Hail Mighty Readers and Followers of the Luck Gods Math Rocks,
We're always keeping an eye out for something not only different but delves into the players imagination with positive messages added. This project, coming soon to Backerkit (Monday 12th October 2026), being published under the Evil Hat Productions banner, is a game where various aspects of mental health are presented within and also give players the chance to really delve into their characters so that they not only get to know them intimately but also look forward to replaying them in future adventures as they seek to make the world better for the inhabitants.
As such we couldn't wait to talk to the game creator Leon McDonald to get under the skin of this project and to learn more about the creation:
Totally Pawsome: How would you surmise Rangers of a Broken World in one succinct paragraph?
Leon Richardson: Rangers of a Broken Word is a TTRPG about blessed survivalists who take care of humanity as the world rebounds from an apocalyptic disaster. The player characters, the titular Rangers, use survival skills, teamwork, and a free-form magic system to fight back against the ghostly remnants of the world's trauma, the unearthed weapons of the Last War, the ruthless Noble Demons, and more.
TP: What is the key selling point of your game?
LR: I think that varies depending who you talk to! A lot of players love the fridge-poetry style creative magic system, a lot of people are responding really well to the gorgeous art, and some people are excited about a hopeful post-apocalyptic setting where people take care of each other! My personal favorite thing about it is the sense of freedom.
TP: You've mentioned in another interview that you utilised your mental disabilities to help create the various aspects of the classes, how would you say this has helped you in dealing with your own problems and how do you feel the game would aid others? For example, is it designed to make dealing with mental illness more accessible or to help others understand what people who suffer go through?
LR: I designed this game so that characters with disabilities are no big deal - there are no penalties or workarounds necessary. You can just say your character is disabled. I want players, both abled and disabled, to see disabled heroes in the game not as outliers, but just as people with the will to help others.
Because the characters are survivalists who have endured hardship, many of them will have associated traumas and injuries. This is, in the game's lore and the game's mechanics, no big deal. The characters' stats describe around how they solve problems, not their body or their mind. A person with a disability can play a character with the same disability easily, so someone who wants their character to represent them will, I hope, be happy with the game's systems!
As for myself, the Enduring Legionnaire, a class that can experience symptoms very much like depression if they overuse their necromantic abilities, is my absolute baby. Perhaps working on it reminded me that I can be heroic even when I feel hollow inside.
TP: Is Rangers of a Broken world a complete game in itself or how would you incorporate the classes into another title such as D&D?
LR: Rangers of a Broken World is its own complete game! I hope people find the mechanics approachable and satisfying, and I've included a lot of GM reference material to help people feel confident experimenting with a new game.
TP: What do you think Rangers of a Broken world offers that no other game out there does?
LR: I mean, there are a lot of roleplaying games! So, I'm sure if you look you'll find other games that are similar. But, I'm proud of the magic system. I've described it like "fridge poetry" - players take one word, called a Spell Note, from their own character sheet, and another from the GM's list describing the environment. They then have a two-word phrase like "Liberating Sunlight" or "Vicious Green" and they and the GM work together to decide what it means and how much Scatter it costs them. Players seem to enjoy coming up with creative and lovely ways to approach problems, and it brings me a lot of joy when I GM.
TP: Having written under various company names and now having written for Evil Hat, what do you think is the key lesson you've learned when you sit down to create something new?
LR: I stand by the adage "finished is better than good". I daresay my greatest strength as a creator is the diligence to sit down and write a project out from start to finish. Once it's finished, then it can be refined and edited and perfected. But, you can't do any of that if all you have is an idea.
Rangers of a Broken World, I might say, was playtested in the podcast Sword of Symphonies for years! So, it's gone through a lot of refinements since I came up with the idea in the first place. But, turning it from "idea" to "draft" is the beginning of that process.
TP: Rangers of a Broken World, deals with characters utilising "blurring" and "scattering" as key mechanics, how do you feel they help the player craft their characters identity?
LR: Blur and Scatter are measures of how much the character is "outside" their body. When they cast spells, they push their wills outside their body to have an impact on the outside world. Their will doesn't entirely return - Scatter is a measure of how much of them is left outside. It's similar to dissociation, one of my own mental health symptoms.
Blur, on the other hand, increases as the character uses abilities from their special ally. For example, the Legionnaire I mentioned earlier blurs into the dead, until they feel like they might be dead themselves.
Both of these help a player envision their character's interiority, and the ways their Ranger may be reacting emotionally and mentally to their adventure!
TP: The artwork within has a very Art Nouveau feeling to it, was this a conscious decision to help the immersion of the mental aspects of the game or was it just pure coincidence?
LR: I wanted an Art Nouveau vibe partly because it is dreamy and ethereal, and partly because the game is also about a connection to nature. Art Nouveau, with its organic shapes and nature themes, was a wonderful way to drive home this naturalistic theming visually, and our graphic designer (the peerless Cris Viana) immediately knew what I was after and brought it to life!
TP: What do you think will attract players to keep returning to the game?
LR: My hope is that players will be able to get attached to their characters, characters that are wounded and flawed and vulnerable and lead rich inner lives, enough to keep returning to the game again and again!
TP: What can you tell us about your future projects?
LR: I'm constantly working on things! I'm working on a blatant Shin Megami Tensei fangame about the casino at the end over everything, a linoprint Tarot deck, a podcast about games that my friend and I make up, and a visual novel! I also study calligraphy in my free time. My friends tease me about being a workaholic, and I can't say they're wrong, but it's just my personality, I suppose.
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