Role-Playing Game

Welcome to the WanderSquares Playtest!

WANDERSQUARES is a fantasy table-top role-playing game for adventurers, age 9 and up. It features an expanding, ever-changing map, a 96-page choose-your-path adventure guide and 16 inspiring characters to choose from. I put together this Print & Play Playtest Edition so that everyone can join in on the adventure. With a printer, scissors and a little bit of tape you can play the complete game, from the Start Square to the Final Boss Battle.

The Print & Play Edition comes in 4 parts:

WanderSquares Adventure Guide Booklet - 30mb PDF download - 96 pages

WanderSquares Rules of Play Booklet - 12mb PDF download - 50 pages

WanderSquares Character Sheets - 14mb PDF download - 16 Characters

WanderSquares Game Parts - 48mb PDF download - 32 Adventure Squares & more

What you’ll need to bring

You’ll have to bring a couple of things to play the game:

  1. Scissors to cut out all the parts

  2. Scotch tape or a glue stick for the Character Pieces

  3. Pencils for each Player and the Storyteller

  4. 2-5 Players (1 Storyteller + up to 4 Characters)

  5. 2 Six-sided dice for each Player and the Storyteller

  6. A big table to play around!

About the game

The map in WanderSquares is made up of 32 Adventure Squares. Each Adventure Square is its own tiny story; with actions, outcomes, monsters and treasure. With each new direction the players choose, the map grows in endless combinations.

One player gets to be the Storyteller, taking the other players through the adventure. The Storyteller lays out the Adventure Squares, narrates the story and guides the action. They also plays the part of all the creatures & monsters that the players encounter, sharing clues if the characters choose to talk, and rolling the dice if they choose to battle.

The other players choose characters to explore the adventure. The can choose from one of 4 classes: Knights, Wizards, Tricksters or Scouts, and one of 4 different kinds: Humans, Gnomes, Elves or Faeries. Each character comes from a different magic world and has different skills, spells and stuff. The characters can build experience and level-up with every battle they win and puzzle they solve.

Take a little time to read the Rules of Play and the The Adventure Guide and the game will be twice as much fun! The Quickstart Guide in the WanderSquares Game Parts gives a list of the most important bits to to read before you play.

We’d love your feedback

If you’d like to give feedback on WanderSquares please take this short survey:

»WanderSquares Playtest Feedback - Fall 2020

If you’d like more information about WanderSquares or the upcoming Kickstarter Campaign, please send an email!

Draw-Your-Own Monster Face

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FRESH from the WanderSquares monster factory come the secret instructions to Draw-Your-Own Monster Face! Mix and match from hundreds of miscellaneous monster parts to come up with thousands of different faces. Start with a shape, draw it nice and big on your sheet of paper, then add all the eyes, ears, mouths and noses that you’d like. Remember, there are no wrong monsters in WanderSquares! Have a monstrous time!

WanderSquares Draw-Your-Own Monster Face - 3mb PDF download

Draw-Your-Own Adventure Kit

INTRODUCING the WanderSquares Draw-Your-Own Adventure Kit, featuring everything you need to map out your own quest. The print-at-home kit features storyboards, adventure squares and lots of monsters and backgrounds for you to draw and color. Just download and print, grab your pens and pencils and begin your adventure!

WanderSquares Draw-Your-Own Adventure Kit - 10mb PDF download

Scenes from a Playtest

THIS was the first playtest with all the printed finished parts, the new character sheets and the zine-style Adventure Guide. After lots of little playtests and working on the art for years, it was exciting to see it all come together. Set-up went pretty quickly, with the new pre-made characters. Player 1 (skip-the-rules mom) chose Bekwenna, human knight, Player 2 (the bookworm) chose Xochi, human wizard, Player 3 (the lego kid) chose Trynn, the human scout. No elves, faeries or gnomes this time around! I tried to point out that faeries can fly, gnomes are great at puzzles and elves are great at magic, but no takers. On to the adventure…

Session 1: Set-up & Go (45 minutes)

The game took about 15 minutes to set-up, walk everyone through their character sheets, get all the parts and pieces out, put on some spooky dungeon music and then we started. I read the set-up and dropped them into the first Adventure Square. They chose a direction and on the second square found the Leaf Notes, after dealing with a very grumpy monster. They’d found their first Major Magic Item, one of the key Treasure Cards to unlocking the final challenge.

I had shuffled and reshuffled the Adventure Squares at random and was a little surprised that they landed on something so momentous so early in the game. It made me think that maybe the Storyteller should stack the deck; keep it mostly random, but make sure the big events are spaced out so the adventure doesn’t move too quickly. At any rate, the party was off to a great start.

They moved through 6 cards in the first session and we wrapped in 30 minutes. Each Adventure Square took an average of 4 minutes, from choosing a new direction, hearing the description, choosing an action and solving the puzzle and/or battling the monster. Although the story set-up at the beginning was a little long, the gameplay moved quickly. I snapped a picture of the map and stacked all the parts.

Session 2: Keep Exploring (30 minutes)

State of the Map

This was the state of the map after 60 minutes. The adventure was about 75% done. The party has recovered 2 out of 3 major magic items and has managed not to get clobbered by any monsters, although there were a couple of fierce battles. Finally we got to test out how battles worked and didn’t work and what needed to be changed. This led to a major re-write of battles, spells and how difficult to make encounters. Luckily the rules were still a print-out at this stage!

Session 3: The Big Finish (30 Minutes)

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In the final 30-minute session the players discovered the last Major Magic Item and unlocked the final challenge. The explored 20 out of the 32 squares and encountered most of the interesting characters and puzzles along the way. The total elapsed time was 1 hour, 45 minutes (15 minutes of set-up time, 90 minutes of playing time).

Big Takeaways from the First Playtest

  1. Shorten the intro - kids in general, and and instruction-skipping moms, are not interested in a long story intro, they just want to play.

  2. Stack the deck - A totally random shuffle of the Adventure Cards may make the game too short, too easy or too hard right away. In the next playtest, consider spacing out the Special Squares and Major Magic Items.

  3. Draw a Treasure Card every time - It will speed up the action and make the game more consistent if the players always get a treasure card.

  4. Design some quick start guides - There was a lot of information about spells, and how to battle, that the players needed to have with them at all times. A couple of “quick start” guides that they can easily reference will speed up the game.

  5. Make things a little harder - I realized a lot of the challenges were too easy. As we played I pencilled in some on-the-fly tweaks to the Adventure Guide to make sure the rolls didn’t always go the players way.

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Player Feedback

The playtesters (ok, actually my captive family) were happy to play with the finished cards after watching me drawing artwork for the past 9 months. I’d usually hand the square around before placing it on the table so everyone could get a good look before we jumped into the action. The Adventure Squares, Treasure Cards and Character Sheets gave the game the feeling and excitement I hoped for, bringing the story to life and making it easy to see and feel what was going on. There were a lot of notes taken, lessons learned and tweaks to make but the game held together and we’re off to a great start!

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Create Your Adventure

WANDERSQUARES is a fantasy table-top role-playing game for adventurers, age 9 and up. It features an expanding, ever-changing map, a 100-page choose-your-path adventure guide and 16 inspiring characters to choose from.

I created WanderSquares as a fun way to get my kids into role-playing games. I wanted to make a game that would be easy to understand, set-up and start playing right away. The map in WanderSquares is made up of 32 Adventure Squares. Each Adventure Square is its own tiny story; with actions, outcomes, monsters and treasure. With each new direction the players choose, the map grows in endless combinations.

Be the Storyteller

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One player gets to be the Storyteller, taking the other players through the adventure. The Storyteller lays out the Adventure Squares, narrates the story and guides the action. They also plays the part of all the creatures & monsters that the players encounter, sharing clues if the characters choose to talk, and rolling the dice if they choose to battle.

Choose Your Character

The other players choose characters to explore the adventure. The can choose from one of 4 classes: Knights, Wizards, Tricksters or Scouts, and one of 4 different kinds: Humans, Gnomes, Elves or Faeries. Each character comes from a different magic world and has different skills, spells and stuff. The characters can build experience and level-up with every battle they win and puzzle they solve.

Your Mission Awaits

In each adventure the Characters have a mission to accomplish. When they discover all the adventure’s hidden secrets and major magic items, they unlock the final challenge. Then, with luck, smarts and courage, they can win the game!

The Story Begins…

In WanderNotes I’ll be sharing stories about the game design, playtesting, the WanderSquares universe and how to make your own do-it-yourself version of a WanderSquares adventure. I hope you enjoy the journey.