Additional Elements for 'The Creepy Crawl'
The Creepy Crawl is a Labyrinth Lord mini sandbox (the land of Ghoulardia) that was recently released by Bigfella Games on RPGnow. I first encountered the author, B. J. Johnson, on a Gamma World mailing list back in the mid 90's and enjoyed his campaign ideas for Gamma Terra. He is an artist and that is partially why The Creep Crawl and his other games are so damn inexpensive. It is an excellent collection of cliches with twists meant for a Halloween one shot or very short campaign. Spoilers for the rest of the post.
There are five parts to the sandbox: a castle controlled by undead, a graveyard with different undead, a hunting lodge for lycanthropes, a lake with some Lovecraftian themes and a mad scientist's home and lab. It also has 3 races and a handful of new monsters. As much as I like Creepy Crawl, I think it would be even better with elements from other books:
From Realms of Crawling Chaos I am adding the sea blood and subhuman races, some tomes of my own design, formulae of my own design, and some simple artifacts created using the tables for use in the graveyard. The only issue is the addition of the sea blood as that could encourage the characters to leave the sandbox via the lake. I will need to have an aquatic location or two on hand if that happens. I do not plan on using any of the monsters, I have other plans for additional critters.
From Mutant Bastards, another of B. J.'s games, I plan on using some of the mutations. Physical mutations for additional monsters, mental for brain in jars found in the lab, and plant for the greenhouse and scattered about the land. They could also be used as temporary power ups or curses for the characters.
From 100 Oddities for a Chaotic Mutation, I will be using the tables to create little pest monsters meant to be background features as well as the occasional encounter. Chaos comes in two forms in Ghoulardia- lab escapes and creatures drinking from the lake- but the resulting creatures will have spread far and wide.
From Occult Lore, the book from Atlas, I plan on adding a book or two on herbalism and a couple of the example plants in the wilds of Ghoulardia. Not those that provide healing, but other sorts of bonuses.
From the Class Compendium, a book from Barrel Rider, I will be using a modified version of the dragon class to replace a vampire. In place of its breath weapon and spells, the monster will be able to animate shadow monsters. And the eidolon class to replace the specter as it allows for more clever actions by the player characters.
From the Wormskin series, I will be using the fungal (1), menhir (4) and strange waters (8) tables and adding the baker location from issue 6. The Dolmen Woods already have a dark fairy tale vibe and that is a niche that is missing from Creepy Crawl.
From The Nameless Grimoire I will be using some of the spells, both for casters and in books, and possibly a heritage or two and one of the patrons. Heritages are somewhat like the Innsmouth taint (though can be from non-evil sources) and TNG has the best rules for patrons I have read. A couple would be perfect for the mad scientist and three others work well for the lake location and castle. If I have the time I will also write up a new patron for the lycanthropes.
From Enchanter Class for Labyrinth Lord and OSR (an animist class that uses spirits for spell casting), I plan on allowing the class as a form of medium or necromancer. The freeform magic it has can cause all kinds of chaos, useful for Halloween senarios.
From Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts, I plan on adding a handful from the following list: Bone Organ, Cat Marble, Cloak of Shadows, Dark Juju Cup, Demon Eye, Fiber Optic Bundle, Golden Turnip Machine, Green Stone, Hands, Mutated Healing Jelly, Ooze Brain, Sea Charm, Skinshifter, Splattergun, Twisted Crown and Whale Torch. Obviously some will need minor reskinning (the bundle and brain becomes gemstones, the machine becomes a floating disc and the splattergun becomes a staff) but they all can be added to the crawl easily. Some of them will be random encounters much like those in Fallout 1 & 2 and others hidden away in the locations. The only two I see being used by the villains are the Fiber Optic Bundle (who doesn't want to see the immediate future?) and the Skinshifter (as it is perfect for the lab). The rest are either inappropriate or too powerful. The Cloak of Shadows, Demon Eye, Splattergun and Twisted Crown could really flatten a party of 5th level characters if used to their full potential. The only thing else to note is the Ooze Brain- it should work on the ooze-like creature, but the results could be disasterous for the characters. They will either create a new monster or empower an existing one. In either case, it should be played for laughs as well as screams as the two minds fight for control.
I also plan on adding a Bag of Beans (to finally be able to use my own version of the bag), things from titles in the 100 Oddities line (Wizard's Library, Creepy Old House, Graveyard, Enchanted Forest, and Egyptian Tomb) to add some additional spice to the existing and a few new locations, and possibly a Moat Monster or two to the lake.
