GM: Matt Steele
Players: Basil Benitz, Minion Matzen, Kira Sizemore, Sean Nittner, Kavita Singh
System: Old Gods of Appalachia (Cypher System)
Hands down, best game of the con. I swear Old Gods of Appalachia was created as a love letter to Matt! He’s been running horror games as long as I’ve known him (and longer) and I feel like this particular game, which is full of folk horror and lost stories is 100% his vibe realized into a standalone game. It even had a scarry rabbit (see https://www.thegreatrabbit.com/ to find out more about Matt, the Great Rabbit). Perfect.
Game Description:
Going to the funeral of a childhood friend’s never an easy thing, but when it’s the funeral of someone you accidentally killed and then brought back to life years ago, well . . . you all have owes, and this one’s about to come due. A horror adventure set in a small town full of memories, ghosts, and promises unpaid.
Gameplay Experience:
Because this is a published adventure for a a new game I don’t want to give away spoilers about the end, but I’m going to go into a lot of detail about the beginning because I think that’s where the magic happened.
We chose characters who were all in their 30s but once we had selected the adult versions of of our characters the game started with a flashback to our 8-10 year old selves meeting in a tiny down called Dismal over the summer. We had all been brought to Dismal by family who were going to work or relax or do other adult thing there, and we were just left to our own devices.
Because we didn’t know anyone else, the six of us became friends, specifically friends who gathered in a hollow between trees that we called our own. It had shade and a lookout and very cool stone in the center of it that looked a little bit like a rabbit.
One by one, we were all gathered, formed friendships, and made the little hollow our space place only for us…until it wasn’t!
Flashing forward 20 years, all of our characters came together once more to mourn the death of a friend whose funeral we couldn’t quite remember…and that’s where the adventure began.
What Rocked:
- I mean, just everyone at the table. So invested in each other and in learning about the world. Kira, in particular, playing a central character with a secret did such a good job of making these little kids (and latter big kids) into a family.
- Matt always runs amazing horror games, but this one was particular tuned to my taste. It was less horror and more inventible tragedy. We weren’t shocked as much as we were so deeply saddened by things we could not control. He’s a great GM and this was one of his best!
- The world that we discovered unfolded in a beautiful way. I loved learning tiny bits of folk magic, information about the Green and the Inner Dark, but in subtle folk magic ways. Felt very True Detective Season 1, but we were all just normal people. Mostly.
- I got to form so many relationships that were anchored in shared experience in this game. I think the time we spent as kids made all the difference. It gave us touchstones for the rest of the game. Things to fall back on and bring us together.
- One thing I love about the Cypher system core mechanic is that when complications are offered they not only add a cool twist to the game, but they also mechanically award the player who is suffering the complication and another player of their choice. Feels like a fun mix of Compels from Fate Core and Fan Mail form PrimeTime Adventures.
- Cyphers (the items, not the system) were fun little one use magic items that had pretty wildly varying effects. It was always cool when they were used!
What could have improved:
- I’m not particular sold on the Cypher system’s core mechanic. The degrees of success and methods of easing them feel overly complicated for their results. The amount of time trying to figure out how to reduce the difficulty of a roll, how many resources to spend, and how to recover them, didn’t feel like it served to either a) make our characters feel particularly skilled or b) to ratchet up the tension. I like tough decisions in games but d20 has no curve, so everything is a matter of making 15% increments one way or the other, which still ends up feeling very arbitrary after the dice hit the table.
Love this game. Best of the con. Highly recommend!
