Old Gods of Appalachia Roleplaying Game — Folk horror in an alternate Appalachia

"The mountains are older than you think. And something under them is awake."

Diced20 (Cypher System)

Players1–6

Prep~30 min

Foundry VTTCommunity

Complexity

What is this system

The roleplaying game of Steve Shell and Cam Collins's horror anthology podcast Old Gods of Appalachia. It is published by Monte Cook Games under licence from DeepNerd Media, with Shanna Germain as lead designer; it grew out of a 2022 Kickstarter and came out in 2023. It is a standalone Cypher System game: your character is a single sentence, the only roll is a d20, and every power — a granny's charm or a witch's token — eventually asks for its price.

Is it for your table?

Pick it if

you want folk horror in 1920s–30s Appalachian mining country
your group likes powers that always come with a price
you are fans of the podcast or Cypher System's light d20 rolls

Skip it if

you want far-future wonder and exploration (see Numenera)
your players dislike growing dread and GM intrusions
you want heroic monster-slaying with clean victories

Setting

An alternate Appalachia of the 1920s and '30s. Miners dig ever deeper and wake the ancient Inner Dark, which whispers to the desperate and grants boons in return for service. Against it stand tight-knit communities, secrets handed down by grannies and the raw might of the land itself. Witch-ruled settlements, company towns, preachers with too much power and woods where you can be lost forever; the book surveys each state of the region and comes with a large map.

What it looks like at the table

Wise County, 1927. Your Protector scrambles down the scree toward a mine mouth breathing cold air. The GM sets difficulty 4 — you need 12 or higher. You're trained in climbing, so the difficulty drops a step. You apply Effort from your Speed Pool (3 points minus your Edge of 1, so 2) — another step. Difficulty 2, target 6. The d20 shows 9 — you're down. Then the GM offers an intrusion, with the XP that comes with it: your lantern dies and someone in the dark calls your name in your late mother's voice. You could refuse by spending XP; you take it. Worse, granny's charm has come due — it's inert until you pay the witch her price. All you have left is the herb candle that keeps you from dying while it burns.

Playstyle

Horror Mystery Narrative Historical Weird

Key mechanics

One d20 vs. difficulty

The GM sets a difficulty from 0 to 10, and the target number is three times that. Skills, useful assets and Effort each lower the difficulty by one step, so players roll a bare d20. Difficulty 0 means automatic success.

Pools, Edge & Effort

Every character has three Pools — Might, Speed and Intellect. You spend from them to apply Effort and use abilities, Edge lowers the cost, and damage comes out of the same Pools. Every choice is about what you're willing to risk.

A character in one sentence

"I am a [descriptor] [type] who [focus]." The types are Sage, Protector, Explorer and Speaker; foci include Fears No Haints and Delves the Darkness. Around forty descriptors and twenty-five foci.

Everything has a price

Cyphers are one-use folk wonders: a candle that keeps someone from dying while it burns, an apple pie that restores your strength. Artifacts can come due and go inert until you pay — in blood or a favour to a witch. And Horror Mode makes GM intrusions ever more frequent as the dark powers take notice.

What people say

This is a great game for fans of folk horror, where you'll be delving into remote settlements ruled by witches and haunted woods where you may be lost forever.— Samantha Nelson, GamesRadar+

It feels immersive and rooted.— Nathan Mainwaring, Mass Movement

Art & materials