The Wilds Within is a new LARP (live action roleplay) game system focused on teamwork, player agency, immersion, and compatibility with a wide variety of genres. The name, ‘The Wilds Within’, was chosen because each person contains a rich inner world, much of which is uncharted. Through creating a Wilds Within character and stepping into a game, players have the opportunity to explore both the fictional setting and the wilds within themselves. For the same reason, “Game Masters” or those who facilitate the game for players are called Guides; a Guide’s role is to assist Adventurers on their journey.

Adventurers can customize their skills to do what is most fun and most interesting to them, whether that’s battling foes, sneaking around, making friends, solving mysteries, commanding the elements, or a bit of everything. The Wilds Within uses a relatively short list of key terms to describe the interactions between Adventurers, Guides, and the world of the story. Players do not have to know how every character skill works to play and understand what is going on, as long as they know the key terms or have a reference handy. This makes the game more accessible to new players and also enables more clear communication between players and Guides. Concise communication and other streamlined mechanics maximize immersion in the story and allow action to play out in real time with as few breaks or “Time Outs” as possible.

The game is designed to support teamwork. Adventurers are stronger when they work together and no single player can become so powerful that they make other players feel as if they have nothing to contribute. The character skills make Adventurers more effective, provide options for creative problem solving, and enable more interesting roleplay. But the Adventurer’s choices matter far more than what is written on their character sheet.