The Memory of the Horrors

Welcome to the 12th post in a series of Design Diaries for Rangers of a Broken World by the creator Leon Richardson:

Most paranormal researchers believe there are three (maybe four depending on what you think about poltergeist activity) types of hauntings: human spirits, non-human spirits, and “recordings”. It’s this last kind that directly inspired the Horrors.

The basic idea is that some ghost sightings are not a presence, but actually the memory of a place. These are characterized by repetitive actions, no response to any observers, and movement that ignores the place’s current layout. Classic stories like a mysterious figure that appears wreathed in cigar smoke before walking through the wall every night at 2 AM, that sort of thing.  

The initial idea for the Horrors was pretty obvious. I wanted there to be monsters in this world, monsters truly worth fighting, and the world’s memories of the horrors of war proved a fertile ground.

I love surrealism in my monster designs, so the first few Horrors were just surreal dreamlike representations of war. Most of the ones I’ve written for the final version are, too! But, the more I wrote, the more the Horrors shifted from ghosts of battle to representations of the world’s lingering traumas. Like a recording, they’re not truly sentient, just a scorch-mark left on the world by deep pain and suffering.

Burning is a mess of grasping hands, smoke, and fire that lurks in Stageport. A long, long time ago, a factory burnt down, and the people within perished, leaving a memory of their fear and desperation to prey on the world over a century later.

Night Raid, another fire-based Horror, splits and reconvenes in an effort to surround, surprise, and destroy its targets. It may be a long-gone memory, but the fires it starts are real, and can get out of hand if a party isn’t careful.

Depredation is a blizzard with a human body, insubstantial, howling with cold and deep, desperate hunger. It may have a human shape, but any attempts to reach something solid, human, or warm will come up empty as it screams its fear and rage into the world.

Rangers of a Broken World’s encounter design chapter breaks down all the abilities, special rules, and guidelines you’ll need to make your own reflections of the world’s nightmares. You can use the bestiary to start with, or mix and match elements, or even create from scratch!

What Horrors will you create?