SONGBIRDS 3E
Snow kills love and puts death to sleep
Today’s review is about a totally bittersweet TTRPG called SONGBIRDS 3E. You may want to snag a copy to follow along! It’s PWYW at the moment, a price fit for all budgets.
As I write this, there’s an itch jam running for this game. Snow says she’s going to extend the deadline until the end of the year, so if you’re a slow-burning designer, this might be a great jam for you.
The Tenacious Dreamer
Today, we’re getting back to basics: I have LITERALLY NO IDEA what is going on with SONGBIRDS. To understand this strange, mystifying beauty of a game that keeps drawing its creator back to it, we’ll need some context. Let’s talk a little bit about the designer.
Snow has made a lot of games. Like, a lot, a lot. I bet you recognize at least one: .DUNGEON, LILANCHOLY, MY BODY IS A CAGE, THE WIZARD & THE WASTES, IRON & LIES… the list goes on and on. Her itch page is a wonderful place where OSR and lyric games play footsies and systems are heaped on top of adventures. There’s a real legacy behind SONGBIRDS. Perhaps that’s why it reads like a gorgeous fever dream of a game I don’t want to wake up from. Oh, and before we dive into the interview, can we take a peek at this incredible cover? Look at what Charlotte drew:
Little Talks
Q) First off, this is the first time I've seen a project that used Clayton Notestine's design template in the wild without immediately recognizing the thumbprint. You have done an exceptional job of using this tool as a launchpad to express your own style. It's a gorgeous bit of work. The only thing that tipped me off was the extensive use of side-margins, which you really exploited to their maximum potential. The numbered chapter headings come to mind: big, bold numbers, lines to draw the reader down, and brief, brightly-coloured margin notes that illuminate the page. It's surprisingly easy to find the information I'm looking for in this massive tome. Can you tell me a little more about the visual clues you've sprinkled throughout SONGBIRDS to help the reader navigate?
SNOW: When I started with Clayton's template, I laid out the entirety of the text just following the guides/pages he provided there, just wanting to get the text down. And I knew after I had the text down I'd go back and "make it pretty." When I got to that point, my main concern was about not cluttering the page. I had ideas about putting certain information together, but beyond that I was purely focused on keeping pages clean. There's a few uses of two-column-pages, but I limited them specifically to keep the single column feel. I think the best way to describe it, and it kinda worked out like that thanks to the writing, was that I wanted there to be a rhythm. A lot of other layout projects I've done keep the same page layout the entire time, and I think Clayton's template showed me the fact that a single book can have several different ways to layout pages, while still keeping it all together. Which is maybe obvious to other layout people, but I'm not traditionally trained and am very much a visual learner. And I think after I figured out that first chapter spread, I was able to keep the text-size/number-size the same throughout and create my own hierarchy of information that I could then play with in the individual sections. That first spread also gave me the lines, which I was able to carry through and the color. Which I think also helped me develop my own language for the layout of the projects. So it basically revolved around figuring out that first chapter spread, then playing with only those tools moving forward to allow myself the freedom while also keeping things unified.
Q) Oh, that leads really nicely into my second question, thank you! In my copy of the PDF, you've used an extremely limited palette: a deep lilac, pure white, and rich black. You've also used super crisp, simple vector art to it's maximum potential. The overall aesthetic is this clean, graphic look that leaves an impression and really gives the eye a reason to linger on each page. The cover art is visually consistent, except it adds a splash of red that (as yet) does not appear elsewhere in the book. I'm curious to know if you started with that hypnotic blue-violet or if you selected it from the artwork? Also, how do you feel the palette helps to develop the overall aesthetic of the game? Surely there's a tie-in with the "blue dreams of the moon" lore you've woven so artfully throughout…
SNOW: Here's what I came up with first for the chapter titles, when I first started breaking away from Clayton's template, before landing on what is there now.
The palette actually came from the trans flag. The first songbirds was mostly black and white. But the second was all pink all the time. So I remember thinking to myself "this one's gotta be blue." And to choose the correct blue I went through a couple different CMYK blues just trying to find one that was dark enough that it wouldn't be hard on the highs, but light enough to still read as blue. It ended up just being the default CMYK blue that really fit. When I hit Char up to do the cover I just told her, like, "use this blue and that's all that matters." And I was in a call with her while she was drawing and when she was about done and we were getting hyped I just was like, "yo, you should make the guts red" and she found the perfect red and I think it really pulled the whole thing together. There were times where I almost went with pink again, just to try and stand out more, but it was the idea of the Blue Moon that pulled me back to blue. Ultimately I think it really helps tie the whole thing together in a way pink wouldn't have. The blue keeps it a bit melancholic.
Q) While we're talking about colour, can we talk about THE SILVER RULE and THE DUNGEON BLUES? I know we're breaking away from visual design to talk about game design, but I just thought this was so interesting and clever. You have rules in this game that kick the fourth wall down. A lot of designers shy away from mechanizing the divide between player and character. Can you tell me a little about how the silver rule interacts with the theme of the game and the people who play it?
SNOW: This might sound crazy, but the concept of the silver rule actually comes from early editions of D&D, which I learned about thanks to Matt Colville and Ben Milton (of Questing Beast) and their different YouTube videos. In the original editions of D&D, there are these spread around rules that mention time passing between sessions, and the default assumption was that you'd return to town between sessions so you wouldn't camp in the dungeon because it's dangerous. I remember talking to Chris Bissette about that a long while ago and it just sorta hit me. The idea that going into the dungeon and ending the session there should and could warp things.
It's one of those rules that I think people might house-rule out of their home games, or might ignore totally, but I think it's a neat thing to think about. Pairing it with the dungeon blues was me channeling Made in Abyss and its sickness that's tied to its mega-dungeon. I think it's one of those things that I think will need some tinkering, and will become more of A Thing as I introduce these newer rules I'm working on, including reworked travel rules, darkness rules, and reworked stats for the spirits.
Moonstruck Glory
So by now you all know how I react to games with really strong visual language. I flipped through the book, got very excited, and then deep fried my brain with dopamine. So here’s my confession: I have owned SONGBIRDS for weeks now and I’m still not entirely sure what it’s actually about. So you and I are about to go lore-diving. Buckle up.
I know this game takes place in a world where there were at least two gods— Love and Death. Love is dead, and Death is taking a depression-nap in the moon. Yet life goes on… and on, and on. Things that should be dead are constantly rising up and wreaking hell. In fact, your character should be dead. You’re not a wandering murderous spirit, though. No! Why? Because Love died, but Death is asleep, so sometimes Love gets to do weird undead stuff too, and one of those weird things is picking favourites. Love chose YOU to sing their sad little song. Now you’re a third wheel in a dark romance that gives you the power to lay the dead to rest.
See what I mean? That’s beautiful! That’s bizarre! It’s delicious! I don’t know what to do with it!
That’s not a criticism. It’s just that this book does not sacrifice flavour for simplicity. Snow treats her readers like adults and expects them to keep up. And while we’re on the subject, this is a pretty adult book. It feels like more of a grown-up experience than R-rated, but there are references to sex and drugs. I should note that there’s actually an orgy table on pg 68 but it focuses more on the social dynamics of parties than anything especially explicit.
A Lived-In World
SONGBIRDS feels like a game where the players have a chance to do big, important, and interesting things in a place that would absolutely plunge into chaos without intervention. It basically spoon feeds you a world rife with conflict while promising you have the power to make things better.
How does it do this? I swear to all that is holy, every single spread in this book has a tasty little lore-nugget buried amongst the rules. Every time I find one, I go on a little journey in my head. Like, check out this bit of character creation that got me all twisted up:
Languages: Everyone can speak common, also known as “the Queen’s Tongue,” and their own, local language. If your Lore is 3 or higher you get another language. Some cool ones include: French, Valley Song, or Communist.
Okay those last three are very interesting, but can we hyperfocus on “the Queen’s Tongue” for a hot second? This place has a monarchy? This place has a ruling queen? And I’m finding out about it super casually during character creation? NEAT.
There’s a trinket chart. Entry 59 is “a diary in the Queen’s Language,” which doesn’t tell us much more. I keep running into references to something called the LEGION which sounds scary, but I’m not positive it’s the Queen’s faction or an opposing one. There’s also an EMPIRE that kidnaps children? Just keep flipping to find this gem tucked into Chapter 7: SPIRITS
FIST OF GOD: A heinous force for the League of Nations. Denoted by the large cross they carry and plant whenever they are to begin “judgment.” The Fist of God is a group of twenty soldiers sent by the Queen on her most dangerous of quests. Razing settlements, gathering prisoners of war, and performing executions on the Queen’s biggest detractors.
WOAH. Okay, big vibes here. The Queen is a BBEG and the League Of Nations is her nasty crew. The LEGIONNAIRE entry in the spirits codex also reassures me that Legion is another name for the League of Nations, and the PSYCHONAUTS entry informs me that the Empire is another name for the same thing, again. The Queen also has BLACK KNIGHTS, SPIONERA and WAR MACHINES, but I digress… the GOONS entry is pretty frank about what’s going on, here. The League of Nations is definitely a fascist regime. That gives a little context to all those plot hooks about the Legion I’ve seen sprinkled elsewhere in the book.
I can actually learn a lot about the conflict running through this world via the SPIRITS entries. I find the Legion trying to stamp out resistance among the people, but also waging a war against nature. HUSKS are literally described as being machines that were once “used by the League to destroy huge swaths of land” but they’re now wandering around, aimless and headless.
There are spirits who work for the legion. BLACK KNIGHTS use bio-weapons to murder their way through unruly villages and then raise the dead as a zombie militia. So if you won’t serve the Legion, they’ll kill you and make you a slave to the cause in your afterlife.
There are spirits who work against the legion, too— MANTICORES are spirits of those who died unjust deaths, and they get +1 damage against the LEGION.
Perhaps most interesting is the overarching sense that there are layers and layers of bigger things in this game. Yes, there are gods like Love and Death, nut there are also pages upon pages weaving tales about Vulfe and Inari (the bloody wolf and the white fox, who may or may not be the same thing as Mars and Chronos,) lesser deities and their passions/struggles. Here and there we find tidbits about those who came before us and had their own stories to tell:
ECOS: The precursor species that inhabited the planet before humans. Tall, monochromatic humanoids with elongated forearms, and holographic eyes (like a cat’s eyes in the night). They created and left behind eco tech, a magi-tech powered by a unique liquid energy that has led to the industrialization and advances of human society…
… and wolves came before them, recognized in their SPIRITS entry as speaking the ancient tongue and knowing truths they will not speak of.
Oh, so when it says there was a war against Eco, they mean it really literally. The Queen is out to destroy everyone and everything that doesn’t serve her. She doesn’t flinch at the thought of wiping out entire populations because genocide is a tool her regime has already employed.
What’s my big takeaway here? SONGBIRDS is a strangely modern eldritch fantasy, where you might run into an old coworker in the produce aisle or two days before you have to lay their soul to rest under the cold blue moon. It all goes down in a world not unlike ours, big on cyclical stories retold in different ways by different people, with overarching themes about lovers who become enemies, tyrannical possession and the unhealthy need to control everything we touch.
Physical Copies
Snow is currently crowdfunding two print runs of SONGBIRDS: a blue and a red edition, each one with slightly different content. Check out the campaign on kickstarter
THANKS!
SONGBIRDS has big sad trans magical girl vibes and it makes my heart ache to think about for too long, so here’s some fanart:
Snow, you were such a joy to speak with and I just love watching SONGBIRDS spread its wings and prepare to take flight once more. Thank you so much for your thoughtful, considerate answers and for continuing to make games that confuse and delight me.
I feel like a changed man after all that. I know this is our second Tuesday update in a row, but hold on! We’re trying to catch up a little bit for the weeks I’ve missed.
Always yours but perpetually confused,
Justin
What a cool review! I love getting a look at how a creator makes their choices. Definitely going to take a look at this.