RPGPundit Reviews: Dreamwalker REVISED

Over a year ago I reviewed the original Dreamwalker RPG.  In general, I had found it to be a "solid game".  The new edition to the game features an expanded version of the setting material, a whole new system (moving away from an ok but not spectacular house system to the D20 modern system that's more accessible), and a generally more sophisticated and mature appreciation of what it takes to make a good RPG.  You can tell that in the time between writing the original Dreamwalker and the new revised version, Peter Spahn has honed his skill as a game designer, and his understanding of the industry.

The basic concept of the game remains the same.  Quoting the introduction, Dreamwalker Revised is "a game of epic horror, fantasy, and adventure set against the backdrop of the modern world.  In this setting, the mystical Land of Dreams is in turmoil and its collapse has begun to affect reality".  The PCs in the game are the dreamwalkers, those few human beings able to travel consciously and lucidly through the world of dreams, trying to fight the the forces that are attacking humanity in its sleep.

The original concept has been expanded, however, from the first edition's campaign concept of the PCs being agents of the "Project Dreamwalker" thinktank, into including five other models of play.  In Revised, you can still play agents of Project Dreamwalker, or the slightly more intense and "darker" organization known as The Clinic; but you can also run campaigns of ordinary people without such a support network ("Guardians of the Real"), a secret society of dreamwalkers ("the Sword of Gaia"), or actually set adventures entirely inside the dream world ("The Lost City fo Revead" or "The Kingdom of Malice").

First, a few notes about the production quality of the game itself.  Dreamwalker Revised is a softcover D20 book, that looks very well constructed. It has a nice, glossy full-colour cover (very well illustrated) and what appears to be quite high-quality binding.  Just by looking at the book, my own experience tells me that its the sort of book that will stand up to a lot of the sort of wear-and-tear that gamebooks go through.  The interior is well laid-out and quite readable, featuring a good amount of black-and-white illustrations ranging in style from classic art to well-drawn comic-style illustrations.

The concept of the game supposes that humanity is divided between mundane people and "awakened" people; those who have some kind of metaphysical awareness of the greater world accessible through dreams. Some of these awakened become Dreamwalkers, able to travel lucidly not only through their own dreams, but through the dreams of others. These dreamwalkers use mana, spiritual energy, to accomplish incredible things within the dream realm.

The Dreamworld is a near-infinite environment where each person's dreams is a world, but where there are also places beyond individual dreams, an entire multiverse to explore.  This allows for the game to encompass a vast range of possible adventures, and styles of play.  I could imagine a GM using Dreamwalker running adventures with a serious fantasy bent, or dark tales of psychological horror, or whimsical adventures in an almost cartoonish style, or even to alternate in styles from one adventure to the next.

The big bad guys of the setting remain the same as in the previous edition: The Brood. These are "spiritual parasites" who "derive sustenance from the negative emotions generated from the human psyche".  In other words, they "infect" human beings' dreams to feed on all their fear, anger, etc.; creating nightmares for the dreamers, but growing to cause depression and other real problems in the dreamer's waking world.

The system in the original dreamwalker book was a percentile-based system; as I've already mentioned, in Dreamwalker Revised, the system is D20 Modern. "Dreamwalker" is a feat which requires taking one of the Dreamwalker "archetypes" (innate, natural, mystic, invested, analyst, and user).  The archetypes each give a different level of mana and access to different powers and bonus feats.  These archetypes the different backgrounds of the characters, whether they were born dreamwalkers, developed it by themselves, are dreamwalkers because of spiritual training, because of some weird event, because they were trained by some organization (like the Clinic or Project: Dreamwalker), or through the heavy use of psychedelic drugs.

Dreamers have access to Mana Powers, which they spend mana points to activate.  These powers could be seen as spell-like abilities that work specifically in the dream world.  The most significant of these is Alteration, which allows the dreamer to attempt to change the "reality" of the dream around him. Additionally, characters can purchase mana feats, which generally speaking are more significant than the powers.

So there are a couple of new archetypes and a few new powers compared to the prior edition. But what you also get in this book is new advanced classes. These include the Brood Slayer (tough dude that goes around killing the Brood), Tomb Raider (an adventurer that seeks out real-world mystical artifacts; and who's illustration in the book makes it ultra-clear that we're talking "cheap rip off of Lara Croft" here), the Dream Warrior (a guy who is a hero in and defender of the Dream world), the Brood Hunter (another spirit warrior who hunts the Brood), the Dream Weaver (someone who is a master of magic-like powers in the dream world), the Paranormal Investigator (a kook who seeks out all kinds of weird phenomena), the Totemist (a shaman who exists equally comfortably in this world and the dreamworld), the Arcanist (a real-world expert on occultism), and the Government Agent (the FBI tough guy).
Some of these advanced classes strike me as repetitive (really, I don't quite get why you have to have a brood slayer and a brood hunter). Likewise, the "Tomb Raider" advanced class seems to make no sense at all in this setting, and it seems cheesy, especially with the obvious image provided.

The mechanics of dreamwalking are fairly straightforward: there are powers that can only be used in the dream, and apart from changes created by these powers, the dreamwalkers are essentially the same in the dream as they are in the real world. In the dream, if a character is reduced to -10 hit points, he awakens, and may suffer "Dream shock", which can have some harmful effects for the character (including a permanent loss of mana points).

There is a generous section on creatures of the dreamworld (including the Brood), that covers some twenty pages of the gamebook. There are a few new creatures added, and while the fundamental nature of the Brood hasn't changed, more emphasis has been added to the Broodkings and their influence in the outside world. The "Broodspawn" are creations of Broodkings in the real world, that can cause all kinds of destruction.

The book also includes a section on Dream Design, which I would say is absolutely essential in this case.  The key element of a dream adventure in Dreamwalker is the denouement; this is whatever goal the PCs must achieve to end the dream.  The basic concept behind dreaming in this RPG, using a bit of pop psychology, is that dreams represent some kind of psychological process the dreamers go through while asleep, trying to resolve something that remains unresolved in their waking life.  The Brood, in the game, interrupt that process and thus fail to give the dreamer resolution, causing them to plunge into frustration and depression.  The dreamers' job, in the dream, is to find out what the denouement is (which is not always an easy task, or something that will be immediately obvious to them), and resolve it. Good guidelines are provided for the types of denouements you can have (for example, one of righting some injustice the dreamer suffered in their real life, or recovering something that was lost, or fulfilling something the dreamer has always wanted to do or have in the real world but for whatever reason cannot).  Guidelines are also provided as to the type of dreamworlds one might run into in the game: places that look like our own world from the dreamer's perspective, the past, different times or places, the horror of a nightmare, or something truly alien.

One clever addition to this section is the "fluff" rule.  You know how in dreams, you will often see something added in the dream that makes no particular sense in the dream, but has to do with something peripheral that you might have had on your mind, or that might have happened in the day? That's fluff, and the dreamwalkers will often encounter it in the dreams they visit.  An example given in the book is that a dreamer that's just returned from a trip to japan might have the people in his dream wearing kimonos for no good reason.  There's a good random table for designing some fluff.

In dreams, the inhabitants of the dream are referred to as the unreal.  They have some special rules governing them, and mostly they are the "mooks" of the setting, rarely ever a meaningful challenge to the dreamwalkers. The real challenge are the Brood, who may hide in the dream in the form of a character from the dream, and might have to be ferreted out.

The GM's section of the book contains fairly detailed explanations of how to run an adventure in the dreamworld, including moving through the rasa, the space between dreams, finding the right dream, and how to interact with the dream. Details are given particularly to the more dangerous regions of the dream and how the dream is warped by the presence of the different types of the Brood.

All of this takes us up to roughly the first 100 pages of a 230 page book. Next, we have the details of the particular campaign styles that had been promised at the outset of the book. The first, Guardians of the Real, is for a campaign that is mostly focused on the real world, and where the dream world is secondary. The PCs are dedicated to fighting the manifestations of the Broodkings in the real world. Details are given on some sample groups and details that could be useful, but the guideline for the campaign is pretty sparse (5 pages). In addition to this, a short adventure (mini-adventure, really) is included.

The section on the Project Dreamwalker campaign is a little larger, and basically repeats what was seen in the original Dreamwalker rpg: an organization that brings together a wide variety of dreamwalkers, dedicated to studying dreams but especially to fighting the Brood manifestations in the dreams of humans. Another short sample adventure is included.

The Clinic section details a group that is similar to Project Dreamwalker, but government-controlled and combined with real-world espionage and politics. In the book we get some details on the actual physical structure of The Clinic, your typical "creepy government secret project". There are fairly extensive details given regarding the staff and some potential "Patients" at the clinic. Once more, a short sample adventure is included.

The Sword of Gaia is the campaign for running a secret society of mystical (rather than scientifically-inspired) dreamwalkers, who are sworn to fight the brood in a holy war. This section includes some special feats that are exclusive to this type of campaign,stuff more magical than psychological.  Here also we get the first glimpse of the City of Revead, a city that exists in the dream realm, and is as real as anything in the waking world.  It isn't central to this campaign, but its something to be touched on or hinted at. Sample NPCs are provided for and, as always, the section has a short adventure.

In the next chapter, we get details on how to run a campaign in Revead: this is a fantasy setting, but one that exists in the dream realm.  Its main purpose appears to be for using the Dreamwalker game for running more fantasy-themed adventures, while still taking advantage of the mechanics of mana and mana powers, and the monstrous Brood. Details are given about the city and its surrounding lands, and how this realm is currently in a kind of war with a dark lord known as the Black Crown.

This section is the largest of the campaigns, as details are provided for the various lands around Revead, and the overall feel of the place, which is a slightly airy-fairy slightly Blue-Rose-esque sort of environment. However, the nature of the dreamworld and its influences on Revead give the feeling of the place a significant dose of Gonzo: when you have brood creatures masquerading as evil robots, and friendly dream-creatures that look like walking talking Pancakes, its hard to accuse a setting of being pretentious.

Special rules are provided to account for some of the differences in playing in Revead compared to other dream-places, and of course, the section ends in an adventure.

The Kingdom of Malice is the last and darkest of the campaign set-ups.  The Kingdom of Malice is the place where the Broodkings come from; a kingdom of evil where the realms of the kingdom each correspond to one of the seven deadly sins (Pride, Wrath, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, Greed, Lust).  Dreamwalkers trapped here can gradually become transformed into a Broodking if they embrace the nature of the realm they find themselves in. Each realm has a particular appearance based on its corresponding sin, and there are details provided as to the unfortunate people who live in these realms, and each realm's lord.

The nature of these realms don't always come out sounding quite "hellish" enough for what is basically meant to be the setting's version of hell.  Even the fairly bad ones, like Wrath, come out seeming like a mad-max kind post-apocalyptic setting. And then other realms seem positively idyllic, like Lust, where "living conditions, even for the very poor, are extremely good", where "monogamy is a foreign concept, and virility and sexual prowess are signs of status", where the government is an "elected democracy", and "equality between the sexes is absolute". That sounds a little more like Canada then hell, but with slightly less social control.

The only real downsides of the Kingdom of Malice seem to be that you can't leave (unless you receive permission from the "Avatar"/ruler of the kingdom you're in), that you lose all your mana points when you're there (you can still use mana powers, but you need to get "stored" mana in the form of "mana pockets" to use them) and that if something kills you in Malice, you're dead in the real world too.  But really, I'm left wondering what's so utterly totally awful about this place.  Frankly, the Broodkings that are supposed to come from this place seem so much more inhuman and monstrous than anything you find in the place. Even the "avatars" of malice seem much more human and approachable than the Broodkings, which makes little sense if you think about it. Its kind of a let-down.

It might be more useful if there was rules for the PCs trapped in Malice to slowly transform into Broodkings, giving the ultimate sense of personal horror: when you become the thing that you've been fighting all along; but sadly I can't find any rules about how to do this, even though it was implied.  Maybe it was hidden away in some of the godawful game fiction I didn't read. If not, that's the major blunder of this book: you get to Malice, and Malice is the place where you find out that Broodkings were once dreamwalkers who got trapped in Malice, but there's no actual mechanics for your PCs to slowly transform into Broodkings, giving away any potential sense of urgency that would have made Malice truly frightening and would have truly encouraged PCs to try to get away as quickly as possible.

Anyways, the book ends with a one-page list of potential campaign "metaplots" (really, just plots) for each of the different campaign types.  

On the whole, this book is a significant improvement on the old Dreamwalker. You get a lot of new stuff, and it would seem that anyone who was a fan of the original should strongly considering picking up the revised edition (even if you have a strong aversion to D20, there's new stuff here that would widen your game, and I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to convert material back to the original system).  Meanwhile, anyone deciding between one or the other book should pick Revised as well.

Overall, Dreamwalker Revised now replaces Dreamwalker as the best RPG I've ever seen on the subject of Dreams. It turns dreams into an inner multiverse. The game isn't without its slip-ups, but on the whole the book is well crafted and provides and excellent toolkit to run a very interesting sort of game.

RPGPundit

Thanks for the thorough review!  

A note on the advanced classes:  The Tomb Raider is definitely a Lara Croft ripoff.  No attempt to hide it here.    My thoughts were that relic hunters like LC, Indy, and even Pitfall Harry often brush up against the supernatural and in Dreamwalker Revised all supernatural elements are tied to the Land of Dreams, so a Tomb Raider fits.  The Tomb Raider (along with the Paranormal Investigator and Government Agent) are geared more for the new Guardians of the Real campaign model which pits mostly normal awakened folks against Broodkings and their spawn, so I wanted to include a few advanced classes specifically geared towards that campaign model.  

The Brood Slayer hunts the Brood in the real world.  The Brood Hunter hunts Broodkings and Broodspawn in the spirit world and realms such as Revead.  The main difference is in their powers.

The campaign models were meant to be "teasers" that provide enough info to play out of the box, but leave me some room to expand on them later individually.  

As for the Kingdom of Malice, I agree that the realms do not seem "hellish" per se, but I tried to explain that there is a sort of "circle of sin"--humans commit sin, Broodkings harvest it for their Lord, the Lord creates more Broodkings and sends them into the world to foment sin in humans.  I think the hellishness of Malice comes not so much from in-your-face evil as in the fact that you can't leave Malice and you can't trust anyone there.  In order to leave (or survive), you have to embrace sin and earn the favor of the avatar which can be extremely unpleasant.  I also had to walk the line between playability and futility here.  On the one hand, I wanted a place where PCs could adventure.  If it's the most horrific place EVER, it becomes more of a death trap than anything else and I didn't think that would be much fun.  Not to mention, d20 has a standards clause in their license that I had to skirt.  

The avatars are physical manifestations of the actual sinful Lord (who is actually the realm itself).  They seem human and approachable because they're basically extensions of human sin and vice (some of the "godawful game fiction" expands on this**).  The Lords of Malice are actually dark ephemeral creatues and their mindsets are alien and incomprehensible, but the avatars are their way of connecting with the inhabitants of their realm.  I might play up more alieness in the avatars and realms when I expand on the Malice campaign model.  As I noted, the contents of each realm are subject to the whims of each Lord, so changing it won't be a stretch.

QuoteMalice is the place where you find out that Broodkings were once dreamwalkers who got trapped in Malice, but there's no actual mechanics for your PCs to slowly transform into Broodkings, giving away any potential sense of urgency that would have made Malice truly frightening and would have truly encouraged PCs to try to get away as quickly as possible.

That's a good point.  I had alluded to the idea that Dreamwalkers who become trapped in Malice slowly begin to become Broodkings, but I left the actual process up to the GM.  d20 has no default "corruption" mechanic and I can't think of any way to handle it other than a series of rolls (maybe Con since there is no "spiritual" attribute), but that seems like it would get tedious.  I like the idea of adding a sense of urgency to escaping Malice, though.  Maybe I can work something out.  

Thanks again for the excellent review.  You're the only one who has reviewed both this game and the original so I was very anxious to see what you thought.  I'm glad I was able to expand on the game without losing the good parts from the original.  Thanks again!

Pete

**You really should trademark Godawful Game Fiction for those who don't know that you hate ALL game fiction.  

EDIT:  I forgot to mention:  One of my main goals with this revised edition was to present enough information to run ANY kind of dream-related game you can think of--anything from Cthuluesque investigative horror (Guardians of the Real) to full-blown Sandman-type dream adventures (using perhaps the Outlands/Deadlands in Revead or Malice) while also addressing the individual dream worlds.  Basically, I tried to make it so that any dream-related book or movie can be included and/or created with the dream design guidelines given (even if you decide to scrap the Dreamwalker Revised cosmology).