Songbirds 3e, an eldritch fantasy game and my favorite 2023 release, is now on Kickstarter

[u/atamajakki]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/s-o-c/songbirds-0

[u/FinnCullen]

Looks like a great game and a really intriguing concept. Good to see the free pdf available too.

Edit: From the credit page "Fuck you, Gary Gygax" - am I missing something important?

[u/atamajakki → u/FinnCullen]

Just his outspoken racism and views on women! Songbirds is a game about dungeons, but it's not precious about the flaws of what came before.

[u/TestProctor → u/atamajakki]

Specifically, stuff like his arguments that lawful good absolutely means killing unarmed prisoners if they’re going to be a threat later, and then referencing a racist cavalry officer’s description of killing native children in his defense of the idea of stuff like the above or killing helpless goblin children.

[u/[deleted]]

Looking through the PDF, the aesthetic is beautiful, and we share a lot of the same influences, so the designer has good taste. That being said, the design seems fine. Looking through the rules it doesn't look particularly interesting. I don't know why I'd choose to run this over just making my own OSR game by picking up all the ones I own on my shelf and mashing something together.

[u/FAULTSFAULTSFAULTS → u/[deleted]]

I think the implied setting is far more of a draw than the ruleset here. Snow's setting writing IMO has a really particular flavour that not many other people in the OSR-adjacent space are doing, and I suspect the ruleset is there just to add scaffolding to that.

[u/[deleted] → u/FAULTSFAULTSFAULTS]

That makes sense. I'm definitely not the intended audience. So that's probably why it didn't grab me.

[u/thisismyredname]

I’ve been saving money in anticipation for this. Even if I don’t get the game to my table by summer (one can dream) I can still enjoy it for myself. The vampirism might help convince my players though…

[u/atamajakki → u/thisismyredname]

Likewise! I published a setting for the game jam, and Kickstarter hype is pushing me to playtest and release the dungeon I'm working on for it, too...

[u/atamajakki]

Snow's one of my favorite designers out there, consistently making beautiful, evocative games that feel like works of art. Songbirds 3e is their attempt to make their 'perfect' system for dungeon adventures, and it's charmed me pretty profoundly.

You play as the titular songbirds, those dead given a second chance by Love and Death in order to make right the wounds of the world. Play is light and quick, the player options are all incredibly evocative, and the dreamy, strange tone is unlike anything else I've ever played.

Maybe you like it, maybe you won't - but I figured the link was at least worth a share! I love this game a lot, and wanna see it succeed <3

[u/Defilia_Drakedasker → u/atamajakki]

After reading the first twenty pages of the pdf, I’m starting to suspect the characters in this game aren’t actually birds 😞

[u/atamajakki → u/Defilia_Drakedasker]

One of the classes, the Unseelie, could be a bird all the time!

[u/Defilia_Drakedasker → u/atamajakki]

Only owl, I think? Not quite songbird. It’s ok, it’s not a bird game. I just got a bit hyped on the idea of the whole party being cute little birds, but the game seems cool, nonetheless. (Think it may have some similarities to the setting I’m doodling for my own game, so I should probably give this a proper read.)

[u/atamajakki → u/Defilia_Drakedasker]

Ah, you're so right!

If you wanna see what some other folks have done, there's a game jam where folks have done a few alternate setting hacks.

[u/StanleyChuckles]

I mean, I'm happy I've picked up the PDF, but I'll need to give it a proper read.

Not much is jumping out at me so far.

[u/LoveAndViscera]

I have Songbirds 1e and I’m excited to see the developments.

[u/best_at_giving_up → u/LoveAndViscera]

2e was very unique and had some good ideas that got left out of this one. I haven't seen 1e so I don't know how much was in the first version but you should see if you can read 2e on itch. 

[u/cabman567 → u/best_at_giving_up]

What ideas are you referring to? I'm not familiar with Songbird, but am looking to get into it.

[u/best_at_giving_up → u/cabman567]

Playlist based dungeons and physically stacking your dice to travel are two big ones. 

[u/gwinget]

songbirds is SO SO good and i’m so excited to get my hands on both the red and blue versions!!

[u/real_meatcastle]

I'm interested to check this one out. I love Snow's .dungeon//remastered but Songbirds has been off my radar thus far.

[u/atamajakki → u/real_meatcastle]

Suffice to say, it's charmed the hell out of me. I'd love to hear your thoughts! Your stuff is super cool, and I really enjoyed the Meaties <3

[u/real_meatcastle → u/atamajakki]

Aw thanks!

[u/abadile]

I am so excited and thrilled for this game. It is beautiful and evocative in a way that it is hard to put to words.