Dreamescape is a narrative board game inspired by the collected works of the Cthulhu Mythos writers of the 1920s. In Dreamescape you play as a dreaming spirit trapped behind the door of sleep by the Great Old Ones. You must explore the amorphous and ever-changing landscape, escape the clutches of Cthulhu’s minions and find a key and the linked gate that will lead you out of the nightmare back to the Waking World (and of course win you the game!)
But Cthulhu and the Old Ones covet all that enter Dreamland and will not let you simply leave without a struggle. You must delve deep into the secrets of the land, survive encounters with dream denizens and piece together the story puzzles before you get the chance to escape.
Success means coming awake, but failure leads to insanity, locked forever in a dream within your own mind!
THE GAME
Dreamescape is a narrative-driven survival adventure game for solo players, with over a hundred hours of variable storyline to explore.
The focus of the game is your player dashboard that contains your chosen character sheet (there are six characters to choose from). This dashboard is the heart of your evolving tableau as you add Item, Lore and Story cards that you gain from story encounters.
Each story encounter card offers roleplay-like choices for the player to choose from to advance the story. Choices require tests to be passed against the player’s specific skills and abilities. Your chances of success (and survival in this nightmare) can be influenced by the rewards given by earlier story cards and by the equipment and knowledge you have gained during the game so far – and critically also by your own previous knowledge (memory) of playing the game!
Dreamescape offers unique Déjà Vu and Lucid Dreaming abilities to let you take control of the story and directly influence your chances of survival!
…But all knowledge comes at a price. Using up benefits gained from previous encounters means they will crucially not be available later in the game – perhaps when they are vital to your survival! In addition, your character’s Vitality and Sanity stats in the dreamworld will slowly be eroded and decay the longer you spend in the nightmare, driving the character deeper into the dream and towards insanity.
