This concludes Aaron Vanek’s essay about Dreamland from the previous post! Thanks Aaron!
6. Diagonal Narrative
The more Words a PC uses in a challenge, the greater the chance that they will break one of the Five Pillars of Dreamland. I describe it as the PCs are lucid dreamers who can reshape portions of dream reality—altering the landscape, for example—but that reality pushes back. The more Pillar Breaks that materialize, as recorded by the Night Clock, the harsher and more numerous the consequences to subsequent cracks. However, the results of a Broken Pillar are rarely direct injury to the character that caused it (though death can be an outcome if someone is already injured, it’s ultimately up to the DM). Instead, Pillar Breaks introduce new obstacles for the Dreamers to overcome, e.g., the town they are in declares war against another, or the citizenry suddenly speaks another language or celebrates a religious festival and trots out a giant wicker man. Pillar Breaks serve as hindrances and complications.
I think of Pillar Breaks as moving a diagonal narrative—the characters’ story progresses toward their goal, but also slightly away from it. I’ve run Jason’s scenario “The Paradise of the Unchanging” multiple times; it’s straightforward in terms of plot: an inciting incident, a questing response to it, a climactic test, and a revealing finale. But in one convention run, Pillar Breaks kept bending the quest around rectification. This is when Dreamland really clicked for me, as I realized how a tangential Pillar Break can become a rabbit hole for the chronicle, much like our dreams might divert from one scene or moment to another.
I enjoy this style of play where failure tilts but does not upend the tale, as compared to other games where a failed dice roll halts the unraveling or precludes victory. In Dreamland, the beat goes on even if a Break switches the tempo.
I also like the sense of satisfaction that a diagonal narrative bestows to players. With most challenges, PCs should triumph if they use enough Words. Even if they break a Pillar, they’ll still achieve their short-term goal and get the psychological lift for doing so—but something else might happen. Dreamland games follow the improvisational theater rule of “Yes, and…” or, in the case of Pillar Breaks, “Yes, but…”
7. Act Structure and Timing
Since the bulk of a Dreamland game transpires in a dream, the characters can awaken at any moment, including prior to the conclusion. This feature works extremely well whenever there is a real-world time constraint. “The Paradise of the Unchanging” example mentioned above was run at the first ChaosiumCon. Due to the players’ recurrent Pillar Breaks and requisite narrative slants, the game ended before the episode could be resolved—and this was fine. My impression was that all the players enjoyed themselves, and I certainly did.
Dreamland is wonderfully a “journey is more important than the destination” type of game. Although reaching the story’s climax is typical in most runs, I don’t feel that plot resolution needs to occur for players to be satisfied, and as a DM I appreciate not having the pressure to cut scenes or railroad the characters to ensure a denouement.**
(**Here’s a wee secret—waking up and narrating your real-world character’s scene is the scenario conclusion.)
8. Enemies and Big Bads
Most of the game’s foes are extracted from Lord Dunsany, Lovecraft, myth and legend. The usual fantasy operatives are here to do their part—giants, dragons, fairies, griffins, centaurs, night-gaunts, ghouls, zoogs, etc., though they may not resemble their popular depictions. Even though many of the beasts and monsters in Dreamland are formidable adversaries, there are more things in Dreamland than are dreamt of in our Waking World philosophies. These are the ultimate nemeses for a Dreamland campaign, so powerful they affect the Waking World as well. Here be Nightmares.
What I love about the Nightmares—which haven’t been officially revealed unless you have the full version of Dreamland—is that they are predominantly embodiments of concepts: Death, Life, Destiny, Entropy, Evil, Artistry, Collective Unconscious, Inhuman Alienness, etc.
If characters become powerful enough to drastically reshape the dreams of all humanity in past, present, and future, the primal forces—the egregores that make or are made by consensual reality—become aware of and pursue the offenders.
Jason took the themes of Dunsany and others and turned them into Nightmares. While Dreamland can run as surrealist escapism, it also can be philosophical exploration, and, I hope, provoke some serious discussion amongst the players.
9. Campaigns and Experience
I believe that I am one of the few who, along with my players, has participated in an extended Dreamland campaign and seen all the tiers of character advancement. The mechanics that Jason detailed for experience are superb, because the rules ask the players to develop, through choices, the long arc of their characters more than advancements dictated by the externalities of their mission(s) or shackled by their original role selection. In fact, one choice players get at certain levels is the option to change their role entirely, e.g., a Beggar becomes a King. Again, this is fueled by the indie RPG style mentioned earlier, where players steer their characters along a personal story that’s influenced by their dreams. Levelling up in Dreamland is much more than acquiring shiny fighting abilities.
When I ran the campaign, there were some profound moments and character developments initiated by the PCs reacting to the dream saga. I feel that this indicates Dreamland has “legs,” as they say. The game can be played as an enjoyable afternoon diversion, but it also works over a longer period, with, hopefully, a meaningful revelation by the end.
This leads to the crux of my devotion to Dreamland: a character has limited control over what happens in their dreams, like most of us. Yet the game empowers players to interpret and react to what happens in the dreams to affect their character’s Waking World persona—and how significant is that approach for us today? Combined with the mechanic of using words to change the world, I view Dreamland as a potentiality for IRL self-improvement or even self-actualization.
10. The Art
Jason’s vocation is illustration (a few RPG credits include Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu, movie storyboard credits are The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Minion: The Rise of Gru, and many manga related books, including Manga: The Complete Guide) and his work for Dreamland is splendid. He has provided piquant cartoon drawings to explain key aspects of the game, plus lushly colored images that invite you to scrutinize each visual inch for Easter eggs of lore. His experience with manga is apparent, as these larger pictures are like full-page spreads in a comic, enticing you to linger.
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The last thing is Jason’s demeanor. This final quantity is irrespective of the game, but it means a lot to me, especially in a crowded field of TTRPG options where any slight advantage can make the difference between a cash purchase or being buried at the bottom of a wish list.
Jason has always been kind and gracious to me. The quintessential anecdote among many begins after I made my (only slightly delayed) grueling delivery of Dreamland gazetteer content units. At the time I was laboring five gigs simultaneously, and grinding the other four was loudly irksome. A week after turning the text in, I unexpectedly received a package of gourmet chocolates, tea, coffee and a thank you card from Jason. This meant a lot, for none of my other bosses expressed more than a skosh of munificence. In one case my reward was a layoff.
You might never contact Jason, and a good attitude does not guarantee a good game, nor does a bad attitude mean a bad game. Still, if such things matter to you, I vouch for Jason’s pleasant personality.
Conclusion
I hope this biased firsthand appraisal prompts you to follow the Dreamland game at one of our many sites:
Main webpage: https://www.dreamrpg.com
Jason’s personal webpage: https://mockman.com
Discord invite: https://discord.gg/GKS3WZ6y
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/193573340339
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mockman.bsky.social
And please, please subscribe to the announcement page when Dreamland goes to crowdfund here: https://www.dreamrpg.com/sign-up-for-updates/
Art from “The Paradise of the Unchanging”