H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands: Roleplaying Beyond the Wall of Sleep
Dreamlands is written for Chaosium’s “Call of Cthulhu” horror role-playing game. It is, however, superbly adaptable to any role-playing game that allows for the fantastic. Chaosium’s Dreamlands are based on Lovecraft’s, and the stories of those who followed Lovecraft. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands are inspired by Dunsany’s, as, almost certainly, are other contemporaries such as E.R. Eddison.
It is Dunsany’s works that inspired the name of the example “world concept” in the Gods & Monsters Adventure Guide:
The Dreamlands are inspired by the dream works of Lord Dunsany• and H.P. Lovecraft, the works of Edgar Allan Poe and E.R. Eddison, J. M. Barrie’s “Peter and Wendy”, L. Frank Baum’s “The Wizard of Oz”, Stephen King’s “The Stand” and his “Gunslinger” series, and the Super Mario video games. The Dreamlands are a place of riddles, secrets, hidden treasures, strange creatures, and worlds within worlds. The depths of the deepest dungeon may lead to new lands. Holding the right key may open doors you never knew existed, to places you never believed possible. A castle of ice overlooking a grand waterfall, cities that float in the air. The Dreamlands encompass every form of high fantasy, intense horror, and Byzantine politics. The Dreamlands lack only moderation.
The concept of a Dreamlands is very useful for swords-and-sorcery fantasy gaming. It is perfect for those game worlds which, while not focussed on the strange evils lurking beneath the surface of reality, still countenances their existence:
The Lovecraftian style blends Dunsany with Burroughs. On the one hand, Randolph Carter is traveling to exotic locations and dealing with many strange people and creatures, while on the other he finds himself leading large armies into battle. Allies play an important role, and investigators may be able to call upon forces which they would otherwise not have access to in the Waking World. Leading an army of cats against a moonbeast outpost is quite possible in the Dreamlands.
In the example concept for Gods & Monsters, the player characters are assumed to be living in the Dreamlands. In “Roleplaying Beyond the Wall of Sleep”, the Dreamlands are assumed to be a separate set of worlds beyond the waking world. The ideas, however, are easily modified (if desired) for use in a world where the world and the Dreamlands are the same.
Lovecraft as background
Many of Lovecraft’s short stories make great backgrounds for fantasy adventures. This is especially true of his Dreamland stories. For example, the extremely short story “The Other Gods” could easily be worked up as the backstory of a fantasy adventure. The wizard Barzai certainly had some strange and magnificent spells, and caches of magical knowledge, hidden away. And some more prudent villain might hear the tales of Barzai’s demise and learn to harness the power of the gods’ mountain without the hubris that was part of Barzai’s undoing.
The description of the palaces and temples at Sarnath alone would make that story worth the inspiration it can give the astute Guide. E.R. Eddison’s Ouroboros dream-tales contain similarly useful imagery.
The wall of sleep
The Dreamlands in this book are places to be visited through sleep, through the “Gate of Deeper Slumber” beyond the “Seventy Steps of Lighter Slumber”. Only rarely are they visited physically. But this is because the Dreamlands were written, by Lovecraft, for the rational, non-fantastic world. They were a place for the rational, world-weary to visit without wholly upsetting their rational world—at least at first. For the Dreamlands were occasionally hinted at as more real than the waking world. And where the waking world could not intrude on the dream world, the dream world could and did follow uncareful dreamers into their waking lives.
This separation of the Dreamlands from the real world is not necessary, however. Many of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands stories take place entirely in the Dreamlands. These are his fantasy stories (usually), and are most useful as inspiration for games such as Gods & Monsters.
Ignoring the Call of Cthulhu-specific rules, the book starts with an overview of the Dreamlands using Randolph Carter’s “Dreamquest of Uknown Kadath” as guide.
Maps
The maps are beautifully drawn. There is a greyscale map inside the pages, and a pull-out color map in the center of the book, of “a portion of Earth’s dreamlands.” If you choose to use the Dreamlands themselves as a place for adventure, these maps will make it a marvelous place to visit.
There is so much in the Dreamlands that the Dreamlands could themselves be the base world for a campaign. They could also, however, be a nearby world that the characters can visit through strange portals (as in the upcoming “The Vale of the Azure Sun”).
Along with the map is over thirty pages of a dictionary-style gazeteer of places, ten pages of important characters (and their Call of Cthulhu statistics), and a Dreamlands bestiary with forty pages of creatures and races.
The large illustrations are marvelous. You’ll know if you want this book from the moment you see the brightly-colored golden ship sailing through misty seas towards tall domes and spires. (Although the sea-creature is extremely reminiscent of the old Sahuagin illustration in Dungeons & Dragons.)
The endpages illustration is similarly enticing. If the front cover leaves you uncertain, open the cover or backcover for the two-page spread of a great city on a high peak above the clouds.
A Dreamland campaign
Of the short adventures included, only “The Lemon Sails” would make sense as a fantasy adventure. It is designed for inhabitants of the Dreamlands, and takes place wholly within them.
However, in general this is a great fantasy sourcebook. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands were a well-realized place, full of the fantastic, odd, and mystical. The dream-like quality that he imbued into the Dreamlands is well-suited to fantasy adventure.
If you are running a world-spanning campaign, the Dreamlands would be a great place for an extended visit. I’d recommend reading some of Lovecraft’s dream works, and if you want to use that world in your fantasy game, pick up “Roleplaying Beyond the Wall of Sleep” to help you tie it all together.
- H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands: Roleplaying Beyond the Wall of Sleep•
- A very concise and useful guidebook for integrating Lovecraft-style dream worlds into a fantasy or modern fantasy campaign.
- Dreams of Terror and Death : The Dream Cycle of H. P. Lovecraft•
- His dream works were not really a cycle, but if you want to read his works involving dreams this ought to be a great collection. Most importantly, it collects all but one of the works recommended in the Chaosium Dreamlands introduction: The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The Cats of Ulthar, The Doom That Came to Sarnath, Hypnos, The Other Gods, Polaris, The Quest of Iranon, The Silver Key, The Strange High House in the Mist. The only one missing is The White Ship.
- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath•
- This collection contains the title piece as well as Celephaïs, The Silver Key, Through the Gates of the Silver Key, The White Ship, and The Strange High House in the Mist. These are some of the more interesting of Lovecraft’s dream pieces.
- The Vale of the Azure Sun
- There are things in this world that defy all logic. Places that no door enters and no road goes, where the maps exist only in the minds of madmen.
- H.P. Lovecraft at Wikipedia
- “Much of Lovecraft’s work was directly inspired by his nightmares, and it is perhaps this direct insight into the subconscious and its symbolism that helps to account for their continuing resonance and popularity.”
- The Worm Ouroboros
- This book does everything wrong; under no circumstances would it be published today, except perhaps as a self-published venture, and then it would be used as an example of why self-publishing is wrong. And yet, it’s a wonderful novel.
- The King of Elfland’s Daughter•: Lord Dunsany (paperback)
- Lord Dunsany’s best-known work involves a king’s son traveling from his own real kingdom to the land of faerie, to win himself the Elf-king’s daughter as his wife.
- The Gods of Pegana•
- The Pegana series was Dunsany’s earliest work, and among the earliest “modern” fantasy fiction. It, along with Eddison, bridges the gap between older fiction styles such as that of Dumas, and the more modern tradition that began with Tolkien.
- Time and the Gods•
- The second of Lord Dunsany’s Pegana cycle, described as “a lush tapestry of language.” This is another collection of short stories.