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Everway is a fantasy role-playing game first published by Wizards of the Coast under their Alter Ego brand in 1995. Its lead designer was Jonathan Tweet. Marketed as a "Visionary Roleplaying Game", it has often been characterized as an innovative concept with limited commercial success. Wizards later abandoned the line, and Rubicon Games purchased it, and published several supplements. The line was sold again to Gaslight Press in February 2001. The line is currently with The Everway Company, which has released a Silver Anniversary Edition.
The games revolve around heroes with the power of "spherewalking" traveling between worlds called "spheres". Spheres typically are composed of many "realms". Nearly all spheres are inhabited by humans, with mostly realistic physics. The theme is fantasy-oriented as opposed to science fictional. Advanced technology is explicitly forbidden in the character creation rules. The authors considered anthropology in terms of describing how the people of various spheres live, including many similarities across cultures. Some of these common features are entirely realistic (language, art), and others plainly related to the game's fantasy elements (magic, knowledge of the Fortune Deck).
The titular city of Everway is located in a realm called Roundwander, in the sphere called Fourcorner. Roundwander is the only realm in Fourcorner that is described. There is some detail on the sphere's main city, Everway, which contains a stone pyramid, a set of family-oriented guilds, and various exotic events related to the city's position as an inter-planar trading center. Several dozen other spheres are given one-sentence and a few are given page-long summaries, One is detailed as the setting for a sample adventure, "Journey to Stonekeep".
Each character also has Powers representing unusual abilities. These cost from zero to three or more points depending on whether they should be considered Frequent, Major (or even "Twice Major", for especially powerful abilities that significantly affect gameplay) and/or Versatile. For instance, a "Cat Familiar", a slightly intelligent cat, is arguably worth two points for being Frequent (usually around and often useful) and Versatile (able to scout, carry messages, and fight). A "Winning Smile" that makes the hero likable is worth zero points because of its trivial effect, while a "Charming Song" that inspires one emotion when played might be useful enough to count as Frequent (1 point). There is no strict rule for deciding what a Power is worth. Each hero can have one 0-point Power for free; additional Powers that would otherwise cost zero points instead cost one.
Magic is also abstract. A hero wanting access to magic, as opposed to a few specific Powers, must design their own magic system. This is done by choosing an Element for its basis, which affects its theme; e.g., Air is associated with speech and intellect and would be suitable for a system of spoken spells gained through study. The new Magic statistic has a 1–10 rating and point cost, and can be no higher than the Element on what it is based. The game's rules suggest listing examples of what the magic system can do at each power level, working these out with the GM. It is suggested that most characters do not need magic and that it is not suitable for new players.
Finally, each hero has personality traits based on the game's Fortune and Vision cards. Players are to choose one or more Vision cards and base a backstory on them, and to have three Fortune cards representing a Virtue, Fault, and Fate (a challenge they will face). These three cards can change to represent new phases in the hero's life. There is a list of suggested Motives for why the hero is adventuring, such as "Adversity" or "Wanderlust", but this feature has no gameplay effect.
Equipment such as weaponry is handled completely abstractly, with no specific rules for item cost, carrying capacity, or combat statistics. However, a particularly powerful piece of equipment—for example, a cloak that renders its wearer invisible for a brief period—may be treated as a Power that the hero must spend their initial element points on.
Although the Fortune Deck resembles (and can be used as) a fortune-telling device, Everway treats the Deck only as a storytelling device and an element of the fictional setting. It does not in any way endorse "real" fortune-telling or other supernatural concepts.
Pyramid magazine reviewed Everway for and stated that "Jonathan Tweet has been responsible for some excellent, innovative games. He co-wrote Ars Magica, which has one of the best improvisational magic systems around. He was also responsible for Over the Edge, one of the most rules-light systems around. But he's gone one step further with his new game, Everway, which is probably the most innovative and playable systems to arrive on the market in years."
In his 2023 book Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground, RPG historian Stu Horvath found the cards used to resolve action were too ambiguous, noting, "For example, when characters who are evenly matched in the fire attribute are brawling, the GM draws a card: War, inverted, which indicates 'Effort Misspent' — but whose? This ambiguity is the main problem with Everway. It is gorgeous, ... it is intriguing, and it seems simple to dive into — but it's not."
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