The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Being for the past ten years (and more) a Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft fan, I recently bought the Dreamlands Sourcebook as the Dreamlands had always a special appeal to me: I loved the novels about the Cats of Ulthar and Celephais, Carter's quest and the strange, undefinable atmosphere of dread, eerie, wonder and sorrow that colours the other side of the Waken World.

I was both surprised and puzzled by the previous RPG Net review I saw of this book, since I found the document to be of excellent quality (mostly as a documentary support, not necessarily campaign material) as far as RPG supplements go. (It must be noted though that unlike M. Eric Brochu, I do not like WFRP - in fact, I dislike this game too fond over statistical details and cumbersome rules and too little atmosphere.)

My game library has about over 600 RPGs in it and I found few of a quality comparable to Call of Cthulhu, among which the Dreamlands score high.

Of course, this all depends on what someone looks for in a supplement: The Dreamlands present an encyclopedia of Carter's voyages, an almanac of the world and the people, a monster bestiary and a few adventures. Nothing very precise, more of intuition, feeling and style; if you don't like Lovecraft and Dunsany (or Jim Henson and Brian Froud for the matter), you'll hate this: though the feeling is kin to TSR's Ravenloft and Talislanta/Runequest's wonderful strangeness, you won't find detailed material about treasures, etc., though creature stats are abundant.

As a document about the Dreamlands, the book is good; as far as undertaking a complete campaign in the Dreamlands, though feasible, I'd recommend first reading some of Lovecraft's tales and a little Dunsany and Poe, just to get your mind straight.

Overall: 8/10, a good buy if you like imaginative Coc supplements, mostly for Keepers.

Yours,

E. N. Bouchard en_bouchard@hotmail.com

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Complete Dreamlands
Author: Chris Williams, Sandy Petersen, et al. Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Inc. Line: Call of Cthulhu Cost: 21,95 $ Page count: 186 ISBN: 1-56882-086-0 Capsule Review by E. N. Bouchard on 07/17/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Horror	Being for the past ten years (and more) a Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft fan, I recently bought the Dreamlands Sourcebook as the Dreamlands had always a special appeal to me: I loved the novels about the Cats of Ulthar and Celephais, Carter's quest and the strange, undefinable atmosphere of dread, eerie, wonder and sorrow that colours the other side of the Waken World. I was both surprised and puzzled by the previous RPG Net review I saw of this book, since I found the document to be of excellent quality (mostly as a documentary support, not necessarily campaign material) as far as RPG supplements go. (It must be noted though that unlike M. Eric Brochu, I do not like WFRP - in fact, I dislike this game too fond over statistical details and cumbersome rules and too little atmosphere.) My game library has about over 600 RPGs in it and I found few of a quality comparable to Call of Cthulhu, among which the Dreamlands score high. Of course, this all depends on what someone looks for in a supplement: The Dreamlands present an encyclopedia of Carter's voyages, an almanac of the world and the people, a monster bestiary and a few adventures. Nothing very precise, more of intuition, feeling and style; if you don't like Lovecraft and Dunsany (or Jim Henson and Brian Froud for the matter), you'll hate this: though the feeling is kin to TSR's Ravenloft and Talislanta/Runequest's wonderful strangeness, you won't find detailed material about treasures, etc., though creature stats are abundant. As a document about the Dreamlands, the book is good; as far as undertaking a complete campaign in the Dreamlands, though feasible, I'd recommend first reading some of Lovecraft's tales and a little Dunsany and Poe, just to get your mind straight. Overall: 8/10, a good buy if you like imaginative Coc supplements, mostly for Keepers. Yours, E. N. Bouchard en_bouchard@hotmail.com Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Complete Dreamlands