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Wanderhome
A Pastoral Fantasy Tabletop Role-Playing Game
Set forth into a world of grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of bumblebees, rabbits in sundresses, geckos with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine. We will befriend stag beetles the size of houses, argue with the King of the Floating Mountain, fall in love in the basket of a hot air balloon up in the clouds, and go on a journey with some of the most amazing people you could ask for. Where will we go? What will we see? We’ll have to find out together. Will you join me?
Set forth into a world of grassy fields, mossy shrines, herds of bumblebees, rabbits in sundresses, geckos with suspenders, starry night skies, and the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine. We will befriend stag beetles the size of houses, argue with the King of the Floating Mountain, fall in love in the basket of a hot air balloon up in the clouds, and go on a journey with some of the most amazing people you could ask for. Where will we go? What will we see? We’ll have to find out together. Will you join me?
272 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
22 people are currently reading
269 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
March 18, 2022
This charming book is an RPG that features traveling animals. It's a system that discourages violence and encourages collaborative storytelling and thoughtful contemplation. The illustrations are beautiful and really evoke a unique and interesting world. This would be perfect for role-players who are interested in trying something with less violence in it.
January 6, 2022
As far as a book goes, this is beautiful and evocative in a way that most RPG sourcebooks don't even attempt. Wanderhome is a combination meditation on what we seek to gain from an RPG, a coffee table art book, and so many things in between.
At the same time, it feels like it sometimes fails to truly be an RPG sourcebook. The mechanics of the game are not clearly explained, and many of the sparse guidelines are hidden within blocks flavor text. The abilities of each playbook are so intangible as to be nearly meaningless. There is a section in each playbook that says "Things you can always do" which lists little things like "ask what used to be here", and yet there is nothing stopping any of the other playbooks from asking that question.
The central idea behind the book seems to be to provide the players with a loose structure and prompts to start the story flowing. Each player is given a playbook which gives them an idea of what that archetype might often do, but it never tells the players what they can and can't do.
The book succeeds in building a beautiful and entrancing world, and sets the players loose within it, but it doesn't really explain how we are supposed to interact with the world. On one hand this is freeing, allowing the players to truly do whatever they want. On the other hand, it almost ceases to become a traditional game, and instead become a few people writing a story in this world.
I am completely torn here, and my opinion of it has changed even as I am writing this review. I believe that Wanderhome is a valuable and novel addition to the RPG space, but I am struggling to find a place for it, to figure out when and with whom I might like to play it. I instinctually regard this inability to categorize it as a bad thing, but each time I am forced to reconsider it and come to the conclusion that being different is not good or bad, but simply different. And maybe that's what Wanderhome is supposed to teach us.
At the same time, it feels like it sometimes fails to truly be an RPG sourcebook. The mechanics of the game are not clearly explained, and many of the sparse guidelines are hidden within blocks flavor text. The abilities of each playbook are so intangible as to be nearly meaningless. There is a section in each playbook that says "Things you can always do" which lists little things like "ask what used to be here", and yet there is nothing stopping any of the other playbooks from asking that question.
The central idea behind the book seems to be to provide the players with a loose structure and prompts to start the story flowing. Each player is given a playbook which gives them an idea of what that archetype might often do, but it never tells the players what they can and can't do.
The book succeeds in building a beautiful and entrancing world, and sets the players loose within it, but it doesn't really explain how we are supposed to interact with the world. On one hand this is freeing, allowing the players to truly do whatever they want. On the other hand, it almost ceases to become a traditional game, and instead become a few people writing a story in this world.
I am completely torn here, and my opinion of it has changed even as I am writing this review. I believe that Wanderhome is a valuable and novel addition to the RPG space, but I am struggling to find a place for it, to figure out when and with whom I might like to play it. I instinctually regard this inability to categorize it as a bad thing, but each time I am forced to reconsider it and come to the conclusion that being different is not good or bad, but simply different. And maybe that's what Wanderhome is supposed to teach us.
March 14, 2022
3/9/2022 Finished the book but don't think I'll be able to properly rate it till after I've played a session this weekend. So look out for a review at TheFrumiousConsortium.net early next week!
3/14/2022 It's impossible to be involved in indie tabletop gaming circles these days and remain ignorant of Jay Dragon's bestselling pastoral fantasy game Wanderhome, which was recently nominated for a Nebula Award. Unusually for a 100+ page tabletop roleplaying game, it has zero combat rules or stats, and almost actively discourages that kind of physical conflict. So it's perfect for groups that want to emphasize the cozy storytelling aspects of roleplaying, almost an Animal Crossing-type antidote to all the hack and slash fighting games out there.
The sourcebook consists primarily of Playbooks, where you choose an archetype to further flesh out into your unique character; Traits, which help you with that process of fleshing; Natures which help you build the location your characters are either currently in or shortly wandering into, and a Calendar to spark events and further story hooks. As with many sourcebooks, it can feel terrifically vague as to how the game is actually supposed to go until you get a chance to sit down and play it, preferably with people who have an idea of what they're doing from previous experience.
And so I signed up with what I soon learned to be a table of fellow seasoned other-game Game Masters who were just as intrigued as I was with this concept, tho they each had at least a little more exposure than I had to Wanderhome. We didn't have a guide (as the game calls its optional GMs) per se for our session -- tho shout-out to Curtis for taking the most initiative! -- but were all experienced enough with collaborative storytelling to attempt to share the load and build the world and adventures equally. Which, I must say, is actually pretty tiring! Building things out of whole cloth, even with the help of the sourcebook, while actively working to navigate new relationships with people over a voice-only game, is mentally draining tho ultimately worthwhile.
I was actually surprised by how large a role the Location/Natures played in helping to determine the adventure. At the start of the session, you're meant to choose three Natures to describe your location which, with the prompts provided, help you build truly unusual and interesting places to explore. You'd think that the character creation process would feel more important, especially since the Left & Right Question mechanic not only helps build relationships between the characters but also provides additional character enrichment, but the process of building our swamp-bridge-metropolis, especially in the generous way my table made sure everyone was involved, really constructed more than one important figurative structure for our session.
It was actually a bit of a struggle to remember to use the Tokens mechanic instead of just storytelling our way through everything. My only regret is that we weren't yet confident enough of our Wanderhome knowledge to properly incorporate the calendar into our session, which already felt like it was teeming with new ideas and inspirations for each of us as GMs to bring back to our other tables. I actually ran a game of D&D later that evening and found it both easier to do than usual but also more tiring because of the brain muscles I'd already flexed earlier that day. I think I might try another Wanderhome session with a Guide, just to see if that requires quite as much thinking. I can see, too, how this could easily be adapted to solo play.
The key thing, I think, to enjoying Wanderhome is to play with people you trust to be interested in telling a good story together with you. The playbook prompts as to what characters can do, and earn and spend tokens for, lean into a thoughtful, almost psychological form of play and relationship-building that won't appeal to all gamers. And that's fine. Wanderhome is meant to be niche, a retreat from the combat fantasies of many mainstream TTRPGs. Even so, it allows players to build a cozy universe based on a surprisingly rich and rewarding system that deserves all its critical acclaim.
As to the object of the book itself, it is beautifully art directed by Ruby Lavin who is credited in the back. The curated art pieces are wonderfully evocative, and come from a wide range of artists, tho hew to the pastoral anthropomorphic vibe throughout. Jay Dragon's creation of the rules and system is excellent, tho perhaps necessarily opaque on the first go-round of reading. Like many TTRPGs, this book has to be played to be properly understood. I'm glad I got a chance to, and look forward to many more future sessions.
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon was published January 1 2021 by Possum Creek Games and is available from PossumCreekGames.com.
3/14/2022 It's impossible to be involved in indie tabletop gaming circles these days and remain ignorant of Jay Dragon's bestselling pastoral fantasy game Wanderhome, which was recently nominated for a Nebula Award. Unusually for a 100+ page tabletop roleplaying game, it has zero combat rules or stats, and almost actively discourages that kind of physical conflict. So it's perfect for groups that want to emphasize the cozy storytelling aspects of roleplaying, almost an Animal Crossing-type antidote to all the hack and slash fighting games out there.
The sourcebook consists primarily of Playbooks, where you choose an archetype to further flesh out into your unique character; Traits, which help you with that process of fleshing; Natures which help you build the location your characters are either currently in or shortly wandering into, and a Calendar to spark events and further story hooks. As with many sourcebooks, it can feel terrifically vague as to how the game is actually supposed to go until you get a chance to sit down and play it, preferably with people who have an idea of what they're doing from previous experience.
And so I signed up with what I soon learned to be a table of fellow seasoned other-game Game Masters who were just as intrigued as I was with this concept, tho they each had at least a little more exposure than I had to Wanderhome. We didn't have a guide (as the game calls its optional GMs) per se for our session -- tho shout-out to Curtis for taking the most initiative! -- but were all experienced enough with collaborative storytelling to attempt to share the load and build the world and adventures equally. Which, I must say, is actually pretty tiring! Building things out of whole cloth, even with the help of the sourcebook, while actively working to navigate new relationships with people over a voice-only game, is mentally draining tho ultimately worthwhile.
I was actually surprised by how large a role the Location/Natures played in helping to determine the adventure. At the start of the session, you're meant to choose three Natures to describe your location which, with the prompts provided, help you build truly unusual and interesting places to explore. You'd think that the character creation process would feel more important, especially since the Left & Right Question mechanic not only helps build relationships between the characters but also provides additional character enrichment, but the process of building our swamp-bridge-metropolis, especially in the generous way my table made sure everyone was involved, really constructed more than one important figurative structure for our session.
It was actually a bit of a struggle to remember to use the Tokens mechanic instead of just storytelling our way through everything. My only regret is that we weren't yet confident enough of our Wanderhome knowledge to properly incorporate the calendar into our session, which already felt like it was teeming with new ideas and inspirations for each of us as GMs to bring back to our other tables. I actually ran a game of D&D later that evening and found it both easier to do than usual but also more tiring because of the brain muscles I'd already flexed earlier that day. I think I might try another Wanderhome session with a Guide, just to see if that requires quite as much thinking. I can see, too, how this could easily be adapted to solo play.
The key thing, I think, to enjoying Wanderhome is to play with people you trust to be interested in telling a good story together with you. The playbook prompts as to what characters can do, and earn and spend tokens for, lean into a thoughtful, almost psychological form of play and relationship-building that won't appeal to all gamers. And that's fine. Wanderhome is meant to be niche, a retreat from the combat fantasies of many mainstream TTRPGs. Even so, it allows players to build a cozy universe based on a surprisingly rich and rewarding system that deserves all its critical acclaim.
As to the object of the book itself, it is beautifully art directed by Ruby Lavin who is credited in the back. The curated art pieces are wonderfully evocative, and come from a wide range of artists, tho hew to the pastoral anthropomorphic vibe throughout. Jay Dragon's creation of the rules and system is excellent, tho perhaps necessarily opaque on the first go-round of reading. Like many TTRPGs, this book has to be played to be properly understood. I'm glad I got a chance to, and look forward to many more future sessions.
Wanderhome by Jay Dragon was published January 1 2021 by Possum Creek Games and is available from PossumCreekGames.com.
November 26, 2021
Coming from having mostly played D&D and Fiasco, this game wowed me with its gentle and nonviolent kindness. One of my favorite parts is how each character playbook begins with "You are alive. Your care is ____, ____, and ____." Like, it's not even a question that any character you create will be caring - it's just the quality of that care might shift depending on the archetype you choose to play.
I've played a couple sessions with friends and while I would say it's light on the "game" part of a role-playing game, the setting and vibe is just worth checking out. As someone who likes to geek out about strategy and mechanics, I don't know that I'd choose to play this regularly over something more number-crunchy, but I'm glad I own a physical copy to return to just to read through and feel softened by.
I've played a couple sessions with friends and while I would say it's light on the "game" part of a role-playing game, the setting and vibe is just worth checking out. As someone who likes to geek out about strategy and mechanics, I don't know that I'd choose to play this regularly over something more number-crunchy, but I'm glad I own a physical copy to return to just to read through and feel softened by.
September 5, 2024
“The journey is bigger than any of us.
Someday we'll all step away, die, retire, or just go along a separate path. There will come a day when I'm not the person you fall asleep next to, and that's okay…
…I know it's still hard to say goodbye.
I'm sorry.”
de alguna manera, un MANUAL DE UN JUEGO DE ROL, estuvo a esto👌🏼 de hacerme llorar
ahora solo nos queda jugarlo, aunque me hubiese gustado que hubiese un poco más de guía sobre cómo empezar una partida
Someday we'll all step away, die, retire, or just go along a separate path. There will come a day when I'm not the person you fall asleep next to, and that's okay…
…I know it's still hard to say goodbye.
I'm sorry.”
de alguna manera, un MANUAL DE UN JUEGO DE ROL, estuvo a esto👌🏼 de hacerme llorar
ahora solo nos queda jugarlo, aunque me hubiese gustado que hubiese un poco más de guía sobre cómo empezar una partida
October 3, 2022
Enchanting premise with so much possibility in game play. One thing I wish was better explained is kind of logistics. Does everyone playing need to read the book? If not, what essential information outside of their own playbook that is suggested everyone know? What's the best way to facilitate a new group? The book mentions cards for kith characters and places, but they aren't really mentioned in the "what you need" section. I suppose I just like a little more direction.
Read
April 7, 2021A deliberately tender TTRPG system -- I'll be very interested to see how it works in play!
January 22, 2023
My favorite Tabletop Rpg its lots of great art a great explanation of how it works and lots of characters and creation
October 2, 2024
I love the premise of Wanderhome and its unique, gentle approach to storytelling. The focus on pastoral fantasy and themes of "post-war healing" is so refreshing, offering a space for reflection and emotional depth. The system is elegant and simple, perfectly suited to its tone of exploration and personal growth. However, despite my admiration for the game’s concept and mechanics, I realistically can’t see myself ever GMing it. The open-ended, non-confrontational nature of the gameplay is definitely unique, but I don't know any players that would be invested enough to give this a try.
September 16, 2021
Haven't played yet, but oh my, I do love this book. It even gave me lovely dreams! The book itself is visually beautiful and a joy to handle. The language of the book is so gentle and thoughtful, at times it has moved me to sudden tears of happy. Will pop back and add to my review when we get our game(s) up and running. In the meantime, had a ball making my first character. Fantastic creative mind-stretcher for a writer, and am so looking forward to making a shared journey with my friends. We're all super excited!
April 22, 2021
I am so looking forward to trying out this game with my dnd group. This looks like a charming, fun, wholesome, cute adventure. I can't wait!
Read
May 31, 2023I'm reminded of that post about the toddler seeing ballet for the first time, and saying, "It's beautiful, but I don't like it."
October 20, 2025
I had high hopes because Wanderhome had such accolades, but I'm sad to say I was very disappointed.
Wanderhome is an amazing artbook. It's even an amazing collaborative world-and-character building exercise. But it is not a good game.
The gameplay guidelines were an absolute mess. The whole thing was poor writing disguised as rules anarchy. Critical information was split across multiple parts of the book, some 30 or more pages apart. Game mechanics such as tokens, kith, and actions are left extremely vague. Do kith earn tokens, or are tokens earned per player? Do you create a whole kith card for everyone you encounter? Does the Caretaker make a kith card for every small and forgotten god, since these gods have traits, and traits have actions? When and how do you decide to celebrate holidays?
Trying to run this game was a headache. Gameplay relies on players all being great communicators with pre-established roleplay skills and the ability to create the prompts and events that make the story with very little guidance. Characters, kith, and natures all have a list of actions they can "always do", but there is a huge disparity in how useful some of them are to actually generating a story. "Deliver a letter" is a great prompt, but "Nod and move on" is... Nothing.
I understand that Wanderhome intends to be extremely rules lite. There isn't anything wrong with that. But Wanderhome isn't successfully rules lite, imo. Instead, establishes rules sporadically, makes them difficult to understand, then slaps them haphazardly onto some game mechanics they're ill suited for.
Therefore, Wanderhome is less of a TTRPG and more of a glorified inspiration booklet.
HOWEVER!
I did have a lot of fun when I played it solo and made a couple villages, kith, and playbook characters. As an inspiration booklet, it works great!
For a better organized rules-lite TTRPG, I recommend Wickedness, also by Possum Creek Games.
Therefore, I give Wanderhome 3 ⭐
Wanderhome is an amazing artbook. It's even an amazing collaborative world-and-character building exercise. But it is not a good game.
The gameplay guidelines were an absolute mess. The whole thing was poor writing disguised as rules anarchy. Critical information was split across multiple parts of the book, some 30 or more pages apart. Game mechanics such as tokens, kith, and actions are left extremely vague. Do kith earn tokens, or are tokens earned per player? Do you create a whole kith card for everyone you encounter? Does the Caretaker make a kith card for every small and forgotten god, since these gods have traits, and traits have actions? When and how do you decide to celebrate holidays?
Trying to run this game was a headache. Gameplay relies on players all being great communicators with pre-established roleplay skills and the ability to create the prompts and events that make the story with very little guidance. Characters, kith, and natures all have a list of actions they can "always do", but there is a huge disparity in how useful some of them are to actually generating a story. "Deliver a letter" is a great prompt, but "Nod and move on" is... Nothing.
I understand that Wanderhome intends to be extremely rules lite. There isn't anything wrong with that. But Wanderhome isn't successfully rules lite, imo. Instead, establishes rules sporadically, makes them difficult to understand, then slaps them haphazardly onto some game mechanics they're ill suited for.
Therefore, Wanderhome is less of a TTRPG and more of a glorified inspiration booklet.
HOWEVER!
I did have a lot of fun when I played it solo and made a couple villages, kith, and playbook characters. As an inspiration booklet, it works great!
For a better organized rules-lite TTRPG, I recommend Wickedness, also by Possum Creek Games.
Therefore, I give Wanderhome 3 ⭐
December 9, 2023
Lovely
December 29, 2022
This is my first time reading the complete book for or actually playing a table top roleplaying game!
The worldbuilding, tenderness, and explicit queerness really made this such a lovely book to read, and a very tender game to play. It isn't heavy on story but the vibes are absolutely wonderful. When playing I loved that I felt encouraged to play queer and disabled characters (as I am both), and again, the vibes are incredible. I didn't get the chance to play for a long time, but I'm looking forward to playing in the future because it's so lovely. This is just a beautiful and tender book, game, and world.
The art in this book is also incredible. Every illustration filled me with a deep sense of joy, and I also loved reading the image descriptions as I read the PDF.
Overall, this is a really lovely reading experience, and a lovely playing experience, and I'm so glad I was introduced to TTRPGs through something so tender and welcoming.
The worldbuilding, tenderness, and explicit queerness really made this such a lovely book to read, and a very tender game to play. It isn't heavy on story but the vibes are absolutely wonderful. When playing I loved that I felt encouraged to play queer and disabled characters (as I am both), and again, the vibes are incredible. I didn't get the chance to play for a long time, but I'm looking forward to playing in the future because it's so lovely. This is just a beautiful and tender book, game, and world.
The art in this book is also incredible. Every illustration filled me with a deep sense of joy, and I also loved reading the image descriptions as I read the PDF.
Overall, this is a really lovely reading experience, and a lovely playing experience, and I'm so glad I was introduced to TTRPGs through something so tender and welcoming.
October 1, 2021
Another hit from Jay Dragon. Definitely distinct enough from the mechanics and flavor of Sleepaway to be worth picking up if you liked that. The way it rewards you for decorating a story the way feels very natural and fluid.
December 10, 2022
This is a very tender, caring role playing game and the rulebook exudes this thoughtful energy all throughout. It quietly asks the players to explore the world at a slow pace and discover the beauty in the everyday and mundane. It felt healing just reading it!
July 20, 2023
This is an adorable and very chill TTRPG... my only issue is that it feels almost too chill. Like, there's almost no opportunity for conflict even. But the world they've built is beautiful and feels so ready to be explored.
December 22, 2021
I’m not even sure if I’ll ever play this as a game; I just enjoyed the delightful illustrations and gently evocative descriptions.
September 6, 2022
This book is absolutely adorable and emotionally rich - looking forward to using it in rpgs
Read
April 5, 2023I don’t want to rate this game until I get a chance to play it, but wow it makes me happy every time I come back to such a peaceful, beautiful place.
June 24, 2023
vague but sweet sourcebook, this ttrpg is all story and no combat
October 7, 2023
Absolutely love this TTRPG. The vibe is amazing.
January 29, 2024
i’m very excited to play this but also a little confused on how to do so! regardless it is a very pretty book
December 14, 2025
I've decided to include this in review, because I did read over it and engage with it in November, mostly picking apart how little it felt like a ttrpg template and more like an inspiration booklet--beautiful beautiful art and some interesting concepts, but there's a very large avoidance of commitment to creating a structure.
I completely understand that people often love to break games/rearrange games to fit them better, but I think there should be a good skeleton to do so from and it almost fears like there's a fear of commitment in actually making it a game. We never fully played it because we spent so much time trying to sort through what it was meant to be and looking up some people playing it, the more popular ones essentially took other existing ttrpgs and put this on top of it.
Again, a GORGEOUS book.
Though I will say, as someone who loves moths and is very interested in a whimsical fantasy interpretation of them as livestock of some sort, I wouldn't use them for carrying mail as aesthetic as it is because of how delicate their wings are, and the bees being shepherded confused me slightly because bees are very good at finding a way home (and beekeep/beekeeper even for giant bees is already a perfectly cute role). That's one of many little things I got caught up on, and yes, the book says you can change what you want forever, but I know that and there still wasn't a very clear game out of it.
I completely understand that people often love to break games/rearrange games to fit them better, but I think there should be a good skeleton to do so from and it almost fears like there's a fear of commitment in actually making it a game. We never fully played it because we spent so much time trying to sort through what it was meant to be and looking up some people playing it, the more popular ones essentially took other existing ttrpgs and put this on top of it.
Again, a GORGEOUS book.
Though I will say, as someone who loves moths and is very interested in a whimsical fantasy interpretation of them as livestock of some sort, I wouldn't use them for carrying mail as aesthetic as it is because of how delicate their wings are, and the bees being shepherded confused me slightly because bees are very good at finding a way home (and beekeep/beekeeper even for giant bees is already a perfectly cute role). That's one of many little things I got caught up on, and yes, the book says you can change what you want forever, but I know that and there still wasn't a very clear game out of it.
November 3, 2022
Wanderhome is rich for storytelling, both collaborative with a group and for independent play. It expands storytelling beyond focusing on individual characters to create space for people to play as settings as well as NPCs, etc. The art is beautiful, the writing is vulnerable, and the world is one that I want to live in.
I've played the devs' previous game, Sleepaway, which is also excellent (horrow sleepaway camp), but Wanderhome is much more developed and takes many of the most evocative parts of Sleepaway. Highly recommend both, whether you have someone to play with or just want to think about worldbuilding and storytelling!
I've played the devs' previous game, Sleepaway, which is also excellent (horrow sleepaway camp), but Wanderhome is much more developed and takes many of the most evocative parts of Sleepaway. Highly recommend both, whether you have someone to play with or just want to think about worldbuilding and storytelling!
November 20, 2023
Wanderhome è un gioco di ruolo che parla di viaggio, di ricerca di casa e del significato di casa, la priorità non va all'obiettivo da raggiungere ma al viaggio che si compie. È un gioco senza dadi e senza master, ci sono conflitti ma non c'è violenza. È il Vento fra i salici, e le pagine di Tolkien su quanto è meravigliosa la natura e quanto è bello farsi una zuppa in compagnia.
Personalmente ho amato sia la lettura del manuale che la one-shot di prova che ho avuto la fortuna di poter fare. Capisco perché ha vinto come gioco di ruolo dell'anno, se siete nel dubbio provatelo.
Personalmente ho amato sia la lettura del manuale che la one-shot di prova che ho avuto la fortuna di poter fare. Capisco perché ha vinto come gioco di ruolo dell'anno, se siete nel dubbio provatelo.
November 26, 2023
Perhaps one of the most charming tabletop roleplaying game written in recent years. Wanderhome's beautiful setting and mechanics provide an excellent place to explore trauma, heartbreak, and many other various issues in a safe and charming game.
August 29, 2021
Utterly charming
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