of course, its Monsters, is geared to pit you against fully customizable horror worlds and to immerse you in the tones of a genre movie, with all its clichés, typical situations and every ounce of terror your mind can bear.
Solo Mode
Though a classic Roleplay Game, VHS also offers a solo mode to play your own personal horror stories… where nobody will hear you scream. Solo Mode changes the approach to the Main Set and the Monster, which dynamics are now determined both at random and by player action. Every Film in the rulebooks specifies where or not it can be played Solo, depending on how important the game master is to place Side Sets or the management of certain game events.
Ready to press ‘play’… and scream?
Publications List
VHS: Very Horror Stories is our second game published through a Kickstarter campaign and the first to be translated into English. The first series of box sets, including Bloodlust, Overplague, and Unchained (plus other exclusive content like Cut Scene and Spin-Off), was successfully funded in 2022 and released in March 2023. In the same year, a second Kickstarter campaign was launched to publish the second series, including Deadbreak, Remnants, and Trashbag, plus the extra content Horrorfest, currently available for pre-order on Backerkit along with many exclusive contents.
The release of the second series of VHS is scheduled for May 2024.
First Series
- Bloodlust (2023). Available in both physical and PDF versions;
- Overplague (2023). Available in both physical and PDF versions;
- Unchained (2023). Available in both physical and PDF versions;
- Cut Scene (2023). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- Slipcase Very Horror Stories (2023). Available only to Kickstarter Backers and during fairs;
- Spin-Off (2023). Available only to Kickstarter Backers and during fairs;
- Horror Configuration: Set di Dadi (2023). Available only to Kickstarter Backers and during fairs;
Second Series
- Deadbreak (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- Remnants (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- Trashbag (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- Slipcase Opening Night (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- Horrorfest (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
- SHS: Short Horror Stories (2024). Available for pre-order on Backerkit;
The VHSs: Pure Horror Collection
Below you can read the specific contents of each VHS. The special feature of this RPG is that each VHS includes the rule book. The only exception is for the extra product like Spin-Off or Horrorfest, which requires at least one VHS (or also the free Quickstart) to be played.
In addition, all VHS content (Monsters, Characters, and Main Sets) can be merged to create unique Films. You could, for example, put Bloodlust Characters against Overplague monsters in an Unchained Main Set. The same thing also applies to all of the game’s expansions. This feature of VHS, which we believe to be one of its greatest strengths, offers virtually infinite playability where it is already extremely vast just by playing with the pre-built content in each box set.
Then, if you add in the content you create yourself, there will be no end to the sessions you can play with VHS, even if you just own one of the base boxes.
VHS: Bloodlust
VHS: Bloodlust will take you behind the curtains of the Slasher Movies, perhaps the most famous horror cinema genre. With Bloodlust you will relive the atmosphere of Scream, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where you’ll come face to face with bloodthirsty killers and creatures ready to turn you into a flesh-and-blood smoothie.
We always recommend this VHS to start playing, as it is considered the “easiest” (but don’t hold your breath). As you can imagine, VHS has a high mortality rate, but unlike the other settings, in Bloodlust you’ll be dealing with living monsters that, no matter how strong, cruel, and well-armed they are, can be taken down. Well, mostly.
Its classic setting also lets novice players become familiar with the VHS playing mood.
Inside Bloodlust you will find:
- 5 Charactesrs: Adam Hooper, Amelia Green, Eva Lenoir, Jack Bergeron and Tobe Arnold;
- 5 Monsters: Edmund Carving, Father Declan, Mother Willow, Eloise Bourbier and The Howling Host;
- 4 Main Sets: The Dark Forest, The Mireville Swamps, The Slaughter House and The Abandoned Tunnels;
- 10 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Tokens;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the slasher movie genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
VHS: Overplague
In VHS: Overplague you will explore alien worlds, travel through the deepest space, and face all sorts of alien creatures. Inspired by the Sci-fi horror genre, in Overplague you’ll find the atmosphere of films such as Alien, Event Horizon, The Thing, Predator, and many others.
This VHS combines horror with an action component, as you’ll have all sorts of weapons at your disposal, from the classic flamethrowers for exterminating parasitic aliens to the energy rifles. But don’t rely too much on these toys, because the Monsters you’ll be up against aren’t like you and me: they may have tough exoskeletons or impenetrable metal armor, or they may be so giant that they laugh at your attacks.
VHS: Overplague is set in 2200, when space exploration and colonization of other planets became forms of discovery and territorial expansion like those of today. However, thanks to VHS’s adaptable rules, you can play Overplague even nowadays.
Inside Overplague you will find:
- 5 Characters: Aurora Argento, Elena Weaver, Hans Studer, Megumi Kuriyama and John (X-RM 38);
- 5 Monsters: The Doppelgrinder, The Cosmic Brood, The Oniboros, The Xenomater and the Mantis Prototype;
- 4 Main Sets: The Research Station, The Alien Planet, The Impact Site and the Kazimir III;
- 10 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Tokens;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the sci-fi horror genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
VHS: Unchained
VHS: Unchained explores the supernatural world where dark entities and demons lurk. It takes inspiration from the H.P. Lovecraft tales, merged with the atmospheres of films like Hellraiser, Evil Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Nun, and, in general, all those films in which our world is invaded by soul-hungry creatures.
Among the VHS Unchained is the most investigative. Indeed, often it’ll not be enough for you to escape from the Monster, but you will need to find a way (a ritual, an holy item, or a formula) to send him back into its plane of existence. Moreover, ordinary weapons will not even scratch its demonic skin. If you like the atmosphere of the films listed above and want to add an extra challenge to your nights of horror and blood, then Unchained is the VHS for you.
VHS: Unchained is set in the 30s, a time when, in the world of VHS, the connection between our world and the planes where the infernal inhabitants dwell has become thinner. Likewise, some men and women have gained sensory powers that enable them to perceive these creatures. Despite the historical period however, thanks to VHS’s adaptable rules, you can play Unchained even nowadays.
Inside Unchained you will find:
- 5 Characters: William Carter, Elizabeth King, Iwana Balcerak, Mr. Rain and Roger Johnson;
- 5 Monsters: The Devil of Many Eyes, The Keeper Abbess, The Seeking Abbess, The Man With the Bowler Hat and the Workaholic;
- 4 Main Sets: Studridge Steelworks, The Old Harbor, The Mountain Village and the Cursed Mansion;
- 10 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Tokens;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the supernatural horror genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
VHS: Deadbreak
VHS: Deadbreak is the VHS dedicated to one of the genres that has been spicing up the horror movie panorama for decades with rotten flesh, grim groans and shuffling footsteps; I’m talking, of course, about zombie movies: from George A. Romero‘s classics to videogames such as Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead, this horror genre deserved a dedicated VHS. Well, here it is.
If you’ve always dreamed of fighting undead hordes, escaping from swarms of screaming infected, and barricading yourself in a country house while limp zombies try to break through to feed on your brains, then Deadbreak cannot miss on your shelves. There are no quiet moments in Deadbreak Films, because at any second you can find yourself facing the horde and its leader. All you can do is arm yourself to the teeth and hope to hit with as many bullets as possible.
Deadbreak’s new addition is the Horde as a Condition of the Main Set. Made of Secondary Horrors that infest the Areas of a Set, moving between them on their own, multiplying and merging. The larger the Horde, the more important safe havens become, to hopefully eke out one more successful fight… until they cannot, of course. Just make sure to avoid fully contaminated Area: merely entering them means joining the Horde.
Oh, and in all of that, there is still our dear Monsters to deal with. After all, they are the undisputed Lords of the Horde.
Inside Deadbreak you will find:
- 5 Characters: Greg Overbeck, Jake “Anarchy” Blaze, Buddy Spade, Josephine Black and Louise Kracovitz;
- 5 Monsters: Robert Legged (The Anomaly), The Pain Devourer, Madama Seraphine, Willard Draven (The Gravedigger) and The Flesh Deceiver;
- 4 Main Sets: Mireville Mall, The Marston Corn Fields, The Hawthorn Street Apartments and the Military Shelter;
- 5 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Tokens;
- The Horde rules;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the zombie movies genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
VHS: Remnants
In VHS: Remnants you will find out what awaits us after death. At least in the world of VHS. Among screaming spectres, restless ghosts, and haunting souls, with Remnants you’ll relive the atmosphere of films like Poltergeist, The Woman in Black, The Conjuring, 13 ghosts, and many others. You will learn to fear not death, but what lurks beyond its veil.
Remnants is perhaps the scariest (or so we hope) VHS released so far, as it deals with a theme used to give birth to the most distressing, disturbing, and scarring films in the horror panorama. Moreover, the Monsters of Remnants are quite hard to deal with, both because of their incorporeal nature and their ability to travel freely to the other world and back. Taking the living with them.
And speaking of Other World, within Sets with this special Condition, Characters can pierce the veil through the worlds and move from the realm of the living to that of the dead, where the laws of space and time take a whole new, different meaning, specters are now very much real and can affect the ‘real’ world in very real ways… and vice versa.
Character can then use the Other World not just to defeat Monsters, but to move between locations or acquire items that would not be otherwise available. But beware, as the more time you spend in the Other World, the more of your soul you leave there… until it keeps it for itself.
When a Character dies, then, they do not follow the usual death rules, but are automatically shunted in the Other World, where they do not suffer its penalties and can still move about the Set and have limited interaction with the realm of the living. Hopefully, to help their still living companions, of course.
VHS: Remnants is set in the 1890s, when spiritists and mediums recorded an intensification of paranormal activities related to the other world. Despite the historical period however, thanks to VHS’s adaptable rules, you can play Remnants even nowadays.
Inside Remants you will find:
- 5 Characters: Velma Warrel, Augustus Carter, Caspar Bourbier, Mabel Glass and Harold Bridges;
- 5 Monsters: The Key Warden, The Matron, Baxter Wright (The Black Priest), The Soulstitcher and the Bell Witch;
- 4 Main Sets: The Wright Mansion, The Willow Tree Hotel, The Gate Opera House and the Forest of Dolls;
- 5 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Tokens;
- The Other World rules;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the ghost movies genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
VHS: Trashbag
Whether A- or B-series, horror is still horror. In the first case, pure and genuine horror, the kind that won’t let you sleep at night; in the second one, on the other hand, horror is of a completely different kind: poor acting, situations far beyond believable, absurd monsters, skin-crawling special effects (as bad as they are). You will say that a movie like this is trash. Exactly! Precisely a trash movie, a horror genre that just because of its unsuitability and outrageousness continues to enjoy a (un)deserved success.
And that is exactly what VHS: Trashbag gathers; the pure essence of B-movies like The Toxic Avenger, Braindead, Basket Case, Sharknado, and (fortunately or unfortunately, it depends) manyissmany other classics that have made their way into the pupular imagination.
Trashbag can turn any Film into a cinematic garbage can with insane scenes, repulsive creatures, and bad jokes. All of this thanks to the Trash Button, a game mechanic that allows players to bend the laws of cinematic good sense to create dynamic and absurd sessions. All of this contributes to particularly entertaining plays but over which a veil of horror still looms. Appropriately downplayed.
This is the most characteristic and off-the-rails VHS published so far, which moves away from classic horror themes while covering another genre that deserves the success it has earned in recent years. More or less.
Inside Trashbag you will find:
- 5 Characters: Regina Reid, Marco “Mr Big” Calgari, Professor Woden, Kyle Rembrant and Serena “Miss Huge” Calgari;
- 5 Mostri: The Sharkanitor, The Troll King, The Devil Grandma, Doctor Splatter and the Army of Killer Potatoes;
- 4 Main Sets: Mockville High, Dead Alley, The Potato Fields and Grandma’s House;
- 5 prebuilt Films;
- 40 Token;
- Trash Button rules;
- Rulebook: also includes tips and hints for playing the trash horror genre, as well as rules for building your own Monsters, Characters, Main Sets and Films; in addition, dedicated equipment and rules for the Solo Mode.
Below you will find a list of exclusive products, expansions and extras from VHS, Very Horror Stories. A catalog that promises to keep getting richer with content dedicated to the world of horror.
Spin-Off
This product contains all the Stretch Goals unlocked in the first Kickstarter campaign, available only through this one. It includes 6 new Monsters from the guests of the campaign, 12 Main Sets, 12 Films, The Old Guard (which includes Nosferatu, The Wolf Man and the Swamp Thing, plus 2 more Main Sets inspired by vintage horror movies) and Of Monsters and Killers, a compendium of all the stories and backgrounds of all the Bloodlust, Overplague, Unchained and Cut Scene VHS Monsters.
Note that you need at least one of the basic VHSs (or the Quicksart) to play Spin-Off.
Cut Scene
Horror Configuration
Note that Horror Configuration is not required to play VHS; any type of 6-sided dice will be more than fine.
Horrorfest
SHS: Short Horror Stories
Note that you need at least one of the basic VHSs (or the Quicksart) to play SHS.
Slipcase Very Horror Stories
Slipcase Opening Night
Crimson Plague and Mr. Sweepy
Promo Sheets
