Songbirds: First Impressions

There are some books that, when you read them, change everything for you. You stare at the work, trying to make sense of the impact that it just had on you. And then you sit with it. You twist it about in your mind, trying to make sense of what just happened in your head. 2020 was a year full of these works, thanks to the discovery of Gene Wolfe. Before that point Burning Wheel had been the first game I'd ever read to have this form of an impact on me. I've since run that game principally, drinking deep from the stories that it generated for me. I am always wanting to play it.

I did not anticipate Songbirds to be just as impactful. It's taken me aback.

I still won't run it.

I'm starting to think I'm afraid. 

When you've got Carl Jung (who I am deeply impacted by, even if I've not read much of him directly), Evangelion (a show that I initially hated but has begun to call to me in the same way a creak on the stairs at midnight heralds the return of a ghost), Coraline, Samurai Champloo, and Cowboy Bebop in your Appendix N you are going for a mood. A mood I am entirely about.

I will admit without shame that I immediately stole many ideas from this game. Characters feel Stress and begin to break down, gaining Conditions, requiring you to stop and just sit, to recover, to feel. The campaign arc is tracked on a calendar and is meant to be more episodic, being about helping a specific client or unfortunate in a series of self-contained stories. Characters have four stats: Mind, Body, Soul, and Luck, which are assigned dice (d4 through d20). You always roll opposed, with the GM choosing a dice to represent difficulty (d4 through d20). Margin of failure goes into Stress. It's deceptive system. It's simple, but it's possible be put into very challenging play situations, where you need to do sit down and take a break but can't, and trying to get away from that situation may get you in worse trouble.

The book's rules feel like reading a dream: they talk about concepts that I've always wanted a game to explore: time, how stress breaks you down, the importance of relationships, and the bittersweet nature of travel. The instant I leafed through it I knew I needed to run it.

I've barely spoken a word of it to anyone. This is my first attempt to do so. I'm not even sure who I would run this with, and I've absolutely no idea why. For me, this opened something up.

And for the first time in my life I almost don't want to have those experiences with someone else.

Let's change that.