An interview with the co-founders of Wanderer’s Tome
If you weren’t already familiar with Fleur and Chelsea Sciortino, co-founders of The Wanderer’s Tome and co-creators of titles like Flabbergasted and Deadline, then you now have a prime opportunity to learn more about them by reading this insightful interview!
In this interview, Fleur and Chelsea answer a wide range of questions - from queries surrounding the history and formation of Wanderer’s Tome, as well as various inquiries into their respective creative processes, inspirations, challenges and future ambitions. Familiarise - or re-familiarise - yourself with the folks responsible for starting this indie TTRPG studio!
How did you both get into designing and illustrating tabletop RPGs?
Chelsea: It wasn’t a straightforward journey for me—probably not one most people would consider a logical career path. I was always a ‘good student’ and often felt pressured to choose a career that reflected that. I knew I wanted something creative, so I pursued architecture. After years of studying and five years in the field, I realised I absolutely hated it—at least in Malta. I felt stifled, uncreative, and completely burnt out.
At the same time, I had always loved games. I started playing TTRPGs as a teenager, which later expanded into murder mysteries and LARPing. That eventually led me to home-brewing my own TTRPGs and writing original murder mystery games for friends.
My sister and I decided to package those murder mysteries and put them online. They were already written, and it seemed like a waste not to share them. Plus, with Fleur’s skills as a graphic designer - and my experience with writing and editing - we figured we could create something high-quality.
That confidence in publishing our murder mysteries, combined with how burnt out I was in my career, pushed me to take a leap. My sister and I decided to try our hand at designing our own TTRPGs—her focusing on the visual design, and me on the writing and editing.
And that’s how I took the plunge into becoming a full-time TTRPG designer. Leaving my old career was terrifying, but now I’ve never been happier, so I’m glad I did it.
Fleur: Getting into TTRPG publishing was a more natural progression for me, when compared to Chelsea’s journey. I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in game design. Originally, my dream was to become a concept artist for a AAA video game studio or create my own indie video games.
Artwork for Wanderer’s Tome TTRPG, Flabbergasted
I never made it into a AAA studio, but I’ve developed strong illustration and design skills. I bounced between various design-related jobs—freelance game and animation projects, graphic design, children’s book illustration, and book design for publishing.
During this time, I became increasingly interested in tabletop games, particularly roleplaying, starting with Green Ronin’s Dragon Age TTRPG. This eventually led me to work with a board game publisher, where I learned the ins and outs of publishing: from manufacturing and crowdfunding to design, community management, and more.
One constant in my life has always been working on side projects—whether it was creating comic anthologies with friends, homebrewing content for campaigns or taking part in game jams. Inevitably, I started dreaming up ideas for a TTRPG and everything just came together. I had experience from board game publishing, Chelsea was eager for a career change, I had enough freelance work to take the risk and we had ideas we were passionate about.
I loved all the design jobs I had before and gained invaluable skills from them, but nothing compares to creating something that’s entirely your own and seeing people out in the world enjoy it. (And being your own boss is a very nice bonus!)
Why do you prefer to make TTRPGs focused on non-combat scenarios and humour?
Chelsea: When we started designing TTRPGs, our goal was simple: to create games we’d genuinely enjoy playing ourselves. It’s possibly not the most business-minded approach, but I believe that if you design something you love then your game will find its audience. Surely, there are others out there with similar TTRPG tastes to you?
That’s why I wanted to focus on non-combat and humour. When I played D&D as a teenager, the most entertaining moments weren’t the battles but the chaos in between—like our never-ending shopping montages for gear, or the time we infiltrated a ball and somehow ended up swinging from a chandelier. Those were the moments that had me gasping for air - they’re the ones I remember and cherish the most.
Artwork for the Flabbergasted expansion - Mystified
I wanted to create games that capture that kind of joy—games that enable hilarious, unforgettable moments shared with friends.
Fleur: For us, the best part of playing tabletop RPGs are the inside jokes and hilarious moments that result from bouncing ideas off each other. So, we wanted to take that aspect of gaming and build an entire experience around it.
We're also not particularly numbers-oriented, which likely played a subconscious role in our preference for non-combat too.
What are the biggest challenges you've faced - and continue to face - as a two-person tabletop RPG creator and publisher?
Chelsea: We haven’t been doing this for very long just yet - and I know this is a common challenge for many small businesses - but income is definitely one of the biggest struggles we’ve had so far. Whilst it is improving, the uncertainty between crowdfunding campaigns is always a stressful time. We’re fortunate that neither of us has dependents, which allows us to take a pay cut from our previous careers to pursue this, but growing financially is still a challenge. Our dream is to build enough passive income so that we don’t have to rely on crowdfunding campaigns, where those would be a bonus rather than a necessity. I don’t know when we’ll get there, but that’s the goal!
Another big challenge has been adjusting from a structured office job to being self-employed. Setting our own hours and staying disciplined—especially while working from home—was much harder than we expected. Looking back at our first year of full-time TTRPG work, we definitely lost a lot of time figuring things out. One of the biggest game-changers for us was realising we needed a dedicated workspace outside of our homes and sticking to regular work hours. Thankfully, we now have that, which is quite literally based out of our Dad’s basement.
Fleur: Another challenge we face is balancing our creative impulses with smart business decisions. I might come up with an idea for an interesting game, but we have a publishing schedule to follow and commitments to fulfill. Or I may want to develop a new, rules-heavy system, but financially, it might make more sense to release a smaller game or a supplement for one of our existing games.
If money and time were no issue, what would be your dream tabletop roleplaying game to make?
Chelsea: Honestly, I’m already making my dream roleplaying games. We design for ourselves first and I believe that’s how we find our audience—by creating games we genuinely love.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Games - Magpie Games
The only thing we can’t do right now is create a TTRPG within an existing IP. When the Avatar Legends TTRPG came out, I remember thinking how incredible it would have been to work on that. Avatar is a world that means so much to me, but I can only imagine how expensive licensing that IP must have been!
If I could create a game within any existing IP right now, it would definitely be an official Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing TTRPG—a cozy game that captures the joy of friendships and small-town life.
Fleur: I’d love to experiment with unique printing formats. We started exploring this with our latest game, Deadline, which is designed in a newspaper format—but I’d love to push it even further.
As for settings, there are two I want to explore. At one point, I would have loved to create a Harry Potter TTRPG, but that’s no longer a brand I want to associate with. That said, I’d love for us to develop our own magic school setting: complete with rich lore, an inventive magic system, and—importantly—a distinct lack of wizards pooping their pants…
I’d also love to create a game set in a grimdark, comedic fantasy world that’s been brewing in my mind—something weirder than the typical high-fantasy TTRPGs.
Games like these are larger projects, requiring extensive writing, rules, combat mechanics, lore, and enemy design. But maybe one day I’ll get around to it!
Who inspires you? Which tabletop RPGs do you particularly love? Which creators are you most impressed by?
Chelsea: Indie TTRPG creators inspire me the most. They bring such imaginative concepts to life with unique art styles and innovative mechanics. Games like Eat the Reich by Rowan, Rook & Decard, Wanderhome by Possum Creek Games, and Andrew Kolb’s work are all incredibly inspiring. Their visuals are stunning!
I also just received Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme today, and I absolutely love it. The production quality is fantastic—it looks like such a fun game, and that GM screen is just chef’s kiss! The humour is incredible, and I’m sure this will be a game that inspires me for future projects. I’ve also been enjoying Brindlewood Bay from The Gauntlet recently.
I also want to shout out Storybrewers Roleplaying in general. Their game Good Society was an inspiration for us—we love playing it and it was one of the reasons we felt confident enough to take the plunge with our first game, Flabbergasted. Seeing another period game without combat succeed was encouraging. I also remember looking at their team and realising it was just two women running everything, which made me think we could run our own studio too!
Wanderhome artwork - Possum Creek Games
Fleur: I share a lot of the same inspirations as Chelsea, but I’d like to highlight a few other creators I love. Right now, I’m really into Mothership! I love everything about this game, from its lo-fi-inspired graphics to its easy-to-learn, pick-up-and-play rules.
Mörk Borg creator Johan Nohr makes some of the coolest-looking games and products. I love the grungy, experimental layouts in all of his work. In the same vein, Slightly Reckless Games also produces such beautifully produced games.
I’m also greatly inspired by Mousehole Press—their games are beautifully designed, thoughtfully written, and feature a diverse range of settings.
What is the future of Wanderer's Tome? What do you hope to achieve in the next few years?
Chelsea: In the short term, we’re excited for the release of the new Flabbergasted expansion, Mystified, which will be coming out this year. We’re also crowdfunding and publishing a kids’ TTRPG called Frances & Ġorġ in collaboration with Maltese artist Moira Scicluna Zahra. I’m so excited for this—as creating a game that celebrates the Maltese islands and introduces kids to the world of roleplaying, is such a passion project for us. Later this year, we’ll also be crowdfunding an official Professor Elemental TTRPG designed by Michael Coolwood! This will be the first time we’ll be publishing the work of a new writer and working with an existing IP, which is incredibly exciting for us!
Beyond that, I hope we just keep creating games we love and that they’re received well by our players. We have so many ideas in the works and we’re very excited to share them!
Fleur: We’re aiming to maintain a schedule of two crowdfunding campaigns and game releases a year. If all goes well, we’d like to ramp this up and maybe expand our team!
You can pre-order both Deadline and Mystified from the Wanderer’s Tome online shop right now. You can recieve announcements and more information about Frances & Ġorġ and the upcoming Professor Elemental TTRPG by signing up to the Wanderer’s Tome newsletter.