What do We Mean by "Strange?"

Especially if you’ve been following us on Twitter, you’ve heard us talking a lot about our in-development ttrpg Wayfaring Strange, particularly because we’ll be running 2-hour playtest sessions in the First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon in a couple of weeks. When we talk about Wayfaring Strange, we generally give the elevator pitch that it’s a “diceless tabletop roleplaying game that explores the concepts of hidden highways, urban legends and the necessity of survival in liminal America,” but that doesn’t necessarily get into the meat of what the game is really about. There are a lot of concepts we try to explore in Wayfaring Strange that are difficult to get into in a ten-second soundbite. So, over the next few weeks as GenCon approaches, we’re going to try to tackle a couple of those in-depth to give you a better idea of what to expect when you sit down at one of our tables.

The first and most important thing to mention is that the word “Strange” is capitalized for a reason. When we say something in Wayfaring Strange is, well… Strange, we don’t just mean it’s weird; we mean it’s downright uncanny, unearthly, numinous or sublime. The Strange in Wayfaring Strange is a literal force that exists just beyond the edges of modern society, and it is responsible for all the odd and inexplicable things that lurk at the corners of your vision. It’s also the thing that gives rise to urban legends and folktales, and it shapes those who live on the fringes of civilization, making them at once both more and less than they seem.

Player characters in Wayfaring Strange have all had a brush with the Strange and they have all been changed by it—some moreso than others. And once you’ve seen into the dark corners of reality, once the Strange has become a part of you, it’s hard to go back to a normal life. Sometimes the Strange has other plans....