Dread vs Wanderhome
Compare Dread and Wanderhome side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dread | Wanderhome | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror | Fantasy |
| Tags | Atmospheric, CC-Licensed Rules, Character-Driven, Deadly, Diceless, Experimental, Fiction-First, Narrative, One-Shot Friendly, Rules-Light | Cozy, Narrative, Diceless, GM-Less, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Rules-Light, Roleplay-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | The host calls for a pull when a character attempts something they could conceivably do but might fail, particularly outside their experience or under aggravated conditions. The player removes one block from a shared tower and places it on top, and the action succeeds if the tower remains standing. Refusing the pull means the action fails, though that failure cannot remove the character from the game. If the tower collapses, that player's character is removed from the game. | No dice, no GM. Belonging Outside Belonging engine: earn tokens by inconveniencing yourself or stepping outside your comfort zone; spend tokens to help others, reveal secrets, or achieve difficult actions. Violence is explicitly absent. Playbooks define each character's nature through lists of things they can always do, things that earn tokens, and things that cost tokens. Seasons and nature guide the journey. |
| Dice | Diceless | Diceless |
| Complexity | Very Low | Very Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | 3 of 5 book tools | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 | Proprietary |
| Third-Party Publishing | Noncommercial only — Open license | Not yet researched |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | The Impossible Dream | Possum Creek Games |
| Year | 2005 | 2021 |
| Languages | English, German, Italian, Hungarian | English |
| Best For | Groups who want a single-session horror story where improvised character drama and irreversible risk matter more than tactical combat. | Groups who want gentle, non-violent storytelling about animal-folk journeying through a pastoral world: exploring themes of community, seasons, and small acts of kindness. |
| Highlights | Successful pulls leave the shared tower increasingly precarious, so earlier success raises the risk for every later action. Questionnaire answers define each character's capabilities and vulnerabilities, giving the host concrete material for rulings and scenarios. Deliberately toppling the tower lets a player trade their character for one final dramatically appropriate success. | Best TTRPG 2021 from Polygon and Dicebreaker, token economy (earn tokens by stepping outside comfort zone, spend them to help others) mechanically enforces non-violent play, Belonging Outside Belonging engine removes dice and GM roles, seasonal calendar structures the journey |
| Considerations | The game requires a physical block tower, a stable surface, and manual dexterity. A collapse removes a character from play, so a player can lose their character before the story ends. Running the game asks the host to prepare questionnaires and make frequent pull judgments, even when running a published scenario. | Tokens are earned and spent to take certain actions, so a table that loses track of them can stall its own pacing. Shared narrative authority spreads scene framing across the whole group, which can leave participation uneven when confidence differs. Playbook Natures fix a character's emotional register, which can feel constraining across a long campaign. |