Wanderhome Playbook: The Ex-Martyr
A downloadable playbook
Once, you gave your life for others, and did what you set out to accomplish by doing so. Now, through reincarnation, last-minute rescue, miraculous intervention, or means unknown, you’re back in the world again.
You are alive. Your care is dangerous, enduring, and all-consuming.
This playbook is compatible with Wanderhome and was made using the excellent playbook template by trouser_mouse. When building this playbook, I was thinking more of Wei Wuxian from the xianxia drama The Untamed than Aslan - your job as the ex-martyr is not to ascend or to save, but to find a way to live again in a world you said goodbye to willingly. How will you handle the fallout of your own death? What will you care about now that your purpose is fulfilled? What is your purpose now? Do you even need one?
The answer is up to you.
Wanderhome is copyright of Possum Creek Games Inc. The Ex-Martyr is an independent production by Elizabeth Rosenberg and is not affiliated with Possum Creek Games Inc. It is published under the Wanderhome Third Party License.
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Development log
- The Readability Project Begins HereJan 04, 2024
Comments
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Awesome playbook! It's funny, I'm not that familiar with Wei Wuxian or Aslan, but the character I immediately thought of was Steve Rogers (Captain America) - and the playbook is flexible enough that it could support lots of different variations on the same core archetype.
I haven't played this in a game but I made a character for myself just to try it out, and it was fun and made me think! I feel like all the lists do important work towards explaining the character type, while still leaving space to make interesting choices.
My favorite detail is how the items list asks you to pick an item you kept from before your "death", an item you got recently, and an item you hope to find. I've been thinking a lot lately about living in the aftermath of some big event, as if your life is made up of "before and after". And so I think it's interesting and poetic that the game asks you to pick an item from before, an item from after, and an item you still want- that shows you still have hopes for your future. Just because the life you lived before "dying" is over doesn't mean it's the end.
That's how I read it, anyway. But like any good playbook, the way you use it is up to you.
I'm so glad you found lots to think about with this playbook! It's the least popular in terms of hits of the ones I've made, but it's actually my favorite. I have a lot of feelings about the Ex-Martyr and I'm just so happy you took the time to tell me all about your experience building one.
Yeah! Careful about worrying too much over hits, it'll drive you nuts (I say, as someone who totally worries over hits haha) I have a lot of feelings about this archetype too- like I said, Steve Rogers, but I also have a soft spot for characters who came back so different that the people around them have to wrestle with whether they still know this person at all. As I kind of implied, I very much know it can be a lot to deal with when you go through something big and are kind of left with a clean slate and no idea what to do next. Not like I actually almost died, I just had a weird life event, but it kind of feels the same.