Songbirds 3e

Songbirds 3e is an adventure game inspired by OSR and Storygame traditions. Your job is to be the canary in the coal mine, to venture into dangerous dungeons that are sprouting up across your fractured world, and find a way to seal them. To play, all you'll need is a d20 and a d10, the book has the rest.

These are the systems (both TTRPGs and video games) that have inspired my understanding of dungeon crawlers and adventure games. You'll find their DNA and workings within.

• Into the Odd, McDowall
• Wonder & Wickedness, Strejcek
• Whitehack, Mehrstam
• kill puppies for satan, Baker
• Disco Elysium, ZA/UM
• Fallout New Vegas, Obsidian
• Persona 5, Atlus
• Blades in the Dark, Harper
• Red Giant, Burns

The setting of Songbirds is a sci-fantasy mix, with technology, spirits, and war. There are guns, several different types of magics, and you can even stream your adventures, if you want to open yourself to that.

Click here for my pinterest board of setting inspiration.

These are the fantasy and sci-fi worlds that inspired the setting for Songbirds.

• The fantasy of Dune, Herbert
• The sci-fi of Tower Dungeon, Nihei
• Dragon Ball, Toryiama
• Breath of the Wild, Fujibayashi
• Hyper Light Drifter, Preston
• Chainsaw Man, Fujimoto

Blerdy Disposition did an entire video essay on Songbirds 3e, touching on some of the themes of transition, life, and death~

"My current Songbirds campaign has been my longest running game in recent times, and the game is absolutely a winner" - Markus | Personable (link to full review)

"I really like how much of this is just... cool shit." - Emma Levin

"First of all, the layout fucks. This is gorgeous. Secondly, this game lives and breathes in a weird, dangerous, uncomfortable world seething with sex, drugs and violence. No death, no love, just survivors in a hollow and liminal place. "Communist" is a language. The lore is rich as butter and the rules draw from that story like a well. Frankly it's gorgeous and it makes me sad. 5 stars, I can't wait to play it." - ShoutingCrow

"Songbirds 3 is like coming home to a town you only half-remember, one that's grown sprawling and mysterious without you. [...] And god, does this game beg to be played: there are so many deftly-woven hooks, tantalizing loose ends, and sly little implications of the world beyond the page, a setting-without-a-setting that feels fresher and more exciting than anything I've read in recent memory." - gwencie (full review here!)

"Masterclass of Layout and game design." - Yuki

"All this to say: i certainly did not expect to open this book and feel confident calling it my GOTY. it's beautiful. it's elegant. i would call it art. it's charmed the pants off me[...]" - thursday garreau

"A fantastic TTRPG. It's hard to describe how Songbirds got to me, but it was a little bit of the feeling I had when I first played Disco Elysium; connecting to the art on a different, more personal level, as if it was made for me." - weglasern

"A surface look at the mechanics may lead the Reader/GM/Player to conclude that this game is a simple OSR clone. I'd challenge anyone with that drab opinion to dive further into the language being used to create this game's mechanics. It reads like a Chrono Cross between China Mievile and Final Fantasy 6. Allusions to capital L Literature as well as loose threads tying into Snow's past works flutter through this book. The disperate pieces combine into a magnificent tapestry seeking to dive headlong into the psyche and face the anxieties there by summoning Ultima herself. The best way to put it is Lesbian Science Fantasy with a *chef's kiss*." - WilderWhi

"Genuinely one of my favorite tabletop rpgs ever. Inspired me to make rpgs of my own. The new complete edition is brilliant, everything falls together so well that it's hard to imagine the game without it. Dungeon as an adjective."
- Draculaugust

"Like all of Snow's work that I've been exposed to, this is a masterpiece."

- Arcaroth

Say something nice to be featured here <3

I'm a queer neurodivergent designer in the U.S. I've been a full time game designer/writer for three years now. I've written stuff like .dungeon, My Body is a Cage, and Lilancholy. Songbirds 3e continues with my obsessions. 

Join my mailing list for future announcements: https://substack.com/@snow117