© Daniel S. Wall, May 2, 2026.

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“You can’t kill a ghost, boy, but you can listen. He might have something to tell you.”

– Old Mack

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       A Ghost is a powerful Undead creature. Its existence is always due to some unfinished business in this life, a fact which normally provides the key to its destruction, or even its path the peace. Ghosts retain much of the personality of their former selves, but they take on a sort of pathos which may run counter to their essential character. While retaining the values of their former life, the purpose for which the ghost continues may override other concerns, even to the extent of contradicting its normal behavior in life.

The GM must determine for every ghost a specific means by which it may be find peace and a specific means by which it may be destroyed. These are both determined by the plot line which the ghost serves. Should a party appear to slay a ghost without meeting either condition, it will materialize again at its own convenience in another game session

Ghosts are often tied to a particular location, or to a particular person, materializing only in the place in question or in the vicinity of the person to be haunted. A Ghost may otherwise come and go at will, but it takes a full round of activity to materialize or disappear. A Ghost may not cast spells or launch any sort of attack on the round in which it first materializes. As the ghost disappears only at the end of the turn after which initiates the process to do so, others may get a chance to act on it, even when the ghost seeks to leave.

Whether or not any given death results in the creation of a Ghost is entirely at the discretion of the GM, but it is an exceedingly rare event in any case. Only the most intense and dramatic stories become Ghosts.

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Example 1: A Ghost may represent the last individual of a royal lineage destroyed by a particular character from the remote past. The ghost will not rest until the character or its direct heir is slain, but it may itself be slain by the character in question, or its direct heir. The Ghost may not leave its family home (or perhaps it may not leave the general vicinity of its nemesis). The Ghost will not risk exposing itself to the one creature with the means of destroying it, so it spends its time trying to convince other living creatures that its enemy must be destroyed.

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Example 2: A Ghost swore to deliver a message to some king in a faraway land, but she was slain somewhere along the way. She materializes in the vicinity of the scroll on which the message was written. If she can talk someone into taking the scroll to its original destination, she may find peace. On the other hand, if the scroll itself is destroyed, she will herself be destroyed.