The horror of something left behind. Covers haunted houses, ghosts with unfinished business, inherited family secrets, cursed land, and places that remember. A person, a wrong, or a debt won’t stay in the past, and someone alive has to answer for it. What it wants, who it targets, who else can feel it, and what it will take.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Presence, The Haunted System, The Witnesses, The Claim), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Haunted, The Skeptic, The Keeper of the Secret, The Inheritor, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Front Door, The Attic, The Cellar, The Sealed Room, and more)

The horror of understanding. Covers cosmic horror, forbidden texts, strange signals, scientific expeditions, and archives that shouldn’t have been opened. Understanding doesn’t make the world safer. It makes it larger. What the anomaly is, who tried to learn it first, and what knowing costs.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Anomaly, The Trail, The Others, The Cost of Knowing), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Seeker, The Predecessor, The Gatekeeper, The Translator, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Archive, The Field Site, The Locked Section, The Last Door, and more)

The horror of confinement. Covers home invasions, cabin and bunker stories, storms, quarantines, and any story where people are held in one place and must decide what they will do to hold the boundary or break it. The threat outside, the walls, the people inside, and the clock.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Threat, The Container, The Group, The Clock), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Holder, The Commander, The Dissenter, The Door-Opener, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Main Room, The Stores, The Weak Window, The Lookout, and more)

Pursuit: Running vs. Facing
The horror of being hunted. Covers slashers, survival chases, stalkers, folk and wilderness horror, and relentless hunters of every kind. Something is after the Character, and every choice is about the Hunter’s reach and the Character’s ability to stay beyond it. Where it is now, where it’s safe, and what running costs.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Hunter, Route & Refuge, The Others, The Cost of Flight), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Runner, The Helper, The Guide, The Turncoat, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Road, The Safe House, The Wilderness, The Choke Point, and more)

The horror of spread. Covers plagues, infections, parasites, memes, outbreaks, and anything that moves from person to person. Who’s exposed, how it travels, and what happens when the people who need one another become a danger to one another. Care, quarantine, and the choice about who gets left outside.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Spread, The Network, The Response, The Toll), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Exposed, The Carrier, The Caretaker, The Researcher, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Clinic, The Checkpoint, The Ward, The Clean Zone, and more)

The horror of being welcomed. Covers cults, perfect communities, wellness retreats, company towns, and families that want you to join. Something offers the Character a place, and every kindness has a price they can’t see yet. The offer, the group, the outside, and what the Character gives up to stay.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Group, The Offer, The Outside, The Price), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Newcomer, The Host, The Convert, The Doubter, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Doorstep, The Table, The Meeting Hall, The Boundary, and more)

The horror of the familiar face. Covers doubles, impostors, changelings, body-snatchers, copies, and people who come back changed. Someone the Character knows well starts to seem like someone else, and every small difference could mean nothing or everything. The Double, the tells, who believes, and what a wrong call costs in either direction.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Double, The Tells, The Others, The Cost of Being Wrong), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Watcher, The Double, The Original, The Examiner, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Kitchen, The Bed, The Mirror, The Photographs, and more)

The horror of getting what you asked for. Covers devil’s bargains, wishes, resurrection, forbidden experiments, cursed objects, and inherited pacts. A Character crosses a consequential line to obtain, keep, or pursue something, or inherits the results of someone else’s crossing. The want, the crossing, the result, and the price.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Transgressor, The Bargain, The Terms, The Others, The Price), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Transgressor, The Broker, The Heir, The Warner, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Empty Room, The Threshold, The Rite Place, The Burial Ground, and more)

The horror of the next test. Covers death games, compulsory contests, deadly auditions, trials, and gauntlets. The plot moves through escalating tests under a fixed set of rules, and each one costs something. The Overseer, the tests, the other contestants, and what survival requires of the person who passes.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Contestant, The Overseer, The Tests, The Field, The Cost of Passing), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Contestant, The Rival, The Veteran, The Refuser, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Gate, The Briefing Room, The Course, The Choke Point, and more)

The horror of being hunted. Covers slashers, survival chases, stalkers, folk and wilderness horror, and relentless hunters of every kind. Something is after the Character, and every choice is about the Hunter’s reach and the Character’s ability to stay beyond it. Where it is now, where it’s safe, and what running costs.

Includes:

• Story functions across 5 lanes (The Character, The Hunter, Route & Refuge, The Others, The Cost of Flight), plus a Reader Experience lane
• Character archetypes (The Runner, The Helper, The Guide, The Turncoat, and more)
• Place archetypes (The Road, The Safe House, The Wilderness, The Choke Point, and more)