Crawlspacers

 

The world as most know it, is the House. The House is particularity and inhabitation. The House is where the clocks run and the children play. It is the world of the now, the everyday, the things which belong and have their place.

The Crawlspaces are the other places, the places skirting the outside of the real where the detritus of existence builds up, the things which are left behind, which are thrown away. It is also the place where the power cables run through to pump power to the House, where the pipes transport water for the children's bath. It is the place of the rats and the spiders and the lost pennies.

You live in the Crawlspaces. You live in the places more conceptual than real, and imaginary space that exists more in the collective consciousness of the universe than any particular place. 

Perhaps you live on the Road where there are no exits, that lonely, dusty highway where you'll find nothing but gas stations and the world's biggest rubber band ball. 

Maybe you barely survive in the War, the perpetually cataclysm which is all wars throughout history and like those only imagined where most poor fools that find themselves here just as quickly lose themselves to endless, senseless violence across vast wastes of rat-infested trenches and barbed wire.

You are a Crawlspacer and that means you don't just traverse these places, you hold one as your domain and source of power through which you might plunder different Crawlspaces and claim their forgotten treasures for yourself.

Inspired by the Magnus Archives, the Backrooms, the Close Your Eyes podcast, and a play by post game run by Iconoclastic Flow (https://flowiconoclastic.blogspot.com/?m=1).

Players would create their Crawlspace, create a Crawlspace they know of, and add details to the Crawlspaces of others. Essentially, players would create the map. Then the game would progress in the FFR style with different players competing with each other to gain power through gaining artifacts or holding sway over the House. 

Each character would have their Knack that is an ability that helps them navigate their "home" Crawlspace that they could use in other Crawlspaces. Always knowing where the nearest way out is. Always having a weapon to hand. Speaking the language of a kind of denizen. Hiding in plain sight. Something that relates to their home Crawlspace that could be useful in others. 

I don't have a ton of mechanical ideas for this. I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I have had zero time. I think I'd use my Weirdways system and keep it very rules lite. 

Character/Crawlspace Creation

Answer the following questions with your Referee:

• The Crawlspaces are liminal and you have to be liminal yourself to find your way into them. Who were you before you found your Crawlspace? What dream failed for you? Why did you never quite fit in? What are you holding onto that you can't let go?
• What is your Crawlspace? What do you suspect it represents? What makes it difficult or dangerous to navigate? What does it say about you that this place chose you? 
• What is one Denizen of your Crawlspace that you've established a working relationship with? What is one you're yet to fully understand? What is one you fear?
• What advantage do you have in your own Crawlspace? How have you made it home?
• What power from your Crawlspace can you take with you wherever you go? What power could someone else steal from your Crawlspace?
• How does your Crawlspace connect with the real world? How do you go back and forth to the House? How might other people from the House find their way to your Crawlspace?
• What is another Crawlspace that you know of? What is a Denizen you know of there? What has made this other Crawlspace dangerous or difficult for you? What power to you believe you could gain from there? How does your Crawlspace connect to it?

Part 2

After each player has answered all of the above questions, randomly and secretly assign both their home Crawlspace and the other Crawlspace they generated to two other players. Do not inform the players where these Crawlspaces come from. Give the following information:

• The name and general description of the Crawlspace
• What makes this Crawlspace difficult or dangerous to navigate.
• What power they believe they could steal from this Crawlspace.
• One Denizen (dealer's choice) from this Crawlspace.

Then, ask them the following question:

• How does your Crawlspace connect to this other one you know of?

After that, the game proceeds in FFR/FCR fashion.

The Scenario

Crawlspacers and Crawlers (humans studying or exploring the Crawlspaces but not empowered by them), have long suspected that the Crawlspaces contain the potential to act as passageways beyond the House to another universe entirely, another House. But the way to this Neighbor is uncertain. In the depths of Crawler forums online, there is a post from theProff69, a character come to be known in the community as The Professor, detailing the Way in the Wasteland.

Supposedly there is a Crawlspace called the Wasteland, and there is a gate there that is said to be able to go to the Neighbor. However, the Professor talks about how the gate can only be opened by the Fisher King and only once the Profaned Spear and the Cup of Blood are returned to him. To access the Wasteland you need a Sequence from the Library, a notoriously dangerous Crawlspace that offers information on many others. 

There's a lot of debate on all these topics and what exactly they mean. However, a way to the Library was said to have been recently discovered by a cult of Crawlers on a secluded island in the House. 

The Professor has been offline for years. Many believe he has disappeared into the Crawlspaces but perhaps his notes can be recovered. His last post discussed his plans to visit the Hollow Forest. 

As a Ref, you might want to swap out some of these Crawlspaces with ones your players generated.