You love the woods.
You fear the woods.
You can't stay away from the woods.

Document your character’s last days in the nearby haunted woods in Carved by the Garden, a single-player structured journaling game. Using a standard deck of playing cards, you’ll follow prompts that reveal the horrors waiting for you among the trees. You’ll also roll dice, pull blocks from a tumbling tower, and write about your experiences in character.

With 52 prompts, 6 major and 4 minor endings, and 7 thought-starting character archetypes, each playthrough is unique!

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

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.

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. 

Carved by the Garden is a tense experience based on The Wretched (found at http://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched), product of Chris Bissette and Loot The Room, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 with some changes.

It’s a character exploration exercise as much as it is a horror game. Players don’t have to track stats, health, or spell slots. 

Carved by the Garden successfully funded on Kickstarter July 18, 2023!

What People Are Saying

“Beasts, trees, rituals and monsters may seem terrifying until you realize the most horrifying thing in this forest is what you've become.” 

-Kaden Ramstack (https://twitter.com/KadenRamstack)

"Carved by the Garden is a terrible, wonderful folk horror themed solo RPG that will appeal to anyone who enjoys the horror genre and the inherent darkness of nature. Shamelessly visceral, the prompts are eerie, unsettling and provocative to a dark imagination. I can't wait to play it again." 

-gothHoblin (https://gothhoblin.me)

“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.” 

-Aaron Voigt (youtube.com/@aavoigt)

“Carved by the Garden invites you for a stroll through the sunlit woods, to lose yourself of your humanity and become something so much more primal and depraved... or destroy yourself utterly in the process.” 

-Carro (@RedRosesRot)