A Game of Whimsical, Pastoral Folk Horror
You wake in a place without edges. The sky hums with a frequency you almost recognize. Your name is a shape on the tip of your tongue. All you know is this: there was a song once, and it held everything together. Now only fragments remain.
Songs for the Lost is a tabletop RPG about wandering a land of talking animals, haunted taverns, and melancholic forests. Players take on the roles of the Lost — souls trapped between worlds, each carrying a broken melody that, if made whole, might lead them home. Built on the Year Zero Engine and inspired by Over the Garden Wall.
99 pages · 13 chapters · 3 fully detailed settings · Random verse generator
2–6 Players
Best at 3–4 travelers + 1 GM
Year Zero Engine
D6 dice pool, push mechanic, narrative-first
Episodic Play
Each session is a Verse — a self-contained story
How It Plays
Music as Magic
Songs, melodies, and rhymes are how you navigate the world. Croon a tune to calm a beast, speak a secret to break a curse, or sing the woods into silence.
Folk Horror with Heart
The Unknown is whimsical, pastoral, and quietly terrifying. Talking frogs, haunted taverns, and a darkness called The Beast that feeds on your despair.
Dream Logic
Forget physics. A locked door opens if you ask politely. A river flows upstream because it fears the ocean. Manners matter more than swords.
Conditions, Not Hit Points
You don't lose health — you become Weary, Scared, Lost, or Confused. Three Conditions and you Break, triggering strange afflictions from the Melancholy & Madness table.
Three Attributes, One Story
Roll your dice pool (Attribute + Skill). Every 6 is a success. No successes? You can Push — but pushing always costs you a Condition.
Heart
Kindness, hope, emotional connection. Persuade, nurture, and croon a tune.
Wits
Cleverness, perception, lore. Sneak, solve riddles, and recall Rock Facts.
Grit
Toughness, bravery, determination. Scamper, brawl, and endure the road.
Choose Your Kin
What sort of lost creature are you?
Human
Key: GritA wanderer from the outside world, driven by a simple need: to find the way home. Resourceful and stubborn, but The Beast's favorite prey.
Just Keep Going
Frog
Key: HeartA native socialite of the Unknown — tavern-keeper, ferryman, musician. Comfortable with whimsy, terrified of the deep woods.
Unflappable Sophisticate
Harvest Folk
Key: WitsA scarecrow who walked away from their field, a person of corn husks and straw, animated by a flickering candle-flame soul.
Part of the Land
Five Archetypes
Who you are in the Unknown.
The quintessential lost soul. Succeeds through pure, dumb luck.
A grim survivor of the deep woods. Keeper of the Lantern, unafraid of the dark.
The nurturer and helper. A warm meal can heal what medicine cannot.
The one who sees — omens, secrets, and the strange logic that weaves the world together.
The trickster, the thief, the lovable rogue who talks their way out of everything.
What's Inside
13 chapters across 99 pages.
The Heart of the Woods
Core rules, dream logic, the dice, and the spirit of play
Creating Your Traveler
Age, Kin, Archetypes, Attributes, Skills, and Dark Secrets
Journeys in the Unknown
Travel, Rock Facts, confrontations, and the journey loop
Strange Arts & Melodies
Music-based magic, secrets, curses, and folk remedies
Gear & Goods
Cloaks, teapot helmets, croquet mallets, and vegetable cars
Talents & Whimsies
Unique abilities for every Kin and Archetype
A Guide to the Unknown
Game Master tools, verse structure, and running sessions
Beasts of Field & Forest
Black turtles, highwaymen, singing fish, and The Beast himself
Shadowheim
The Crossroads Village — a sleepy starting town with dark secrets
Victoria
The City of Frogs — wealth, pilgrims, and suspicious snipe hunts
Klondike
The Ghost Town on Confusion Hill — vanished miners and gravity shifts
Curses & Consequences
What happens when the Unknown pushes back
The Verse Generator
Random tables for locations, encounters, and pastoral details
Places in the Unknown
Shadowheim
The Crossroads Village. A sleepy town that grew around a roadside tavern, once terrorized by The Beast. A perfect starting point for lost travelers — but old secrets still stir in the cemetery.
Victoria
The City of Frogs. A bustling lakeside town of sophisticated amphibians in fine waistcoats. Built around a dubious religious apparition and the promise of snipe hunting. Appearances are everything.
Klondike
The Ghost Town on Confusion Hill. The miners vanished, leaving only a single word carved into the watchtower: DEVIL. Gravity shifts, abandoned mines, and something watching from below.
Walking the Path
Songs for the Lost is an indie TTRPG in active development. The 99-page core rulebook is being playtested and refined. No release date yet — the Unknown reveals itself when it's ready.
Built on the Year Zero Engine. Inspired by Over the Garden Wall.