The Between: Sally No-Face

2-4 players. 8 June 2022

The Daily Telegraph has a story about a washerwoman named Clara Yarborough who was found dead in a hallway of her tenement house in Whitechapel; her face had been carefully removed. This is the third such crime this month—the other two victims, Edward Clive and Dolly Merryweather, also lived in Whitechapel. People are already saying it’s old Sally No-Face who’s doing it, but Sally No-Face is just a legend; children have been singing her song in the streets for as long as anyone can remember: “Poor old Sally/trapped in a fire/her looks burned up without a trace/If you’re lovely/with fate most dire/she’ll come and take your lovely face!”

The Between is a mystery horror game set in Victorian London, based on Penny Dreadful and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The Hunters of Hargrove House are strange people with half a foot into the world of monsters. They are our only chance to protect London from horrors, as long as they don’t become one themselves. 

We’ll create Hunters such as the American who is culturally different and suffers a quickening curse which will turn them into a beast by the light of the full moon, The Vessel, who draws power by consorting with demonic forces, and The Unquiet, a ghost tied to Hargrove House. 

From there, we will discover the truth behind Sally No-Face by gathering clues, answering questions and hopefully not falling to evil as we go. The Hunters are mysterious even to each other, revealing their tragic backstories and doomed fates through play. Gameplay is divided between a Day Phase of free play, investigating the mystery, then Evening will have you define more about your group of Hunters and Night will have you set out to stop Sally No-Face. A unique ‘Unscene’ helps measure pace and build tone as Victorian London’s pleasures and perils are seen in the background while we try desperately to save the day.

You’ll need three six-sided dice, although I’ll be bringing a lot of them, as well as cards to help make a conspiracy board to help the theories come together.

Hargrove House has hired Charlie Etheridge-Nunn as its chronicler. His mysterious past includes writing RPG adventures and reviews. He haunts the Dice Saloon and his future involves a stag with golden eyes.