Page 142 - Chronicles of Darkness

Note also that these guidelines are for creating major
Horrors: the core, recurring antagonists of your stories. To
quickly create minions, zombie hordes, or even just terribly Horrors and Beats
potent evils that only have a limited screen time, see Brief
Nightmares on p. 143. Likewise, these rules focus on corpo- The primary game-mechanical effect of
real entities. If you’re creating a ghost, spirit, or a stranger Aspirations is to reward players for accomplishing
sort of ephemeral Horror, see the Ephemeral Entities rules their characters’ goals with Beats. Since Storyteller
on p. 122. characters don’t track Beats or Experiences,
fulfilling an Aspiration instead grants the character
Step One: Concept a point of Willpower. This point of Willpower is
temporary and goes away at the end of the scene,
unless the Aspiration fulfilled was a Horror’s feed-
The obvious first step when creating a Horror is to decide
what sort of beast you’re creating. Chances are you already ing Aspiration, in which case the Willpower point
lasts until spent.
have a starting point for this by the time you sit down to
create a Horror. If you know your next story is going to be a The same rule applies any time a Storyteller
tale of Faustian bargains and unholy sacrifices, for example, character, whether Horror or otherwise, would
you probably know your Horror is going to be some sort of otherwise earn a Beat: resolving Conditions, turn-
demon or warlock. Will it be a wrathful brute, hungry to ing a failure into a dramatic failure, and so on.
share its rage with anyone it lures into its lair? Or will it be
a subtle, deceitful thing, seducing the unwary into selling
their souls? Folklore, mythology, and popular culture can all
provide useful inspiration here. benchmarks to determine your Horror’s Potency, which in
Consider also the role your Horror will play in the story. turn determines a suggested range of points you’ll spend on
Most Chronicles of Darkness stories are about investigating, Attributes, Skills, Merits, and Dread Powers later. Potency
encountering, and (hopefully) surviving the supernatural roughly corresponds with an ephemeral entity’s Rank, and
rather than confronting it head on. Certainly monsters that with various traits possessed by the protagonists of other
threaten death and dismemberment are a common feature, Chronicles of Darkness game lines.
but when designing your Horror, you might want to approach In addition to determining the number of points recommend-
it from an angle of unfolding mystery rather than what will ed for building a Horror, Potency confers the following effects:
make a cool fight scene. Willpower Capacity: Horrors add their Potency to their
At this point, you should also give thought to your Horror’s Resolve + Composure to determine their Willpower.
Aspirations. Intelligent monsters usually have three, just like Willpower Expenditure: A Horror may spend 1 point of
the players’ characters: typically one long term and two short Willpower in a turn per dot of Potency. It may not, however,
term. Animalistic monsters usually have only one. If your spend more than 1 Willpower on the same effect. A Potency
Horror must feed on something to survive, or is otherwise 3 Horror may not spend 3 Willpower points to give itself a +9
compelled (such as a wendigo’s hunger for human flesh or a bonus on an action, for example, but it could spend those 3
masked, undead slasher’s need to punish those who indulge Willpower points to bolster its action, increase its Defense,
their Vices), that should definitely be one of its Aspirations. and activate a Dread Power in the same turn.
Further Aspirations give characters a point of entry toward Supernatural Tolerance: Horrors are more resistant
understanding the Horror, but more importantly give the to the supernatural. Add the Horror’s Potency dots to any
Horror much-needed depth and humanity. An Aspiration like contested roll to resist a supernatural power.
“do no harm to children” gives a monster a touch of sympathy,
prompts questions that can help you fill out the Horror’s back- Step Three: Anchors
story, and provides an avenue of investigation for characters.
Unlike characters, who typically gain new Aspirations when Horrors typically have Virtues and Vices just like other
they fulfill one, many Horrors keep the same Aspirations even characters, but what a monster considers “virtuous” or “vice
after fulfilling them, or tweak them slightly to make them ridden” might vary significantly from what a human would.
more broadly applicable. A vengeful revenant who kills her To make your Horror feel alien and incomprehensible, con-
murderers is more likely to replace that Aspiration with “kill sider strange Anchors like Murderous as a Virtue or Silent as
anyone who reminds me of my murderers” than with “become a Vice. To highlight the core of humanity in even the most
the crime boss of the port district.” twisted of Horror, follow the guidelines on p. 27 for choosing
a player character’s Virtue and Vice.
Step Two: Potency Like Aspirations, Anchors should provide the characters
with inroads for discovering, investigating, and ultimately sur-
Potency is a measure of a Horror’s raw supernatural power. viving the Horror, so pick Anchors that you’re sure will come
Unlike most Traits, Potency is rated from 1 to 10 dots. All up in the story (or, alternately, craft the story to highlight the
Horrors have a Potency rating of at least 1. Use the following Anchors of a Horror you’ve already created).

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Horrors