Inspired by John Carpenter’s Halloween and other classic slasher films, the survival horror tabletop game 1978: The Night They Came Home.

“1978: The Night THEY Came Home” is a 1-2 player horror roleplaying game telling the story of a fateful showdown between Survivor (a clever and resilient person caught up in horrifying circumstances) and Slasher (a legendary force of evil). Using a deck of poker cards, dual rule books, varied resources, and shared play space, players will recount the events of a forsaken Halloween, zooming closer into the haunting folklore of a small Midwestern town and its inhabitants, and culminating in a violent battle for survival.

Emulating classic slasher films of the ’70s and ’80s, 1978: The Night They Came Home is a survival horror tabletop game that pits a slasher against a survivor on Halloween night. One player takes on the role of the Survivor, a resilient person caught up in a sequence of escalating nightmarish events as they are pursued by the Slasher, a supernatural killing machine controlled by the opposing player. Using customized cards to generate prompts and build an emergent narrative, play moves from day to night on a forsaken Halloween in 1978.

During the day, both Survivor and Slasher build their backstories, drafting cards and accumulating resources for an imminent showdown. In the night, Slasher and Survivor enter the house for a deadly game of cat and mouse, using the cards they gained during the day in a violent battle for survival.

1978 features a screen-printed cloth playmat featuring the fated house where our showdown takes place, custom knife tokens to track resources, thematic playing cards with narrative prompts, and dual rulebooks for Survivor and Slasher, all housed in a telescoping box. A digital edition is included at no additional cost.

“1978: The Night They Came Home” includes:

Two unique rulebooks, one for the Slasher and one for the Survivor. Learn the game together smoothly without getting lost in unnecessary information or needing to pass it back and forth constantly.

Printed cloth playmat featuring the fated house where our face-off takes place.

Custom poker deck for further immersion, making the game ready to play out of the box.

Token collection for tracking Resilience, Fear, and Fate on the playmat.

All beautifully and horrifically illustrated by Black Coffiend and packaged in its cardboard resting place for your entertainment.

Does this sound like something you’d be interested in? I know I am, you can check out how to order it HERE

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Check out the promo video for the game below: