Wayafter - Project Waysworn

ABOUT

PROJECT WAYSWORN

Waysworn is a Caravan Management and Exploration game, where the goal is to venture out into an ever-changing frontier, where events, locations, and potential encounters are randomized.

During your journey, you will not only control where your Expedition will go via various Map Markers, but also manage your Caravan and its Travellers; from what kind of wagons are in your Caravan, to the needs of your people, and to the skills and abilities of your most valuable assets, your Companions. You will manage and deploy various Characters, as they lead your Squads, resolve Events, and explore the lands.

Your journey will be a dangerous one, as all manner of threats and challenges await out in the Dreambound Weave of the World Wayafter.

* Management - Roleplaying - Roguelite - Digital Tabletop *

Waysworn is not a video-game, but it is a game of sorts.

Essentially, it is a digital Board-Game project, with some TTRPG elements added, and designed with replayability in mind.

It is what one could call an a untraditional game, as it isn't going to be a launchable application, but rather a collection of tools, sheets, maps, and similar resources. In that sense it is very similar to a physical Board-Game, except all the required items are kept digitally.

* TTRPG Adventure *

One goal is to make this game somewhat compatible with TTRPG adventures.

What I mean by this, is that you can alternatively play the game as if it were a campaign in your TTRPG System of suitable choice. The game itself will have its own rules, mechanics, and features, but I'm leaving the possiblity for this world to be accessible to roleplaying with friends, by allowing for DM's to manage the world and encounters, as the players lead their Expedition together.

However, it's not my goal to create a sort of Campaign Module of any current Systems, so I won't actively be adapting it for any popular TTRPGs. But, it will be fairly open for others to adapt it if so desired, as I'll be mindful to keep many aspects open to TTRPG gaming.

* Playing Time *

The game is going to be designed for daily sessions, and it will also allow for cooperative play with 1-4+ other players, though solo play is also very viable.

A single in-game Cycle is intended to offer gameplay for shorter sessions, but with the option of stretching out a play session by adding more Cycles per session, if wanted.

* Follow the Project *

If you are interested in the project, be sure to follow on

Patreon to keep up with any future development updates!

THE GAME

PROJECT WAYSWORN

Your goal is to lead an Expedition across an unknown frontier , and survive the journey there and back.

* Your Expedition *

Players start off by creating their Expedition in the safety of their homeland: the Six Cities. There they will gather the aid of rich and influential Sponsors, who will provide the funding for the creation of the Player's Expedition - in exchange for certain goals they wish to see achieved during the player's travels. Companions are recruited, Travellers hired, and Wagons, gear, and supplies procured.

* Caravan Management *

After they set out into the Frontier, players will have control over a Caravan of various Wagons and Travellers, who have their own needs and requirements for contentedness and survival. Players must manage hunger, goods, and resources to ensure that their Expedition survives to reach their destination.

They may also customize and design rooms for their Wagons, to provide bonuses and aid in the Caravan's day-to-day challenges. Wagons are valuable assets, which are used to house Travellers, provide facilities for crafting and resource gathering, training of Units, storing of inventory, and many more benefits. However, Wagons can break if not maintained or protected, so players must take care to defend them against foes and nature.

* Lead the Way *

Players take on the role of a powerful Sovereign, whose powers allow them to command Expeditions and lead their Retinue into the World Wayafter. They will have access to powerful Companions known as Wayfinders. These can be sent out to explore various places on the world map to gather resources, fight in dangerous encounters, or uncover secrets via sets of choice-based events.

Additionally, Wayfinders are essential in finding a route through the Wayafter, as they draw Path Cards to reveal new Paths that the Caravan can traverse. But not all Paths are safe, as some might have certain conditions, effects, and dangers attached to them, which will affect the Expedition's Wagons and Travellers.

As the Expedition moves across the Wayafter, the challenges will mount the longer the Expedition remains on the map, and the deeper they venture into the unknown, since it will eventually draw the attention of the Numenic forces of Doom & Obscurity - whose desire is to see you fail your mission.

Moving through the Paths of the Wayafter, the Expedition may find safety in various Sanctuaries, such as settlements or Menhirs, where Doom & Obscurity can't reach them. In simpler terms, the ideal conduct is to go from Safe Point A to Safe Point B, and so on.

* Journey's End *

The ultimate goal, however, is to survive the journey, and have the player hopefully return to the homeland with their mission goals achieved. With newly gained spoils and a wealth of experience, players can invest funds and assets into constructing and expanding a personal home Stronghold for themselves in the Six Cities, with all its own benefits for your Character.

Or players may save their hard-earned money, and instead put it to good use in improving their future Expeditions. Set out on new Expeditions with new Sponsors and goals in mind, and try to succeed to add more to your personal holdings. Work together or alone to establish a legacy you can be proud of, or fail and lose it all out there in the unknown wilderness.

But all the while, there are certain greater secrets waiting to be found out in the distant Wayafter, of hidden places no one has yet to see, or beyond the Pathways where none have returned from. Cross the border of no-return and perhaps you might find your Journey's End, and gain everything in the process, or lose your way, and be forgotten in oblivion's nothingness.

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Recruit, Procure, and Set Out on your Journey

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Explore a vast and ever-changing Frontier

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Lead your Retinue of skilled Wayfinders and hopeful Travellers

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Beware the Night, and what ancient Horrors or newborn Terrors lurk within

HOW TO PLAY

PROJECT WAYSWORN

* Development *

This is a passion project of mine, and so its development will probably fluctuate a lot. I'm mostly working on this project in what little spare time I have, and with little to no funding to support it. I don't expect the game is going to be finished anytime soon, but it is progressing slowly.

* Pricing *

Project Waysworn is intended to be completely free. All the first edition tools, rules, sheets, and main resources will be part of the finished product, and they won't cost you a single silver piece.

However, future additions - such as newer maps or possible expansions - will most likely require purchasing, though the wish is also to keep the prices low!

* Download *

- Coming soon! -

For now there is no ready game to try out yet. But the current plan is to at least try to make a simple playable version as soon as possible first, but I can't provide any info on a definite release for that yet.

Please do follow on Patreon for potential updates on this!

WAYCODEX

PROJECT WAYSWORN

In addition to the game itself, there will also be a digital "book" --known as the Waycodex-- that will provide some helpful and interesting lore notes about the world of Project Waysworn and those who inhabit it.

The intention is to write lore pages when I find the time, and post them on the Patreon, and one day I might compile them all together into one proper compendium.

* Those Who Follow After *

We follow in the steps of a new and fresh Wayfinder traveller, who has just begun to set out and explore the World Wayafter. With the Waycodex to guide them, they seem intent on seeing this journey through. However, they weren't the first to own this book.

* Those Who Went Before *

The pages are inherited from others who possessed the Waycodex before. They have left behind various notes and comments scribbled in the pages of every entry. As we go on through the entries, we might find clues that reveal the personality, goals, personal views, and ultimate fates of these diverse individuals.

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Find your Way

THE WORLD

PROJECT WAYSWORN

The primary Setting of the World Wayafter is what I have decided to call "Waypunk". I don't believe this is a World Setting that has been used before, or a least it isn't very common, so I want to try to explain it as best I can below:

* Waypunk Key Points *

The Road: The setting will typically feature some kind of central transit system - whether it’s a literal highway, a network of ancient magical portals, a vast railway, or shipping lanes across a sky-ocean.

Vestiges of the Past: The world often feels old, and is built on the ruins or remnants of a forgotten era, leaving travelers to piece together history from the landmarks they pass. There are secrets hidden in the past, and mysteries to be unfolded.

Evolving Landscapes: The world is rarely uniform. As characters move, the environments, cultures, languages, and even the laws of physics or magic can change drastically from one "stop" to the next.

Cozy Aesthetics: Waypunk often leans away from grimdark or similarly purely dark Settings. Even if the world has ended from a post apocalyptic event, or is an overall dangerous place, the tone emphasizes community, mutual aid, and finding beauty in daily living.

Found Family: Characters are frequently outcasts, drifters, or seekers who form tight, makeshift families along the road. They flee from pasts that haunt them, and find healing in the company of their new comrades. This Setting is about -their- stories.

Wayroad Communities: The Setting features unique rest stops, wandering merchant caravans, isolated inns, and temporary campfires where travelers share stories before moving on. These offer necessary respite for weary travellers, and vital places of resupply.

Salvage & Repair: Technology is often modular, mechanical, and repaired on the fly. Characters spend a lot of time scavenging parts and resources to keep their vehicles moving.

Vessels & Vehicles: The primary tech revolves around transportation. Expect highly customized, lived-in vehicles - like modified airships, scrappy tanks, village-like sea vessels, cozy wagons, or walking houses.

* What is Waypunk? *

Waypunk is a Setting that focuses mainly on the journey, and not the locations or destinations. It centers around travellers, as they venture together through unknown lands. The narratives told are those of the road, and the joys and challenges of companionship, or the dangers of beasts or unyielding terrain encountered along the way.

People in a Waypunk world are often outcasts, drifters, and various seekers, who might find themselves travelling together for a common cause or reason, and eventually work together as allies.

The Setting is inherently not really about grand nations, major wars, or world-altering political intrigues. Waypunk is about the stories told around campfires, about found families, and leaving behind troubled pasts.

The suffix of "punk" in this instance relies heavily on the broader aesthetic definition often used in most Worldbuilding Settings, and not on the specific definition of fighting against an establishment or overarching world order.

The overall tone of Waypunk is generally quite adventurous and high-spirited, choosing to focus on more slice of life aspects a lot of the time. However, while it is often presented as high fantasy, Waypunk isn't limited to those vibes, and can contain elements of darker fantasy and adult themes. The initial facade is usually quite bright, but with darkness hidden deeper within.

* Wheels & Sails *

One major aesthetic feature of Waypunk is the prominent inclusion of Wheels, Sails, and the vehicles or vessels that make use of them.

The denizens of these worlds make use of unusual and sometimes massive forms of transportation, which they use to traverse the Frontiers' lands or waters, or whatever other obstacles that require such means of travel. These vehicles are often quite modular, lived-in, and highly customizable, to allow their passengers to use them as homes, and not just transportation.

Wheels and Sails might also feature heavily in other ways, such as in the culture or decorative whims of the Setting's inhabitants.

In addition to vehicles, the roads or transit systems that they travel also play a major role in a Waypunk Setting; whether it be a forever-stretching singular railway, sets of ever-expanding portals, or magical, temporary Paths that change the land around them each cycle.

* Exploration & Communities *

Waypunk is about exploring a vast Frontier, be it wastelands, lands far away, or the great unknown.

The world of a Waypunk Setting is rarely uniform. As characters move on their journey, the environments, cultures, languages, and perhaps even the very laws of physics or magic can change drastically from one "stop" to the next.

And each stop tends to feature unique locations, such as various lonesome middle-of-nowhere taverns, rest stops, campsites, enduring outposts, faraway settlements, and so on. Similarly, one can expect to find other people and Caravans also wandering the same road, who can offer trade or stories from their own journeys.

An important feature of this Setting is the unknown. Travellers might have goals in mind, and perhaps even a desired destination, but the true world is the one that is yet to be found. The world and its lands are uncertain from the perspective of the traveller, whose journey acts as the gateway to finding and learning more about the greater, undiscovered world.

* Steamtech & Crystals *

Technologically speaking, the main culture of the Waypunk Setting makes use of Steamtech, though they might also at times learn to utilize various kinds of Arcanatech machines, or even more mysterious Crystaltech.

Crystals and Shards lay scattered throughout the world, many of which possess potent concentrations of Aether, which will be needed to power the different technologies or vehicles in the form of fuel and energy. In some cases they might also be used to craft various magical spells or devices.

When on the road, one should expect to find many makeshift technologies and solutions, as the vehicles used to travel might need to retrofit scavenged salvage, or rely on temporary fixes for maintenance.

[The technological level itself is in truth not that important for a Waypunk Setting, as it can be rooted in either sci-fi or fantasy of varying degrees.]

* Mysteries & Vestiges *

There is an overlying sense of mystery about the Waypunk Setting. Things out there are not always what they seem, and the power of Aether permeates throughout the lands, as it flows and alters the world around it, and its effects are seen clearly through its magic - a power that people in this world have rarely seen, but can learn to understand and wield.

Ancient and extinct civilizations hide forgotten knowledge in their ruins, of a past that has been obliviated or hidden away. Perhaps there are remnant forces around, who know the truth, but dare not speak it to those who came after.

The world often feels old, as it is built on the ruins or remnants of a forgotten era, leaving travelers to piece together history from the landmarks they pass.

The current peoples of this world know very little of the past world, or the myths that made it. This is an essential component of Waypunk - again featuring the overall unknown nature of the world. There is potentially a great mystery that evades the understanding of those who seek it.

Something is out there; something that once was, or has yet to become.

And it must be found.

* The Hope of Tomorrow *

A final importance in Waypunk, is that there is an overarching threat of some kind, that hangs over the minds of all travellers. This threat is what forces them - as a people - to set out on their journeys.

The Waypunk Setting ideally features some kind of great dilemma, which the travellers of this world work to either find a solution for, or they seek to flee from it. Their journey is one to find hope against adversity, or to find escape from the doom at their heels.

Every day is a victory against the ever-increasing odds, and every day must be treasured for its coming.

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Recruit, Procure, and Set Out on your Journey

Heading 5

Explore a vast and ever-changing Frontier

Heading 5

Lead your Retinue of skilled Wayfinders and hopeful Travellers

Heading 5

Beware the Night, and what ancient Horrors or newborn Terrors lurk within

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Find your Way

© Daniel-André Sørensen 2020-2026. All rights reserved.

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