In the Pines

A folk-horror story game about choosing not to forget.

In the Pines is a tabletop role-playing game of cosmic dread and human grit inspired by murder ballads and midnight TV. You play Investigators who keep a living Mythos Journal as they chase Artifacts, Creatures, Locations, and Rituals that bleed in from something older and hungrier than we are. The truth costs Wellness, friends become Bindings, and Complications stick like burrs.

Play one of two ways:

• Traditional: one GM guides an Old One’s agenda while players run Investigators.
• Narrative: everyone brings both an Investigator and an Old One to the table and shares the spotlight.

At the center is the Mythos Journal, a growing notebook of Aspects your next character inherits, so when an Investigator is lost, what they learned survives. Old Ones press their Intrusions through Domains, raising Challenges the table must overcome; victory writes new truths, failure marks you. Index cards, a handful of d6s, and a college-ruled notebook are all you need to play. 

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Designer Note: The PDF is 32 pages long, in full black-and-white, and can be printed in Booklet Form and saddle-stapled at home. I set the Suggested Donation Amount at $0.0005 per word, rounded to the nearest dollar.

AI Use: No generative AI was used in this project.