Today we open the field journal of a hunter who walked into the dark and wrote down what stared back. P.T. LaMarck’s Cryptid Codex is a 5e bestiary presented as a recovered notebook... its pages smudged with graphite and rain, filled with clipped reports, field notes, and jagged sketches. Inside is folklore made playable: every entry includes lore, a complete stat block, story hooks, and optional harvestable loot so your players can leave more than footprints behind.
Folklore Meets Fifth Edition
The Cryptid Codex roams through American legend, blending myth, mystery, and the eerie sense that the truth was always just outside the campfire light. You will feel the hush before the Mothman appears over a doomed bridge. You will hear the Jersey Devil breathing between the pines as its tracks circle back on themselves. You will follow the blood trail of the Beast of Bladenboro until your lantern catches eyes that do not blink. You will stand at a rusted guardrail where the Maryland Goatman waits, axe raised in every retelling. And you will watch the Fresno Nightcrawlers glide across a backyard... wrong in all the ways that make you look twice.
Each creature arrives with rumors, habits, and regional signs. Some are perfect for a one-shot scare, while others can anchor a full campaign of investigation and horror. Whether your adventurers are cryptid hunters, scholars, or simple travelers drawn toward the strange, the Cryptid Codex brings fresh life to the monsters that haunt North American folklore.
Simple to Run, Haunting to Play
The book’s design is built for Game Masters. Each entry reads like a case file, with clear regional clues, variants, and adventure seeds that drop seamlessly into any world. Use a single page to create a night’s encounter, or weave several entries together for a longer investigation that drags your party from tavern gossip to cold fields and fogged glass. If you like your monsters to feel found rather than invented, this is the bestiary you’ve been waiting for.
Explore the Project
P.T. LaMarck’s Cryptid Codex on Kickstarter is live now. Watch the video, preview sample pages, and see what’s inside the notebook for yourself. Early backers can claim special rewards, and a downloadable preview of the book is available directly on the campaign page.
Step into the dark, follow the trail, and see what folklore looks like when it finally looks back.
