A Prelude to a Dreamland

So, a few years back I got introduced to Google Sheets by a close friend of mine. I started using it to keep track of tabletop campaigns, and after realizing how useful it was, I started a journey that I had zero idea would lead me here.

I started dabbling some in game design. It really just began with the idea that I have been building a fantasy world since around 2012. The world was built, I had a setting and I had a story. I did not have experience, or understanding about the way video game math plugs into larger systems. I just knew I wanted to make a complex system, with no context to what that meant at the time.

I took several months just building badly. At the time I was so proud of what I was making, but in retrospect, I was adding too much complexity to mechanics. I was storing and accessing data highly inefficiently. My display was ugly and hard to read. I don't really know when I improved, nor do I know how long it took. It clicked after asking the right questions. "Why is this so ugly? Why are people reading this and having problems? Can I store this data better?"

Finally, I felt like I had the right direction. I kept working on fantasy design. I had classes, sub-classes, spells for each stat. Things I knew I wanted.

Something changed. I think it might have been my yearly return to Fallout 4: Settlement Building Simulator. I just liked the zombie apocalypse play through. Build a defensible location. Harvest resources. Kind of felt like playing The Walking Dead.

I got to the point that one day I sat down and started just making mechanics. I said, "What if Fallout had sanity mechanics? What if it had working vehicles? Why haven't more games tried for building faction mechanics? Where did karma systems go?". That question snowballed, and within a week I had the barebones of a character builder. Stats. Skills and Skill points. Levels. Weapons and Armor. Items, drones, robots, companions & followers.

I have so much to discuss now that this would go on for far too long for one post. There has been so much content created for this game that I am able to proudly present to you, Dreamland 2d6.

My work is not over. I have a great deal of tasks to complete before an official release. I am around 20,000 words closer to my Cast Member's Handbook, with the Director's Handbook being the next major task. I plan on expansions to mechanics to be released in the future.

The journey still has much to achieve completion. For the time being, what I will say is this: I am putting my hand out to take you on an adventure. If you accept, you become a Dreamer.

Welcome to Dreamland.

-Nat 20