Played Dreamwalker with a first time GM (LONG)

[Demonspahn]

Hi everyone.

Just wanted to post some thoughts from a recent Dreamwalker session.  This is a LONG post that covers some notes about my group as well as a run down of the actual session.  I hope to get the other players to post here but none of them have regular access to a computer.  

There are four core players in my group---Don, Mark, Steve and myself.  As a group we have never played anything other than "GM is god" style of play and I am almost always the GM by default.  Another player (Don) has run games from time to time but he would rather play and it shows in his GM efforts; I'm not backbiting here, this is something we have spoken about and he agrees.  The other two players, Mark and Steve have never run a game.  We each have 10+ years of gaming although their experience lies mostly with AD&D.

Somewhere over the past few years they slipped into playing the same type of character role---one leader, one thug and one follower.  This persisted no matter what system/setting we used and was one of the reasons I set to designing Dreamwalker so that we could switch settings without having to make all new characters and learn a new system.  After reading the GNS theory I have come to realize that switching settings/systems/characters was not really the answer, but that is another subject entirely.  

Anyway Dreamwalker proved to be a quick fix and we started having fun again.  Unfortunately, I saw the old roles start to emerge and knew we were once again heading in the wrong direction.  I felt I was at least partly to blame because I was also in the same role (GM) that I always assumed.  So about this time I started pressing Mark and Steve to try their hand at running a game.  Mark seemed the most enthusiastic about it and said he had some good Dreamwalker ideas.  Steve also was game to give it a shot but wanted to see how Mark did first.  

We met to make characters and from the start I was amazed at how the dynamic changed.  After sitting through many listless chargen sessions, we all had a lot of fun.  With these characters we went for a more humorous effect and decided to base them on movie personas.  Basically we got Indiana Jones (Don), Triple X from the soon-to-be-released-and-go-straight-to-video movie (me) and Mr. Miagi from the Karate Kid (Steve).  

I'm going to nervously go GNS here and say that while we play a Simulationist style, we often do OC Narrativism, usually maliciously towards one another.  This led to a running pissing contest between Triple X and Miagi with Dr. Jones locking himself in the library doing research.  Triple X thrashed Miagi in a sparring matched, and Miagi decided to vent his frustration on the "nerd" archeologist.  Dr. Jones responded in turn by calling him Short Round and asking if he gets extra Experience Points for being a sidekick.  Now, interspersed throughout every session, we get plenty of threats, insults and a lot of laughter.

The Adventure

OK so the new GM gave us the history and background of the Dreamer.  He threw a few red herrings into this info but I will list what was relevant to the dream.  

The Dreamer was an Australian jockey, one of the best until he broke his back a few years ago.  Said injury was caused during a leisure ride through the country.  The Dreamer was thrown from a horse after the horse was spooked by a crocodile coming on to shore.  The Dreamer was alone and could hear dogs or dingoes nearby, but luckily he was rescued.  His back healed after rehab and he wanted to race again, but could not bring himself to get back on a horse.  His sponsors determined this was psychological and sent him for counseling and he ended up at a Project Dreamwalker chapter house.  

We entered the dream at a race track.  The track was unusual in that a pond must be leaped at the end of it to cross the finish line.  We also found the race "horses" were not horses at all, but large kangaroos---even in his dream he was afraid to ride a horse.  As we watched the next race, a pack of dingoes ran onto the track and dragged down a kangaroo and jockey.    

We used several different mana powers (such as Possessing security guards) to get to the stables where we found the Dreamer and his mount.

Miagi Joined with the Dreamer and learned the dream's denouement was to win the race.  We thought over our options and decided the best course of action would be for Steve to stay Joined for the race, one of us to Possess the kangaroo mount and the other to climb on the roof of the stands with a silenced sniper rifle (created using mana) and pick off any dingoes that attacked.  

Dr. Jones also remembered how the Dreamer had been injured and cited a possible danger to the pond at the end of the track---a clue I complete overlooked.  

Dr. Jones and I scissors-paper-rocked and I lost which meant Triple X had to Possess the kangaroo and run the race with Miagi on his back.  I used mana to boost up my running and jumping skills and Miagi did the same with his riding.

Everyone got into position, the race started and the dingoes attacked.  Dr. Jones did an admirable job of picking them off.  Here Miagi gleefully started whipping me to go faster, I guess as a payback for the beating I gave him earlier.  

The pond came up, there were crocodile drones in it, that came out and chomped me up---since I was inside the body of the kangaroo, I was unhurt but I couldn't move or act unless I healed the body with mana.  But now the crocs were advancing on the Dreamer/Miagi who had been thrown in the scuffle.  Also, the other riders were catching up.  Luckily, someone had tied a racehorse nearby and not surprisingly, the horse had my number on it.  Miagi made a roll to overcome the Dreamer's fear and was able to leap onto the horse and win the race.

We did some mop up on the Taeniid Queen (who was a larger croc, at the bottom of the pond) and then left the Dreamer to celebrate his victory.   In the real world, the Dreamer overcame his fear of riding and is racing once again

End


That was Mark's first stab at running a game and he did a damn fine job in everyone's opinion.  The changeup was nice and we decided to stick with the hot hand for awhile.  When/if he starts to struggle, we are going to give Steve a shot, keeping the same characters and adding Mark's in.  After, Don, then me, then Mark.  I think the rotation will help everyone out and it's easy to do with Dreamwalker as you almost always return to the same starting point (the chapter house lab) once the adventure is over.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading.  If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Thanks,

Pete

[Demonspahn]

This was the first time I was actually able to enjoy Dreamwalker as a player.  I have played the game before, but that was during initial playtesting when we were trying our hardest to smash the rules/setting.  The other night, I was finally able to just sit back and have fun and damn did it feel good.

I was glad to see that a few of the game's fundamental concepts remained intact.  One was the variability of the dream's setting and denoument.  You can _literally_ set an adventure in any time and place you can imagine.  This adds a little excitement to entering a new Dreamworld as you never know what to expect---realistic, surreal, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, mundane, whatever.  

The above adventure may have read silly to you guys but I was very impressed considering this was Mark's first go.  I thought the "afraid of horses, so I race kangaroos" was an especially nice touch, because it came out of the blue.

Another concept that I think makes the game so enjoyable is the mana system which leads to the feeling of not being restricted as a player.  Now, I do understand that character restrictions are less apparent in some games, but generally (not always, I said generally) in Simulationist style games you are relegated to a particular clan, tribe, profession, class, etc. with limitations on what you can and cannot do (via skills, powers, physical limitations, etc.)  

Ex. - Need to break the magic seal on the door?  Sorry, you're a fighter.   Need to fly a plane?  Sorry, you don't have that skill.  Need to Dominate someone into not remembering you were here?  Sorry, you don't have that Discipline.  Need a flashlight to see in the dark?  Sorry, you didn't bring one.  etc.

The other night I needed to get faster (as a kangroo!) so I used mana to boost my physical abilities.  Steve used mana to "learn" some riding skill.  Don used mana to conjure up a silenced sniper rifle.  Mana is a point based system, so there are still some limitations---when you run out of points, you have to replenish your supply---but it doesn't really seem like a limitation because you can do so much with what you have.  

OK, I'll stop here because I don't want to come across as a horn tooter.  :)  

Again, thanks for reading,

Pete