Totem – Tales from the Dark is Officina Meningi’s first official release of 2026 and an expansion manual for Totem – The Spirits RPG, the acclaimed title by Valentino Sergi and Atropo Kelevra, winner of no fewer than 4 No Dice Unrolled Awards:
🏆 Game of the Year
🏆 Best Mechanics
🏆 Best Setting
🏆 Best Art
This 72-page volume, priced at €15, features a collection of playable adventures created by an outstanding team: Matteo Boca, Chiara di Francia, Elena Mutti, Atropo Kelevra, Valentino Sergi
Illustrated by Alessandro Amoruso, Chiara Di Francia, Francesco Biagini & Voidface
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💀Matteo Boca, Matteo Boca, game designer and content creator, contributes two cinematic-inspired fragments of darkness: The Feast of a Thousand Smiles and A Night with Alfredo.
💀Chiara Di Francia, writer and influencer known as Gunslinger Jane, writes and illustrates The Breach, an adventure that will lead players into a nightmare motel with a new, unsettling gameplay mechanic: the Spirit Loop.
💀Elena Mutti from Boardgames Academy will guide players through the darkness of a paranormal love story set within the torture chambers of the Black Abbey.
💀Atropo Kelevra, internationally renowned game designer behind Totem and Last Sabbath – The Witches RPG will initiate you into the secrets of Aokigahara, the cursed setting of The Last Ritual, an adventure playable both as a multi-table event and as a campaign.
💀Valentino Sergi, award-winning author of Totem, Last Sabbath, Odyssey – Black Tales, and Blood Sword – The RPG, founding father of the Kingdom of Brancalonia (an Acheron Games title awarded 4 ENNIE Awards, for which he wrote numerous adventures in collaboration with Officina Meningi), as well as author of multiple gamebooks including The Necronomicon Gamebook series, Edgar Allan Poe – The Horror Gamebook, and the first erotic gamecomic in history, Connie – Prisoners of Voyero (in collaboration with Tentacle). In Tales from the Dark, he will terrify you with The Ghosts of Venice.
The art team includes, alongside Chiara Di Francia, returning artists Francesco Biagini and Voidface — already known for Totem and many other Officina Meningi titles — as well as a new entry: Alessandro Amoruso.
Totem is a rules-light horror RPG that lets you relive chilling atmospheres inspired by the classics of the spirit genre, from Poltergeist to Paranormal Activity, passing through The Ring, Insidious, Silent Hill, The Exorcist, and many other spine-tingling masterpieces.
Totem will lead your group of Seekers on a thrilling journey into the supernatural, searching for contact with entities that inhabit other planes of reality. You will explore haunted houses, exorcise demons, question presences through the spirit board, and cross the ultimate threshold of limbo.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Master takes on the role of the Spirit, introducing supernatural elements into a collaborative narrative where players (called Seekers) must draw the Map of the haunted location in order to understand how to exorcise it.
During the investigation, the Spirit reveals three elements (Nodes) tied to the reason for its presence in our world and presents terrifying challenges, resolved by flipping the Coin of Fate.
With each failure, the Seekers’ psychological condition worsens—until the Spirit may even gain control of the characters.
And yes… you will also use a Spirit Board!
MAP-MAKING
After choosing a Scenario (such as The Haunted House, The Cursed Hunt, Chained Souls, and many more unlockable as Stretch Goals) and a type of Spirit (Wolf, Moth, Cat, or Raven, each with unique powers), the Seekers take turns describing what they see and their actions, then draw the Map of the haunted location.
RULES-LIGHT
Totem belongs to the narrative RPG tradition, offering streamlined and immersive mechanics to build a shared story, with rules that are easy to learn and intuitive. It is an ideal game for 2–3 hour one-shots and perfect for newcomers to roleplaying.
INVESTIGATIVE
The Master, in the chilling role of the Spirit, develops the narrative based on the players’ descriptions. At the end of each round, the Master may:
– introduce supernatural presences or environmental elements
– ask one or more Seekers to perform a Test, assigning Trauma on failure
– reveal a Node, a crucial clue tied to the Spirit’s presence
The adventure unfolds cooperatively, as the group of Seekers—guided by the Master and the clues scattered throughout the environment—build the story in an attempt to resolve the three Nodes connected to the supernatural entity.
