Dream of Dragon is a dreamlike medieval role-playing game created by Denis Gerfaud. The first version was published by the NEF in 1985, the second by Multisim in 1993. A simplified version of the second version released under the name of Oniros in 1994. A new impression of the second version was released in April 2004, published by Ubik; it has been translated into English under the title Dream: The Dream Ouroboros and edited by Malcontent Games.
The dream world of Dragon is according to some wise dreamed by the dragons. Thus the dream is omnipresent, sometimes it is difficult to distinguish it from reality, if indeed there is one.
Each dragon dreams of a particular being, but all dragons dream of the world in common. When a being dies, his dragon wakes up (he stops dreaming), but the other dragons, still dormant, continue to dream about being and so his corpse stays in this world. This conception is in fact a metaphor of the role play itself: the players imagine ("dream") together an adventure, a world, while each embodying a character (a "being" of this world), so the Dragons.
When the role-play game ends, the player returns to reality (he wakes up) and his character remains "in abeyance" until the next game; the character lives in "dream-gray" in the imaginary world, the player has only a vague idea of what the character has done between two parts, so the character himself has only vague memories of this period.
When a being dies, his dragon wakes up (this is the end of the game for the player), then goes back to sleep (the player creates a new character for the next game); the new dream is therefore a new incarnation of the dragon. This new incarnation can, through the dream, acquire the knowledge and know-how of its predecessors. The set of memories of incarnations of the dragon forms the archetype of being. In fact, when the character dies, the player has the opportunity to replay it again, with the same characteristics, but different skills, craft and past. He can meet the companions of the old incarnation (he is not born at the time when the old incarnation dies): he comes simply ... from another dream. Just as one does not control one's own dreams (the proof is that one has nightmares), certain beings, the high-dreamers, have the possibility of modifying the course of the dream of the dragons; that's the magic.
Inner History In the beginning was the First Age when dragons lived with other creatures (they represented themselves in their dreams). The discovery of magic by the gnomes made them wake up en masse. The Second Age is that of the magicians (called high-dreamers), their proliferation and their excesses causing the second catastrophe.
The game takes place at the beginning of the Third Age, in a torn, scattered world where high-dreamers are unwelcome. Technology and society are halfway through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The creatures of Dragon Dream are both familiar and surprising.
Thus the ogres are certainly anthropophagous giants, but they are also gentle and peaceful beings, even shy, who simply do not know why we can eat lambs but not children! The multiple dreams are connected by dream tears allowing the passage from one to another. These tears are kind of doors between different worlds; it is through them that the worst creatures that populate the world have arrived. Most of these tears are one-way; thus, when we travel, we are never sure to be able to retrace our steps: we may have crossed, without realizing it, a tear ...
The world has three "levels": the Lowlands of Dreams, which are the dream world, the one in which the characters evolve. The Dream Median Lands, which is where magicians come to draw the energy of the dream to cast their spells; it can only be accessed by the spirit, in a state of trance called "half-dream". The Highlands of Dreams, which are the world of dragons.
This mystical experience can only be accessed during sleep, at the risk of losing one's mental balance - high dreamers are often a little crazy!
The traveler At the beginning of the Third Age, it is a custom unanimously followed, a kind of universal instinct: each individual, at the time of passing to adulthood, must make a journey. Most of the time, it's going to go two villages further, or in the nearest big city. The characters played decided to make of their life a perpetual journey, going from city to city without ever stopping more than a few months: they are travelers. The decision can be made well in advance and well thought out, or on the contrary if it is not possible to find the way back. Travelers are curious people by nature, enjoying a great freedom. They will always be willing to take risks in order to know a part of the dream they had not imagined.
We must point out two characteristic elements of the world: the scenarios of Denis Gerfaud are conceived as journeys, occasions of situations more humorous than dramatic. Their engine is not the fight against evil and evil, but rather against the madness of the world and misunderstandings; a use as massive as possible puns: we feed on "sluts", we chase "noiseau" (volatile that makes noise, looking for noise, only when it is alone: so we hear "a noiseau" but not "noiseaux"!), etc.
Rule, Educational Sheet ... one File AvailableOne File Available
Contents of the box : 272-page book with soft cover in colour.
