In November 2024 we presented the all-new Household Bundle featuring English-language .PDF ebooks of the teeny-tiny RPG Household from Riccardo “Rico” Sirignano and Simone Formicola of Two Little Mice in Rome, Italy.
Funded in a powerhouse(hold) May 2022 Kickstarter campaign, Household is a wainscot fantasy (a term for stories of tiny folk in an outsized world) filled with adventure, intrigues, and social interactions in a large abandoned house. Its setting resembles the early XIX Century, and each room constitutes a nation unto itself. Players of Household are littlings, the Little Folk from European folklore. These miniature beings navigate crises across five troubled years starting at the end of the First Household War. In this time of ideological and industrial revolution, the littlings overcome old disagreements and make new alliances. This epochal history ends in the shadow of a new threat.
When the family built the house, the Little Folk of the Outside scattered to different fates. Now littling characters may be Faeries, known for their grace, and for the beauty of their dragonfly wings; Boggarts, the strongest and most loyal among all the little people; Sluagh, outsiders from Farbeyond, able to regenerate even deadly wounds; and Sprites, who share an ancestral bond with the Household elements. These abilities stem from the ancient Hereditary Contracts their forebears struck with the Ancestral Forces. Individuals can also strike Personal Contracts that grant amazing powers. Each littling must honor their Contracts or suffer Terrible Terrible Things: bizarre, dangerous, and extremely unlikely events that grow ever more cumbersome. A littling also has a Profession (Soldier, Scholar, Hunter, Criminal, Duelist, or Animal Handler) and a Vocation (subclass) that grants a starting Trait.
The abandoned House is vast and dangerous, full of pitfalls and traps. It has seen thousands of battles, but it’s always beautiful and majestic. Everything was created for a human family that vanished mysteriously: the tall walls, decorated with ancient motifs; the carpets, stretching to the horizon; the unreachable ceilings that humidity has painted with indoor stars. No littling has seen every corner of this world.
After the family vanished, the littling nations occupied different parts of the house: The Realm of the Fairies controls the Dining Hall; the Boggart nation of the Hearth manages the Living Room; the Free Dominions (Sprites) range across the Upper Floor; and the eerie Sluagh swarm across the Basement as the Horde of the Great Blade. Their territorial wars have only recently ceased – or paused.
Household uses small pools of six-sided dice to determine the outcome of all tasks that involve obstacles or threats. When rolling dice in Household, your goal isn’t to roll the highest or lowest possible total, but to combine as many equal symbols as you can in pairs, three-of-a-kind, and so on. Your skills, resources, Contracts, and Decorum adjust the size of your dice pool and permit multiple Re-rolls. Failed rolls give you Stress; after you become Overstressed, you may have to Bow Out until the next Chapter of the adventure.
Amid old disagreements, new alliances, and great revolutions, Household history is being made. Every littling, no matter how small, has the power to change the world. So temper your pins and sharpen your scissors – wear your best suits and bridle your mice – you’re going on a tiny adventure!
This new Household Bundle presented the entire English-language Household line to date for an unbeatable bargain price. There were three titles in our Household Items collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the beautiful full-color 322-page Household corebook (plus the free Quickstart Guide), along with the supplements A Practical Guide to Living Inside the House and A Saga of the Fragile Peace.
