Houses, much like apartments, vary mostly in number of bedrooms and overall size. Unlike apartments, which normally stick to a “kitchen, bath, dining room, living room” motif, houses may have an assorted number of other rooms, many connected by hallways. These could include den, family room, great room, sitting room, solarium, nursery, utility room, laundry room, pantry, foyer, closets, storage rooms, attic, and washrooms, among others.
Also unlike apartments, houses will generally (though not universally) have basements. Houses with basements usually have the washer and dryer located here, as well as the furnace, water heater, and sump pump. Some basements are finished with carpets, paneling, extra lighting, and a variety of other interior decorating items to make it usable as any other room in the house.
Houses can be anywhere from one story (a “ranch” house) to two or three stories and beyond. Anything above three stories is uncommon and would be best quantified under mansion instead of just a house.
Upper most house levels are almost invariably used as attics. Sometimes attics are in crawl spaces above the uppermost level of a house, other times they are just another room on a top level.
With houses come external features, including a yard (including trees and bushes), attached or free- standing garage, storage shed, or even a barn for farmhouses. These features vary depending on the location of the house. A country farmhouse may have a huge yard with a stand of trees, a barn, a garage, and several other buildings. On the other hand, a house in the suburbs of a major city may have a miniscule yard and a single one-car garage as its sole amount of external property.
Don’t Miss …
This wonderfully maintained two-story home has three bedrooms, one and a half baths, a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, full basement, and two-car garage on a half-acre plot. The well-kept lawn has flower beds and bushes edging the building.
The three bedrooms are on the upper level. The master bedroom is the largest, with two other smaller rooms of roughly equal size. Each bedroom has a closet. The full bathroom on the upper level has a sink, toilet, and clawed tub with shower. The hall closet has ample for storage.
The house’s front door opens onto a large living room with a coat closet. The stairway to the upper level starts here. Through the door on the opposite end of the living room is a pantry area with small utility closet, kitchen with bar to the left, and half- bath (sink, toilet, and closet), and doorway to the lower level.
The U-shaped kitchen has a stove, sink, and ample cupboard and counter space. A small bar looks out over the dining area between the kitchen and family room. The dining area has a counter running along the right side with a small closet at its end. There is a railing separating it and the family room and a small step down between the two rooms. Slightly smaller than the living room, the family room looks out onto the back patio. It has a small closet just inside the back door.
The lower level of the house consists of a full basement. Unfinished, it has a cement floor and block walls. The washer and dryer are along the back wall, and a previous owner’s workbench stands in a corner. Running along the ceiling are steel support girders, while three evenly spaced steel poles bisect the room the long way. The light switch in the stairwell turns on the light in the stairwell itself, the other basement light fixtures have strings hanging down that operate them.
Just behind the house is a cement patio running the length of the house to the blacktop driveway. The backyard extends from the patio some distance before ending at a chain link fence determining the property line.
The garage has a built in garage door opener and rafters easily usable for storage. While not large enough for a workbench along the side or in front of most parked cars, there is enough room within the garage for storage of bikes and other items.
+ Wooden, metal, plastic, or glass dining, cof- fee, and end tables
+ Straightback chair made of wood, plastic, or metal
+ Wooden linen chest filled with homemade afghans and quilts
+ Glass and metal display cabinet sheltering small glass figurines and tiny pots of fake flowers
+ Wooden dressers containing shirts, slacks, and socks, undergarments
+ Heavy blue drapes with sheer white curtains underneath
+ Floor and table lamps of wood or metal with fabric shades in solid colors
+ Wooden corner cupboard with a metal oval serving platter and several glass beer steins and wine glasses
+ Kitchen utensils, such as knives, forks, spoons, spatulas (plastic and metal), ladles, whisks, pots, pans, lids, a grater, a colander, a rolling pin, and so on
+ For additional ideas, see the “Apartment” entry
People to Meet
Living in the house is the prototypical “nuclear” family with a mother and father and two children (with a third on the way). The father has 2D in each attribute with a few pips in business, tech: computers, repair, piloting, and the like.
The mother has 2D in each attribute with a few pips in any job-related skills, plus a few in know-how: cooking, know-how: cleaning, charm, and persuasion. The children have 1D in each attribute with a few pips in any school-related Knowledge or sports skills.
Mother: Reflexes 1D+2, Coordination 2D, piloting 2D+2, throwing 2D+1, Physique 2D, lifting 2D+1, running 2D+1, swimming 2D+1, Knowledge 2D+1, business 2D+2, scholar 2D+2, tech: computers 2D+2, Perception 2D, investigation 3D, know-how: cooking 2D+2, know-how: cleaning 2D+ 2, Presence 2D+1, charm 2D+1, persuasion 2D+2, willpower 3D. Move: 10. Strength Damage: 1D. Body Points: 8. Wound levels: 2.
Things to Do
+ The characters are visiting a friends’ house for a summer barbecue and house-warming party. This is the first time they have been here, so the new homeowners are pleased to show them around. In the midst of the festivities, a squad car arrives and a police officer comes to the door. He’s looking for one of the neighbors attending the party and arrests him on the spot. The characters are too faraway to hear the charges, but they do notice the officer’s partner looks a little nervous as he sits in the car and keeps pulling on his uniform collar as if he isn’t used to wearing it.