Daniel (@dungeondive) dismissed Wayward years ago as too simple, then a Facebook group member reminded him it existed, and designer Bruce Hurst sent a copy. It is, as the title says, the ultimate indie game: no box at all, pieces in a ziploc bag, the board a double-sided vinyl poster, tokens that are essentially tiddlywinks. He calls it a family-weight DungeonQuest, and coming from him that is high praise.
Twelve action chips per turn buy movement and looting; when your turn ends, the next player hoovers the chips up with a magnetized wand, a gimmick Daniel confesses to loving at 47. Everything you need sits on the board itself, haloed: axes to push past numbered guards, shields to spend crossing trap thresholds, torches for staircase shortcuts, tokens for the docks, tarot cards for re-rolls, and lock picks numbered one, two and three that combine to open doors and never break. Rickety bridges make you roll 3d6 for carrying capacity. The Watchers room drags the 100-gold endgame threshold downward while you’re still deep inside.
He spends real time on the art — the water especially — and on the more cluttered town map on the reverse, deliberately harder to read. Mostly he wants Bruce Hurst to start selling maps for solo roleplaying.
Does ziploc-bag production put you off a game, or does it read as charm — and what’s the most stripped-down game you genuinely love?