The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I have never read any of Niven & Barnes', Dream Park, novels but was intrigued by the thought of a role-playing game about role-playing in the future. In any case, excuse my ignorance of any information provided or eluded to in the novels and let me share what I learned from the pen and paper role-playing game.

The setting is a futuristic amusement park (in fact a suggestion is made that Dream Park can be contained within R Talsorian's Cyberpunk game world), where guests enjoy theme based attractions, virtual reality games and the opportunity to participate in live action role-playing. The wealthiest and best players are invited to participate in live IFGS sanctioned "games" conducted in one of two huge holo-deck like domed arenas. Participants can earn jobs as staff players, notoriety via IFGS, television/movie carriers and all that goes with them. Ambitious GMs are encouraged to conduct multi-level adventures, where the game players have to solve a mystery (theft, or murder) concerning their fellow players, as well as play the game in order to succeed.

The goal here is not to conduct straight rpg adventures. Players are to know as little as possible about their adventure, and may create characters from any genre, regardless of the adventure's genre. Supers can be side by side with knights, ninjas and gumshoes, as they attempt to solve a mystery concerning Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine discovering Inca gold and an alien plot to conquer the world. Luckily the book takes smaller steps than that, introducing readers to role-playing elements and genre in increasing bits of complexity. The rules themselves are presented in a basic and advanced format as well, with pre-generated character cards to aid players in starting quickly.

The book is written from the point of view of the park staff. The head of security hosts the guided tour, introducing employees of note to describe their specific function. We even get to meet the novels' authors, and the game book's author.

The basic rules are introduced first, with an intro. to role-playing. These rules are fast and loose, simple but effective. Skill rating plus 1d6 versus a target or a defending skill plus d6. Wounds are determined on a table, by weapon or attack type. Basic skill packages, in character classes, are provided on standard sized cards. There are three adventures provided for these simple rules, each has a feel more like a board game with a square grid map and shallow premise. Goals are provided for players and GM alike, making it possible for the GM to win, not a common rpg feature. The good news is they exercise the rules well and provide a good enough expression of role-playing basics.

The advanced rules expand the game's ideas in every way. First off, the park visitor (game player within the game you're playing) is documented. That visitor's job, motivations and attitude can then have an affect in how he plays out the game within the game, furthering the genre chaos as characters have access to their players' out of genre knowledge. Instead of choosing a pre-determined package, characters are built by distributing points for basic skills, within a single class, over multi-classes or toward a unique class. These creation points can also be used to buy spells, psionics, super powers, weapons, armor, vehicles, gadgets and/or pets. A single table determines hits and damages, including armor, with nine levels of wound severity. Two wounds (points of damage) reduce all skills one point each. Simultaneous actions/attacks are made by dividing skill points by the number of actions being attempted at once. Chases and vehicular combat/dogfighting, are handled by either a simple one-dimensional game aid or on a two dimensional game board. Both are simple, not very detailed, nor realistic, but fair and quick. The advanced scenario is good but a little too scripted. There are few choices the players can make that will make much of a difference in how the action plays out.

There is a great deal of material provided to aid the GM, from the basics through mastery. Twelve genre are outlined. GM's are taught the use of a "beat chart" to outline the action of a game and maintain interest. Plug in plot elements are provided for "beat chart" creation. Another section describes how to scale a scenario's NPC's, gadgets and dangers to a group of PCs, helpful in avoiding party decimation or boredom. The last information of note concerned possible Dream Park campaign settings, places where Dream Park or like adventures can take place. Suggestions come from many sources, my favorites follow; alien amusement park ala Star Trek (TOS), holography room ala Star Trek (TNG), cyberpunk theme park, reality TV game show, and mad game master evil villain. With all this genre chaos, it was interesting to find the final pages dedicated to using the Dream Park rules in more traditional fixed/single genre games.

Again, I have yet to read the novels, so I can not speak to the game's adherence to them. If the idea of such a metagenre campaign appeals to you, then this book will be worth your search. If you want a casual set of rules to use with less serious players on occasional excursions, then this book is for you. The book is not necessary to add the Dream Park concept to an existing campaign, and if you already have players with rules everyone is comfortable with, I would only purchase this book at an extremely cheap price. It's not that it's bad, it's just unnecessary for more established gamers.

This review appears in Alarums & Excursions #315 (see review archive) and appears here with permission.

Dream Park
Dream Park Capsule Review by Papyrus on 23/10/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average) If the idea of such a metagenre campaign appeals to you, then this book will be worth your search. Product: Dream Park Author: Mike Pondsmith Category: RPG Company/Publisher: R. Talsorian Games, Inc. Line: Cost: Page count: 128 Year published: ISBN: 0-937279-27-4 SKU: DP 5001 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Papyrus on 23/10/01 Genre tags: Generic	I have never read any of Niven & Barnes', Dream Park, novels but was intrigued by the thought of a role-playing game about role-playing in the future. In any case, excuse my ignorance of any information provided or eluded to in the novels and let me share what I learned from the pen and paper role-playing game. The setting is a futuristic amusement park (in fact a suggestion is made that Dream Park can be contained within R Talsorian's Cyberpunk game world), where guests enjoy theme based attractions, virtual reality games and the opportunity to participate in live action role-playing. The wealthiest and best players are invited to participate in live IFGS sanctioned "games" conducted in one of two huge holo-deck like domed arenas. Participants can earn jobs as staff players, notoriety via IFGS, television/movie carriers and all that goes with them. Ambitious GMs are encouraged to conduct multi-level adventures, where the game players have to solve a mystery (theft, or murder) concerning their fellow players, as well as play the game in order to succeed. The goal here is not to conduct straight rpg adventures. Players are to know as little as possible about their adventure, and may create characters from any genre, regardless of the adventure's genre. Supers can be side by side with knights, ninjas and gumshoes, as they attempt to solve a mystery concerning Captain Nemo's Nautilus submarine discovering Inca gold and an alien plot to conquer the world. Luckily the book takes smaller steps than that, introducing readers to role-playing elements and genre in increasing bits of complexity. The rules themselves are presented in a basic and advanced format as well, with pre-generated character cards to aid players in starting quickly. The book is written from the point of view of the park staff. The head of security hosts the guided tour, introducing employees of note to describe their specific function. We even get to meet the novels' authors, and the game book's author. The basic rules are introduced first, with an intro. to role-playing. These rules are fast and loose, simple but effective. Skill rating plus 1d6 versus a target or a defending skill plus d6. Wounds are determined on a table, by weapon or attack type. Basic skill packages, in character classes, are provided on standard sized cards. There are three adventures provided for these simple rules, each has a feel more like a board game with a square grid map and shallow premise. Goals are provided for players and GM alike, making it possible for the GM to win, not a common rpg feature. The good news is they exercise the rules well and provide a good enough expression of role-playing basics. The advanced rules expand the game's ideas in every way. First off, the park visitor (game player within the game you're playing) is documented. That visitor's job, motivations and attitude can then have an affect in how he plays out the game within the game, furthering the genre chaos as characters have access to their players' out of genre knowledge. Instead of choosing a pre-determined package, characters are built by distributing points for basic skills, within a single class, over multi-classes or toward a unique class. These creation points can also be used to buy spells, psionics, super powers, weapons, armor, vehicles, gadgets and/or pets. A single table determines hits and damages, including armor, with nine levels of wound severity. Two wounds (points of damage) reduce all skills one point each. Simultaneous actions/attacks are made by dividing skill points by the number of actions being attempted at once. Chases and vehicular combat/dogfighting, are handled by either a simple one-dimensional game aid or on a two dimensional game board. Both are simple, not very detailed, nor realistic, but fair and quick. The advanced scenario is good but a little too scripted. There are few choices the players can make that will make much of a difference in how the action plays out. There is a great deal of material provided to aid the GM, from the basics through mastery. Twelve genre are outlined. GM's are taught the use of a "beat chart" to outline the action of a game and maintain interest. Plug in plot elements are provided for "beat chart" creation. Another section describes how to scale a scenario's NPC's, gadgets and dangers to a group of PCs, helpful in avoiding party decimation or boredom. The last information of note concerned possible Dream Park campaign settings, places where Dream Park or like adventures can take place. Suggestions come from many sources, my favorites follow; alien amusement park ala Star Trek (TOS), holography room ala Star Trek (TNG), cyberpunk theme park, reality TV game show, and mad game master evil villain. With all this genre chaos, it was interesting to find the final pages dedicated to using the Dream Park rules in more traditional fixed/single genre games. Again, I have yet to read the novels, so I can not speak to the game's adherence to them. If the idea of such a metagenre campaign appeals to you, then this book will be worth your search. If you want a casual set of rules to use with less serious players on occasional excursions, then this book is for you. The book is not necessary to add the Dream Park concept to an existing campaign, and if you already have players with rules everyone is comfortable with, I would only purchase this book at an extremely cheap price. It's not that it's bad, it's just unnecessary for more established gamers. This review appears in Alarums & Excursions #315 (see review archive) and appears here with permission.