''Wanderhome'' is an indie role-playing game by game designer Jay Dragon about animal people in a

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

setting, based upon the Belonging Outside Belonging game system by

Avery Alder Avery Alder is a Canadian tabletop role-playing game designer. She designs games with themes of LGBTQ self-discovery, community building, and post-apocalyptic survival. Alder invented the Belonging Outside Belonging system, which became a templa ...

and Benjamin Rosenbaum. It is published by Possum Creek Games. Unlike typical tabletop role-playing games, Wanderhome does not use dice, turns, or a gamemaster, focusing instead on the characters' emotional journey. Dialogue takes the place of battles, and gameplay revolves around question prompts. The mood of Wanderhome, according to ''Polygon''s Chase Carter, is cozy and wholesome, with an undercurrent of trauma from the land's past wars. It was influenced by the Redwall books and Studio Ghibli animated films. It was funded and fulfilled through Kickstarter. Wanderhome won 2022 ENNIE Awards for Best Family-Friendly Game (Gold), Best Cover Art (Gold), and Best Interior Art (Silver). Wanderhome was nominated for the 2021

Nebula Award for Best Game Writing The Nebula Award for Best Game Writing is one of the various Nebula Awards presented each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy game writing, defined as "an interactive or playable story-d ...

. Wanderhome was featured in

Itch.io Itch.io (stylized as itch.io) is a website for users to host, sell and download indie games. Launched in March 2013 by Leaf Corcoran, the service hosts over 500,000 games and items (assets, ebooks, music) . Itch.io also allows users to host ...

's charity bundle for abortion funds.

References

ENnies winners Fantasy role-playing games Indie role-playing games Kickstarter-funded tabletop games LGBT-related tabletop games Role-playing games introduced in 2021 Tabletop games {{Rpg-stub