#wanderhome solo play

[unsat-and-strange]

i want to find some people to play wanderhome with....

[internetdruid]

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

[txttletale]

Do you have recs for combatless rpgs? sorry if someones asked this ! im getting into ttrpgs now and its just pretty hard to find anything non combat focused ?

i recommended wanderhome (melancholy animal roadtrip), dream askew (queer postapocalyptic survival), microscope (collaborative worldbuilding), and crescent moon (kids learning and growing in a fantasy land) in resposne to an ask earlier today. other great rpgs that aren't combat focused include:

chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine: i'll level with you, if you're just getting into rpgs this one might be A Lot because it's quite mechanically complex. but it's a beautiful game about having ghibliesque coming-of-age adventures in a surreal dreamy world.

nobilis is by the same person (jenna moran, a genuine game design pioneer and genius) -- it's about being godlets, the living embodiments of concepts from the concrete to the abstract. you might find yourself fighting in this game, but it's unlikely to look anything like 'combat'.

brindlewood bay, which is about being elderly women investigating murders.

pasión de las pasiones, a pbta (powered by the apocalypse) game about doing ridiculous romance drama shit based on telenovelas

monsterhearts, about teenaged monsters having weird drama and exploring their sexuality. think buffy or twilight, but queerer

pigsmoke, about being professors at a college of magic and competing to see who can publish the best paper (yes, really)

the girlfriend of my girlfriend is my friend, about... i mean i think the title makes it pretty clear! being gay and poly and kinda broke

it's been a long, long, time, about two people who used to date, their relationship, their lives after it, and their reunion

sagas of the icelanders, about being viking settlers in iceland during the saga period and playing out quasimythical dramas

hieronymous, about being a bunch of sinners making your way across hieronymous bosch's garden of earthly delights

thousand year old vampire, a solo journalling game about being a vampire and living through long stretches of history

blow up hamlet, where your table performs hamlet while changing the plot and improvising new plot beats at semi-random

slugblaster, about being rowdy teens hoverboarding through interdimensional rifts in the spirit of 90s teen movies

woo! that's a fuckin' lot of ttrpgs, but i wanted to give a lot of suggestions because i think it's so important for people getting into the hobby to understand the breadth of games out there and how far from the popular image created by D&D they can go! there are two-player and GM-less and even one-player games on this list. you can do anything! the world of rpgs is so fucking wide and beautiful. good luck and i hope you find something that speaks to you!

(oh, also, my game, most trusted advisors -- about being the untrustworthy privy council to a dipshit king and falling over each other's nested dipshit schemes -- has no combat in it. just saying!)

[ravensshire]

Every Game a Solo, Co-op, and or Journaling Game

This book provides you with a method to play TTRPGs without a gamemaster or to expand journaling games such as “Last Tea Shop” or “Apothecary”, which often offer very little support to help you go beyond just a few random encounters.

 In addition, this system is meant to help you turn every game into a journaling game, while injecting slice-of-life and cozy moments into any RPG so that you can journal the downtime of your favorite TTRPG character, and or their retirement. Want to play 5e, Pathfinder, Dungeon World, Wanderhome, Fiasco, and more by sitting down and writing creatively? Great!

 You can also use this system to play cooperatively, by helping you build the world and quests around you as you play, by inspiring you to discover what happens to your character.

If this sounds complicated, don’t worry, solo roleplay is deceptively straightforward, which is good, because in TTRPGs the simple solution is often the best one. 

[takataapui]

RPGaDay 2024 - Catch up post! (Days #1-6)

1 - First RPG bought this year

I bought the Solo But Not Alone 4 Bundle on Feb 20th, which as best as I can see technically contains/is my first TTRPG of the year!

2 - Most recently played

Root: The RPG my beloved Root! I just did session 0 of the campaign I'm running not too long ago, and we're playing again next week and I'm so incredibly hyped! ALSO, did folks see the new supplement book coming out? One of my players is the playbook where they seek out ruins so I'm gonna be all over that book!

3 - Most often played RPG

Alas, it's still DND 5e. It's the game I have the easiest access to, as I know multiple people running games who've invited me, and it's still an enjoyable time! I do wish I got to play other ttrpgs more regularly though. Or perhaps my game 'these little delusions', though it's an RPG in the loosest sense of the word, and it's not a willing playing.

4 - RPG with great art

Project ECCO has phenomenal art and layout, and combines those things so well. The use of colour and big blocks of it is incredible, and everything in the book is so so evocative in creating the feeling that the game desires to create.

5 - RPG with great writing

I know I'm not going to be the only one who says this, far from it, but I have to shout out Wanderhome for this. I mean, those picklists, c'moooon with it, ugh so incredible to read. Every word in the book is a joy to read, and has so much emotion in it. Nothing in Wanderhome misses. Ever. (Except maybe the swamp nature, I'm sorry Jay Dragon, I just love swamps too much to see them as anything except a source of joy and fun)

6 - RPG that is easy to use

stories around a fire is one I read a couple of years ago and sat in my brain for a really long time. It's very simple, but evokes a lot of feelings for me.

[stubbornseedling]

I want to play Wanderhome solo but I can't sit still long enough.

[ferbulo]

Thoughts on Free rpg day

My FLGS did free rpg day with play events, a raffle, free entry play material and oneshots etc from the promotional box. All of which was from bigger publishers.

I personally see free rpg day as something to get people to the FLGS and to help bring people into the local community. Having people buy stuff is a fun bonus. It should be a good will/community building event. It's the ttrpg equivalent to free comic book idea. My FLGS had a good variety of games at their table including some sessions scheduled for minors. Which is great!

I am seeing a few indie devs jumping onto paid rpg day (its the day after so its not interferring) where they promote under the hashtag with no discount.

I know some of the controversy with free rpg day is FLGS not giving material for free without purchase or just selling it straight up. Possibly also because participants are bigger names like Paizo, wiz kids, and kobold press. They participate because they afford to.

I don't know, leaves a weird taste in my mouth but I think I need to research the history more. I'm all for indie ttrpg writers getting their bag. I just feels a little idk counter intuitive? People dipping into the B list publishers materials may make them more likely to play anything that is not dnd. It's not all stuff like OSR and pathfinder. More importantly it gets people into the store, and assuming the store sells more than WOTC and Paizo, that's a good thing.

That said in a reasonable distance to me I only know two stores that sell indie zine style games. So while there's a benefit to getting folks to branch out in the hobby, I can understand some annoyance if your an indie creator and people expect free or low cost stuff from you, especially if you need to pay bills.

I dunno! Go on itchio and pick up a cool game you see. They've got Wanderhome, they've got mausritter, they've got mother fuckin Lancer. They have so many wonderful solo rpgs and writing tools, they've got hyper niche shit and wild art pieces you can play. Just poke around.

[the-night-that-feeds-if]

Okay I’m too shy and awkward to actually write this as not-nonny but still, after I read your lore post, wanted to nerd out hehe

First, you used to paint minis??? That’s so cool!!I used to watch a lot of videos when I first got into DnD and how people made the maps/dungeons and all that good stuff. I’ve always been fascinated by dioramas so when I found the fantasy version of those I was ecstatic to say the least hehe I don’t really have the chance to play DnD as I don’t have people who are interested, but I’ve been enjoying some solo journaling TTRPG lately and it’s been really fun! (Apawthecaria is my fave and I suggest check it out if you were interested in Wanderhome)

Second, as a fellow artist I really relate to the need of always make something and it’s inspiring to see others make their own stuff, not matter the form! As somebody who struggles with mental health as well, make art, read ifs and get inspired by others creators has helped me a lot through the years.

I’m really sorry to hear about your chronic disease but, I really hope that things will get a little better and more manageable, at least a bit, with time 💕

Going back to your if, I’m really curious about the Void and what inspired you for the concept of it? Also, I can’t wait for the descriptions of monsters and fight scenes in case we’ll get some of those ✨

Thank you so much for writing an ask! I can tell you have a lot of passion here :3

I made dioramas for my homebrew dnd setting when I was a teen, I made a sculpting material from salt, flour, water and then sculpted on canvas boards and painted it with acrylics when it dried. I want to make more elaborate ones once I have the space to!

It's difficult to find a group to play with, I've only had two groups, one in person that fell apart, and now my fiance and I have a bunch of amazing online buddies that we play with over discord. I actually met my bff on tiktok when I was on there after I made a dragonage video and we bonded lmao, he's a great buddy. I hope you'll be able to find some people to play with.

Also thank you for the rec, I will definitely check it out!! The only solo journaling game I was planning on playing was thousand year old vampire.

I really appreciate your kind words, I'm definitely a lot better off than I was a year ago, and things are starting to get even better for me physically and mentally.

I absolutely talking to fellow artists, and please send me more asks, or if you ever feel up to it, you can message me on here to nerd out. I love talking to people and hearing about projects and stuff. That also goes for anyone who feels like making a buddy online, I love making friends lol.

And the void was inspired by the Weave in the forgotten realms dnd and also the Warp in warhammer with my own little world separation/dimension stuff that I was thinking about for my old dnd homebrew!

[dayseyemay]

Over the weekend I had the chance to play through a solo game of Crossroads: a game at the intersection of grief and hope, by Sebastian Yūe and It was such a good experience. Crossroads is a game about exploring grief and loss and seeing what path you choose to take in the end.

I ended up using the game as a way to work through a solo session idea for the wanderhome character I had been following. I had wanted to do some big look back on her journeys for awhile and Crossroads was the perfect thing to help me through it. i’m now feeling more inspired to jump into a season 2 and see where I end up!

over all the game was very touching and emotional in ways that I didn’t fully expect when playing through the eyes of a 6’ tall Rabbit!

here is a link to where you can find Crossroads on itch! https://sebastianyue.itch.io/crossroads

[unsat-and-strange]

solo run of wanderhome lets go im excited :D

im playing a firelight named dorian

[companionwolf]

Wolf's Solo Games as of 10/31/2024

• Fugahome (Wanderhome + Plot Unfolding Machine + that tarot deck tool for solo Wanderhome)

• Terrarium aka MAXIMUM COZY (Town of You + a mix of other cozy games' mechanics)

• Untitled PMDTA game (Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Tabletop Adventures + Tiny Solitary Soldiers oracle)

• Tymor demon invasion (My Patherfinder 2e Everwinter setting + Mythic 2e)

• X2!TDEF (TDEF: Expanded aka I took TDEF by Lari Asmuth and bolted on 30 pages of mechanics send help; this is my cyberpunk dystopia XCOM 2 game)

• Yellow game (Purely Mythic 2e; set in X2!TDEF verse)

• nobody knew / nobody knows (Changeling the Lost 2e + Mythic 2e)

• Untitled Invasion game (Invasion splatbook + SWADE + Mythic 2e)

• Untitled Alone with the Guy Looking at You game (AWTGLAY supported by Liminal_ tables; journaling)

• MAXIMUM FARM (solely Iron Valley right now; may add from other games later)

• Untitled Threadbare game (Threadbare + One Page Solo Engine)

• Untitled mutants + zombies game (a small solo system my friend made me + undecided narrative tool/s)

• Untitled GSS (Golden Sky Stories + undecided oracle/GME; this one is more adult oriented and features characters from another franchise as main POV chars.)

• Untitled GSS (Golden Sky Stories + undecided oracle/GME; done as intended by RAW ie childlike PCs)

• .friend (Engine Sky + undecided oracle/GME; intend to play as Aibos in this, may need to reference Engine Heart + Golden Sky Stories original RAW to improve this experience)

• Untitled Fate of Cthulhu game (Fate Condensed + Mythic 2e)

• Ultra Green: Operation Summer Afternoon (My solo dg-esque game hacked together with Delta Green, Weird Supreme, + others)

• Untitled Okami game (Fate Condensed + Mythic 2e?)

• Untitled Cathulhu game (Cathulhu 7e or Cats of Cathulhu 10th anniversary + Mythic 2e?)

• Untitled Fallout game (Fate Condensed + Mythic 2e?)

• The Concoction (Widdershins + Delta Green + JUICE oracle)

• Untitled interstitial game (Interstital 1e + ... I don't remember)

• Deadball (Deadball 2e and B.L.A.S.E and straight from the game Blaseball mechanics)

• Flickering (...the Blaseball journaling game of said name)

• Parker Simulator (also a Blaseball journaling game

• The Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe (journaling game I'll probably eventually supplement with other stuff)

• Untitled Diedream game (Diedream)

Total: 27 (send help)

[travelingparties]

12 Grasping

Prev | Next

*(Solo TTRPG Journaling based on Wanderhome)*

*text under readmore in case you can't read the small text*

Never in my years did I expect to see Professor Grimshaw again. I would have thought the old cat would have moved on from the university by now, retired somewhere nice. A fishing cabin away from the hustle and bustle, maybe. It almost makes me sad.

She gave me a nice hug and sat Aria and I down for tea. An old recipe she had grown and mixed herself, with her wife’s old family honey. She even gave me a box of the stuff as thanks for the delivery. Part of me wants to drink it all within the week, but I know I must savor the gift a little longer than that.

I don’t know what compelled me to, but I told her the truth about why I was in the city, about Aria. She always understood these things better than I did, there was a reason many assumed she was a witch.

I told her that Aria frightened me and that I didn’t want to shepherd the girl to her destiny. I told her that she was simply a reminder of the horrible things she had done to my family in her previous life. If I hadn’t been away at school, I wouldn’t have been left alone in this world.

Grimshaw told me that I should talk to someone about survivor's guilt.

She doesn’t understand that it doesn’t matter, what’s done is done. I’m alone. And now I’m never going to have the chance to fix that. She says that I’m not alone, that I have Aria, and that I need to show her kindness.

Aria spent the whole meeting poking around the classroom. It was almost odd to watch her playing. Grimshaw reminded me that it wasn’t odd at all, Aria is a child, a lost child that needed someone to guide her. No matter my feelings on who she used to be.

Grimshaw has gifted her a pad and a set of charcoals to draw with. A small act of kindness, she told me, for a girl who needed it. I’m trying my best to remember that.

We returned to the market to find Tiberius surrounded by people looking to buy his wares. The cat is an exuberant force of nature, it’s no wonder he’s able to sell so easily. I worry that the delivery was not enough, and we don’t have enough time left in the town for me to find a job before we have to leave. We’ll continue on foot if we must, but funds are a necessity. 

We left the market for now, the noise was starting to overwhelm Aria and I fear what might happen if it overpowers her. We found a nice, quiet spot by the shrine for her to draw with her new charcoals. There’s a stunning fountain in the center of town that I remember being beautiful during the warmer months, but now in Grasping, there’s a thin layer of frost on it. I worry about how Aria will handle the cold coming soon. I should find her a coat sooner rather than later. One that, preferably, I won’t have to pay for.

For now, though, we ride out come dawn. I will always miss Professor Grimshaw, but we’ve spent too much time here, too close to the city. I’m not quite sure what lies for us beyond the town, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out, one day at a time.

[rosyfacedlovebird]

OH MY GOD YES BECKY CHAMBERS' STUFF IS SO GOOD!!!! have you read the rest of the wayfarers series/her other work?? incidentally, I'm currently in the process of reading the second monk & robot book. speaking of other works by the same people- also absolutely adore we know the devil (to the point that i have a tattoo inspired by it), and now have to ask if you've played heaven will be mine, too? also, didn't mean ttrpgs but would love to hear your thoughts on them regardless!! I've never had people to play with (with one short exception) but have desperately wanted to play ttrpgs for aaaaages and love hearing abt them as a result

GOD OF COURSE IVE READ THE WHOLE WAYFARERS SERIES!!!!! 💖💖💖💖💖 they’re INCREDIBLE!! i haven’t read psalm for the wild-built because i don’t like ebooks, but i’d love to get the hardcover someday!!

i’ve STARTED hwbm but i never finished it 😭 it’s forever on my to-play list but i just never have the time… which is a huge bummer because i ADORE wktd and i know hwbm will similarly change my life but it feels like it’s such a Commitment to sit down and play the game you know?

my favorite ttrpg hands-down is Wanderhome by Jay Dragon; it’s literally everything i want in a game: an evocative fantasy-adjacent setting; mechanics centering exploration and character interaction and roleplay; furries; a hopeful-but-melancholy tone; i love it SO much

other games i love are Our Queen Crumbles by Jason Brown, a weird-fantasy story game where the ending is determined and you play by depleting your character sheet; Roustabout by Micah Anderson, a pick-up-and-play rpg inspired by the band The Decemberists; ViewScream by Rafael Chandler which isn’t really a TTRPG because it’s played over Discord or Skype but it’s a very cool horror game; and Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings, which is a solo journaling game rather than a traditional rpg but it’s easily the best example of the genre. i also want to try Troika!, Tunnels & Trolls, MÖRK BORG, and Pathfinder as OSR alternatives to D&D but i don’t have time, money, or a play group for that 😭

[dungeonofthedragon]

Wanderhome is diceless and produces amazing, unexpected stories! There's advice for playing it solo, two-player GMless, and multiplayer GMed and GMless both. I've only ever played it in two-player GMless form, and it's one of my gaming highlights.

Shadow/Giant is an asymmetric game about a child with magical abilities and the jaded adult who they rely on for protection. It's very story focussed!

If my mom and her friend wanna play a 2-person TTRPG that’s mostly story-focused rather than crunchy numbers, what can I recommend to them?

[takataapui]

For the tarot ask game: the Heirophant and the Sun!

Thanks for the ask!

The Tarot RPG Designer ask game.

the Heirophant: Who is a fellow game designer you’ve learned a lot from? OR What is a piece of popular wisdom about games you think is nonsense?

I kickstarted Wanderhome by @jdragskyon a whim years ago, which was my first foray into non-dnd ttrpgs, and I think everything changed for me then! Reading through Wanderhome made me realise that ttrpgs could be more than what dnd is and claims to do, and how ttrpg rulesets can be a story in themselves, and hold you softly. I think as well, after Wanderhome, I became interested in the BoB system, so I read Dream Askew Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum which along with Wanderhome, truly made me realise the power of ttrpgs and collective storytelling for justice.

the Sun: Talk about a game you’ve made that you’re proud of.

The game I'm the most proud of that I've made is 'the farmer and the bog body' . It's my first foray out of solo journaling games, and it's definitely the game I've spent the most time on! It's made using a system called the 7 Questions RPG system, by Morgan Davie, and I've also fallen in love with that system and am planning another game using the system! I played it with my mum, which before then, she'd never played a ttrpg of any kind, and she found it really interesting and though provoking, so that's my claim to fame haha. It's not one of my games that got a lot of attention, which I'm sad about, as to me, it's the best game I've made.

Thanks again for the questions!

[snarkelf]

Hiiiii besties I combined two of my new favorite things which are Wanderhome and pining and made a blog about both: @dearprinceeverett

It’s a solo play Wanderhome adventure about an anonymous suitor writing to a mysterious prince about his journies across the Haeth. Each post is a different letter to this Prince Everett and each post you learn more about the world and the relationship that these characters had once upon a dream.

If you’re interested in Wanderhome and unique takes on ttrpgs or my writing or just if you’re curious I’d appreciate a follow and maybe some reblogs when the actual posts start coming up!