Book List Notepad Unlocked!

Next Stretch Goal £16,000 ~ Unlock Printable Sticker Sheet & Upgrade Lola's Tech
The Wanderer's Bookshop

The Wanderer's Bookshop

Find your "white whale" in the caretaking of a magical bookshop, use tarot cards to guide solo journalling and book curation. Learn to build collections for the future.
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🗓 Estimated to ship by October 1, 2026

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This project is part of 💥 Zinetopia 2026, running from February 2nd – February 27th, 2026. Learn more

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crumbling piece of parchment paper with words in cursive. Text reads " Something keeps you awake at night… A question that tugs at your soul and keeps you wandering… The Bookshop has the magic to lead you to an answer…. If you help it".

The Wanderer’s Bookshop is a solo* journaling bookshop simulator, guided by tarot cards; you collect stories, read books and find your “white whale”.


You play as the impassioned curator of a magical bookshop, a wanderer with a burning literary question that the bookshop will help you solve. Along the way you stoke the magic through caretaking, story collecting and mixed media journalling.

*Parallel play with others through book discussion, trade books and sources, write leading notes in each other’s journals and more.



 a mock up of the wanderer's bookshop cover depicting a night scene, illuminated by bookshop pushed between two buildings, featuring a wooden bookshop front and carved sign with a large tree insisde, surrounded by books and ramp walkways that curve deeper into the bigger on the inside bookshop. Text on the cover reads "the wanderer's bookshop"


The bookshop calls you to give it form and rebuild the magic that has lain fallow. Stoke it by undertaking these tasks and more:

Stock the shelves, read books and connect the shop to new places through world building and collecting stories.

Discover The Bookshop's history and the curators before you, help other wanderer's find books for their quests, piece together fragments to create something new and make or find your own sources to solve the mystery that is your burning question. 

All the while creating a keepsake journal.


Play using:

Graphic showing the play aids combined with text. Tarot cards to represent the guidance and magic of the bookshop, dice to add whimsy and chance to your care taking and a journal and pen in which to collect stories, curios, notes and books.


Weave a world inspired by tarot card prompts and books, through journaling and drawing or collecting old material to incorporate in transformative (sometimes destructive) ways. 

Take influence from the books you read to expand your journal and book list to help you build a collection for the future.

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title heading with somewatercolour books and the text "Featuring".
      

  • A magical bookshop simulator journaling game supporting different playstyles.

  • Tarot and book driven journaling draw cards to guide the tasks you undertake and assist you in finding books, journal using the cards and books you read. 

  • A slow life game  play episodically with natural pauses to engage with books, others and curating.

  • Junk journal your way to a keepsake, through writing, drawing and transforming sources* to stick in your journal.

  • Supports Parallel Play.

  • Atmospherically printed on high quality recycled paper to mimic a beloved journal 

  • Incorporating stock art, digitised sources and original illustrations.


*sources can include letters, newspapers, poetry fragments, book pages, maps etc.

 

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Pledge Tiers

For £1, Support a Wandering Bookshop

o   Access to the pledgemanager and add ons
o   Retailers pledge here for access to retail copies in the pledge manager. Email [email protected] for access.
 A graphic showing the first three pledge tiers, with images of mock ups sitting alongside the text for the rewards. Text reads" A Digital Bookshop £10 ~ PDF copy incl. digital stretch goals and upgrades not add ons. The Wanderer's Bookshop £25 ~ Sustainably printed soft cover zine 50+ pages, incl a digital bookshop tier. Twin Bookshops £45 ~ two times Soft cover zines incl two times A Digital Bookshop."


Low income options available for Digital Bookshop and The Wanderer's Bookshop. 

Pledge tier graphic with mock ups of the physical and digital zine on torn paper effec background with the text. "comm. copy & more". The reward text reads "Keys to the bookshop £75 ~ zine and pdf, bookshop curios sticker sheet, 2 pieces of ephemera/source. Adds a digital community copy and includes all unlocked stretch goals."


Pledge tier graphic with mock ups of the physical and digital zine on torn paper effec background with the text. "comm. copy & more". The reward text reads "A Bookshop Patron £150 ~ include your favourite literay quote in the zine, uniquely annotated zine in visible and secret UV ink, bookshop curios sticker sheet, 10 piece minimum curated ephemera to connect with your zine and a pdf copy of the zine. Adds digital and physical community copies. Automatically includes all unlocked stretch goals, which if unlocked includes specially created ephemera from one of our guest writers."
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 Title separator text reads "Community Bookshelves", the text is bounded on each side by watercolour bookshelves


Bookshops especially independent ones, are built as and become part of communities. They support and help them thrive with the events they run and the space they offer; provide book clubs for all ages and kid friendly events; and welcome authors and locals for the opportunity to connect with books and each other.


So as part of this community spirit we've got Community Goals!

  • 50 Digital Community Copies

  • 20 Library Copies

  • 50 Book Recommendations

  • 30 Independent Bookshop Shout Outs

  • 200 Backers


Reaching our Community Goals along the way will unlock special gifts for every backer, including: printables, additional parallel play mechanics and a new task supplement for The Wanderer's Bookshop. 

Physical community copies are available as add ons and as part of A Bookshop Patron reward tier. These community copies will be distributed to Zine Libraries, Gaming Libraries and Libraries that have a section for lending games.   

Digital community copies are available as add ons, and will be added to the Itch.io page when the digital pdf of the game is released.

Our last crowdfunded game for Zine Month 2025, Universe At Your Door: The Traveller,  added over 50 community copies in total, with the physical copies being distributed through the American Library Association and to Zine Libraries in Scotland and England.

To make Book Recommendations and Shout Out Your Favourite Independent Bookshops, join the discussions!

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 on a piece of parchment paper are several headings numbers and text with a little open padlock next to them. Text reads "Stretch Goals. Unlock The Wandering Tome Pin Badge - £3000 Limited edition 35mm walnut wooden pin badge sustainably made in the UK Unlocked as an add on for all physical tiers. Automatically included as part of the Keys to the Bookshop and A Bookshop Patron Tier.  Unlock The Curator's notebook £4000 Sustainably printed notebook on high quality cover and inner stock featuring Unique Cover Art by @Alderdoodle with fountain pen friendly dot grid inner paper and page décor flourish by @Alderdoodle. Unlocked as an add on for all physical tiers and automatically included in Keys to The Bookshop and A Bookshop Patron Tiers.    Additional Internal illustrations from our artists £5500 Artists extraordinaire Alex Coggan and Joshua Clarke will level up the zine with further specially commissioned watercolour and pen and ink wash internal illustrations. Guest Writers  BackerKit Exclusive  £7000 Joining the team at this level are a group of fantastic writers to create unique ephemera as both a digital and physical deliverable. They will take on many different roles to write postcards and letters, some will be digitised and be included as a digital reward for every backer receiving a digital copy of the game, a few will exist as one of a kind physical pieces and be included in as part of the curated ephemera in A Bookshop Patron Tier.     Guest Layout Designer  £9500 Take the entire zine to a new level entirely with an artistically designed and put together beautifully delivered layout from the Award Winning Nala J Wu.   Unlock The Book List notepad as add on £10,500 A digital printable and physical fillable book list. printable for all digital and physical backers and sustainably printed physical tearaway pad will be available as an add on, and incl. in Keys to The Bookshop and A Bookshop Patron Tiers. Perfect for having your book list easily accessible or tradeable with others.

 a ripped stub of parchment with extra stretch goals. text reads "Unlock Printable Sticker Sheet & Upgrade Lola's Tech,16000 GBP Support Lola making future games and art by helping them upgrade their 10 yr old tech. To celebrate every backer will receive a new digital "sticker" sheet for personal printing. Unlock a new Bookshop Task 18500 GBP, Add a new task to The Wanderer's Bookshop - Task chosen by suggestion and poll by backers. Unlock More Unique Illustrations 21000, More specially commissioned art for the book, from Nala J. Wu, Joshua Clarke and Alex Coggon
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 Title Separator text reads "Meet the team" with a quill in an ink bottle on its right.

Stylised heading for team member with an illustration of a black person with braids wearing a red jacket. Text Reads "Lola Johnson. Project Lead, Designer, Writer, Mystery Creator, etc..."

Lola Johnson is a TTRPG player and writer. They write adventures and standalone TTRPGs as Johnson Ofair, focusing on themes of introspection and community in their games, whilst encouraging different forms of creation and making as forms of play. 

Outside of TTRPGs, they dye yarn under the heading of Third Vault Yarns and have many other creative pursuits. 

Illustration lineart by Fabian Lelay @rocketsandpens

Stylised heading for a team member with and illustration of a large gnarled old tree with afro like foliage text on top of the foliage reads "The Art of Joshua Clarke" . other text reads "Joshua Clarke Artist: Cover Art and Internal Art".

Joshua is a Barbados born artist that seeks to connect a deep appreciation for the breadth of speculative fiction and a love of drawing and narrative born from the illustrated literary classics of his youth. Blending fantasy and sci-fi staples with his fascination with the natural world and a well misspent youth filling every available surface with scribbles he seeks to connect the pure creative joy of the sketch with a focus on narrative development. 

He's best known for his creature and character work in the TTRPG space, lending his talents to various Daylight Publications works, Unlimited Realms, Into the Motherlands, Soothwardens, and is currently creature lead for the Afrofantasy TTRPG - Zairoo.  

Illustration by Joshua Clarke.

 Stylised heading with cartoon illustration of Joe. text reads "Joe Kim ~ US Shipping Co-ordinator & Ephemera writer".

Josephine (scarydogfriend) is a TTRPG producer and performer on BadHouseRPG. Joe will be on the ephemera writing team and co-ordinating the US Fulfilment for The Wanderer's Bookshop. 

Illustration by Fabian Lelay @rocketsandpens 


Alex Coggon is a fantasy/scifi illustrator known for her characters and detailed compositions. As a founding member of Feral Indie Studio she has worked on titles such as Into the Cess & Citadel and Ave Nox. 
Illustration by Alex Coggon

Stylised heading with a cartoon illustration of Amir. Text reads Nada/Amir Alami Tarot Prompt and Ephemera Writer

Nada/Amir is a game designer who loves tables and work trades. You can find them at @tallrowlet in Bluesky not posting anything about games because they're disabled and tired. Illustration by @leplapin

Stylised heading with a picture of a white bearded person in a flat cap. Text reads Brent Jans, Editor.

Brent Jans (he/they) is a freelance editor of both tabletop roleplaying games and speculative fiction. Over nearly twenty years Brent has edited for On Spec Magazine: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic as well as Wayfinder magazine. He has worked on numerous roleplaying games and supplements, including Court of Blades, Tavern Tales, Beasts and Bricks setting for FATEParanormal Inc: Bust More Ghosts, My Mother’s Kitchen, Unbreakable: Revolution and Unbreakable: Pathways, and the first four volumes of the Uncaged Anthology. Brent created Prairie Dragon Press as an imprint to publish his silly little thoughts on Itch, and has launched The Hearth Magazine as the press’s first large scale project.

Stylised heading with a pen and ink style sketch of Nala. Text reads Nala J. Wu, Layout Artist and Ephemera writer.

Nala J. Wu is a neurodivergent QTPOC Art Director (All the Witches, Kids in Capes, and more) and Award-winning Illustrator (Coyote & Crow, Apocalypse Keys, Uncaged Goddesses, Publishing Goblin LLC) who works full-time in TTRPGs. Through their work, Nala consistently advocates for diversity in order to increase the positive and meaningful representation of minority groups in all media. Besides art, Nala does voice acting, diversity & cultural consultations, and professional TTRPG AP stream performances. You can view their portfolio at naladraws.com and follow their socials @naladraws . Illustration by @naladraws


Stylised heading with a cartoon illustration of Vee. Text reads Vee Hendro, Ephemera Writer
Vee Hendro is an award-winning designer and one half of Storybrewers Roleplaying, an Australian independent studio celebrated worldwide for emotionally rich, character-driven tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs). Her games in this emerging medium explore history, literature, and queer narratives, bringing players together for heartfelt, collaborative storytelling. 

Stylised heading with a cartoon illustration of Jessie. Text reads Jessie "aki" Lo,  Ephemera Writer

Jessie "Aki" Lo (she/her), also known as akinomiiart, is a TTRPG jack-of-trades based out of Toronto, Canada. Most notably, she is an ENNIE-winning writer for Tian Xia: World Guide, an award-winning performer and a producer on Goblets and Gays. Art by Akinomiiart.

Stylised heading with a cartoon illustration of Noordin ali. Text reads Noordin ali kadir, Ephemera Writer

Noordin Ali Kadir (he/him), also known as WerewolfFeels, is a TTRPG writer, performer, and consultant based out of Canada. Noordin Ali's probably best known for his performance as Nana on Nameless Domain's GUDIYA, along with his work on Werewolf the Apocalypse 5e, and Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall. Illustration by Bree (@breeedo)"

Stylised heading with a photo of an asian woman with a bright smile, round glasses and long straigh black hair. Text reads Yanahn, Ephemera Writer


Yanahn is a Malaysian game designer and illustrator based in the UK - she enjoys writing games about the fantastical, the uncanny, and odd folklore. Her work can be found at https://yanahn.itch.io/, and she has contributed to other indie games like Paranormal Inc and Death Game


Darby (She/They), also known as ChaoticDarby on the internet, is an award winning Actual play performer, game designer, possum, and community manager based in Los Angeles, California, USA. She also works at an FLGS sharing their love of games with her community. Illustration by Fabian Lelay @rocketsandpens

 A black and white continuos pen sketch of a woman with long hair, a beauty spot and a shy/ discomfitted look on her face is part of this title Along side the text "Michelle Kelly, ephemera writer"

Michelle Kelly (she/her) is a UK-based game designer, writer, actual play performer, actor, voice actor and very tired woman. Find out more about her work at michellekellyperformance.carrd.co


An illustration of a  kindly smiling black person with warm eyes and short dreads, wearing a black top with a pink square behind them. text reads "Austin Taylor, ephemera Writer"


Austin Taylor is an award winning game narrative writer, designer, performer, and friend! When not doing any of that, they are one half of your new favorite nerd history podcast Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries!

 an illustration of a  satisfied looking bear sits comfortably on grass. The bear has black fur with a  cream coloured face a concentric circles on their chest, they are sticking out a blue tongue. text reads "Valiant Dorian, ephemera writer".

Valiant Dorian (he/him) is an actual play performer, game designer and streamer who creates bold and wildhearted worlds and stories through the lens of his queerness and desi heritage. Check out his other work as Seir on TransplanarRPG and his TTRPG talkshow Dicey Banter!

Dusty is an incredibly queer Latine performer, producer and designer. You can find them doing gay work at Goblets and Gays and From Dust to Dice

Ramona (she/her) a.k.a Alderdoodle is an illustrator and lettering artist helping indie ttrpgs look their best by adding a touch of her signature ornate and embellishment packed style. From book covers and character sheets to spot art and page decor, you can find Ramona's art in many works across the indie ttrpg scene. She is also a custodian of her freebie library, where she adds design assets free to use for personal and commercial projects.

Voice Acting for Video from: Lola Johnson, Shaun Smith, Kestrel Esin, Darby Pak. 

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We have the honour of teaming up with Threads We Share, a storytelling game exploring human connections, intimacy and the emotional arc of a relationship, whatever form that connection may take. Playable solo or with up to three players, guided by tarot and centring consent, tell emotional character-driven stories about the threads that hold connections together and are remembered even if they end.

Back both The Wanderer's Bookshop and Threads We Share during the campaign and you'll receive an exclusive printable featuring A Guide to The Major Arcana designed for our cross-collab backers. With Tarot as one of the threads we share in helping you weave new stories and connections, use it to aid your imagination and simplify your play.


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Shipping


Shipping will be calculated and charged via the Pledge Manager closer to fulfilment.

  • US Shipments will be fulfilled US internally to minimise issues with tariffs and customs. ($6-10)

  • UK Shipping will be fulfilled in the UK (avg small parcel cost £4-5) 

  • EU Shipping will be fulfilled from the UK, with IOSS and GPSR handled to cover VAT and customs upfront. 

  • ROW shipping will be fulfilled from the UK.


We hope to start printing and fulfilment in July. However for the sake of any issues our proposed fulfilment time is October we will keep you updated throughout.

A Bookshop Patron Tier will ship later to allow for each mystery to be individually designed and curated. These rewards are likely to take a month or two beyond initial fulfilment, but will be shipped individually as they are curated. Due to the nature of the curation of this pledge, all of this tier will be shipped from the UK. 

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This Game is very explicitly in opposition of generative "AI", LLM's and image generators. None of the content for the game has or will be generated by anything other than human creativity, because this game is about connecting with human creativity.


 open raised palm image with a swirl through it above the words Human Made


The Wanderer's Bookshop encourages you to read widely, both creatively and critically for pleasure and for learning. Exercise the wide range of skills that make us human and preserve what speaks to your heart, so that we may always have a record of the beautiful things we can create despite a world that seeks to erase it. 




This project is participating in Zinetopia! A Small-format TTRPG event celebrating Zine Month running February 2–27, 2026.

📖 What is Zine Month?
Zine Month is a month-long online celebration observed every February by the tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) community where creators share and launch new DIY zines.

🔥 Unlock the Limited Zinetopia Freebie!
Receive the limited edition Zinetopia 2026 Group Zine when you back 5+ projects featuring 60+ pages from participating creators full of mini-games, sketches, activity pages, and more!

If you believe that this project is not in compliance with BackerKit’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, you can file a report by sending a message via this link: Report this project

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