#wanderhome rpg

[vigscribbler]

Last batch of Wanderhome npcs!

This is the last of my cozy woodland crew…

..for now >:)

[queerpg]

a little snippet from @just-trying-togetby's interview with @jdragsky about why Wanderhome takes place in a world with no violence

Full interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music!

or check our our Patreon tiers to see how you can watch the full video version!

[flea-is-not-a-furry]

Upgrades, people, upgrades! I love this one so much more than my first draft. I actually got the colored pencils to look as soft as I wanted them too. I still like the first one, this one is just closer to what I had in mind.

Now that I have infinite copies of this sketch, I am probably going to play around with a few other traditional rendering styles I've never tried.

[emtheanxiousdragon]

Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG

Ok so if you are any sort of game designer, whether that be a programmer for a mobile app, an artist for an indie TTRPG, or a top-tier producer at a AAA-game studio, you should read Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, it inspires you to make games that don’t just form digital communities or entertain, but allow a deeper connection to your real life.

And one game that I think, with a twist, could really fit McGonigal’s idea is Wanderhome, the excellent pastoral RPG by tumblr’s very own @jdragsky . This game is beautiful, simple, and a tool for telling these lovely stories about anthropomorphic travelers exploring a recovering society and finding themselves along the way.

Now, let me introduce my idea, tentatively titled Our Hæth: A Wanderhome ARG.

You make a Wanderhome character, just like in a typical game. You also make a separate Wanderhome profile that represents yourself. (this can be your actual Wanderhome character if you want to take on an alternate persona). This secondary Wanderhome character doesn't actually travel the Hæth. They represent your journey in the real world. Your second character's playbook should fit yourself and what you hope to get from this experience. My secondary character will be a Peddler, because I want to grow my personal career.

Then you get connected to a Hæth. These are shared worlds/servers that begin like all Wanderhome games (at the start of Tillsoil very soon after the end of the war) and progress from there. You can start with other players or begin on your own and find others later.

When you wish to travel to a new area, instead of randomly deciding what it should be, you base it on your current location. It can be as simple as your bedroom or as grand as the Great Wall of China! I’ll show you what I mean with where I am now.

A beautiful pond, right? Let’s turn it into a spot in the Hæth! Our first nature is based on a literal take of the area. I’m by a pond, so the first nature will be Lake! The second nature is more metaphorical; based on what you know about your location, choose a nature that describes its personality. A lot goes on around this pond, so I’ll pick Carnival. The third nature should describe the place as it is when you arrive. The calm nature of the pond today means the third nature is Field. Build the location with the rules of each nature, combined with the traits of the season, and you’ve made a Place!

In Our Hæth, each location is permanently saved into the world you created it in. If other players want to visit this location rather than create a new one, they’ll replace the third nature and the seasonal traits and set off! They can see what you’ve written about the place and the adventures you’ve had here. If you know them in real life, you can share what the real-world inspiration is. If not, you can discuss as much about it as you feel comfortable sharing.

Once you're in a Place, great! Start playing Wanderhome. If you're alone, write down what your traveler does in this place. If you're with friends, get together in person and roleplay it out, or chat together over Discord or your online forum of choice. Their characters may travel with you for a while or your paths may diverge and reconnect later. Just remember what happens so you can share it as part of your character's story. When you make a Kith, go through the regular Kith creation process and add them to your Hæth. If other players visit this Place later, they may meet your kith and will want to know what happened.

The other big ARG element of this version of Wanderhome comes with using tokens. When your character does something to create a token, you need to do something to make a token in real life. Have a list of what different actions in Wanderhome mean for you in real life. For example, when my character Camper gives away something he holds dear, that means I have to complete some professional networking. Your token action should be challenging or good for you. Change your token action as your challenges and needs change. Make them fit your life and your goals.

Take a break to complete your token action, or write it down for after the session. You won't be able to spend your real-world token until you complete your task. Once that's done, the next time your character spends a token, you can spend one too! Your token rewards are something positive to reward yourself for putting in the effort and caring for yourself, your relationships, or the world. In my Hæth, when Camper keeps someone safe from the difficulties of the world, I get to take a nap rather than work!

The months can change in small groups when you agree to change them. In bigger groups, you may set a real-world date for the change in the months. Ask the month's question to yourself and your Wanderhome character. Consider your answer a "yes" regardless of which one of you says so. When the time comes for the seasons to change, set up a party with others in your Hæth or throw your own private celebration. Just as the holiday marks a moment of personal growth for your character, take a major step forward with your own goals. As Camper celebrates the new year, I'm going to start searching for a summer internship. I'll adapt my token actions and rewards as needed, and I'll continue playing.

So long as you have Wanderhome, you can play this game. You can keep track of your Hæth in a notebook, on a google doc, whatever. My perfect version of this project would be a little website where players can join different Hæths, watch their world grow on a virtual map, see all the information neatly organized online, and connect to a wide range of people in the Wanderhome community.

Thoughts?

[witchydragoness]

meet my lovely wanderhome party! - one latecomer, lovely poet bat boy to be done at a later date *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

trinket is my girl, and the others belong to my lovely friends

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played WANDERHOME

By Jay Dragon

Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change. It is a game filled with grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of chubby bumblebees, opossums in sundresses, salamanders with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine.

A diceless and GM-less game, built on the Belonging Outside Belonging engine

[jdragsky]

possum creek games is doing a sale on their entire library right now, which is completely fucking bonkers

so if you like queer tabletop rpgs, found family, weird liminal creepy shit, or just new ways to play games that you've never thought of before, go fucking nuts

[dungeonofthedragon]

Non-Violent Adventurous TTRPGS

Today is ANZAC day in Aotearoa New Zealand. It seems a very appropriate time to share some games about helping and healing.

Monster Care Squad by Sandy Pug Games

A game about nurturing monsters and healing them of their pain. In the creator's own words, you play a squad of elite veterinarians. I love games that make you feel you're making a positive difference. I hope to play this one some time.

Ngen Mapu by Helena Real and Evil Hat Productions

This game's gorgeous art is what first caught my eye, but what really drew me in was the premise. Playing as manifested spirits from the dawn of time, you must stop people who are causing serious harm to the natural world without hurting them. What happens if you hurt them? Well, you risk becoming a corrupted ngen called a wekufe.

Wanderhome by Jay Dragon of Possum Creek Games

A game of wandering animal folk. Wanderhome has been on my 'to buy' list since its release. This review sums up a lot of why I love it. The grief and hope of a game that takes place in a world recovering from war appeals to me far more than a game about fighting a war. Plus, my favourite part of roleplaying is exploring a character's internal world, and there are so many chances for that here.

Lunar Echoes is a hack of Wanderhome set in a solarpunk future!

[adhdedrn]

Characterisation game: PostSecret

Your OC (of any sort) has discovered PostSecret, and - after reading through some of the postcards - has decided to send in a secret on a postcard. The secret can be anything, but it must follow these two rules:

The secret must be true.

It must be a secret you've never shared with anyone before.

What does their postcard look like, and what secret do they share?

I'll go first, with some more behind the cut.

Joscelin Armistead:

Bentham:

Cixiaram Hleokai:

Bash Tūī:

[toadlett]

A couple of very fun character sheets for Jakob's Wanderhome characters! ty for commissioning me Jakob!

[literalcatpod]

41 - Making a Cat on a Mouse's Journey Into Public Domain in Wanderhome

Wanderhome by @jdragsky is the story of a journey, and the people you meet along the way. For instance, Mickey Mouse is making a journey into the public domain, and now instead of being an anthropomorphic mouse, he's an adolescent Literal Cat, in a world full of anthropomorphic animals. It'll be quite the journey for our naive young friend. Who will Micholas M. Mouse (the cat) meet along the way?

Follow the show online: https://literalcatpod.start.page/ 

Follow Joel Holland: https://jholland.start.page/

Follow Austin Erwin: https://twitter.com/AvalonAlchemist

We’ve got a Patreon now! https://www.patreon.com/BadgerTrove 

Download the character sheets: https://bit.ly/literalcatpod 

We’re on Bluesky now! https://bsky.app/profile/literalcatpod.bsky.social 

Cover art and Intro/Outro music made by Joel Holland

Thanks for listening! We’ll Cat-ch you later!

[queerpg]

i think we can all agree that Loren is a little emo boi

Episode 16 of Of Kith and Pen is out now!

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Amazon Music

[flea-is-not-a-furry]

Never draw bunnies before, so that was new. Definitely going to give it another go, since I was falling asleep when I drew this

I love this character consept tho; a curly haired bunny who is a bumble bee shepherd?? I love the way both my friend's mind and the Wanderhome character creation system work

[the-campaign-coach]

Game Review #4- Wanderhome

This past weekend I had the pleasure to play my 89th RPG in the Magpie Games Server, and it was a wonderful one in Wanderhome. Looking over my list of games, I am hard pressed to find a single other that lives up to the premise and promise of completely removing what many consider to be a core pillar of RPGs. Wanderhome is an RPG doesn’t discourage combat, but simply forbids it.

This was in fact how I was pitched Wanderhome, as a game where the core resolution will never come from violence,  and its been on my to play list for many years because of it. I was never able to find a game of it on Start Playing or at cons that fit my schedule, and with such a twist in the foundation of RPGs, I was hoping to experience it as a player before I ran it. I was very excited to have this chance, and had a wonderful GM who also helped us explore some of the other unique concepts that make this game shine. 

This game has a collaborative world building element to it, but at least as we ran it, it starts with the world as defined by the relationships our characters have bult with each other before the game even begins. As I explained this to my partner on a hike the day after, our party isn’t meeting for the first time in a dark tavern, given their mission by a old man who will either end up saving or betraying us later in the adventure. I have played a lot of games that ask us to point to other players at the table, and create a fiction about our relationships to each other, but Wanderhome particularly excels at this. Since so much of the world can be defined in this stage, it really helps flesh out a world that really is only defined in the book as a (recently) peaceful place. When you start to define the relationship between two PCs, its takes the choices we made in a vacuum about our own PC make more sense. I chose to make a circus performer, and when I asked  the question “how does my PC get on your nerves”, to another player, embodying their child character, they told me they had already gotten sick during our travels of the stories about growing up in that life. I of course could reject that fact, or twist it to better fit my narrative, but instead it gave me an opportunity to lay further into my hyper rabbits, tendencies and flesh out a flaw that gives the character more dimensions. 

Now that we have a more firm idea about our characters and the world they live in as defined by our relationship to each other, we then got to spend some time defining the world we would interact with. The GM had some helpful starting prompts picked out since we were doing a one shot in 4 hours, which prevented some analysis paralysis, and got us along our way. From that one seed, we were able to quickly spin a yarn about a world darkened by a rainy season that drenched more than just the soil. These processes so far took about 90 minutes, but I expect with a less experienced GM , it would often take a bit longer. That being said, unlike many session zeros, it was engaging enough to feel like a true part of the game rather than a chore one has to do to simple start the game.

Once formal role play started we were introduced to the final two tenets that make this world shine. In another upheaval to the status quo we would be playing a game that I would like to call GMless-ish. Often when playing GMless games, we would need to consult a table or otherwise be called to balance our own interest and the interests of NPCs. While I haven't’ yet played a game that is GMless that has combat, I can only assume those can be quite difficult to balance. Instead in this game we can each act as the world our characters are in, and the narrative friction that is needed for the fiction to have meaning. Our “GM” was great at helping us transition from the more passive player role to a true collaborative performer. 

The final conceit of the game, that makes it different than the vast majority of games I have played, is of course the way to resolve when our players may not get what they want. Without appropriate  resistance the narrative would fall flat. Instead it is up to each player to in a sense, get in their own way, or at least be okay when someone else does it. This is a game that does not have dice. Instead a character earns tokens, in a variety of ways, but the most likely trigger is when they make decision that get in the way of their own goals. This is where Wanderhome will either rewire your mind for how stories can be told at the table or completely fall flat. When you earn those tokens, you can simply succeed against all odds later in the session. You get to decided when you get tokens, and when you would spend them. The reasons to gain them, aren’t just having your character sacrifice for the greater good, and to spend them isn’t just to “win” the encounter, but at its core it helps you balance the moments that tell a good story. Your character often is rewarded for growth, participation, and generally diving in heart first into the tale. If you are still playing with the mindset of efficiency or even just completion you aren’t likely to find the soul of this game. It is for that very reason I would suggest working this into your game nights. This game will not be for everyone, but I think many players won’t know that this is something they have not only been missing but have been dying for.  So its pretty obvious I would recommend this game, as I would any game I ever take the time to review. At this point though I want to start a trend with these articles to help sum up the games, and talk about the tools they present us. Not mention previously there are some wonderful safety tools that help contextualize them not as limitations to a narrative but also a tool to push them forward. These are the most literally tool you can take from this game, but there are plenty of others. The world building prompts are great even if you aren’t going to be playing a game of Wanderhome. Also I feel if you are gearing up for a big long campaign of something heavy or even are coming off of one, this could be both a great creative warm up or emotional cool down. Finally I have to ask myself, and in doing so help give you one last piece of context that could help you decade if this game is for you, how I would use Wanderhome. While I am not entirely enamored with the all animal setting as whole, and it would be a poor fit for some of my gaming tables, I have an “Oops All Familiars” Campaign idea that we accidently created during a Game of Kids on Bikes, that happens on a different sub plane of the main games reality that would work very well for Wanderhome, so I do expect this to hit the table at some point.

[internetdruid]

I think tumblr users should play at least one game of 1000 year old vampire

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played WANDERHOME

By Jay Dragon @jdragsky

Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy role-playing game about traveling animal-folk, the world they inhabit, and the way the seasons change. It is a game filled with grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of chubby bumblebees, opossums in sundresses, salamanders with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine.

A diceless and GM-less game, built on the Belonging Outside Belonging engine