Back in the late 70s and early 80s I devoured books about cryptids, monsters, and UFOs. Honestly, when I wasn't reading books about the occult or witches, I was reading this stuff.
I guess that is one of the reasons why this book (and this game) hit such a nerve with me.
Plus I love monster books. Always have.
So naturally, I want to use this book everywhere I can.
First and foremost, the Cryptid Manual is 90% compatible with Swords & Wizardry White Box. There is not a lot of overlap in monsters, so this makes the CM a perfect monster book for S&WWB players. Also, there are a lot of "new" monsters in S&W for the DP&D player/GM. Who's to say that an alien life form could resemble an orc or a wyvern.
In fact, this is true for nearly every clone. The clone game provides monsters for DP&P and the Cryptid Manual provides new monsters for your clone of choice. You just need to justify why they are there.
The tone of The Hero's Journey is different than the other Clones, but with a tiny bit of tinkering the adventure-centric tone of THJ can work with the dark conspiracy tone of DP&D. I mean really, isn't a Bigfoot just another kind of forest spirit? I bit like a wilder, but less evil, ogre or troll.
B/X Essentials is an interesting game and one I will delve into more on future posts. There is essentially a B/X Essentials Monster Manual. Either or both can be used with both or either game and all fit well. I think the only overlapping monster is the Medusa, and they are close enough to each other as to be the same creature with local variations.
Both games have a monster Morale score. I have not done the math to see if these morale scores are 100% compatible, but they feel that way and are based on the same Basic mechanic.
If you like either game then consider picking up the other monster book for even more monsters.
I think the claim that the Cryptid Manual is a good book for any OSR game is a solid one.
I have been wanting to add a Hodag to my games for YEARS.
Now adding this book to an OSR/Clone book is easy. The hard part is figuring out why or how Chupacabras are out running around with the likes of elves and dragons.
Something that might help is looking at other games that cover many of the same creatures and ideas.
Dark Places & Demogorgons holds the same place that is/was occupied by Chill. I can pretty much take any Chill adventure I developed and re-run under DP&D. The Chill Monsters book covers a lot of the same ground as the Cryptid Manual. The advantage of picking up the Monsters book has more information on each creature and a few new ones. The Cryptid Manual also has a few new creatures for Chill players as well. For conversions, I would find similar creatures in the books and use that as a template.
Chill's focus is more international and more adult. BUT a great idea I had was to play a Chill game with some investigators and do a "flashback" adventure of when they were kids using DP&D. Players of both games should check out the other books for lots of ideas.
The same is true of Eden's Conspiracy X 2.0.
The focus is even more X-Files than Chill is. There is also a greater focus on Extraterrestrials than in Chill. Like Chill, there is a feeling that Con X might be the "sequel" of the DP&P game. Again a fun idea would be to run a Con X game, but pull out DP&D for a "flashback" adventure to when the characters were all children.
Think about it in terms of the X-Files. You are playing Fox Mulder as an FBI Agent working on the X-Files (Con X), but the GM wants to go back and try playing Fox as a kid when his sister gets taken by Aliens (DP&D). It could be a flashback, an alien device that makes him relive it or he is in therapy and his doctor tries memory regression. There is a ton of different things you can do.
The systems are not compatible, but I am pretty fluent in both systems and did some of the work already for my Sunny Valley, OH Buffy game.
So, yes the Cryptid Manual is a remarkablly useful and flexible book that I can already use for a dozen or so games, and I plan on doing so. Hodags! Hodags in every game!!
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