It’s been awhile! There’s actually been a ton of Dreamland work and development in the last few months, I’ve just been bad at posting about it. For now, here’s something to chisel into the eternal granite of WordPress: a list of “core” Dreamland books and stories. Essential Works Obviously, I…
Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe Movie
Just a quick update, but there is Dreamlands news too exciting not to share: Kij Johnson’s amazing Dreamlands novel “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe” has been optioned as a movie! Details are available at the Magnesium Films website. No cast or crew are announced, and it’s possibly too soon to…
On Lord Dunsany
(This post was originally written way back around 2012 on my other website, mockman.com. The context then was Dunsany’s influence on Lovecraft, but Dunsany is so important to the Dreamlands, I thought it was worth reposting here, with a few minor edits.) What inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands stories? You could…
Paths to Dreamland: Cities of Never
Happy New Year! This article was previously printed in 2012 on mockman.com and is shamelessly reprinted here, with some revisions. It will be part of a series about the inspirations for Dreamland RPG. “When a man rides a long time through wild regions he feels the desire for a city.”—Italo…
Dreamland Movies and TV, Part 2
The 1990s brought a huge pop-cultural discovery that has shaped visions of Dreamland ever since: virtual reality. The Matrix, Star Trek: TNG‘s holodeck, cyberpunk RPGs and other media popularized the idea of passing between reality and a persistent imaginary world. Ideas like “what happens if you abandon your real life…
Dreamland Movies and TV, Part 1
The great RPG designers/podcasters Kenneth Hite and Robin D. Laws often suggest that, before starting a new campaign, GMs should show players a movie or TV show episode to show them the style they’re going for. So, if you’re starting a Dreamland campaign, what movies should everybody watch? If players…
Dreamland at Comic-Con @Home
For some time now, the wonderful Aaron Vanek has been running Dreamland playtests at The Game Academy, which runs online roleplaying games for educational (and fun) purposes. Now, Aaron and his colleagues Emily Nguyen-Hoai, Keenan Kibrick and Fiona Rene have featured Dreamland in a panel on “Learning through Roleplaying Games“!…
Creating Marvels
“‘But does all this exist only after I’ve wished it? Or was it all there before?’ “‘Both,’ said Grograman. “‘How can that be?’ Bastian cried almost impatiently. ‘You’ve been here in Goab, the Desert of Colors, since heaven knows when. The room in your palace was waiting for me since…
Dreamland on Roll20
This possibly doesn’t deserve a post, but… Dreamland is now (really truly) working on roll20!! The great Aaron Vanek and I have now run several games and worked out the technical kinks. Naturally, these are just rough playtest versions of all the cards — things won’t actually look like this…
Roles of Dreamland
The core Dreamland rules contain 52 Roles (plus additional Roles not available to starting characters). Here are the rules, descriptive text and suggested starting equipment for several Roles. Each Role is linked to one or more of the Five Pillars of Dreamland. TROUBADOUR The Troubadour, or Bard, is a travelling…