Yesterday evening I was browsing my book shelf for some light reading and I ended up pulling Hillfolk, Robin D. Laws’ game of iron age drama (a role-playing game).

Laws’ DramaSystem is intriguing for me. Character-driven drama is one of the things I like in role-playing games. DramaSystem reads like a quite system-heavy game, but I guess one does not know before trying it out.

But, there was another thing in the book that really caught my attention: an alternate setting, Dreamspace by Keith Baker.

Dreamspace setting pitch

Let me quote the pitch in a nutshell:

Lost in the universal unconscious, the crew of the dreamship Endymion searches for reality.

It is set in a universe where dreamships are the only way to travel between worlds.

There’s no way to travel faster than light. But it is possible to cheat space by taking a shortcut through a dimension that has no concept of physical distance: the universal unconscious, the linked dreams of all living beings.

What’s not to like? Here are some concepts I find intriguing:

• The reason for the crew to cross dreams is search for profit
• To travel in Dreamspace you need a pilot who is sleeping through the whole journey
• In all worlds, there are Sleeping Beauties, whose endless dreams serve as stepping stones for journeys
• The whole journey is influenced by the pilot’s unconsciousness as the vessel is wrapped in the dreams of the pilot
• the members of the crew have different motivations for being there
• the game starts with a bang: something has gone wrong and the vessel is lost in the collective unconsciousness – how can the crew save themselves and who is to blame?

There is some intense imagination fuel there.