New Cryptworld Unsettling Power: Automatic Writing

One of my favorite things about CRYPTWORLD are the unsettling powers, little supernatural abilities for things designed not necessarily to harm the PCs but add flavor, mood, and atmosphere to encounters and trigger fear checks. They are also a lot of fun to design, and I have a few in the recently released MONSTERS MACABRE supplement for CRYPTWORLD and here on my blog that came about from my horror movie viewing. I have to admit to watching horror movies lately through a CRYPTWORLD lens and actively looking for moments that would make great unsettling powers.

Here is a new unsettling power for your CRYPTWORLD games expanded on from the Ghost entry in Chapter 7: Things.

Spirit Writing

Automatic Writing: This power allows an undead thing (typically a ghost) to communicate with the living by temporarily taking control of a character’s hand to deliver a written message or warning. This usually requires the presence of paper and a writing implement such as a pen, but a planchette and spirit board (commonly called a ouija board) may be used instead. This costs 10 WPR per minute. In extreme cases, a knife or other sharp object might be used to carve a message on a surface like a wooden table or a wall at a cost of 10 WPR per round. All written communications resulting from this power will appear to be in the handwriting of the thing using the power. The hand of the character chosen (left or right) will be the same dominant hand the undead thing had in life.

I've got to say "hello" to an old friend...