MONSTERS EVERYWHERE

Forgotten Ruin War Journal

One of the great facets of tabletop RPGs is it allows for explorations of themes the books might not have covered, yet. This was surely the case in the play tests for the Forgotten Ruin Role Playing Game when the Ruin revealed some characters to be something other than human.

In one character’s case, the Ruin had been crippling him throughout the arc, until he finally transformed into a werewolf and ate one of his teammates. 

It begs the question, what’s a Ranger to do when his battle buddy, the guy he would take a bullet for, changes into a monster that can’t be controlled? 

In the main series, we see several instances where a character is "Ruin revealed" and yet their personality, their character, their heart, remains true to who they are. Tanner being the biggest example. Cursed in his grave, he rose to become a champion in undeath, fighting for the little guy who was still small as a ghost. Even though he became more monstrous as the series went on, the man, Tanner, kept his humanity and protected those who couldn’t protect themselves.

Monroe’s nature of constantly going beast mode led to him becoming a minotaur. Even though he towered over everyone and would become easily enraged in combat, the man inside the monster remained. He protected street urchins at the docks and eventually turned them into a hatchet force for the Rangers. Even as they became his personal aquatic assault team, he cared for them as if they were his own kids.

In the upcoming series DELTA KINGS, we get to see the reverse happen. In the first book, member of the crew supporting the operators begins her transformation. In the second, she becomes the focal point for an initial mission to a city where the operation to rescue her goes awry. But the team isn’t there to protect their friend from the world. In fact, the opposite is true because the Ruin revealed her to be truly horrific. Thus the mission changes as the team must now protect. protecting the world from her. 

So, how should the Rangers respond to the Ruin revealing true monsters in their people? Should they hunt their former friends and imprison them? Put them down? How would you handle your battle buddy going over to the dark side, like McCluskey?