The Inside Scoop on Gaming

For those of you who don't know, DREAM PARK is also a novel by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. It (and its sequels, THE BARSOOM PROJECT and THE CALIFORNIA VOODOO GAME) has as its setting a futuristic theme park where patrons indulge in all sorts of interactive fantasies, including- most importantly- huge, ultra-realistic live action role-playing scenarios broadcast all over the world. It's a bit like Westworld, but without all the robots going berserk or Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner uncovering a plot to kill all the patrons. It's the ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy, and has lead to a real-life International Fantasy Gaming Society which organizes and runs live-action games, and even the Dream Park Builders Corporation (which may or may not still exist as of this review's publication.)

This RPG does a pretty good job of capturing the fun, coolness and competitive feel of the Park as described in the novels. (The introduction features several characters from the books, as well as Niven and Barnes themselves as "true crime" writers.) The "Introduction to Roleplaying" and the basics of the system are set up in a series of mini-games, before you move on to the advanced rules. You can play one or none or all of the smaller games, just so long as you know the basics.

Actually generating characters is a bit more interesting. First you come up with details for the Dream Park guest you're playing- then you choose a class for his character. Each class comes with statistics which you can then slightly modify. Instead of the traditional attributes, the "Basic Skills" are Melee Weapon, Ranged Weapon, Hand to Hand, Knowledge, Tinkering, Dodge, Athletics, Stealth, Awareness and Willpower. If the class system is too limiting, there are rules for coming up with your own "profession", and there's also a Multiclass package. Then come Options- these range from skills to spells to superpowers to any kind of equipment. Dream Park adventures may take place in any genre or combination thereof, so you can never tell just what you'll need. (Each individual Game has specific rules for its genre, so you might end up somewhere were magic, superpowers and future tech are all useless.)

Basic Task resolution is a "beat the total" mechanic using one six-sided die. Most of the Rules system is devoted to combat, which is more complex but still not "hard" by any means. It uses a map and counters, and that is my one gripe with the game- no map or counters are provided. It suggests, at minimum, a table and a ruler to measure distance, with counters cannibalized from whatever games you have around, but I dunno. It just bugs me. Anyway, combat is also fairly smooth and fast-paced, never much of a problem. This is a very fast-moving and slick system.

Then there are Game Points, which are like Experience Points except they can be gained and lost like poker chips. When a character is killed out of a game, he or she still returns next time- but with half his total Game Points missing. But, and this is the fun part, you get some of that back if you show up later in the game as a "zombie" or other threat working for the GM. Rip your fellow PCs' guts out for profit- it's almost like PARANOIA, only less subtle. ("Zombie" is strictly a metaphor- in the introductory adventure, killed-out characters can come back as Velociraptors.) Most of the time, though, you can use Game Points to buy options or improve your Basic Skills.

DREAM PARK calls itself a "meta-genre system", meaning you can mix and match just about anything. Victorian Space Pirates, Superheroic Knights fighting Hordes of the Undead, Cybernetic Cowboys dragged into the Civil War.... anything you can manage. After that there's a "Beat Chart", a tool for story construction that's fairly useful for just about any RPG. Coolest of all is the "Sliding Scale" which insures that the adventures you create and the ones published will always be balanced for your particular gaming group. It's a matter of taking the averages of certain skills from the party and adding bonuses or penalties depending on what kind of challenge the task or NPC is. Explaining this takes up about 3/4 of one page, but it's the single best thing in the book. Brilliant.

So this is a really fun little game, with cool comic-book-style artwork (though Acacia seems just a tad too... pneumatic) and even a brief section of taking the system and concept into other surroundings (Magical Dream Park, the Starship Holodeck, etc.) The first drawback is simply that this system and concept does not lend itself too much to "serious roleplaying." You can't expect too much character development when your characters die and come back on a regular basis, and shift from world to world with no actual explanation. There are some clues at how to run a campaign like the books, with "out-of-game" subplots that affect the game action, but they're not very developed. This isn't really a bad thing necessarily, just that its appeal is limited. If you think D&D's too cartoonish, just step away from this one. I was also somewhat disappointed by the introductory adventure, "The Big Zombie Pirate Game"- it doesn't make full use of all the party, so Thieves and Engineers and Loremasters won't have that much to do (I also went crazy trying to think how a real Dream Park could possibly stage the opening without risking a major lawsuit.) Plus, this one went out-of-print before we could ever see adventures based on the book scenarios. I would have paid good money for a "California Voodoo Game" boxed set.

But still, for a game with a narrow focus, this is an excellent game. A few good-to-great modules came out in support (as well as a neat Gamemaster's Guide with expanded Equipment and Actor lists), and the flavor of the setting is everpresent throughout every session. Not whatever particular genre you have in mind, understand, but rather- "the Park." It's a lot of fun imagining your characters fighting with holograms, robots and costumed actors, all under the surveillance of a Gamemaster who'll try and kill as many PCs as he can get away with.

I want to see Dream Park become a reality in my lifetime. Until then, this ain't a bad way to spend an evening.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Dream Park
Author: Mike Pondsmith Category: game Company/Publisher: R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Line: Dream Park Cost: ? Page count: 128 Capsule Review by Evan Waters on 05/26/00. Genre tags: Science_fiction Generic	For those of you who don't know, DREAM PARK is also a novel by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. It (and its sequels, THE BARSOOM PROJECT and THE CALIFORNIA VOODOO GAME) has as its setting a futuristic theme park where patrons indulge in all sorts of interactive fantasies, including- most importantly- huge, ultra-realistic live action role-playing scenarios broadcast all over the world. It's a bit like Westworld, but without all the robots going berserk or Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner uncovering a plot to kill all the patrons. It's the ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy, and has lead to a real-life International Fantasy Gaming Society which organizes and runs live-action games, and even the Dream Park Builders Corporation (which may or may not still exist as of this review's publication.) This RPG does a pretty good job of capturing the fun, coolness and competitive feel of the Park as described in the novels. (The introduction features several characters from the books, as well as Niven and Barnes themselves as "true crime" writers.) The "Introduction to Roleplaying" and the basics of the system are set up in a series of mini-games, before you move on to the advanced rules. You can play one or none or all of the smaller games, just so long as you know the basics. Actually generating characters is a bit more interesting. First you come up with details for the Dream Park guest you're playing- then you choose a class for his character. Each class comes with statistics which you can then slightly modify. Instead of the traditional attributes, the "Basic Skills" are Melee Weapon, Ranged Weapon, Hand to Hand, Knowledge, Tinkering, Dodge, Athletics, Stealth, Awareness and Willpower. If the class system is too limiting, there are rules for coming up with your own "profession", and there's also a Multiclass package. Then come Options- these range from skills to spells to superpowers to any kind of equipment. Dream Park adventures may take place in any genre or combination thereof, so you can never tell just what you'll need. (Each individual Game has specific rules for its genre, so you might end up somewhere were magic, superpowers and future tech are all useless.) Basic Task resolution is a "beat the total" mechanic using one six-sided die. Most of the Rules system is devoted to combat, which is more complex but still not "hard" by any means. It uses a map and counters, and that is my one gripe with the game- no map or counters are provided. It suggests, at minimum, a table and a ruler to measure distance, with counters cannibalized from whatever games you have around, but I dunno. It just bugs me. Anyway, combat is also fairly smooth and fast-paced, never much of a problem. This is a very fast-moving and slick system. Then there are Game Points, which are like Experience Points except they can be gained and lost like poker chips. When a character is killed out of a game, he or she still returns next time- but with half his total Game Points missing. But, and this is the fun part, you get some of that back if you show up later in the game as a "zombie" or other threat working for the GM. Rip your fellow PCs' guts out for profit- it's almost like PARANOIA, only less subtle. ("Zombie" is strictly a metaphor- in the introductory adventure, killed-out characters can come back as Velociraptors.) Most of the time, though, you can use Game Points to buy options or improve your Basic Skills. DREAM PARK calls itself a "meta-genre system", meaning you can mix and match just about anything. Victorian Space Pirates, Superheroic Knights fighting Hordes of the Undead, Cybernetic Cowboys dragged into the Civil War.... anything you can manage. After that there's a "Beat Chart", a tool for story construction that's fairly useful for just about any RPG. Coolest of all is the "Sliding Scale" which insures that the adventures you create and the ones published will always be balanced for your particular gaming group. It's a matter of taking the averages of certain skills from the party and adding bonuses or penalties depending on what kind of challenge the task or NPC is. Explaining this takes up about 3/4 of one page, but it's the single best thing in the book. Brilliant. So this is a really fun little game, with cool comic-book-style artwork (though Acacia seems just a tad too... pneumatic) and even a brief section of taking the system and concept into other surroundings (Magical Dream Park, the Starship Holodeck, etc.) The first drawback is simply that this system and concept does not lend itself too much to "serious roleplaying." You can't expect too much character development when your characters die and come back on a regular basis, and shift from world to world with no actual explanation. There are some clues at how to run a campaign like the books, with "out-of-game" subplots that affect the game action, but they're not very developed. This isn't really a bad thing necessarily, just that its appeal is limited. If you think D&D's too cartoonish, just step away from this one. I was also somewhat disappointed by the introductory adventure, "The Big Zombie Pirate Game"- it doesn't make full use of all the party, so Thieves and Engineers and Loremasters won't have that much to do (I also went crazy trying to think how a real Dream Park could possibly stage the opening without risking a major lawsuit.) Plus, this one went out-of-print before we could ever see adventures based on the book scenarios. I would have paid good money for a "California Voodoo Game" boxed set. But still, for a game with a narrow focus, this is an excellent game. A few good-to-great modules came out in support (as well as a neat Gamemaster's Guide with expanded Equipment and Actor lists), and the flavor of the setting is everpresent throughout every session. Not whatever particular genre you have in mind, understand, but rather- "the Park." It's a lot of fun imagining your characters fighting with holograms, robots and costumed actors, all under the surveillance of a Gamemaster who'll try and kill as many PCs as he can get away with. I want to see Dream Park become a reality in my lifetime. Until then, this ain't a bad way to spend an evening. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)