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.
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 mediajournalling.
*Parallel play with others through book discussion, trade books and sources, write leading notes in each other’s journals and more.
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:
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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
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
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 FATE, Paranormal 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 Magazineas the press’s first large scale project.
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
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.
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.
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)"
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
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
💥 Zinetopia 2026
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!