The Presence is a strategic horror-game that puts you in a victorian-era ghost story. Each game is either fully cooperative or one-versus-all, only you have no way of knowing which one.. The game is for 3-5 players where one player plays as the Presence, an entity with unknown intentions. The others play as the Victims, who need to work together to determine whether the Presence is on their side, while also trying to find out what it is. The Victims will try to work together while struggling with darkness, isolation and the constant haunting of the Presence, who in turn either desperately tries to aid them or secretly plans to trap them forever. A Game About Trust Regardless of the intentions of the Presence, the trust of the Victims is valuable to its goals. A benevolent Presence needs their trust to play its more powerful actions. If it does not believe that they will manage in time, it can turn on them and win by other means. A vengeful Presence can bide its time, sabotaging their efforts in hidden ways and use their trust to make the Victims expose themselves. Then, when they are isolated, it can reveal its true nature. Game Mechanics Victims are represented on the board while the Presence moves through the house ethereally and can be in multiple locations at once. While Victims are limited by doors and passageways, the Presence can move freely, surrounding the Victims. This is both a social and classic deduction-game, but there is no traitor. The actions of the Presence leave clues as to its true intentions, and when the secrets of the house are gradually revealed through clues, the victims may realize what they think they know is fatally wrong. While the Presence-player may have very limited means to communicate, the Victims have an even tougher choice to make. If they separate and go different ways they will not be able to speak at all. Then they can only watch on in horror as their friend must make a perilous choice with no support. All players play cards to take actions, each card having two actions, meaning the choice of one action always excludes the other. However, as the power of the Presence grows, eventually it can take multiple actions on the same card, resulting in more powerful and devastating effects. If the Victims find enough clues in time to understand the Presence, sometimes with its aid, sometimes against its will, they will win. More often, they will meet their doom as the enraged Presence inevitably turns against them..