John Coaler (Order #22228476)

Bated Breath
A Story Game for 3-6 Players

Contents
You used to hold your breath...

The Beginning of the End (Setup)

Awakening (Beginning Stage)

They See You... (Being Haunted)

Dealing With Fear

Coping With Death

Stocking Up

Finding Answers

The Endgame

Appendix: Optional Rules

Credits

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 You used to hold your breath...
...as a child, when your mom would drive past a cemetery. “You gotta hold your breath,”
other kids would tease, “or else the ghosts will get you. They'll get into your chest and
possess you!” But the way you heard it, as soon as you passed a white house, you could
breathe safe again.

So dutifully you would hold your breath,

watching the stones drift by, until you reached
the safe house.

Then you grew up, and you did not hold

your breath anymore.

It doesn't feel so childish now. Everyone is

dead. Everyone. It happened all at once,
overnight, while you slept. Everyone simply
stopped breathing. You can't account for it. You
don't know why. It's just you and a handful of
others who yet live.

But the spirits of the dead are still

wandering the world. They are wondering if
you'd care to join them. They are watching you
with bated breath. They wait.

You and these others are all that remains.

You must arm yourselves, you must keep each
other strong, and you must find that safe white
house. Because until you do, you will not
breathe easy again.

Tread carefully.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 The Beginning of the End
Bated Breath is a horror roleplaying game that uses Google Maps as a setting and
exploration tool.

To play Bated Breath, you will need the following:

• A computer, laptop, or tablet with access to the internet. You can try a phone, but

the screen might be too small.

• A fair amount of 6-sided die. You may choose to use two colors to differentiate

Supply (at least 11-12) and Ghost (highly variable) Dice, but this is not necessary.

• A piece of paper for each player.

• 3-6 living people.

First, take a moment to develop your characters. You may choose to be yourselves, or to
develop unique characters for the game. Write down the following traits:
• Name:

• Brief Physical Description: (if not yourself)

• How do you know the others? (if not yourselves)

• The strength I bring to this team is: (choose an adjective)

• My greatest drawback to this team is: (choose an adjective)

• Do you believe in ghosts? (answer Believer (yes), Skeptic (no), or Neutral)

It is a good idea to have a mix of Believers, Skeptics, and Neutral for reasons that will
become apparent.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Each player will now choose a Role. There are three Roles, and each provides an asset to
keeping the team alive. You should assign 1-2 people to each Role.

• The INVENTORY player will search the environment for supplies to create a magical
ward against the ghosts. Inventory players should be attentive to detail and
resourceful.
If you choose this role, write Inventory on your sheet and leave space for a list of
your supplies.

• The MORALE player will be responsible for the psychological well-being of the
team. Morale players should be good at reading others and managing a group.
If you choose this role, write Morale on your sheet and leave space for a running
tally of the team's Fear Points (as will be described).

• The INVESTIGATOR will search the environment for clues to figure out why
humanity is coming to an end. The Investigator should be a creative person with
an interest in discovering stories.
If you choose this role, write Investigator on your sheet and leave space for a list
of questions and answers which will be described in the next section.

Each player should also write the word Fear on their sheet and leave room to keep track
of their own Fear Points.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Awakening
Good morning.

To determine your setting, you have two choices.

• OPTION 1: Choose a location familiar to at least one member of your group. This
location may be a school, theater, monument, or other place. Search this location
on Google Maps. This is good for a simpler and/or quicker game.

• OPTION 2: Choose a random location. There are a number of Google Street View
randomizers available on the internet. If the setting is barren (Antarctica, Siberia,
the Australian Outback), you may wish to reroll. You may wish to set the
randomizer to Urban Only, if possible. This is good for a more difficult game.

Once you have selected your setting, take a moment to decide what brought you there.
Is this home? Were you on a trip? On business? Just passing through? You should also
establish whether you were all together, or whether this is an agreed upon meeting
space.

EXAMPLE: The group has selected the dormitory at their college. They are
playing as themselves. They live here, and have just awoken in their rooms
to find that they were the only ones on campus left alive. They decide to
search the rest of the city to see the extent of the calamity.

EXAMPLE: The group has randomly selected the city center of Lyon, France.
They are playing characters they have created. Each person has a different
reason for being there—one tourist, one businesswoman, one resident. They
have just met for the first time after emerging onto the street, confused and
frightened. They decide to band together.

Understand that any persons you see within the Google Street View now represent
ghosts. During this beginning stage, they do not yet seem to notice you.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Before you set off to explore among the dead, there are a few things you will need
to establish.

Everyone starts out with a certain number of Fear Points, which you should track
on your sheet. Believers start out with 1 Fear Point, Neutral with 2, and Skeptics with 3
(because they are the most taken aback and out of their element at this time). The
Morale Player should also make note of the Fear Levels of all players. You will learn how
to heal these points in the Dealing With Fear section. If any player reaches 5 Fear Points,
they die; learn more in the Coping With Death section.

COLOR ENERGY
The Inventory Player should pick a
Red Passion, Aggression
color from the chart and write it down along
Orange Opportunity, Addiction with the two energies associated with it. You
Yellow/Gold Happiness, Cowardice will discover what these energies mean to
Green Healing, Greed you as you play. For reasons you don't yet
Blue Peace, Uncertainty understand, you know the ghosts to have a
weakness to this color and one or both of its
Purple Wisdom, Arrogance
energies. Perhaps you saw the spirits react
Brown Grounding, Loss
to it, or perhaps one of your Believers has a
White Cleansing, Plague shred of knowledge. You will learn more
Grey/Silver Dreams, Depression about your supplies in the Stocking Up
Black Balance, Sacrifice section.

The Investigator should choose a different color and write it down. It is not
necessary to note the associated energies, but you can if you wish. You will keep your
eye out for glimpses of this color in the environment to cue you to look for clues to piece
together the mystery of this mass death. You will need those clues to answer the
following 5 questions, which you should write down on your sheet:

• Why did everyone die?

• Why did we survive?

• Why do the spirits linger?

• Why are the spirits weak to [the Supply color]?

• What makes the safe house safe?

You will learn more about how to find clues and answer these questions in the Finding
Answers section.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Once you have established all this, take a moment in character to get your
bearings, assess the situation, and describe your mental state.

EXAMPLE: It is a chill but sunny day in Salem as you step out of the
dormitory. The people at your side are the only living souls you could find...
though you have found no shortage of souls.

Britt insists this cannot possibly be happening, paces frantically and

spouts off justifications for what you all have just seen.

Alex breathes slowly and steadily into their hands, trying to stave off a
panic attack. They look to the others for a sign of what to do. They require
guidance, as they are in too much shock to manage without the help of the
others.

Red holds herself to still the shaking. She surveys the school grounds
and reasons that help cannot be found here. “We may just have to help
ourselves,” she says, and beckons the others to follow her in search of a safe
place.

It has been so long since any of you thought even remotely seriously
about ghosts.

After establishing the scene, advance ten single clicks in any direction. From here, you
may advance either one click at a time (slower but more cautious) or as far as you like
(quicker but more reckless). You cannot backtrack more than three clicks on the same
street, as the spirits tend to amass in your wake, and you don't think it would be safe to
double back.

Now is where the real game begins.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 They See You...
It doesn't take long for the ghosts to take notice of the
living. Once you have navigated ten clicks away from your
starting point, you are now vulnerable to Haunting. Ghosts
are incorporeal, and they cannot physically affect you. That
does not mean, however, that they cannot harm you.

Every time you see a person on Google Street View

who is looking directly at you, this triggers a Haunting. The
ghost or ghosts will attempt to tap into your primal fears.

There are two ways of dealing with this. If you wish to

save yourselves from the psychological onslaught, you may
sacrifice one of your Supply Dice (see Stocking Up) to use a
supply from your inventory to ward them off.

If you do not wish to or cannot expend a Supply Die,

you will take Fear Points. This will work differently for
different players.

Skeptics have a chance to defend against ghosts’ fear

attacks. They roll a die, and if the result is 4 or above, they
can choose to simply not believe what they are seeing. This
means they will not take a Fear Point.

On the flipside, Believers have a chance to have a full

panic attack. They roll a die, and if the result is 3 or lower,
they take two Fear Points and have a meltdown. If the result
is 4 or higher, take one Fear Point as normal.

Neutral players will take one Fear Point, no more, no

less.

Go around the group and briefly describe your

reactions to this encounter.

Each time you encounter a Haunting, regardless of

how it is resolved, add a Ghost Die to your Ghost Dice pool.
This pool represents the ghosts' attack strength in the
endgame.

Take a moment if you wish to explore your reactions in character.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 EXAMPLE: The thing which was once a woman locks eyes with the group.

In its eyes, Alex (a Believer) sees the map of linear time and sees that
it is finite. They see their own death closing in around them. It is suffocating.
They can't breathe. They grip their throat and fold to their knees, unable to
even choke out a scream.

(Their player rolls to save against sheer panic and fails with a 1,
taking 2 Fear Points.)

Red (Neutral) can feel and hear the rattles and groans of death itself
within her head. She kneels beside Alex and tries to shake some sense into
them, but more for her sake than for theirs.

(Their player takes damage from fear no matter what, but will not
break down.)

Britt (a Skeptic) steels herself against what she is seeing. She knows,
of course she knows. But in her heart of hearts she tells herself that it can't
touch her, no matter what grim visages of mortality it presents. She plants
herself between her friends and the spirit, and remains as a shield until the
threat passes.

(Their player rolls to save against fear and succeeds with a 5. They do
not take any Fear Points this turn.)

(A Ghost Die is added to the Ghost Pool.)

EXAMPLE 2: Red, the Inventory Player, unwilling to give in to fear, casts a

flowerpot in the direction of the specter. It lets out an unearthly shriek and
dissipates as a mist. However, whatever power the pot had against the
spirits seems to have left with it, as the rest of the spectral horde advances.
The party moves on.

(A Ghost Die is added to the Ghost Pool.)

In a standard game, you only need play one Haunting per individual view. If multiple
spirits have their sights on you, you can count it as one attack. However, in a game with
low foot traffic, you may wish to count the Hauntings individually to increase the
difficulty.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Dealing With Fear
Fear in this harrowing new world is deadly. It is
the ghosts’ greatest weapon. It is the Morale
player’s duty to safeguard against this threat.

To remove a Fear Point from a player, the

Morale player must do two things.

First, they must find something notable in

the environment. This could be a beautiful
stained glass window, an interesting sculpture,
or flowers in a garden. Anything that stands out
from the surrounding environment could be
acceptable, but it must be something noticeable.

Second, they must consult the color chart to figure out the primary spiritual
energy associated with that sight or object. If the object is multicolored, pick one that
really stands out. Now, connecting the sight with the energy, justify how you would use
that sight to reassure or distract yourself or a frightened comrade.

EXAMPLE: Alex is shaken, but respects and admires how Britt has stood up
for the group in the face of these horrors. In return, Alex wants to lighten
Britt's spirits. They know she is suffering from the mental strain far more
than she shows on the surface.

In this dread landscape, amidst the passing shadows of the dead, Alex
spies a dog mannequin in a pet supply store window, wearing a bright yellow
collar. Alex knows Britt loves dogs – but more than that, Alex knows that
yellow brings happiness.

Alex calls out the collar to Britt, who is walking in the lead. They point
out that while humans seem to have passed, pets seem to have gotten
through just fine. When all this is over, Britt can be back with her dog, who
will be so happy to see her. In fact, as they are the sole survivors, Britt can
probably have as many dogs as she wants and no one can stop her.

Emboldened by this vision of a dog-filled future, Britt is made happy,

feels her fear lessen, and forges on.

(Britt's player may now erase a Fear Point from her sheet).

There are two steps to determining if a fear healing check is successful. First, the group
must confer and decide if the line of reasoning is complete and makes sense. It is not

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 enough to declare that the blue flowers bring peace to another player – you must also
state why. It is also insufficient to say that a bright red fire hydrant fills you with passion
because it reminds you of the blush of a lover, because that thinking does not follow
through. Since there is no game master in this game, it is up to the full group's discretion
what counts as logically sound.

Second, if you are healing someone other than yourself, that person must agree
that they or their character would be sufficiently reassured by that sight and idea. If the
Morale player points out a poster of a cat, and the player being healed hates cats, that
probably would not work to calm them.

Note that only one Fear Point can be healed at a time and that only one person can
be healed per view. You may not do any healing on the same view as a Haunting, even if
you successfully deflected the attack by sacrificing a Supply.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Coping With Death
If any player accrues five Fear Points, they die.

If this happens to you, describe how you are scared to death. If that player was
the only player assuming a particular role, the duties of that role must now be taken on
by the other players on top of their own task. It is technically possible to complete the
game with one player performing all three roles.

Of course, this is a ghost apocalypse. The spirits of the dead linger. Dead players
may still assist the party in small ways. Dead players get their own Ghost Die. If the
party has a confrontation with an enemy ghost and choose to expend a Supply to defend,
the dead player can choose to roll their Ghost Die. On a 5 or 6, remove a die from the
Ghost Dice pool as well.

If the party decides not to expend a supply, the dead player may roll a die to
defend their friends from the Haunting. On a 6, the party does not take any Fear Points.

If there is more than one dead player, they each get a chance to make these rolls.

During the Endgame, the friendly ghosts will depart before they have a chance to
either be harmed by the ritual or lose themselves and harm their friends as the other
ghosts have done. They cannot help their friends here.

If all players die, the game is lost, and you will join the hordes of wandering
spirits, forever adrift.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Stocking UP
Starting after the first 10 clicks, the Inventory player may begin gathering Supplies.

Supplies are represented in Google Street View by physical objects that you could
conceivably pick up and walk away with. Thus, things like cars or designs inlaid into a
building do not count. Items like buckets, garden decorations, and some signs are just
fine. You also cannot claim an item a ghost is holding; assume these are immaterial.

Each time you find a new Supply, write down what you found, and add a Die to
your Supply Dice pool. These dice represent your defense strength in the Endgame. It is
important to keep track of what each item is, as it will help you to get descriptive and
creative on their use in the Endgame.

EXAMPLE: Red has a keen eye for color, and the unshakable sense that
green things will help protect them. She wasn't sure why at first, but after
scaring off a couple ghosts, the hypothesis seems to hold.

They lost their first couple finds in self-defense. Red does her best not
to worry about their chances. Out of the corner of her eye she spots a rolling
green recycle bin on the street corner. She claims it for her own; this will be
useful for storage along the way.

Each supply should be unique. You cannot

make your ward from ten pilfered stop signs. It
would, ironically, not stop anything. However, if
there is something you sacrificed in a Haunting,
you may pick up a new one if you encounter
another.

You will need to collect at least ten of

these Supply Dice to trigger the Endgame.
Sacrificed supplies do not count toward this
number.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Finding Answers
You are haunted by the mystery of this apocalypse as much as you are haunted by the
spirits. Your goal as the Intelligence player is to answer the five questions listed in the
Awakening section to aid your team with information about the ghost apocalypse.

Every time you spy the color you associated with clues on the screen, you can
search the immediate area for clues. Unlike with supplies, this can include vehicles,
buildings, billboards, etc. Consistent elements of the background, such as streets,
sidewalks, grass, trees, and the sky do not count. You may count duplicate items.

The clue-colored item itself need not necessarily be your clue; it is only an
indicator that you should search the View for inspiration about one of your questions.
Therefore, you don't necessarily need to find a clue every time you see the clue color.
The answers also don't need to be tied to the clue color's associated energies, but they
can be.

Use as few or as many clues as you need to to answer your questions, but you
may only tackle one question per clue.

EXAMPLE: Britt has always been very good at stories: not just making them,
but finding them. While she may not fully believe what is happening to her
and her friends, she has to accept the reality that everyone else is dead. But
why?

She stops at an intersection to eye the orange caution tape wrapped

around an abandoned construction site. Something about the warning it
represents gives her a chill feeling. Cautiously she edges toward the
construction site.

There is a yawning, gaping hole in the ground where the workers

were. It is cold around it, much colder than it should be. It looks like a
hungry mouth. Despite her skepticism, Britt cannot shake the feeling that
these workers unearthed something wicked. She shares her feelings with the
group, but they will need to keep searching to truly understand.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 If you wish, you may reach out to your teammates for their thoughts on clues, but
ultimately you are the one to draw out the final answers to your questions and resolve
the truth of the apocalypse.

Of particular note is the fifth and final question, “What makes the safe house
safe?”. The answer to this question will determine an additional trait about the house
where you will make your final stand (see the Endgame section). This should be a fairly
basic trait so your team does not have to die trying to find something overly specific.
Examples might include,

• It is on a street corner, giving greater visibility of the streets.

• It will have two floors to provide high ground.

• It is a public building, so no one ghost can lay claim to it.

The trait could be anything, as long as you think you can find a house by that
description.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 The Endgame
They cannot tolerate your life marring their sea of death any longer. They know and
understand nothing but the need to rob you of it, and all of them are coming.

When your Supply player has collected at least 10 supplies, and your Intelligence
player has answered all 5 of their questions, it is time to start looking for the safe house.
The safe house is where you will make your last stand and determine whether you retain
your status as survivors – or join the lost souls.

The safe house always has the following 3 qualities:

• It will be a white building

• It will not be next to a cemetery

• It will have a third trait determined by the Intelligence player, as discussed in the
Finding Answers section

If the safe house is a sacred place like a church, temple, mosque, or other such site, you
may add an additional Supply Die. The spiritual energy of the building will lend itself to
your defense.

If the building is a hospital, prison, or police station, add an additional die to the
Ghost Dice pool. These are places of great duress and the ghosts will be stronger here.

On your way to locating the safe house, you may continue to to accrue and lose
both Supply and Ghost Dice as normal until you find the safe house and arrive at its front
door.

When you find a safe house that satisfies the party, it is time to set up your ritual.
Starting with the Supply player and going around the table, name each of the objects
you collected and how it contributes, mechanically or magically, to the ritual you are
building to ward against the ghosts.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Meanwhile, the ghosts have noticed your movements and are amassing to lay
siege against the safe house.

Roll the pools. Compare the number of 6s rolled.

If the Supply pool turns up more 6s your ritual holds… for now. Remove one of the
Ghost Dice from the pool. Describe what you see as the ghosts struggle and fail to get to
you.

If the Ghost pool turns up more 6s, an element of your ritual has failed. Remove
one of the Supply Dice from the pool and describe which supply has failed and how.

If there are no 6s or there is a tie, there is a tense standoff and no dice are lost.

EXAMPLE: They stand side by side at the front entrance of this abandoned
home. It is their refuge. Before them is a barrier of green objects, meant to
heal the ghosts of the evil that possesses them and will allow them to move
on. It is haphazard and improvised, but it still radiates with a healing warmth
as the whole group focuses on its energy.

(The dice pools are rolled. The Supply Pool turns up more 6's, and a
Ghost Die is removed.)

One ghost, frantic to disrupt the ritual, thrashes itself against the
barrier. Speared on the stake of a garden fence post, it dissipates in a
brilliant flash of light.

(The dice pools are rolled. The Ghost Pool turns up more 6's, and a
Supply Die is removed.)

Unfortunately, the rest of the horde is not deterred. Two more come
at the barrier from the side and a vase shatters. The survivors duck away
from the flying glass, and Red scrambles to keep the whole ritual barrier
from toppling with its force.

The game ends when one Pool is completely depleted.

If the Ghost Pool is defeated, your ward will hold as long as you need it to, and all
ghosts present vanish. You have time to regroup, and decide how best to move on.
Discuss your plans for the future, such as whether you will hole up here or search for
other survivors. The world is yours.

If the Supply Pool is defeated, your ward fails. The entire party dies of fright, and
your souls will wander the Earth with all the others until you forget everything of what
you once were.

Either way... rest in peace.

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Optional Rules
Low Foot Traffic Options
In areas where fewer people appear, or no one seems
to be paying any mind, you may not feel challenged. In
these cases, consider some or all of these additional
rules to incur more Hauntings.

If there are few enough people, it might be that

every person you see, and not just the ones who are
looking, trigger a Haunting.

You might include pets and animals that are

looking at the camera as either animal spirits, or ghosts
in a different form.

The Ghost Car Option. If there aren't enough

people on foot, you may incur hauntings from cars
matching your Supply AND Clue colors, and/or cars cut
off or distorted by the Google Street View Camera.

Colorblind Rules
For those who cannot see some or all colors, the
energies of color magic may prove inscrutable or
useless. For colorblind players, search for either very
very light or very very dark objects in the environment,
and refer to this alternate chart in place of the color
chart:

DARK: mystery, rejection, passivity, intuition,

peace, cold, fullness, death, healing

LIGHT: clarity, belonging, activity, logic, war,

hot, emptiness, birth, plague

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 Credits
Special thanks to my team, Britt Baker and Alexis Berry, for your invaluable advice,
editing, and support.

Thank you to all my generous and wonderful commentators and beta testers on Twitter.
This could not happen without you.

Thank you to my cats, Ezra and Alistair, who only hindered this process but I love you
anyway.

Photo Credits
• "Creepy House" by J.B. Hill, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbhill/2511674385/>

• "Old Meeting House" by Paul VanDerWerf, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/pavdw/15954272542/>

• "Nightmare in Elmdale" by craig Cloutier, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/craigcloutier/5617932734/>

• "foggy morning" by Wrote, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from original,

<https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrote/2380078856/>

• "Spooky Anchor Close" by mrpbps, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrpbps/3677210613/>

• "Abandoned Hospital" by reivax, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/reivax/206287209/>

• "graveyard" by Tom Hodgkinson, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/hodgers/413780568/>

• "spooky" by Eugene Peretz, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/peretzpup/2071180727/>

• "Piazza Transtevere by night" by Franck Michel, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from
original, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franckmichel/4015960691/>

• "Haunted house" by Anton Novoselov, used under CC BY 2.0 / Modified from original,
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/antonnovoselov/5066380153/>

• "The light in the Tunnel" by Susanne Nilsson, used under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified from
original, <https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomastern/13083065895/>

• Compass brush for cover by Stacy David Wallingford <http://www.sdwhaven.com/free-

resources/compass-rose-photoshop-brushes/>

John Coaler (Order #22228476)

 (hold your breath)

John Coaler (Order #22228476)