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The limitless potential of dreams makes them both tempting and daunting roleplaying material.On the positive side, anything can happen in dreams. On the negative side, how do you handle all those possibilities in even moderately detailed game systems?
On the positive side, everyone dreams. On the negative side, how do you make dreams important in the grand scheme of a setting? For that matter, how do you make a dreamlands supplement worth a buy, especially when supplements covering dimensions with presumably greater impact on the lives of the protagonists are still coming down the pike?
That's the challenge facing The Book of Hod, the sourcebook of the Dream Realms for WitchCraft and Armageddon.
Content
Chapter One: Drifting
This intro chapter seems smaller than most found in Eden's books, although it includes all the usual listings of the book's vital statistics. Two noteworthy aspects are the introduction, which makes it clear to the reader that the world of dreams holds a place of much higher significance than one might expect in the cosmology of WitchCraft, and the bibliography, which lists influences as diverse in tone as Neil Gaiman's Sandman and The Wizard of Oz.
Chapter Two: Rules
Here the book introduces several new Associations to the game, including the seemingly oxymoronic concept of the Solitaire group. As is standard for the game line, the player info on the groups appears before the more detailed descriptions later in the book. So, as is standard for my reviews of the line, I'll get into the groups later.
The chapter brings in a few more aspects of the setting first seen in Armageddon the powerful Greater Gifted character type and the equally-powerful Enlightened Quality. Brand-new skills, both mundane and metaphysical, appear for the benefit of some of the new Associations, but the highlights of the chapter are the new rules specific to dreams and dreaming. These are the Limited Dreamer Drawback and the True Dreamer Quality for those with weaker or stronger dream lives, respectively and the Lucid Dreaming Metaphysical Skill.
The latter is the biggie, letting Dreamers to take control of their own dreams. While this might not sound like such a big deal, each level of the skill provides a pool of points to spend on dream-powers called Visualizations. These abilities allow Dreamers to awaken from their dreams at the time of their choosing, conjure any object out of nothing, attack foes with their surroundings or change those surroundings altogether, fly, shape shift, or even stop time temporarily.
Simple, elegant mechanics govern all of this. The Dreamer's Willpower, for example, determines the amount of damage from any sort Visualization-based attack. It doesn't matter whether the conjured gun in the Dreamer's hands looks like a popgun or a bazooka in the Dream Realms, force of will trumps appearances. Likewise, conjuring one object to directly counter another becomes a test of Willpower one Dreamer conjuring a key to attempt to unlock an opposing Dreamer's conjured door, for example.
But aside from fending off Freddy Kreuger-style attacks, what does it matter if Dreamers can do all of this in their own dreams? The answer is that all of these powers also work to varying degrees in other areas of Hod and, as the next chapter explains, that's a lot of space indeed. In the context of the entirety of the Dream Realms, a single individual's dream is the tip of the metaphysical iceberg.
Chapter Three: Sephiroth
As this chapter points out, Hod is unique among the Sephiroths (dimensions) in that it is the only one that every human visits. (Not even all humans who die end up in the Death Realm of Geburah.)
The chapter details ten areas, or types of areas, found in this Sephiroth:
- The Periphery, the borderlands of the Dream Realms in which each earthly dreamer creates his or her own private dream world, or Panorama.
- The First World, the dream world of animals, home of the nature spirits, and Dreamtime of the shamans.
- The Wasteland, a desolate realm formed around the Sammael Gate, a breach into the realms of the Mad Gods through which they can influence their worshippers and send their minor minions.
- Shambala (a.k.a. Shangri-La), an idealized mountain valley created as a sanctuary in which Eastern monks intent upon reaching Nirvana may contemplate humanity's collected wisdom.
- The Garden of Earthly Delights, a place of pure physical pleasures that may or may not be the remnants of the Garden of Eden.
- The Domain of Morpheus, where the Lord of Dreams himself holds court from his Ebony Tower in the enigmatic city of Dilmun, a place in which creatures from every known Otherworld may be found paying a visit.
- Akasha, the Realm of Visions, into which precognitives peer for insights into possible future events and in the heart of which the legendary Three Sisters weave the tapestry of the history of the Universe.
- The Plane of Ideas, where Ethereals control areas based upon the fundamental concepts they embody War Ethereals oversee eternal battlefields, Love Ethereals maintain endless orgies, etc.
- The Red King's Dreaming, a hillside castle above a scarlet forest in which an enigmatic old man in gold and crimson robes perhaps a manifestation of the Creator Himself eternally sleeps and dreams.
- The Coma Kingdoms, in which the temporary Panoramas of coma victims become separate mini-realms over which they hold vast power.
Where applicable, the description of each Realm includes its physical appearance as well as its effects upon death, healing, injury, the need for sustenance, and supernatural abilities.
But perhaps more important are the fine details that give the Realms a truly dreamlike feel. The appearance of the Periphery and the Panoramas it contains, for example, vary for each individual an infinite sea with floating pearls, an infinite hallway lined with paintings, a night sky filled with stars, etc. Tunnels beneath Shambala gradually branch out into millions of tiny crawlspaces dead-ending in mirrors through which the monks may gaze into or even enter and influence the individual Panoramas to which the mirrors connect. And fortunate dreamers in any Realm may discover the Golden Path leading to the gates of Dilmun, but only if they can resist manifestations of their own foibles along the way. And even then, only one of two foreboding gates the Gate of Horn and the Gate of Ivory actually grants access
The chapter concludes with information regarding the interest Hod holds for the various Covenants of both WitchCraft and Armageddon a valuable resource that makes the Dream Realms more than just a curiosity to many sorts of characters.
Chapter Four: Associations
The previous chapter illustrated the importance or lack thereof that the Dream Realms hold for the various Covenants already described in the game line. This chapter introduces Covenants for whom the Dream Realms play a central role sometimes in surprising ways.
- The Ghost Dancers: a shamanistic Native American Covenant at war with the Combine since the Combine-instigated slaughter at Wounded Knee, strongly tied to the nature spirits of the First World.
- The Society of Assassins: an ancient Muslim Covenant practicing assassination as a way of improving the world according to the will of Allah, using the Garden of Earthly Delights as both a recruiting tool and a base and training ground the latter involving Matrix-like dream simulations.
- The Order of Shambala: a Buddhist Covenant whose most holy leaders seek Enlightenment in their eponymous Dream Realm.
The chapter also includes two examples of Shamanistic Solitaire Covenants a concept that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, since I was under the impression that a Solitaire, by definition, does not belong to a Covenant. Given the fact that one of the two sample Solitaire Covenants is quite large in size, I can only assume that it's the looseness of the group that distinguishes a Solitaire Covenant.
The two examples are:
- The Wizards of Oz: a group founded by three Aboriginal Shamans, a Rosicrucian, and a Wicce, dedicated to exploring the Dream Realms from a base they've established in the First World.
- Apoanu Apyaiba: a coalition of South American Gifted and Supernaturals dedicated to the defense of the Amazon Rainforest.
As usual, each group comes with a ready-to-play sample character. If there's any drawback at all to them, it's the necessity of each having to dedicate at least a token amount of points to dream abilities and that's only a drawback if they aren't going to see any action in Hod. (And if the buyer cared enough about the Dream Realms to buy this book, how likely is that?)
Chapter Five: Metaphysics
In addressing combat in the dream realms, the book introduces a rather surprising new twist on the balance of power between humans even Mundane humans and the supernatural. In the Dream Realms, Dreamers and Astral Travelers take damage only to their Essence Pools. Spirits and supernatural creatures, however, also take damage to their Vital Essence and Life Points, respectively. And that goes for any supernatural creature. In other words, a Mundane human in the Dream Realms can permanently destroy not only such creatures as vampyres and elementals, but also angels and pagan gods. Again, this makes Hod a much more important place in the grand scheme of things than it might otherwise seem.
Magicians and Seers both get a couple of new dream-related abilities. For Magicians, the Divination Invocation allows them to peer into the past or future via such means as astrology, crystal-gazing, or rune-casting, and the Night Curse Invocation lets them inflict nightmares on their victims. Seers can now see into, alter, and even inflict harm through the dreams of others via the Minddream power, and can travel astrally using Mind Projection.
Barak Sabil, the mystic martial art of the Assassins, gets a brief mention, owing to the fact that it's simply Tao-Chi by another name. While I'm all for keeping things simple and avoiding the "every new group gets a new power" schtick, an ability or two unique to the Assassins would have been nice. But since such abilities would have had only a tangential connection to Hod, I'm okay with their absence.
And speaking of both abilities related to Hod and new applications of old abilities, the chapter dedicates a great deal of attention to Shamans and Shamanism. In terms of the setting, a Shaman is basically anyone a shamanistic society accepts as a Shaman, be they Inspired, Ferals, Magicians, or what have you; however, most Shamans possess a combination of Magical, Seer, and (to a lesser extent) Necromantic powers. Their link to the Dream Realms stems from the Vision Quests some individuals undertake to become Shamans, and to the nature spirits from the First World who may become their guardians or Spirit Patrons.
Other Shamans may take Ethereals or Pagan Deities as Patrons. The chapter includes Boons and Obligations specific to a number of nature spirits, as well as for such Shamanistic Pagan Deities as Coyote, Thunderbird, Xipe Totec, and Pele. As if this weren't useful enough, the information on the Deities also features their Aspects for those using the book for Armageddon.
The section further presents a selection of items and symbols of power particular to Shamanism, such as the medicine bag, and statistics for the Ghost Shirts that once protected the Ghost Dancers from the bullets of the White Man.
Finally, the chapter details the Abhijna, the amazing mystical powers that only the most enlightened of the Order of Shambala possess in fact, to the best of my knowledge, they are the first abilities in the game line requiring the Enlightened Quality. Most of these powers are physical or mental in nature: increasing the Perception attribute and comprehending any language; running at superhuman speeds and making impossible leaps; drawing out the secrets from a target's mind or communicating telepathically; and control of body temperature to such a degree (pardon the pun) that the monk can create a nimbus of flame. More esoteric abilities include the power to travel to the Otherworlds (along with companions and equipment), create multiple bodies, recall past lives (and the skills they possessed), transform directly from flesh to spirit, create the ultimate cure-all pill or an invincible sword (which seems strange, for a pacifistic group ), or even choose both the time of one's death and the circumstances of reincarnation. Most of these abilities require ridiculous amounts of Essence, but since practitioners must be Enlightened in the first place and hence, able to spend as much Essence as they like without regard to Channeling or rituals that's not such a big deal.
Chapter Six: Denizens
For a book about the Dream Realms, the bestiary proves remarkably useful to most any WitchCraft/Armageddon campaign:
- Nature Spirits
- Rat
- Curupira (Amazonian Tree Spirit)
- Bear
- Jaguar
- Tainted Spirits
- Raven Mockers (freakish things with human bodies and raven wings and heads)
- Night Terrors (big, scary Dream Realms goon monsters of the Mad Gods)
- Ethereals
- Valkyries (War)
- Peris (Love)
- Genius Loci (City)
- Oneirokitai (Dream)
- Eidolon Dybbik (what you get when an "NPC" in your dream becomes self-aware, possibly replacing your own personality)
- Mara (nightmare spirits)
Statless entries include brief discussions of Morpheus, Lord of the Dream Realms; his brothers, the wild Icleus and the bureaucratic Phantasus; and Dumah the Silent, Archangel of Dreams.
The chapter concludes with the Nahualli, a small Dark Covenant of fanatical Jaguar Ferals and Skin-Changers located in Mexico and worshipping Xipe Totec, the Flayed Lord. These nutcases are perfect as minor but unanticipated threats to PCs; however, their status as pawns to several much larger groups also makes them an ideal point of entry for a conspiracy-themed campaign, and their obsession with worldly power as opposed to total destruction could even make them uneasy allies against the Mad Gods.
Style
Capturing all the mysterious ambiguity of dreams isn't easy, especially when this must be done within the framework of coherent, playable rules. The text of The Book of Hod pulls off this trick with aplomb. The setting feels both otherworldly and ethereal, just as it should. And while I find the majority of the line's game fiction well above average, that found in this supplement truly stands out.
Aside from the marvelous cover, the art didn't impress me nearly so much. This isn't to say that it's ugly on the contrary, it's entirely competent and serviceable, and in many places quite good. I just think it would have taken stellar full-color art on the order of that in Deliria to match both the subject matter and the text.
The book does contain a few proofing errors, most notably references to "page (?)"; however, they're just a minor irritant. A much bigger issue is the fact that the sidebars regarding methods of Divination are completely illegible due to a printing error. Thankfully, Eden posted the obscured text on their web site here.
The book features a glossary and an index, both of which make me very happy especially given the likely temptation to skimp on such things in a supplement of this size.
Conclusion
The Book of Hod does something I didn't really think possible: it proves worthy of its place as the first Sephiroth supplement. It's not that I doubted the quality of the book; rather, I just couldn't help thinking that the supplements focusing on the realms of the gods, the fey, or the dead might be more immediately useful. And perhaps they will be, depending upon your point of view and the nature of your campaign. Still, this supplement not only brings the Dream Realms vividly to life, but also makes them a vital part of the setting and offers material highly useful even to those not focusing on dream adventures.
Is it worth the money for those not planning on including Hod in their campaigns in any way, shape, or form? Probably not. But if you do plan on having Hod influence your game in some way, however temporarily, the high-quality new Covenants, powers, and creatures in this book ensure that its usefulness won't go out the window the second your group's PCs return to the Waking World.
If Eden Studios can make what I thought would be the least generally useful of the Sephiroth books into something this handy, I'm very encouraged regarding the Sephiroth books still to come.
Pleasant dreams!
SUBSTANCE:
- Setting
- Quality = 5.0
- Quantity = 4.0
- Rules
- Quality = 5.0
- Quantity = 5.0
STYLE:
- Artwork = 4.0
- Layout/Readability = 4.0
- Organization = 4.0
- Writing = 5.0
- Proofreading Penalty = 0.5
