The Death of Old Fred
A downloadable One Page Adventure
Old Fred is dead... or is he? Help a local hedge witch with her predicament, explore Old Fred's house, and investigate why Fred is still sitting up and smoking in his armchair by the fire when he was dead just a few hours ago.
The Death of Old Fred is an investigative one page adventure compatible with the Basic/Expert ruleset of the original fantasy game, or with any compatible retroclones or OSR games. Perfect for a one-shot, or to drop into any remote village in your campaign!
This content is free to download. If you like the adventures I make, please follow me on itch for more free content for OSR games, and check out my twitter (@ShirtlessGoblin) for sneak peeks, illustrations, and additional content.
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Dear Goblins Don't Wear Shirts
My name's Liang Jun. I love The Death of Old Fred, I am a Chinese OSE player and the Chinese publisher of OSE.
In fact, my friends and I have liked you for a long time, and my favorite is Goblin with a Ray Gun.
Regarding The Death of Old Fred, I have acquired your creative ideas from a friend. I have some different ideas to explain this adventure and would like to communicate with you and get your reply.
Old Fred was a wizard in his youth, and since he gave up adventuring, he has gotten married, had children, and lived peacefully with his children. He was very close to his children, and during their childhood Fred used to play a game of hide-and-seek-presents with them, each time hiding a gift near the pool in his backyard.
As his children grow older and Fred ages, the children leave the house to go on adventures and Old Fred lives in the house by himself, missing his children terribly.
Recently, he developed a form of geriatric amnesia, a condition that causes his memory to fade. He will first forget recent events and then gradually lose memories of more distant periods.
Fred has forgotten that his children have grown up and left home, and he thinks they are "missing".
But Fred's amnesia hasn't made him forget the magic he learned when he was young.
So he decides to summon the demon and make a deal with it at the cost of his own body. "I want my children home safe and sound."
Fred knew the demon was scheming, so he hid the magic wand to banish the demon in the sink ahead of time.
It turned out that the demon took Fred's body, but the demon also fulfilled the contract in a way - the players are Fred's children.
This also makes it plausible that "the player won't destroy Fred's body".
I wonder what you think of my idea? Looking forward to your reply! As well, I look forward to the opportunity for us to work together in the future!
Hello, and thank you for your kind words! I think that would make for a wonderful set-up for the adventure, though it may say something interesting about Fred’s life if the player characters are a halfling, an elf, and a half-orc ;)
This certainly would give the players a reason to help Fred out, and perhaps Alice could be omitted, or maybe she’s another sibling, or a neighbour of Fred’s who looked after him as he got older. Your idea id very whimsical and I could see it fitting in very nicely in a fairytale-like game such as Gavin Norman’s upcoming Dolmenwood setting. If Fred was indeed a wizard I think you could also hide his spellbook somewhere in the cottage, a gift for any of his children who would want to follow in his footsteps.
Thank you for your message, and for playing!