The Archivist and other Factions

What is Liminal Horror?

Liminal Horror is a rules-lite, adaptable survival-horror roleplaying game about normal characters and their struggles against the things that go bump in the night. The game focuses on surviving the weird and investigating horrors while blending simple, old-school inspired rules with modern, narrative first principles. Survival is NOT guaranteed and those that do make it through the night are often forever changed. 

A table-ready version of the core rules for players and facilitators can be found for FREE through either of the links below:

• A free pdf can be downloaded at https://goblinarchives.itch.io/liminal-horror
• A free web-based version of the rules is available at https://liminalhorrorrpg.com/
• The Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition is available here in print and digitally (currently on pre-order from Backerkit)

FACTIONS

Factions are groups and organizations that either may come into direct contact with the Investigators during a scenario or have some connection to the horrors. These fall into two categories: minor and major.

MINOR FACTIONS

These factions are those with limited overall impact, straightforward goals, or ones where the individual NPCs are more important to the scenario than the specific faction they’re aligned with. For example, standard law enforcement will usually fall under this category, as their goal is straightforward and it’s typically one or two key members that will rise to the forefront in a scenario, with their personal goals being more important than those of their faction.

MAJOR FACTIONS

These factions are those more active within a scenario or have more complex motivations. As such, it may be useful to give these factions more defined details.

• Description: Who are they? Where do they come from? When were they founded? Are they secretive or is their existence public knowledge?
• Goals: What do they want? What are they willing to do to achieve this? What happens when they achieve this goal? What happens when they fail?
• Key Personnel: Who are the major NPCs within the organization? This list should include a mix of leadership and the folks who are the most likely to come into direct contact with the Investigators.
• Headquarters: Where is their base of operation? Do they operate satellite locations? How quickly can they respond when altered to a subject of their interest?
• Resources & Methods: What materials and resources do they have at their disposal? How do they leverage these resources to go about attempting to achieve their goals?
• Allies & Adversaries: Do they have any connections to the other factions? Who are they aligned with? Who are they starkly opposed to?
• Contracts: How do they relate to the Investigators? Do they have jobs or tasks available? Do they offer payment or use coercion?

Example Factions

Example Factions Here are three Factions we’ve included with an open license (CC-BY 4.0). Our hope is that these Factions can both serve as an exemplar template for your own Factions, and to serve as three pillars in regards to types of factions that typically show up in modern horror. Given the open license provided in this SRD, you can use them fully in your own publications.

1. The Bureau (corrupt government organization involved in the weird).
2. Panopticon (a perfect stand-in for evil mega-corp)
3. The Archivist (a mysterious patron with connections to the weird and otherworldly) "One more thing..."

Words and Design © 2022 Goblin Archives

Art © 2022 Chema González