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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep

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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by Chris G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 01/22/2007 00:00:00

Surreal gaming. We don?t see much of it as the concept can be hard to explore. It can be tough for the DM to explain what is going on and the players can have difficulty wrapping their heads around what is going on. I have tried different levels of it in the past and usually the result is less then adequate. Some pictures just seem harder to paint. This might be why there are few Role Playing books that deal with the Surreal. Unlike most other topics the surreal requires a bit more from the reader and his ability to understand and follow what is going on. When it is being run the DM has to do a better job of explaining what is going on as the setting and the experiences can be difficult to get across. Communicating the right feel may be the toughest hurdle, but there are plenty of places people can get tripped up on. Dreams are a part of every person and probably the best example of something surreal. It has a commonality that everyone understand and can sort of picture. But I do not think that makes it that much easier to get across the surreal parts of them. Dreamscapes does take us into the characters dreams and the dreams of other creatures.

Dreamscapes is a new PDF by Adamant Entertainment. It is written by Joseph Miller or who I will forever know him as That Privateer Press Guy from the 2003 ENnies. Dreamscapes is a one hundred and fifty seven page PDF though it reads bigger then that. It does not have a lot of art so lots of text. The layout could use a little work there are some extra spaces at some pages end. The book marks are nicely done though.

Dreamscapes is about adventuring in dreams. It is both creative and complex. It is one of the supplements that I think will need to be played for a little while to get the hang of but the ideas in the book make it worth it. The basic idea is that inside dreams people can do things that cannot be done in the actual world. This is represented very well with dream points. Dream points can be used to help skill, feats, and magic all do more then they can normally do. Some of the items are almost epic as what can be done in a dream would be considered amazing in the real world. Like using the hide skill to become invisible, in a dream it makes sense. Having the heal skill be able to regenerate is another example. It would be interesting to an product that uses many of the new abilities in here and turns them into epic abilities and not just dream ones.

The true brilliance of the product though comes from describing the dream realms. The system is pretty flexible and allows for a lot of customization. It even discusses where the dream realms exist and does not tie it down to any one place. It does refer to the basic cosmology of inner and outer planes but it would be easy to switch this to say the plane of dreams like is seen in other d20 books and campaign settings.

There is a lot of information in this book and I know I just hit on a few highlight. The book does present the dream worlds in a very interesting and usable way. The mechanics might be a little tough; it is really hard to say without seeing them in action. However even if someone finds the mechanics not usable the detail and ideas contained within are easily worth owning this book for.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by Geoffrey B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/29/2006 00:00:00

DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep is an idea for playing dream worlds. There is great potential in the idea. The resource does a good job of fulfilling it.

The main idea in the PDF is that a dream world would be able to be affected by its inhabitants. It?s designed for D20 but because of its small amount of reliance on mechanics it can apply to other systems without too much trouble. I have used this system for a dream encounter and a trip inside a magical item to unlock its power. This resource did the majority of the work, I altered it a bit and reworked a few mechanics, and it all went well. If you know your game and what you are aiming for in your dream world this book will lead you to how to pull it off. If you are drawn to the concept of having a strange encounter or just throwing off your party for a night, get this book.

The Dream use of this PDF I threw at them when they finally found the mystic who could help them find the answer they needed agreed to help them. As the next meeting started they woke up and were not where they expected to be, and then started finding out things didn?t work the way they should, and slowly started figuring out how to use the world they were in (with some help). At the end they defeated the enemy and found out what they needed to know then woke up in the Mystics tent to find out that short-term memory loss was often a side effect of a quest trance. They kind of figured it out about ? through, but they still had a great time.

Be creative and you will get great use out of this resource, and your adventurers will get a very memorable night. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The idea was great and they did a solid job of fleshing it out, while keeping some options open for you to fill in how you want the world to work.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: That openness is great if you have some ideas of your own, if you are looking for an adventure for tommorrow night, your not going to get much sleep.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by Phil N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/23/2006 00:00:00

An excellent Toolkit to expand a fantasy game into the Realm of Dream. The GM is presented with numerous options for possible Dream Realms, creatures and magic. The emphasis is upon creating a different feel to adventures in Dream.

Yet, there is more for a GM too. Many of the creature and spell templates can be used outside of Dream.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: A flexible selection of tools<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Dream Point System too complex for my taste<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by Kasper P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/29/2005 00:00:00

Important: The product is to be used with D20 AD&D (i missed this point myself, but no harm done :-)

This supplement will take your players into the dream realms, where everything will be a bit more fantastic / heroic / cinematic ... and with a very "plausible" explanation - their inside a dream. Buy spending points from their "dreampool" the players will be able to buff up almost any possible skill, spell, feat or diceroll. Even the most conservative, lowmagic, feudal world GM should be able to find some inspiration in this book.

The material is very closely aligned to existing AD&D classes, feats and skills, but also contain new dream specific versions. Also the descriptions of the example dream "planes", have a high degree of consistence towards the description "language" from Manual of the Planes. I havent actually played this yet, but the rules and the fluff seems very easy to apply to an existing campaign.

The material is generally very well written, and you'll find nice artwork and poetry in a balanced amount.

I like this, I really do ... but where is the GM screen / basic rules summary ? Now I'll have to rate this 5 stars, allthough it's only entitled to 4?, and i will have to do a rules summary myself. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - Nice look and feel

  • Clear separation of "recommended" and "optional" rules
  • Very consistent with D20 AD&D and PlaneScape<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - DM's screen missing would have been nice
  • Player add-on sheet and/or rules summary would have been nice
  • Cover page drawing is a bit ... uhm ... girlish<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>


Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DREAMSCAPES: The Definitive D20 Guide to Worlds Beyond Sleep
Publisher: Adamant Entertainment
by John S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/27/2005 00:00:00

This item has tons of good ideas for dream-oriented campaigns. Everything seems well thought out and easy to implement.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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