What says “RPG” more than random tables? The quickest and easiest way to create a Dreamland character is to begin with your three Memories and work your way backward, fleshing your waking self’s character out from there. The suggested method, particularly for new players, is to randomly roll your Memories from one of two tables: 100 Historical Memories and 100 Modern or Near-Modern Memories.
First, decide whether your waking self lives in the modern world, or sometime in the past. Dreamland is outside time, so dreamers from the past and present can meet together in the same dreamworld, heedless of paradox. If the DM and players want to run a game where everyone coexists in the same time period, players should roll on the Modern Memories table. If you are playing a game where your dreamers could come from anytime and anywhere, you can roll on either table. (Note that 3-4 very common generic Memories appear on both tables.)
Each Memory is associated with one, and only one, of the Five Pillars (Wonder, Mystery, Loathing, Passion or Exoticism, as described here). In addition to shaping your character’s personality, this determines the type of marvels you can sublimate the Memory to create in Dreamland.
The connection between a Memory and a particular Pillar isn’t set in stone but depends on your waking self’s emotional connections: for instance, if you have a Memory of a location, you get to choose whether that Memory is Wonderful (because you feel at home there) or Exotic (because it feels new and exciting). During character creation you may rewrite your Memories, including changing the Pillars they are assigned to. For instance, an animal sacrificed on a temple altar might make you feel Loathing instead of Mystery.
Some of the random Memories involve violent or heavy subject matter. If you roll a Memory you don’t want to have as part of your character background, either rewrite it, or reroll until you come up with something you’re comfortable with. For this same reason, it’s best for each player to privately roll, privately read the tables and write down their random Memories, rather than telling the DM what they rolled and having the DM publicly call out what the number corresponds to.
100 Modern or Near-Modern Memories
Write a short description of your character that fits your Memories. If your Memories seem to contain contradictions, you can reroll the ones you don’t like, or come up with an explanation of how they fit together. If you like your Memories but aren’t sure how they fit together into a character, you can save the description for later and start playing before you figure out the details. Your dream self might not entirely remember your waking life anyway.
There are other, more time-intensive ways to create Memories as well, including (1) starting with one of six character concepts and writing Memories around them or (2) creating a character based on a historical person. These will be described elsewhere in the Dreamland rules.