The Ghost and the Golem

Choice of Games LLC

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this game

Can your magic amulet save your Jewish village from destruction? Uncover the truth and forge alliances with soldiers, peasants, bandits, anarchists, and demons!

"The Ghost and the Golem" is an interactive historical fantasy novel by Benjamin Rosenbaum. It's entirely text-based, 450,000 words and hundreds of choices, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

Nebula Award Finalist for Best Game Writing in the 60th Annual Nebula Awards!

The year is 1881. Life in your village on the border of Poland and Ukraine is sweet as raisin pastries and bitter as horseradish. Matchmakers arrange marriages and klezmer musicians play at the weddings; friends reconcile after feuds and gossip about their neighbors; people pray in the little synagogue and study holy texts. But it is a tense time in the Russian empire, with antisemitic riots spreading across the land.

And inside your pocket is a magic amulet, revealing visions of the future, omens of your village in flames. When you hold it, you can see the blood and the bodies, smell the gunshots, and hear the marching songs. (Is that Russian? Or Ukrainian? You hear shouting in Polish.)

How could this future come to pass, and how will you stop it?

You'll need allies. Can you sway the local Christian peasants or the Czarist garrison to protect your village from harm? What about the bandits and anarchists lurking in the wild forest? When a demonic sheyd offers you a bargain, what will you do to save the ones you love?

Or, there may be another answer. One of your closest friends has built a golem, a hulking clay creature stronger than a dozen soldiers, waiting to be animated with a forbidden power, a secret name. Will you breathe life into the golem? If you do, will it help to defend your village, or help to destroy it?

Or perhaps the amulet's previous owner can help you. He was exiled from the academy for studying forbidden texts—for delving into mysteries he was far too young and unstable to understand, and now he's missing. Can you find him? Can you harness the powers he unleashed? Does he know a secret name?

• Nebula Award Finalist for Best Game Writing in the 60th Annual Nebula Awards
• Play as male, female, or nonbinary; cis or trans; intersex or not; gay, straight, bi, or asexual.
• Accept an arranged marriage and make your Mamma happy—and maybe yourself, too! Or find love on your own terms with a childhood friend or an anarchist musician.
• Delve into the secrets of the Unseen World to tangle with ghosts, dybbuks, prophetic visions, and a golem—or even ascend to a mystical plane to discover the greatest secrets of the universe!
• Hold fast to the traditions of your people’s past, or chase modern new ideas.
• Pursue your love of music and get a standing ovation onstage—or be pelted with potatoes as you fail miserably.
• Stand up to antisemitic agitators, angry peasants, Czarist soldiers, and hostile bandits to defend your village—or face defeat and flee in the wake of violence.
• Succumb to demonic influence, fend it off with faith or Enlightenment skepticism, or help those spirits find their path to the gates of repentance.

Can you find peace for your people—and your heart?

Ratings and reviews

I usually don't leave reviews but I'm hoping this helps this issue get noticed sooner. So I'm playing the game and I enjoy it. I close the app on my phone then any time I go back to try and play it constantly brings me back to the beginning. I don't know what's causing it but it makes me not want to play it if my data keeps resetting.

I loved the writing of this IF, but the ending was kind of a major let down. The characters were very memorable, personalization for the MC was super immersive, and the pacing was easy to follow. But as soon as you get to the pogrom, it's all down hill. It was like my choices and the secrets I uncovered amounted to nothing, AND THEN it's revealed the sweet RO Moysheh just dipped and saved his own hide and money, and you're actually expected to STILL MARRY HIM after that reveal was disgusting.

I am enjoying the story a lot, but there is one big issue I'm noticing, and I'm hoping it can be addressed soon. Every time I leave the app, or let it sit for too long, it reloads and puts me back at the beginning of the story, erasing all my progress. That makes it really hard to enjoy the story when you have to restart constantly.

What’s new

Several continuity fixes and one new Achievement. If you enjoy "The Ghost and the Golem", please leave us a written review. It really helps!