Dungeons & Dragons vs Wanderhome
Compare Dungeons & Dragons and Wanderhome side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Dungeons & Dragons | Wanderhome | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Heroic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Classic Fantasy, Vancian Casting, Ascending AC | Cozy, Narrative, Diceless, GM-Less, Collaborative, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Rules-Light, Roleplay-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Make a D20 Test by rolling d20, adding relevant modifiers, and comparing the total to a target number. Ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls use this procedure. Advantage and disadvantage use two d20s and keep the higher or lower result. | 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 | d20 | Diceless |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | Very High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | CC BY 4.0 (SRD); core books proprietary | Proprietary |
| Cost | Free | $$ |
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast | Possum Creek Games |
| Year | 2024 | 2021 |
| Best For | Groups who want heroic fantasy with configurable tactical combat, broad character options, and campaigns that span multiple levels. | 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 | Advantage and disadvantage resolve common situational effects by selecting the higher or lower of two d20 rolls. Backgrounds, classes, subclasses, and feats distribute character choices across creation and advancement. Weapon Mastery gives qualifying weapon users distinct tactical effects without replacing the action economy. | 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 | Spell preparation, spell slots, class features, and conditions create several interacting resources for players to track. High-level characters combine many spells and features, increasing adjudication work for the DM. Bastions add a separate downtime procedure for campaigns that use the stronghold rules. | 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. |