You’ve spent hours building the perfect gothic estate in Ravenwood. Your Sim finally kicked the bucket—maybe by a murder of crows or just old age—and you’re ready to dive into the deep, spooky mechanics of the The Sims 4: Life & Death expansion. Then you see it: a goal to attend an Afterlife Anonymous meeting.
It sounds easy. It’s basically just a support group for the deceased, right? But then you check the calendar. Nothing. You head to the ruins in Mourningvale. Empty.
Honestly, it's one of the most frustrating "is my game broken?" moments in the new pack. If you're looking for a mod named Afterlife Anonymous, you won't find one. It's an official in-game event, but it's notorious for being finicky.
What Afterlife Anonymous Actually Is
Basically, Afterlife Anonymous is a recurring meetup introduced in the Life & Death expansion pack. It’s not a rabbit hole where your Sim disappears for three hours. It’s a live event that happens in the Mourningvale neighborhood of Ravenwood.
Think of it as a support group where ghosts sit around, possess things, and talk about their "unfinished business." It’s a huge deal for the Soul’s Journey mechanic. If your Sim is a ghost and they want to eventually be reborn with that sweet Burning Soul trait, they usually need to hit up these meetings to progress.
Living Sims can go too! If you have the Chased by Death trait or you’ve recently witnessed a death, your living Sim might get a bucket list goal to attend. It's a way for them to cope with their mortality or just hang out with the local spirits.
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Finding the Meeting (The Schedule is Weird)
The biggest reason people think they need a mod for this is that the event is strangely elusive. It doesn't always show up on the main calendar like a holiday would. You have to be in the right place at the right time, or you'll just be standing in a lonely forest.
The meetings generally happen in the ruins of Ravenwood’s Mourningvale. You’ll want to look for the area near the Baleful Bog.
According to the game files and player reports, the schedule usually follows this rhythm:
- Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
- Tuesday and Thursday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
If you show up at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday and the ruins are empty, don't panic. Sometimes the NPCs take a few minutes to spawn, or the game engine is struggling to pull the ghosts from the "hidden" households.
Why Your Meeting Might Be Glitched
Sometimes it is actually a mod issue, even though the event itself is base-expansion content.
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If you use heavy script mods—think MC Command Center or UI Cheats—they can sometimes conflict with how festivals and events spawn in Ravenwood. I’ve seen cases where players had to delete their localthumbcache.package file just to get the NPCs to show up.
There’s also a known bug where if you have too many "homeless" ghosts in your save, the game hits a cap and won't spawn the specific ghosts needed for the Afterlife Anonymous meeting. You might need to go into Manage Households and prune some of those random ghosts that the game generates every time someone dies.
The "Soul's Journey" Connection
You aren't just going there for the vibes. Attending these meetings unlocks specific interactions.
- Write the Perfect Goal: This is a high-level bucket list interaction.
- Ghost Mastery: Being around other ghosts helps you gain experience points for your ghost powers.
- Tarot Cards: Sometimes, you need to talk to ghosts at these meetings to complete your Tarot collection.
Afterlife Anonymous vs. The "Simulated Endings" Mod
There is a bit of confusion in the community between this official event and the Simulated Endings mod by adeepindigo.
The mod is incredible for realism—it adds five stages of grief, funerals that actually work (unlike the sometimes buggy base game ones), and bereavement leave. If you feel like the official Life & Death pack is a bit too "cartoonish," this mod is what you’re looking for. It overrides the basic "sad" moodlets with actual psychological stages like Denial and Bargaining.
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But if your goal is strictly to finish the Soul’s Journey and get reborn, you have to stick to the official Afterlife Anonymous event in Mourningvale.
How to Force the Event to Work
If you’re staring at an empty lot in Mourningvale during the scheduled time, try these steps.
First, travel to a different neighborhood (like Crow's Crossing) and then travel back to the ruins. This "refreshes" the zone. Second, check if there's a festival active. If the Thinned Festiveil is happening, it might override the smaller AA meeting.
Lastly, if you're a ghost and the meeting just won't happen, you can sometimes cheat the requirement. But honestly, the "intended" way is much more satisfying for the story. You get to see the Grim Reaper wandering around, and there’s something weirdly touching about a bunch of ghosts complaining about being dead while sitting on mossy stone benches.
Actionable Next Steps
To make sure your next Afterlife Anonymous session actually works, do this:
- Clear your cache: Delete the
localthumbcache.packagein yourDocuments/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4folder. - Check the clock: Make sure you arrive exactly at 6 p.m. on a Monday or Friday.
- Empty the "Other Households" tab: Use Manage Households to delete or "heart" excess ghosts so the game can spawn the meeting NPCs properly.
- Use the Podium: Once you're there, look for the podium. Interacting with it often triggers the "Share Grievances" interaction which is key for your Sim’s progress.
The Afterlife Anonymous meeting is a core part of mastering the Life & Death mechanics, especially if you're playing a "Legacy" style game where you want your founder to return as a powerful reborn infant. Just remember: it's a neighborhood event, not a calendar holiday. Keep an eye on the clock in Mourningvale, and you'll eventually find your spirit squad.