The end of the world is a scary topic. But for every story about how the world ends with a sea of zombies or bathed in nuclear fire, there’s one about how people survive and rebuild. For better and for worse, humanity is more resilient than we might think.
Dreams And Machines is a tabletop setting that brings players to the world of Evera Prime where the humans have slowly come out of hiding after a devastating war with the machines they build to turn the alien world into their home. Those robots are slowly reawakening and its up to the players to discover who is awakening them and why.
Modiphius Entertainment launched a Starter Set for the game at last year’s Gen Con. Now the full game has arrived as a set of three releases: Player’s Guide, Gamemaster’s Guide and GM’s Toolkit. The company sent along copies of each products so I could take a deeper dive into the game.
Dreams And Machines Player’s Guide
Dreams and Machines uses a streamlined version of Modiphius’s signature 2d20 game system. Players assemble their character from three elements: Origin, Archetype and Temperament. Thse choices determine the character’s abilties and special talents.
Origin reflect the environment where the character grew up. Different factions took different lessons with them from The Builder War. Some folks tried to study and secure the past like the Archivists while other dedicated their lives to making sure the Wakers never rise again like the Spears.
Archetype shows how the character lives their life on Evera Prime and how they can contribute to a party of adventurers. Fixers act as the go-betweens of various settlements, while Grabbers plunge into the dangerous ruins of cities to bring back technology to study or sell. These combined choices also give a character’s tech level and how well they understand the scattered remains of the lost civilizations.
Temperment gives a character a general personality. It also helps them form bonds with the rest of the player characters and nighlights the unique way beyond the usual ones that a character can achieve experience through growth. For example, Stubborn characters gain growth if they caused a problem by efusing to change their approach to a situation.
Dreams And Machines Gamemaster’s Guide
There’s a history section about what happened in the Player’s Guide and the one in this book goes deeper. I won’t get into spoilers here but the game does a good job at answering some questions whle leaving other up to the Gamemaster to answer at their table.
This book also goes into more detail on each of the factions. My favorite are the Spears who are a warrior cult that carries a unique weapon built to fight the massive Waker robots. Eaach electro-spear has a name and history that gives what could just be “the fighter class” a more Jedi-like feel.
Dreams and Machines takes a lot of inspiration from video games. The most obvious are the Horizon: Zero Dawn games but there are mechanical elements that do so as well. These elements are what I find most fascinating as a game designer.
Players can find bits and piece of history they can sell to Achivists and other history buffs and they often take the form of audio logs, scraps of paperwork and other collectible elements that video game players love to seek out. I think it would be fun to write and possibly record these bits for my players to find and discover more about the world. It seems more likely than handing them a book and expecting them to read it from cover to cover.
Dreams And Machines GM’s Toolkit
It’s hard to review Gamemaster Screen because they tend to perform the same function. I don’t always use them but I like having them as a quick reference for essential rules. Given the light nature of this version of 2D20 I rarely found myelf needing more than a quick glance at the screen.
The enclosed booklet has something very useful for a game like this. For Gamemasters who want to indulge in a bit of old school hexcrawling, there are rules and guidelines for just that to allow players to discover adventure on the way to the next big plotline. These sidequests allow for players to gather more resources and learn more about Evera Prime.
The scenario generator book allows Gamemasters to come up with a basic plotline with a few rolls of the dice. I find these things super useful on the weeks when real life gets in the way of prep time. They also help for those times where a big plot has just wrapped up and everyone is wondering where to go next.
Dreams And Machines is available directly from Modiphius, through online vendors and at Friendly Local Game Stores around the world.