RPPR Illustrated: The Suburban Anomaly

November 2021 - The Suburban Anomaly

A house in a suburban neighborhood no longer fully exists in our universe. Something  unnatural happened inside only a few hours ago. The local authorities have not yet responded or even realized something is amiss there. 

The following map is meant as a resource for any modern horror game. Use it as the starting seed of a scenario or as a finale. The artifact behind the anomaly is left undescribed so it can be replaced with whatever fits for a particular game - a mystic tome, a high-tech device stolen from a government lab, or something else entirely. 

The house is two stories and has three bedrooms. It is in a quiet neighborhood. It was furnished and occupied by an average middle class family. The details and current status of the occupants are left to the GM. 

The Anomaly

The anomaly has partially overwritten the house with a structure from another universe. Perhaps the structure is the villa of an ancient sorcerer from the Dreamlands or a temple from a parallel universe. The conditions of each room are described below. Rooms with no description are not affected by the anomaly or are affected by the same condition as an adjacent room (GM’s choice). 

All rooms have minor unnatural changes. Small crystals growing in walls, colored lights visible through cracks in the walls, floating mineral formations and so forth. 

The anomaly can be cleansed by destroying the Heart in the upstairs room. This may require explosives, a magical ritual, or a high-tech machine, depending on the RPG. Destroying the anomaly stops every effect instantaneously. 

Unnatural occupants: Creatures might be inside the house at the GM’s discretion. The creatures were summoned by the anomaly and want to protect the Heart. 

Rooms

Garage: Spatial distortion - the garage appears normal when viewed from outside - through a door, for example. But once a character steps inside, they find themselves in the center of a massive distorted version of the room. It is the size of an airplane hangar and any vehicles parked in the garage retain their size. This is the perfect spot for an ambush by an unnatural creature. 

Kitchen: Alien alchemical lab - The kitchen has been transformed into an alien alchemical lab. Vaguely medieval but somehow off strange instruments, glass vials, and other devices lie scattered about the kitchen. Racks of unidentifiable ingredients and elixirs. Perhaps characters can identify and make use of these but any experimentation is dangerous.

Living room and foyer: The fountain - a fountain of strange mineral and crystal design has overtaken the room - moss and vines grow around the walls. The waters of the fountain are not acidic or immediately poisonous but it might be hallucinogenic or cause mutations in any that drink or touch it. 

Guest bedroom: Vortex - a deadly vortex that pulverizes anything that crosses the threshold of the door. It is a black sphere hovering quite obviously in the middle of the room. 

Kid’s bedroom: The Bridge - the far corner of the bedroom opens into a stony cliff with a rope and wood bridge leading off into the distance. The bridge seems to extend far off past the boundaries of the house. When viewed from outside, there is no sign of the bridge or cliff. Mist blocks the view of the far end of the bridge. The sky there is yellow. A voice may call out from the mist - a familiar voice perhaps, asking for help. 

Master bedroom: Stone tablet library - shelves of stone tablets written in an alien language. Should a character try to decipher it, they find the text of the tablets changes to match their native language. It promises secret knowledge but it enacts a high price in sanity or worse.

Upstairs room: The Heart - the cause of the anomaly, floating in a wreathe of incandescent energy. Its defenses and potential guardians are left to the discretion of the GM. 

Art by Patsy McDowell