How Wanderhome Mechanises Animism

15 November 2024

Wanderhome has had a massive impact on me as a designer, and the release of the Wanderhome Directors Commentary (available to anyone who owns the game on itch.io) got me thinking about its genius design once again.

Wanderhome is a pastoral fantasy TTRPG about talking animals in a world that was once wrought with war and rebellion, but which is now in the process of rebuilding and healing from the conflict. This is the game that has come the closest to making me cry with its text alone, nevermind the stories you get when you actually start playing.

Wanderhome’s world takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli and Japanese folklore, as well as Native American and Celtic stories and culture. All three of these cultures hold (or once held) spiritual beliefs featuring Animism: the idea that every creature, plant, object and place has a soul and is alive in some way.

This is reflected in Wanderhome in two ways: the first of which is the Small and Forgotten Gods that inhabit the world.

The Small and Forgotten Gods mainly exist in the Caretaker character playbook, whose job it is to collect these gods and find them a place to live and be worshipped, but they permeate the text throughout, appearing in a number of natures and seasonal holidays as well. Players are encouraged to create their own Small and Forgotten Gods, but some are named in the Caretaker Playbook, such as Dulcet, a god of tiny melodies; and Ravel, a god of tangled yarn.

These Gods are reminiscent of the Japanese Kami, of which it is said there are 8 million. Including Ama-Tsu-Mara, the Kami of ironworking; and Seidai Myōjin, the Kami of sports.

While some Kami have domains like this, other Kami are equated with places, like Konohanasakuya-hime, the Kami of Mount Fuji, who is said to prevent the volcano from erupting as long as she is kept pleased. Wanderhome also represents this side of animism, not in the game’s setting, but in its mechanics.

When you create a place in Wanderhome, you make it with 3 Natures, each of these natures is named after a geographical feature, but they can represent the place literally or metaphorically.

Each nature comes with a list of 3 things it can do, and players can take control of natures to perform these actions. The game tells players to have these natures laid out on the table and pick them up when they wish to play them.

This act, of playing a place like a character, perfectly represents a world that is literally alive, just like the beliefs of the cultures the game is inspired by. I was blown away when I made this connection! Nowhere in the text is it said that places are alive, but they act in exactly the same way the kith who inhabit the land do.

This is such an interesting way to represent metaphysical concepts in a gameworld and it's something I’d love to include in a game of my own.

During my research for this, I came across a couple other metaphysical game mechanics which I thought were really interesting. Dolmenwood has ley lines on its hexcrawl map that are only known to the GM. I’d love to make something like that, with points of magical significance placed where these invisible lines converge. I’ve also seen discussion by designer Makapatag about a buddhist-inspired inventory system, where each PC can only have 108 attachments (physical, mental and social), representing the 108 temptations that lie on the road to Nirvana.

If you’ve seen any other metaphysical game mechanics, let me know in the comments! Otherwise, I hope this has given you a new appreciation for Wanderhome, or even inspired you to create your own metaphysical mechanics!

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