In DreamEscape you play as a Dreamer, trapped behind the gates of sleep by Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones. You must explore the amorphous and ever-changing realms of dream, escaping or facing Cthulhu’s minions on your quest to find a secret gate and the matching key that will lead you out of the nightmare and win the game!
But Cthulhu and the Old Ones have secret plans for the Dreamlands and will not let you escape without a struggle. You must delve deep into the secrets of the realms, survive many dangerous encounters and piece together the deeper mystery before you can escape.
Success means waking up, but failure leads to insanity, locked forever in a cage within your own mind!
The heart of DreamEscape is your Character dashboard where you track your Dreamer’s stats, skills and powerful abilities such as Deja Vu and Lucid Dreaming. You will build your tableau of items, artifacts, rarities, clues and knowledge as you progress through the dangerous nightmare adventure. Large format (tarot sized) card decks provide immersive encounters for you to tackle and overcome, leading to a detailed narrative experience that changes every time you play.
Dreamescape includes six diverse Dreamers to play, each with their own secret storyline. Each Dreamer has a unique set of roleplay-like stats, skills and abilities that you will use to help them overcome the many challenges as they try to escape Cthulhu’s trap.
Your character dashboard tracks your Dreamer’s Vitality, Sanity, Déjà vu and Lucid Dreaming, as well as the experience you gain for overcoming the many frightening challenges you will face.
The story is split into multiple Story Decks (similar to chapters in a book) and each story card within a story deck is an encounter. Each story card usually offers three roleplay-like reactions for you to choose from. Your choice will partly be based on the abilities of your Dreamer character but also importantly from your own memory of playing the game previously.
Choices usually require tests to be made against your character’s skills and abilities using a pool of Elder runes. Rolling these runes provides successes towards the skill difficulty level. Your pool of runes will be influenced by the Items, Lore, Knowledge and Allies you have accumulated on your journey…
Elder Rune pool
DreamEscape’s uniqueness is how the story cards drive gameplay, removing the need for a heavy story book.
The large format cards are easily readable, contain everything required to complete encounters and allow you to pause and save the game-state quickly and easily. Additionally our keycode system opens alternative story paths for observant players that enjoy discovering secrets and solving puzzles!
Linked Keycode example
There are many secret alternative storylines locked within encounter cards that often reveal major clues to the mystery. They can only be unlocked if the secret icon on a story card can be matched to the same icon on an Item or Lore card. The complete number reveals a special keycode (like a hidden paragraph in a choose-your-path storybook) for a locked story card that can be chosen instead. In the example here, keycode #0116 is a valid code whereas #0239 is not.
Combat in DreamEscape can be deadly! Will you stay safe and avoid threats where possible or risk a greater reward, going toe-to-toe with an otherwordly creature and hope to live long enough to tell the tale in the taverns of Dylath Leen?
Combat challenges will push your character’s abilities to the limit but the rewards may just be the key to help you escape and win!
Combat challenges are represented by special Threat cards. They incorporate a push-your-luck, risk versus reward element to the skill test. Early stages are compulsory while later stages are optional – but offer greater rewards for those willing to take the risk! Just like normal skill tests, combat tests use your Dreamer’s pool of Elder runes. Bad rolls can be mitigated by spending precious resources or by clever use of abilities.
Although DreamEscape is primarily a solo game, its easy readability and engaging story encourages and facilitates semi co-op play as players can share in the evolving story, making decisions and benefiting from their collective memory as the explore and survive many dangers!
Our story writers are all experienced gamemasters of the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying game and fans of not just H. P. Lovecraft but past and current writers such as Clark Ashton Smith, Henry Kuttner, C.L. Moore, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Ramsey Campbell, Lin Carter and Brian Lumley. Between us we have over 80 years of experience weaving tales of weirdness and horror! Yes, we dream of monsters !
DreamEscape is a standalone product. But is also Volume one of the Dreamquest narrative campaign series which will take you on a frightening but fantastical journey as truly epic as that of Randolph Carter. Explore the darkest reaches of the cosmos, uncover mind-shattering truths and unravel the awful mystery that builds throughout the series. Dive into the depths of the Abyss, walk the gothic streets of Carcosa or witness the birthing of a starspawn on Yuggoth!
Expansion ‘Realm’ boxes (sold separately) continue your adventures into other regions of the Dreamlands, seamlessly integrating with the DreamEscape base game. Each Realm box offers ~50 new story encounter cards.
6 Character dashboards
~350+ story cards
~100+ Item/Artifact cards
~80+ Lore cards
~25 Condition cards
~15 Threat cards
~70+ tokens
3 dice
23 Elder Rune tokens
Rulebook & Quick Tutorial Guide
Cover Illustration of Cthulhu by Mario (Magolobo) Romero. Copyright 2023, BadCatGames Ltd.
