Frequently Asked Questions

Wilderstep is a top-down, turn-based RPG inspired by Ultima III and classic tabletop D&D. You lead a party of four adventurers through an open world of overworld exploration, town visits, dungeon delving, and chessboard-like tactical combat.

Wilderstep ships with a full-length playable adventure named Emberscar, a classic save the realm style RPG adventure with side quests and boss creatures to defeat.

At it's core though, Wilderstep is more of an RPG system than a standalone game and comes with Dungeon Master mode which lets you choose your own adventures. You can build an entire RPG world from scratch including your own monsters, maps, towns and characters. Or you can use the libaries and other built-in content to remix the game to share with your friends.

Accounts are secured via your email address and only provide a method for you to edit and publish your own adventures. The core features of the game are managed locally in your web browsers built-in data storage system.

However, if you want access to Dungeon Master Mode which gives you the ability to build your own adventures you can request an account by emailing me at mjcampbell74@gmail.com.

Once I add you to our list, you will be able to sign into the app using tokens provided by an authentication service provided by Cloudflare (you will see emails from Cloudflare when you log in).

The game is organized in modules, which include everything that defines an adventure including monsters, maps, quests, and so on. Every module inherits the core game via the Default Module. Default Module has all the monsters and characters used in the game.

When you create New Module, you start with a map and party already set up. You can create the module adventure and immediately play a new game with it.

So to get started, go to the Maps list in the module and choose the map "Rock Island". You will see a copy of the map that you can use to edit. Click on a tile to see it's properties where you can add encounters, quests, and much more. On the left is a palette that you can use to paint more tiles.

The items in the game that you can edit are all in the left panel. This is where you would add new monsters, encounters, and quests.

You must "Publish" your changes when you are ready to see them in your module. This is what writes your changes to the server and allows you to share your adventure.

It's free and runs entirely in your browser — there's nothing to download or install. Just press Play and start adventuring.

Progress is auto-saved in your browser, and you can keep up to three manual save slots (press ⌘S in game). Because saves live in your browser's storage, clearing site data will erase them — use Export Save on the Play screen to download a backup file you can re-import later or move to another device.

No account is needed to play. Signing in only unlocks Dungeon Master mode, where you can build and publish your own adventures.

Dungeon Master mode is Wilderstep's full game-development kit. Once signed in, you can create new maps, monsters, quests, soundtracks, and complete modules, then share them. The combat and dungeon simulators let you test encounters before publishing.

There are 8 character classes and 5 races, each with unique abilities to suit different playstyles, plus rich sorcerer and priest spell lists. The full breakdown lives in the Player's Manual.

The Player's Manual (PDF) covers character creation, combat, spells, crafting, and more in depth.

Wilderstep is actively evolving. Bug reports and ideas are welcome on the Wilderstep Github Repository, and exporting an affected save file makes issues much easier to reproduce.