Design Reflections: The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall

I designed "The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall" in Summer 2023, using the Carta system by Cat McDonald as a base for the game.

I really liked the idea of exploration via playing cards, and the concept reminded me of my favourite board game Betrayal of the House on the Hill in how the game board is generated fresh every play.

Wisteria is one of my first TTRPGs, and I really had fun writing and adjusting the rules from the Carta SRD to fit my setting of a strange mansion that's Totally-Not-Haunted™, where you're looking for artefacts to bring home.

I generally introduce this game as a solo action RPG. Cards, representing rooms, are laid out face down, and players start in the middle to explore the mansion, revealing each card as they move through the house. Each card suit offers different encounters to the players; Hearts are the Artefacts (goal cards), Diamonds are items, Clubs are strange encounters or battles, and Spades are hazards. The building can also shift with different encounters, so it's possible to have your pockets full of treasure, but be eaten by the house before you can escape.

Despite my usual introduction of insisting the house is Not Haunted (which of course generates the opposite response which is that it's totally haunted), it's actually not a supernatural horror game at all! However, there is some sense of unsettling strangeness in the mansion in the encounters and artefacts, which I don't really know the correct genre term for. Perhaps the closest is liminal horror? Psychological horror?

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Artefact
A music box that plays different tunes every time you wind it up. You recognise none of them, but each tune incites a distinct and uncomfortable emotion in you.
- The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall

My period setting is vaguely Taisho/Meiji-era Japan but the setting isn't really addressed specifically other than how you find a mix of traditional Japanese and Western-style artefacts and encounters in the mansion. I also used Japanese imageries through the book, using Japanese poetry and public domain paintings and ukiyoe to illustrate the setting.

There isn't actually a real reason as to why I chose this period other than "I liked the vibes", but I think that the mixture of West and East adds to the general uneasiness of the space, especially in the historical context of how it was the period where Japan was newly opening up to the West and grappling with different Western influences and almost forcefully incorporating these wildly different beliefs into their own cultural norms.

You can see the three character options in the image above - the Thrillseeker, the Researcher and the Plunderer. The animal parts and the human parts of each character were edited together from different woodblock pictures to form these unique pictures. They each have their own stats and motivations to explore the mansion, and a single ability that helps to mitigate any Stat losses as the player moves through the mansion.

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Battle: Topiary Horse
You step into the abandoned gardens, lush and wild with greenery. An overgrown topiary of a horse, once beautifully manicured, charges you as you turn the corner.
- The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall

Although the game was designed for solo play as per the Carta SRD, I hacked some quick and dirty multiplayer rules for a showcase that we were at - the card grid was extended and 2 players could race to find the most artefacts in the mansion.

I had the great pleasure of seeing a group of 3 play the game as 2 players and a DM; my first time watching a group play completely without any writer input! Hearing how they described and reacted to the prompts and encounters was really fun.

I wrote most of this game on a plane; I'll share some of the real life objects that inspired some of the encounters in-game in future posts! Meanwhile, if the description of the game has intrigued you, The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall is available in the shop as a physical zine with worldwide shipping.

The Strange Artefacts of Wisteria Hall

A solo tabletop roleplaying game based on the Carta system where you explore an old mansion filled with treasure and uncanny encounters!

With the cards, you build a different Wisteria Hall every playthrough, and dice rolls add an additional level of unpredictability. The Mansion also changes in your playthrough as rooms begin to shift or disappear.

purchase physical zine!

Till our next post,
Alanna