Wanderhome: a therapeutic antidote to D&D 🦊🐰 RPG Review and Mechanics

Get Wanderhome in PDF at itch:
possumcreekgam...
Wanderhome is a family-friendly, rules-light RPG by Jay Dragon published in 2021. It is centered around animal-folk in a peaceful world who are on a nameless journey, exploring the world and themselves.
Get Wanderhome in print:
www.possumcree...
------------------------------------------------------------
Follow Jay Dragon on Twitter @jdragsky
Get the latest Discord links and updates from Trouser Mouse's page:
trouser-mouse....
Unofficial Wanderhome Resources by Trouser Mouse:
linktr.ee/wand...
------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Jay Dragon for providing a digital copy for review! All opinions expressed in this video are my own and I received no compensation for this review.
📦My Amazon Shop📦
(purchases help the channel!)
www.amazon.com...
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------ .
Support the channel
Patreon: / thaumavore
.
Thaumavore Community
Newsletter sign-up: bit.ly/Thaumav...
.
Dave’s Publications
Fluxfall Horizon, a parallel Earths RPG bit.ly/Fluxfall
Age of Snakes, an Index Card RPG expansion bit.ly/AgeOfSn...
The Turnip Knights, a D&D 5e and Index Card RPG one-shot bit.ly/TurnipK...

[@MaxChaplin]

I like the fact that it takes place in a post-war world. It adds a certain heaviness that keeps the setting from being too sugary, it's mature without being edgy and it serves as a constant reminder of the need for the game's pacifist stance.

[@sillybillybear50]

… oh it’s Undertale (I DMed it recently and just realized this connection, haha)

[@brainonair7401]

This feels like the system to run a "Over the garden wall" campaign.

[@octo5042]

I was struggling to visualize what a game of wanderhome would look like, but you have just summed it up for me

[@JackMack]

Over the garden wall does have violence and danger though. They fight a monster in the first episode. It feels like, maybe it would be a better fit for The Wind in The Willows or something like that.

[@thegneech]

I'm fascinated by the rise of what I call "cozycore" games; this one, Burn Bryte, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, et al.; games that are all about the feels instead of killing monsters and taking their stuff. I dig it!

[@DaveThaumavore]

Agreed. Killing monsters gets super old after a while.

[@PhilippeLemaire]

Dave, you made me buy Mouse Guard, L5R, Masks, Ryuutama, Forbidden Lands, Legacy Life among the ruins, Coriolis, Alien, Vaesen… But this one, I backed it so I owned it before. I even played it.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Haha! You beat me to it this time.

[@nilssommer2544]

Honestly, you are the Bob Ross of RPG reviews and I am always hyped for each and every of your videos. Thank you for keeping up the stream of great content :D

[@DaveThaumavore]

Very high praise. Thank you!

[@marcfals2449]

Somehow this reminds a lot of the first season of Amphibia and Over the Garden Wall, both shows that I love very much. Also reminds me of Stardew Valley, that is my favourite game. This seems so teraupetic to play

[@_evillevi]

Every. Time. You. Upload a video. My "have to play" list grows.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Thank you! That’s very flattering.

[@Tysto]

I immediately thought of my local daycare facility for the mentally handicapped. I bet they’d love something like this.

[@mashthebanana]

I'm so excited because my friend loves DnD and from her other interests, personality etc. I feel like she'd really love this game so I'm thinking of buying it for her. I have never actually played RPG before so idk what I'm looking for/ at really, which is why I found your video. When you said the play sheets were fairly bland/ not the best my designer brain got so excited thinking about how I could make custom ones for my friend and then I realised I have no idea what i'm doing as i've never touched a play sheet before XD maybe my friend can walk me through how it works after I get the game for her lol

[@ashkumar4730]

This was such perfect timing, Dave! I'm getting friends jazzed about playing this. Your reviews are the best; I couldn't have asked the universe for anyone else that I'd liked to have seen do it.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Awesome to hear! The tiny forgotten of gods of Hæth have blessed your journey with this coincidence it seems.

[@paavohirn3728]

Amazing review that evokes the feeling of this game! I'm continuously astounded by the evolution of rpg's these days and I really appreciate it even as an old school DnD kinda guy.

[@samchafin4623]

Describing characters by what they aren't as well s what they are? Oh wow! That gives me a whole lot to think about.

[@Hedgeclipperz]

Always love your reviews and I absolutely love this game! Currently working on a project for this game through the Haeth Grant, so I’ve been deep diving into the book, both as a player and a designer. Love what Possum Creek Games has made! It feels like a game that really matters.

[@knutaf]

What a wonderfully narrated review that also answered all of my questions about it. Thank you for this.

[@PrestonCarey90]

A quarter of the way in and it feels like Fall of Magic meets Good Society...

[@migsmigs2425]

Very clean, concise, fair, and well done review. For another pastoral game which abhors violence, take a peek at Under Hill, By Water. Again, kudos on your channel; you've earned another impressed subscriber.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Thank you! Yeah, Im familiar with UHBW. I love hobbits.

[@langfordmorrow177]

I really appreciate your analysis style, it's truly a joy to watch your reviews

[@gamera5160]

It's a fun sweet little game. It's nice to just have a nice day with friends and go on an interesting journey to cool places and meet friendly woodland creatures. It's a refreshing change of pace from other darker systems I'm more used to playing in. That being said, I have two criticisms of the system. 1) Tokens are pointless. They don't do anything. It's almost like the creators felt like they had to have SOME kind of mechanics in the game. I suppose it could be useful for a player who's not a strong rper to be motivated to take some basic character defining choices, but my table just ignored the existence of tokens and we still had fun. 2) It is very queer... sometimes off-puttingly so. I say this as a bisexual who played the game with two trans individuals and another bisexual. The consensus at our table was that we just wanted to be cute woodland creatures and NOT go on trans/gay journeys of self discovery with our characters. We do that. That's our lives. We wanted to play in a chill fantasy world... and this game is kind of set up to be incredibly chill and you obviously don't have to make queer stuff a part of your campaign, but it's frequently discussed as a common character motivation. It's not a huge deal. It's not an essential part of the game... but the game feels weighted down sometimes. We just didn't want to have discussions about our preferred pronouns, we just wanted to go watch the bumblebee races and eat gingerbread cookies made by grandma badger.

[@TtrpgLover]

I'm considering getting the game but am aware that your point #2 might make the game less appealing to my friends, any tips on how to minimise discomfort?

[@gamera5160]

@@TtrpgLover Make it clear the kind of game that you want to run and reassure them that they don’t have to play the game in a way they find uncomfortable.

[@flashbeast]

What a great premise and how refreshing! Big thanks

[@stephenkramer7157]

I will caution that making sure everyone is on the same page is EXTREMELY important. My group tried it, and while I wouldn't call the atmosphere hostile, it did become more and more suffocating. I walked out before play even got going; when I got back over an hour later, the group still hadn't started, and someone was crying.

[@Naith123]

I feel like I need more context, because this seems like something really broke down

[@stephenkramer7157]

@@Naith123 It mostly came down to the whole "no gods, not dungeon master" attitude of the game and its insistence on a very specific tone. I'm sure both those things work great for some people, and might have for us in different circumstances, but we wound up with two people who were totally onboard (my partner and person who suggested the game), two people who were trying to make the game something it wasn't (me and the partner of the person who suggested the game), and two people who were just kind of there. I want to stress that there were no hard feelings at the table or otherwise. Things like that can happen. My take-away is that making everyone share the roles of player and DM sounds great in theory, but for it to work in practice everyones needs a shared vision from the very start.

[@jasonandkrishandy-kraus123]

What a beautiful review. Going to buy Wanderhome right now.

[@patrickrobles1036]

Now this is compelling.

[@marcobosnia]

I buy it, I really love the idea, I just have a couple of difficulty: 1. I find difficult as a group to find something to "do" maybe it's because i'm used to d&d 2. I find it difficult to act as a facilitator to introduce someone

[@TtrpgLover]

I'm thinking of getting the game myself and so I'm looking at the pros and cons. Could you please elaborate on your point number 2?

[@DanBP21]

Hey! Can Wanderhome be played solo?

[@DaveThaumavore]

Yes, absolutely.

[@miceeonvenus]

I like the vibes of the game, especially the world building, but it seems too loose with a lack of gm and hard rules to work well. I think I would enjoy a bit of a homebrew version that uses the world building, but has a more classic rpg style with stronger rules, a set gm, and a bit of fighting.

[@DaveThaumavore]

I played it recently and our table decided to just have a GM. It worked out nicely that way. Everything else we played rules as written, and it turned out to be a pretty fantastic experience. The lack of fighting was really not an issue at all.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Support the channel by joining my Patreon! www.patreon.com/thaumavore Newsletter sign-up: bit.ly/ThaumavoreNewsletter

[@nikoteardrop4904]

Given some of the comments here, I guess some folks just can't get their heads around the fact that D&D is the only valid framework for an RPG. Which is deeply weird. Conflict and drama doesn't have to include violence, and collaborative games work perfectly well without a GM. Broaden your horizons, folks.

[@nikoteardrop4904]

Also, it's entirely fine to acknowledge that a game just isn't your thing. Doesn't make it a bad game or any less of a RPG.

[@dungeonbuild5490]

Truly refreshing. Thank you.

[@arcubal]

Wow. Just wow. I've been working on an RPG-lite that uses bias-awareness to resolve conflict non-violently in a story tale backdrop and nature-inspired environment so this naturally tickles my imagination. What an awe-inspiring RPG. Very impressive.

[@frostyaustin735]

The Artwork choice is superb.

[@rpgchronicler]

Question is: Can it be played solo? Also here have a new subscriber.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Welcome! Yeah, I’d say this game would be pretty easily played solo, since there is almost zero fuss over mechanics. As long as you have an oracle that you like, there shouldn’t be any real hurdles.

[@TtrpgLover]

What do you mean by oracle​@@DaveThaumavore? Also, hi, new subscriber

[@DaveThaumavore]

@@TtrpgLover Hey, thanks for subscribing. An oracle is a set of tools that are used to run an RPG solo. Some games come with a small oracle section of their own, while others have published entire oracle systems. I recently reviewed one of the best ones, Mythic. bit.ly/Mythic2e

[@GeekPsychology]

This game sounds really interesting!

[@WoebringerofDoom]

My PCs from Black Crusade have found a new world to conquer.

[@idontevenknow9758]

I did pick this one up and everyone in the discord I'm part of for RPGs, rave about this game. So I wanted to understand what it was about I read through the whole thing, but I feel like while the artwork and presentation is great, I'm still having a really hard time understanding how to even run this game. I've read the PDF several times and asked people for help but I'm still not understanding what this game even is. I watched playthroughs of it was well but I'm still not getting the flow. I'm glad you reviewed it and talked about it in more detail. I also feel like the character creation part is WAY too long for something like this. I'm kinda said I can't join in the hype and overwhelming praise. It feels too...loose and without direction which I can see that working for people but for others not so much. I don't see myself playing this game at all.

[@beem3515]

You can play the game with a game master if you'd like! It's all about building a world together and collaboratively creating a story, where each player has an equal say in which way the plot will continue, sort of like improv theatre or even playing pretend

[@idontevenknow9758]

@@beem3515 Its actually super interesting because we had like full debates in our discord about this game. Even people who liked it said they didn't have the urge to play it again because they felt it was so dependent on how well your group can RP. We felt this was not an ideal game for people who never played TTRPGs. I'm kinda old-school I like a combat heavy but also RP focused campaign so I feel like design wise this is not my cup of tea. Which is weird because I really like improv in general and I love story telling but something about wander home is not clicking with me.

[@beem3515]

@@idontevenknow9758 maybe try reading the rules section for Dream askew and Dream Apart or watching some actual plays? I find it a little easier to play as someone who doesn't really play rpgs, i get to focus on the roleplay and character development instead of running through dungeons or rolling dice

[@beem3515]

but its totally okay if that's not for you and you prefer number crunching and combat, which wanderhome has very little of

[@idontevenknow9758]

@@beem3515 Thanks I'm usually cool with trying anything new and I'm glad I gave this a try at least. I'm also happy that its certainly sparked some debates on how far we can go with rules lit TTRPGs. Thanks again for your recommendations.

[@lucasdeconninck1232]

I don't think I hate a game more than this one! I can't quite explain why, must be its overly smarminess and passivity...

[@DaveThaumavore]

I played it last month and our table made an incredible story together. It was like a a Studio Ghibli script. So who knows. To each their own.

[@drmirabilis]

There were two parts in Wanderhome that really struck me. One, the Veteran has a blade that must never be drawn. One of the moves they can always do - immediately draw their blade to kill the kith in front of them. Then you must immediately retire the character and pick a new playbook. For a non-violent game, I found this incredibly shocking and well within theme. Two, Heroic is a Traumatized Trait. “There are some who are cursed with the thought that they alone have the ability to save the world, how sad.” They can always immediately judge the kith in front of them as good or evil. As an avid D&D player, I can’t help but feel incredibly judged by this game in such a thoughtful and poetic way.

[@idealhandsgames5855]

This game looks great!

[@kalleendo7577]

Aweeeeesome!

[@rhedd5911]

I know I’m late to the party, but nice review of a lovely game! It does annoy me, however, that everyone keeps pronouncing Haeth as “hAAth”. That’s the only way it actually can’t be pronounced! It’s either “hIIth” or “hEEth”. I’m assuming it’s “hEEth”, since that’s an actual word, and you know, where the game is set and all. On the heath.

[@MrMilk5hake]

Hæth actually uses the letter æ which is pronounced with a short 'a' sound like in the word ash or cat, not the letters a and e. So the proper pronunciation of Hæth is 'hath'.

[@TheNerdySimulation]

If you, or anyone else, has an interest in this rules system and the way the game plays with the Fantasy Adventure tropes associated with D&D, I really recommend the game Venture which the creator lists as inspiration. It has a secondary game that gets a little Meta called Dungeon that can act as a companion piece to it (as most No Dice, No Masters systems tend to be) but isn't necessary to play Venture at all. My fix for the character sheet issue would be to print out the actual Playbook options. Perhaps even remove the art, so as to prevent players from feeling that their character must appear as the one presented, especially for repeated play. You can easily mark attributes as you see fit, and it lessens having to copy over information. Fantastic review, and glad to see a coverage of something I actually was recently looking at getting myself! :D

[@ansem9999]

So... this is the western version of Ryuutama?

[@DaveThaumavore]

The only thing that makes this “Western” is the artwork style. You can swap in shōnen artwork if you want. Mechanically and spiritually it’s fairly different from Ryuutama.

[@darkonxy]

Well ... hello Redwall the RPG

[@DaveThaumavore]

Mouse Guard is what you're thinking. Wanderhome avoids violence pretty fervently.

[@ammieway6136]

I think it's a great concept, and one I was very excited for the moment I saw that one news article attaching Redwall's name to it. That said, my excitement's faded a bit now - while I'm eager to write a story based on the ideas it's given me, it doesn't quite have the things I loved Redwall for, I think. That, and just... well, I think I want some action in whatever TTRPG I try first. Thank you for making this review, it's been very helpful.

[@FlauFly]

There's plenty of action oriented games. If you love Redwall and want more action oriented game, maybe try Mouse Guard?

[@myautobiographyafanfic1413]

I like the Wind In The Willows vibe, but I'm terrified this will be a furry magnet.

[@twicedeadmage]

I really don`t see the appeal of this game, it`s an aimless attempt of therapy session. It lacks mechanics to the point of almost not being a game. The only thing it has going for it is the art.

[@hoogmonster]

Coming Soon... Wanderhome: Murder Hobo Edition...

[@FreeRangeDice]

Sounds like a terrible game. Great video though. Very informative.