Introduction

There comes a point in every tale where somebody, the hero or villain or some poor minor character, and they belatedly realize that they have suffered an astonishing bout of genre blindness… and are now thoroughly… completely..
Absolutely… screwed.

And unfortunately… that is where you are right now. What did you do? Did you read from the book of forbidden secrets in the hidden Library? Did you snatch the idol from the dusty cobweb covered altar and not swap it with an appropriately weighted bag of sand? Did you split up to investigate the mysterious sound in the abandoned castle? You find yourself unable to remember. Which is probably bad.

And are you the hero? The villain? An early casualty to show the threat posed by the monster of the week?

Well that’s why we’re here. Because- hero, villain, or casualty- you’re in the story and that’s a dangerous place to be.

Giving Credit for Inspiration and Influence

There is no such thing as a new and original idea. Nothing springs from nothing when it comes to creativity. Anyone who says otherwise is simply hiding their sources of inspiration and influences- or isn’t self aware enough to know what they are.

Blood Red Dreaming draws heavily from many sources. Broadly speaking, the game draws inspiration from other tabletop role-playing systems, from video games, from other tabletop card and parlor games, from film and literary sources too numerous to mention.

Some major influences deserve special mention. The Vajra system is inspired by the Dark Souls own Souls system. The Avatar concept is inspired by Hong Kong action Theatre and its star system. The accumulation of progress from outside the game is inspired by Pokemon Go and other ARG games. The story element mechanic is inspired by the Fate core system and its aspect mechanic. The playing card resolution system is inspired by Psychosis: Ship of Fools and its Tarot card resolution system. The Enemy phase system and the idea of exploiting weaknesses found in story elements for those enemies is inspired by Shadow of the Colossus and Legend of Zelda boss battles.

Additional game mechanics inspiration comes from the Role-playing games: Rifts, Wushu, Fudge, Alternity and probably others we didn’t notice were influencing us.

Story and sitting inspiration come from a myriad sources. Including Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Dark City, The Matrix, the Invisibles, The Kalevala, dot hack, Neverwhere, Dies the Fire and the other books of the Emberverse, Havamal, Stand Still Stay Silent, Digger, The Ramayana, the Discworld novels,The Satanic Verses, Dune, The Holy Mountain, In the Mouth of Madness, The Persona series, Bloodborne and Dark Souls, The Dhammapada, the works of HP Lovecraft, The Torah, Planetary, Star Trek V, The Mahabharata, Far Cry 3 and 4, Hyper Light Drifter, Ishmael, The Holy, Shadow of the Colossus, the Legend of Zelda series, Things Fall Apart, American Gods, 1984, Brave New World, Doctor Who, Mage: The Ascension and too many more to name.

We all started out playing Dungeons and Dragons and Legend of Zelda. As such it would be hard to estimate just how much of an influence both of these things were upon the game

In short, you will see much that is reminiscent or which echoes older ideas. This is inevitable, and we tip our hat in thanks and respect to those who inspired us and from whom we took inspiration and ideas.

 

What is Blood Red Dreaming

We cannot wait for a savior. The story needs YOU, right now, to stand up and be a protagonist. You must find the role that you can play and take up the mantle. You must be First Mother or First Hero, the Witchdoctor or the Walker, perhaps the Dreamer. You must be a Witch or a Wizard, join the Tenebrati or commune with the Primal One.

And you will likely fail. You may even die. But your efforts will not be in vain. You will not be the whole of the story for the character whose role you played. But together with hundreds or thousands of other First Mothers and First Heroes, Storytellers and more. You will move mountains, you will turn pages, until the story is a circle and the world is whole once more.

– from the Ars Holistica

This is the game that the Moral Guardians warned you about. This is an evil devil bargaining, magick using, demon invoking vile brain-sucking game. This game may convince you that the walls between reality and fantasy are thinner than you think. When Patricia Pulling founded Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons, she envisioned this game. A game that tells players that they can step into a fantasy world and that the two worlds can affect each other.

…but…

You already do this every day. You live in a fantasy world of your own design. You drift through a harsh and uncaring reality within this bubble of delusion. Every day you trick and deceive yourself. And you believe your own lies about the nature of reality and the meaning of life. Every one of us lives inside a fantasy, choosing meaning in how we frame the events of our lives.

What Patricia Pulling so feared was that people might choose fantasy worlds of which she did not approve. She feared people would choose worlds over which the dominant hierarchy and mythology held no power. These moral guardians feared that you might tell your own stories. They feared that you might escape the judgement of bronze age storm gods and the moral oppression of nomadic goat herders who hadn’t yet invented toilet paper.

So this is a dangerous book. Clearly, a rebellious book now sits in your eager little hands. This book is a game, yes, but so is life. And, in fact, they are the same game.

So how brave to you feel?

 

How is this Different from other Tabletop RPGs?

If you’ve played other Tabletop RPGs, you’ll be familiar with certain conventions of the games. Most use lots of dice, character classes, experience points, storytelling by murder-killing hosts of allegedly evil monsters. Well, Blood Red Dreaming doesn’t do most of that. And what it does do, it does very differently.

Players resolve game play with a deck of cards rather than with dice. Players send their Avatar into the Shadowlands to start play. A Player’s Avatar in the Shadowlands can do whatever the player can do. Player must use the cards to attempt anything beyond their own abilities. Players can bolster attempts by using Vajra. Vajra are points earned through activities in the real world. This works like a pen and paper Pokemon Go. Players will find that death is not a major set back. Players whose Avatars die cannot directly interact for the remainder of the session. Stories last a single session, like an episode of a TV series. A Storyteller will manage each session. The Storyteller will string sessions together to form a myth arc. But, the Storyteller should be certain that individual sessions are also complete stories.

The Storyteller breaks the session into Acts, as in a play. Players resolve conflict like action resolution attempts. Storytellers do not need to emphasize combat. The Storyteller can use negotiations, or heists or research in a musty library as story conflicts. The rules break conflicts into Phases. Each phase moves the conflict closer to resolution. This keeps the story rolling. The system also prevents sixty seconds of in game combat from taking three or four multi-hour gaming sessions.

The creators built the game around narrative mechanics. The creators gave story points mechanical value in the game’s systems. Both the Storyteller and the Players can use story points. Players can purchase short term advantages for negative consequences and penalties.

The Storyteller must be upfront with the players regarding difficulty levels and consequences. Players will know when they risk major consequences nearly all the time.

If You’ve Never Role Played Before

New players will find that learning Blood Red Dreaming will actually be easier if you’ve never played another Tabletop RPG before. All Roleplaying games are collective storytelling games. Most RPGs forget this for a simple reason. Most RPGs were built from the old miniature war games where old men moved civil war figurines across meticulously crafted dioramas.

Classic Wargaming is filled with cool stuff. But if your only goal is to tell an amazing story, then the baggage of this origin story needs to go. So sit back and relax. Think of this as improv. The storyteller is both audience and movie director and also plays all the extras. The players are the lead actors and sometimes the villains. They are villains more often than many players would admit in many games.

Remember that this is Role-Playing. Remember that this is fiction. And remember that there is nothing unreal about what you are doing. Every fiction you craft to yourself will leave a mark. Bonelands or Shadowlands, the trails you tread and the roads you walk will forever be a part of your story. And you are nothing but your story.

The rest will become clear in short order. So sit back and relax.