Encounter Anecdote
Dispatch logged it as “minor electrical faults.” Then the vending machines started throwing cans like grenades. Every screen in the lab filled with static at once, and something small laughed from inside the ceiling. When we finally caught one, three more crawled out of the coffee maker.
Taxonomies
Threat Level: Low (individual), Moderate–High (swarm)
Biome: Urban Interiors, Workshops, Vehicles, Ship Holds, Power Plants, Anywhere with Tools or Tech
Intelligence Level: Animal (Clever/Problem-Solving)
Power Category: Supernatural
Origin: Interdimensional/Pop-Cultural Entity
Physical Form: Small Humanoid
Behavioral Disposition: Mischievous, Destructive, Nocturnal
Environmental Interaction: Sabotage, Tool Use, Rapid Reproduction, Electrical Interference
Social Structure: Swarm/Pack
Narrative Role: Comic Chaos, Escalating Hazard, Resource Drain, Chase Encounter
Physical Description
Gremlins are knee-high, big-eared creatures with rubbery green skin, wide mouths full of needle teeth, and eyes that shine with impish delight. Their limbs are wiry but strong, tipped with clever, grasping fingers perfect for pulling wires or unscrewing bolts. When excited, they chatter and cackle like broken radios. Individually they look almost pathetic—until there are twenty of them.
Overview
Popularized in modern fantasy-comedy horror—most famously the creatures from Gremlins—gremlins are chaos embodied. They aren’t dedicated killers; they’re compulsive saboteurs. They break lights, cut brakes, jam doors, swap labels, and generally ruin anything that requires precision or safety.
A single gremlin is more nuisance than threat. The danger lies in multiplication. Given food, water, or unattended clutter, they reproduce quickly and spread like vermin. Systems fail, vehicles crash, and carefully laid plans unravel. In play, gremlins turn stable environments into slapstick disaster zones where the party fights the setting as much as the creatures.
In grounded or low-supernatural games, gremlins can be reframed as invasive pests, rogue nanite clusters, or small bioengineered critters with a taste for insulation and circuitry.
Encounter Frequency and Usage
Common, especially near settlements, warehouses, or dimensional crossings.
Use gremlins to create escalating problems rather than straight combat. Start with flickering lights or missing tools, then sabotage vehicles, then a swarm overrunning the scene. Perfect for chase sequences, containment missions, or “protect the objective” scenarios. In Altered Dimensions, Compendium Agents frequently treat outbreaks like pest control operations—trap, isolate, and sterilize before the infestation snowballs.
OpenD6 Stat Block
Attributes:
Strength: 1D
Dexterity: 3D
Intelligence: 2D
Perception: 3D
Wits: 2D
Presence: 1D
Skills:
Stealth 4D
Mechanics/Sabotage 4D
Climbing 4D
Special Abilities:
Saboteur: +1D when damaging or disabling devices or machinery.
Swarm Tactics: Gain +1D to attacks for every 3 additional gremlins assisting (max +3D).
Rapid Reproduction: If food/water/clutter available, numbers may double between scenes (GM discretion).
Small and Skittering: Hard to hit; attackers suffer −1D in cramped or cluttered spaces.
Light Sensitivity: Bright light or loud noise causes them to scatter (temporary penalty).
Typical Gear: Stolen tools, wires, sharp scrap
Basic Fantasy Stat Block
Armor Class: 13
Hit Dice: 1 (4 hp each)
Move: 30 ft., climb 30 ft.
Attacks: Claws or bite (1d4)
Special: Surprise on 1–4 in clutter; +1 attack bonus when 3+ attack same target; may disable machinery or traps automatically if left unattended; flee bright light or fire
Morale: 7 (bold in groups, cowardly alone)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 10 each (treat groups as hazard encounters)
Design Note:
Gremlins fill the “low-threat swarm nuisance” niche—less about lethality and more about cascading complications. One is a joke. Twenty is a catastrophe.
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