Carved by the Garden
A solo folk horror game
Purchase on any of these platforms
➡ Raised over $14,000 while crowdfunding! ⬅
What is Carved by the Garden?
Carved by the Garden is a single-player structured journaling game where you document your character’s days in the nearby woods.
The woods are home to strange happenings, myths, legends, histories, and old gods. With 52 prompts, 10 endings, and 7 thought-starting character archetypes, each playthrough is unique.
Can’t find a group to play with?
You can play Carved by the Garden alone. It’s a single-player structured journaling game.
Don’t have a game master?
You don’t need one! Carved by the Garden uses prompts to and questions to reveal what happens in the world.
Don’t have a lot of time?
Unless you really like to write a lot, you’ll likely finish Carved by the Garden in less than two hours.
Want something with less math?
You don’t even need a character sheet for Carved by the Garden, and you only need a single six-sided die to play.
Carved by the Garden is a solo journaling game inspired by folk horror stories like The Witch, The Ritual, Midsommar, and those found in Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology. Featuring a sprawling forest as a backdrop, Carved by the Garden blends self-reflecting questions with unsettling and often bloody discoveries.
What you need to play
- A standard deck of cards with the jokers
- A 6-sided die
- 8 small pieces of nature to act as tokens (leaves, pebbles, seeds, thorns, petals, etc.)
- A tumbling block tower (or one of the listed alternatives)
- Something to write in, such as a notebook or word processor
Actual Play Journalist | Writer | Editor | Comedian
“I’m working my way through all of Cassi’s games right now, but I played Carved by the Garden last night and had one of the most spiritually charged games of a SoloTTRPG I’ve ever played.”
Watch the vibes trailer to get a feel for the tone of this solo tabletop RPG!
Writer | Tabletop RPG Designer | Tabletop RPG Essayst
“Carved by the Garden wants players to take off their shoes and sink into the mud, to thrill at stealing fresh honey from the comb, to experience the visceral pleasure of sinking their teeth into warm flesh. You will long to get lost in the forest, and you’ll delight in your own destruction.”
This game is for you if…
- You love the story side of RPGs.
- You enjoy unraveling your own lore.
- You enjoy horror novels and movies where not everything is explained.
- You love media like The Witch, The Ritual, and old folk tales.
You may not enjoy this game if…
- You prefer robust character creation with stats.
- You only like rolling against skills for outcomes.
- You dislike engaging with horror and uncomfortable topics.
Writer | Illustrator | Game Developer | Solo TTRPG Enthusiast
“Beasts, trees, rituals and monsters may seem terrifying until you realize the most horrifying thing in this forest is what you’ve become.”
No game master required!
Carved by the Garden is a Structured Journaling Game
During the game, you’ll roll dice, draw cards from the deck, read their associated events, pull blocks from the tumbling tower, place or remove tokens from cards, and write about your experiences in character.
Content Warnings
There is disturbing and upsetting content ahead.
This game includes themes of fear, isolation, suspense, despair, violence, self-harm, claustrophobia, drowning, fire, stalking, gaslighting, allusions to cannibalism, snakes, insects, birds, spiders, body horror, suicide, abuse, lust, light sexual themes, and death. There isn’t explicit child death or torture to animals, but the prompts may hint at these themes.
Read and play with caution. Remember that you can change, ignore, rewrite or abandon any part of this game that you want.
