One person built this. One person prices it. One person ships the updates, answers the support email, and decides whether the deal is still fair when the AI bill comes in. I thought about Kickstarting Wanderhold and didn't, because I didn't want to take a guesstimated pile of money up front and owe people a finished product I hadn't built yet, or would even work. There's no growth team, no pricing consultant, no board pushing for a price hike next quarter.

Why subscription

Charging forty dollars up front for a product that's going to keep changing isn't sustainable, and it isn't honest either. Wanderhold will get better over time: new worlds, new mechanics, new ways to play. A subscription is the model that fits that: you pay while you're getting value, you stop when you're not. Every subscription helps me keep building. It funds the next world, the next feature, the next late night fixing whatever just broke. It helps narrative gaming as a hobby continue to evolve.

The free tier and the trial

The entry tier, Wanderer, is free. One campaign, one of four worlds to choose from, no credit card, no time limit. If you want to know whether Wanderhold is for you, all you need to do is sign-up and play it. That's the test. I'd rather you spend a month on the free tier and decide it's not your thing than pay for a month and feel stuck.

If you want more campaigns at once, a sharper narrator, and more active sessions, that's Saga or Chronicle, and both come with a 7‑day free trial. The trial asks for a card. Not because Stripe makes me, but because every trial signup costs me real money in hosting and service calls, and I can't afford to subsidize accounts that were never going to subscribe. Cancel before day seven and you pay nothing. Cancelling takes one click from your account page.

How I think about AI costs

The game runs on Claude, and Claude calls cost money. More AI means better scenes, sharper NPCs, and richer narration. It also means a bigger bill at the end of the month. The tiers reflect that. Wanderer is free and runs on the same engine, just with one campaign slot and the baseline narrator. Saga is $9.99 and gives you richer scenes, more responsive NPCs, and more active sessions. Chronicle is $29.99 and runs the engine at maximum capacity with unlimited campaigns.

I'm not passing per-token costs through to you. You won't pick a model, you won't see a meter, you won't get nickel-and-dimed when a scene runs long. I see other services asking users to top up or pay different prices per model, and that seems more complicted than what I am trying to do. My job is to pick the right model for the right moment at each tier and absorb the variance within it. If costs go up, I tune the prompts and the algorithm to keep the math working. If they go up so much that I can't tune my way out (say, ten times current costs), maybe I'd have to shut down. Short of that, if I ever need to raise prices, I raise them for new subscribers. If you're already subscribed, your price doesn't change.

About Chronicle specifically: $29.99 is what it costs to run the top tier sustainably. If anything, the honest number is higher. I need a tier priced like this to keep the lights on, and I'd rather tell you that than pretend Chronicle is some premium luxury.

No upsells

No add-ons. No premium worlds. No cosmetic upgrades, no XP boosters, no founder's tier with a different colored badge. One price per tier, everything included, and everything I add later is included too. If you're subscribed, you get the whole game.

No traps

Cancel is one click from your account page. No survey, no retention offer, no “are you sure” five times. The price you sign up at is the price you pay until you cancel. If I ever need to raise it, I raise it for new subscribers and your price stays where it is. Onboarding doesn't push you toward a higher tier.

The price is the price

There's an annual plan on each paid tier: twelve months for the price of eleven. That's the only discount. No launch promo that expires. No “act now” timer. No monthly plan inflated to make annual look better. Fake discounts erode trust, and trust is most of what a one-person studio has. I'm doing the math myself, and the math only works if I keep it simple.

The deal

You pay me and I run the game. No data resale, no ads, no engagement metrics designed to keep you playing past the point where you're enjoying yourself. I track whether the game is working, not how to keep you hooked. I'd rather you unsubscribe after you've had your fill and come back six months later when there are new worlds and new features than churn angry. You know what you're paying for. I know what I'm building. We're square.

Will Lybrand, founder
2026.05.13

See the tiers and pricing →