SAT-03 Dreamland: A Lovecraftian Game of Fantasy & Memory
Posted: June 18th, 2014, 10:43 pm
Hi everyone,
My name is Jason Thompson. I love RPGs, and I'm the artist of a comic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," among other stuff. I never felt there was a game that quite captured the feeling of the dreamworld stories of Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany, as well as other weird authors like Clark Ashton Smith, Italo Calvino and Neil Gaiman... so I'm designing one! I'm interested in playtesting it at GoPlay NW for up to 5 players.
Here's the blurb:
Awake to your destiny. You are of the few souls who are able to travel into the world of sleep, where thought is language and language is power. Travel across vast landscapes and discover strange cultures. Fight Monstrous Races, Dragons and Nightmares. Mold the dreamworld to summon monsters, create treasures, speak the language of beasts, become a king, and do anything you can imagine... but in the end, only your Memories of your waking life stand between you and the coming of Dawn.
* This is a sandbox RPG; there is no overarching goal. You may live, you may die. You play a character playing a character: a dreamer who travels into fantastic dream-lands where you are a stranger, taking on different roles, summoning up monsters, treasures and events. Character generation is simple: you randomly draw a Role (character class), and you also start with 3 Memories which are your connection to reality.
* The game takes place in a map of strange cities and dream-locations which is partially randomly generated, partially created by the characters (like in games like "The Quiet Year") as the game goes on.
* The game has no character sheets. Since the theme is Memory, you must literally memorize your Memories to call on their power when time gets rough.
* The game is mostly diceless. To do truly mighty deeds in Dreamland, you must spend Words.
* Words are the key to power in Dreamland. The DM (and in some cases, the other players) randomly draw word-tiles from a sack of words which reflect the atmosphere of Dreamland, and pepper their descriptions and speeches with them. Players gain power by recognizing these Words and weaving them into sentences, either in-character or out-of-character; they *they* get to take the Words and use them to add to their die rolls or fuel incredible events.
* Essentially, the "Words" system, inspired by the "Dying Earth" RPG, rewards characters for using language that's appropriate to the dream-fantasy genre: language of Exoticism, Mystery, Poetry, Wonder and Loathing.
My descriptions are a little rough, but I've been working on this game for months with a few playtests and I'd love to test it out at GoPlay NW! I know I've already written way too much, but I'd be happy to answer questions, and I hope you can make it. : )
PLAYER 1: Tim Mauldin
PLAYER 2: Joe Gracyk
PLAYER 3: Zed Lopez (signed up via Twitter)
PLAYER 4: D Drake
PLAYER 5: Johnstone Metzger
My name is Jason Thompson. I love RPGs, and I'm the artist of a comic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," among other stuff. I never felt there was a game that quite captured the feeling of the dreamworld stories of Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany, as well as other weird authors like Clark Ashton Smith, Italo Calvino and Neil Gaiman... so I'm designing one! I'm interested in playtesting it at GoPlay NW for up to 5 players.
Here's the blurb:
Awake to your destiny. You are of the few souls who are able to travel into the world of sleep, where thought is language and language is power. Travel across vast landscapes and discover strange cultures. Fight Monstrous Races, Dragons and Nightmares. Mold the dreamworld to summon monsters, create treasures, speak the language of beasts, become a king, and do anything you can imagine... but in the end, only your Memories of your waking life stand between you and the coming of Dawn.
* This is a sandbox RPG; there is no overarching goal. You may live, you may die. You play a character playing a character: a dreamer who travels into fantastic dream-lands where you are a stranger, taking on different roles, summoning up monsters, treasures and events. Character generation is simple: you randomly draw a Role (character class), and you also start with 3 Memories which are your connection to reality.
* The game takes place in a map of strange cities and dream-locations which is partially randomly generated, partially created by the characters (like in games like "The Quiet Year") as the game goes on.
* The game has no character sheets. Since the theme is Memory, you must literally memorize your Memories to call on their power when time gets rough.
* The game is mostly diceless. To do truly mighty deeds in Dreamland, you must spend Words.
* Words are the key to power in Dreamland. The DM (and in some cases, the other players) randomly draw word-tiles from a sack of words which reflect the atmosphere of Dreamland, and pepper their descriptions and speeches with them. Players gain power by recognizing these Words and weaving them into sentences, either in-character or out-of-character; they *they* get to take the Words and use them to add to their die rolls or fuel incredible events.
* Essentially, the "Words" system, inspired by the "Dying Earth" RPG, rewards characters for using language that's appropriate to the dream-fantasy genre: language of Exoticism, Mystery, Poetry, Wonder and Loathing.
My descriptions are a little rough, but I've been working on this game for months with a few playtests and I'd love to test it out at GoPlay NW! I know I've already written way too much, but I'd be happy to answer questions, and I hope you can make it. : )
PLAYER 1: Tim Mauldin
PLAYER 2: Joe Gracyk
PLAYER 3: Zed Lopez (signed up via Twitter)
PLAYER 4: D Drake
PLAYER 5: Johnstone Metzger