Use This Ghost To Show Off The World Of Old Gods

Convention adventures are built to highlight the cool parts of a role playing game. In theory, they are made to make the players wander over into the dealer hall and pick up the main rulebook. They have lives beyond this original purpose. They can be taken home and played with friends as a break from an ongoing campaign or as the kick off to a new one. Best Leave Them Ghosts Alone was the main convention adventure used at Gen Con 2023 and was many players’ first point of contact with Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game. Written by the head designer of the RPG Shanna Germain, Monte Cook Games sent along a review copy to check out. Did this story invoke the same kinds of shivers that the podcast does? Let’s play to find out.

Note: This review contains some spoilers for the adventure past this point. I consider Best Leave Them Ghosts Alone a great one shot or introductory adventure for Old Gods of Appalachia Role Playing Game.

Best Leave Them Ghosts Alone finds the players returning to their small town of Dismal, Pennsylvania to attend the funeral of a friend. Only the players know that this friend, Ossie, already died once before when they were kids. The kids made a deal with a strange spirit called Rabbit Rabbit to bring Ossie back to life and with their second death, they know that they have to pay the debt they owe for those borrowed years. As it happens, Rabbit Rabbit needs their help dealing with the intrigues of the magical world that winds through Appalachia. It needs the players to seek out a powerful magic user called the Mander Witch to get her to intervene against the forces of darkness encroaching upon the land. Ultimately the players decide whether to help the witch or make deals with things more powerful and deadly behind the moves made by a local coal company.

It’s easy to see the inspirations in the adventure from the generational horror of Stephen King’s IT to Old Gods’ own Cowboy Absher. Familiar doesn’t mean cliche. It’s smart to write an adventure around elements players will find familiar while dealing with an unfamiliar game. The first section is fairly exposition heavy as the players hash out what they were like as kids and how their lives changed after their brush with Rabbit Rabbit. Monte Cook Games uses an unusual advantage for anyone allergic to boxed text. They got Steve Shell, the principal voice for the podcast, to read the exposition in between asking players questions about their past. These passages can help set the scene for this game in the same way that kicking off a Star Wars game blasting the John Williams title track does.

The adventure also offers some good advice on pacing. The four hour time of a convention slot can be a bit of an illusion as games may start early or run late depending on how timely the players are. The middle section of the story is where the GM can tighten or expand the story by adjusting the encounters the players have on the road to find the Mander Witch. In a campaign, this area would be perfect for adding in scenes that foreshadow the campaign arc or deal with character’s personal XP arcs.

When I use this in my game, I’ll probably change a couple of things. Ossie’s death as written is as a random victim of a supernatural accident. I’d discuss having one of the players be responsible - or feel responsible - for their death for a little extra drama and a tug of responsibility to pay back Rabbit Rabbit. I also felt the main villain, while powerful, lacked the inhuman creepiness that makes Old Gods bad guys memorable. Neither of these things made me like the story less. They are the adjustments I would make to personalize the adventure.

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[Bayushi_seikuro]

Glad to see this. I just got back from a road trip to Harlan, KY to lay flowers at my boys' grandmother's grave, and ever since the Old Gods stories started coming out, every time I've been back there, I definitely feel how a place like that could be ripe for all that stuff.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Sounds interesting, but I can see where it might be tough to get a whole table of players to buy in to starting with such a large supernatural obligation, especially for an event taken on off-camera for an NPC they'll never actually meet while alive barring flashbacks or something. There are inevitably going to be some folks who see that as the worst kind of railroading, for better or worse. Still, there are probably plenty of suggestions on other ways to hook players into the action and pull in replacement characters if/when the "debtors" die off in the course of things, right? This is Monte Cook Games here, after all.

 

[Von Ether]

There are inevitably going to be some folks who see that as the worst kind of railroading, for better or worse.

It states it is a convention one-shot in the first sentence of the article.

Hopefully most GM will make changes before using in at the home table and most players at a convention will understand the set up is a bit in media res.

Though I did once run a convention one shot at a convention and a player wanted to know so much more about what was going on in the world and wondered why it wasn't in the game, not realizing he was asking for what was essentially a campaign.

 

[sevenbastard]

There are inevitably going to be some folks who see that as the worst kind of railroading, for better or worse

I'd like to think that if you tell players from the get go the set up they would by into it. But years of gaming have taught me otherwise.

You tell them they are playing WW2 commandos parachuting into ocupied France and someone shows up with a 90 year old wheel chair bound Chinese lady who only speaks Mandrian and is a dedicated pacifist because that's the charachter they want to play.....

 

[robowieland]

I think this is all part of the session zero discussion if you are using this as the campaign kickoff. Plenty of time for players to voice railroading concerns and the table to figure out a setup that works for everyone.

If it's a con game, well, you only have so much time to play and you are either in or you are out.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It states it is a convention one-shot in the first sentence of the article.

Granted, but while expectations are different there, well...@sevenbastard isn't wrong either. Some folks just won't play along no matter the circumstances.

That said, I'm reasonably confident MCG have thought about that, even in a one-shot.

 

[Umbran]

Sounds interesting, but I can see where it might be tough to get a whole table of players to buy in to starting with such a large supernatural obligation, especially for an event taken on off-camera for an NPC they'll never actually meet while alive barring flashbacks or something. There are inevitably going to be some folks who see that as the worst kind of railroading, for better or worse. Still, there are probably plenty of suggestions on other ways to hook players into the action and pull in replacement characters if/when the "debtors" die off in the course of things, right? This is Monte Cook Games here, after all.

This is a convention game one-shot. I would use it as a one-shot introduction for the players to the system and setting for them to get the feel of things, and then do an actual Session Zero for a campaign, with their own character generation.

 

[Umbran]

Granted, but while expectations are different there, well...@sevenbastard isn't wrong either. Some folks just won't play along no matter the circumstances.

"Some players are jerks," is not a design flaw on the part of the adventure.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

"Some players are jerks," is not a design flaw on the part of the adventure.

I didn't say it was, but they certainly do appear at con and store demo and organized play games. Unfortunately. And again, I'm confident MCG has considered ways to work around that by suggesting alternate hooks for those who won't play along.