Meow Wolf brings its immersive art sensibilities to the world of tabletop via a collaboration with Exalted Funeral in a new Meow Wolf RPG.
Meow Wolf loves to break down the walls of reality. At least just a little bit. If you’ve ever been to one of the immersive arts company’s installations, you’ll have experienced first hand how even something as simple as looking at a soup can will start you down a rabbit hole of alternate realities and commentary on consumerism. Probably. Only now, they’re venturing into the realm of the mind—through a newly announced tabletop RPG being developed in collaboration with Exalted Funeral.
You probably know Exalted Funeral most recently from Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Program, but the publisher has many RPG titles under its belt, from old school revivas to weird fantasy explorations and beyond. Now, paired with Meow Wolf, we’re getting an official Meow Wolf RPG.
A Meow Wolf RPG – Yeah, Let’s Get Weird
It makes a lot of sense that there’d be a Meow Wolf RPG. Meow Wolf is all about an immersive environment—like a Punchdrunk for people who don’t want to have to get close to performers. You get to explore an environment, dig through clues, and piece together a story. Or not! You might just enjoy looking at the weird stuff. But either way, Meow Wolf’s work is all about an invitation to explore.
And that’s what an RPG is all about. You can explore the fictional world you create with your friends. Or sometimes you just kill goblins.
And that collaboration is at the heart of the Meow Wolf RPG, as Luke Dorman, Meow Wolf’s Senior Creative Director of Visual Development, explained in a press release:
“Meow Wolf is all about connecting with each other—coming together to dream up big, improbably ideas that can only happen if we make them together. That’s part of why RPGs feel like home to us. RPGs have always been a platform for self-expression and a portal for people to inhabit and explore imaginative worlds, so it’s a perfect arena for us to bridge the gap between our exhibits and everyday life. Until now, we’ve only been able to reach the people who come to us and physically step into our worlds. Now with the RPG, not only can our worlds come to you, but you also get to inhabit and shape our worlds like never before.”
But What Do You Actually Do?
And that’s a nice sentiment, and all. But what does that mean, practically speaking? Because Meow Wolf has a very particular sensibility to it, and if you’re playing with your usual friend group and your DM who told you you were playing Curse of Strahd, but actually it’s just Beauty and the Beast, you might be wondering, “well is this the authentic Meow Wolf experience?”
I think the answer is yes. Because both meow Wolf and Exalted Funerals are all about being little weirdos in the face of banality. And an enchanted castle seems like it fits right in with the premise of the game.
You play as “Tavers”. These are people with the power to create portals into “new worlds, alternate realities, even new states of existence.” And as you hop between these portals, there’s a sort of “exquisite corpse” style of worldbuilding as you uncover mysteries and delve into the unknown.
Your Taver will have a personal connection to “unbridled intent.” Which is a very pretty phrase that manifests as your ability to reshape reality. As Tiger Wizard, the lead designer of Exalted Funeral puts it:
“Imagination and creativity aret he real magic of our world, and it’s similar in the Meow Wolf Universe. Immortal cybernetic hamsters, underground rat punks, sentient pizza, and community radio are just the appetizers. We’re going full gonzo on this menu.”
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And that gonzo sensibility is exactly what drew the two companies together for the Meow Wolf RPG. Apparently, Meow Wolf specifically requested a publisher that was “brazen and batshit crazy.” That’s something of a trend in the RPG scene these days—there are a lot of games lately that play with form and function. And being the right kind of weirdo. Take Mythic Bastionland, for example. Or any of the “Into the Odd” games.
Of course, as a newly announced game, details are still sparse. But there are a lot of big ideas at play here. One thing that stood out from the press release to me was the idea of using your out-of-game memories as in-game currency and inventory. It’s hard to say what that looks like—but it feels like another way of playfully blurring the line between table and imagined world. But crucially in a way that gets you thinking more about the game, and not necessarily bleeding between your character and you the player. That’s a whole other story, though.
It’ll be a while before the game comes out. Right now, there’s a Kickstarter planned for Spring 2026. So presumably it’d be late 2026 at the earliest (but probably more like 2027) before the final game comes out. However, you can learn more at the link below!
And of course, once the game is out, you could go to a Meow Wolf and then PLAY ‘Meow Wolf’!
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