Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros
Encyclopedia
Rêve: the Dream Ouroboros is a French
fantasy
tabletop role-playing game created by Denis Gerfaud and re-published in English
by Malcontent Games. It is the translation of ("Dragon Dream"), a best-selling game in France. The first French edition was published by NEF (Nouvelles Éditions Fantastiques) in 1985, the second by Multisim
in 1993, reprinted by UbIK (now Edge Entertainment), the French editor for Fading Suns
, in 2004.
There was also a simplified version for beginners called Oniros (1994).
This is a metaphor
of the role-playing game itself : when players gather to play, they imagine — dream — together an adventure, and each player imagines his own character.
As well as different stories often interfere (e.g. a player plays different games in the same week), the different dreams (worlds, universe) can interfere; there are rips between them, and the character can go to a different world sometimes without noticing it! Strange creatures can also come to the present dream.
Just like a sleeper has only partial control over his dreams — why would we have nightmares otherwise ? — the dragons do not completely control their creatures and worlds. The dreamed creatures have the possibility to modify the dream (the world) itself ; this is the source of magic, highdreaming.
The life of a character is fuzzy between the game sessions ; the player only has little ideas of what happens to his creature. In the same way, characters of Rêve de Dragon sometimes experience a gris-rêve (greydreaming): they suddenly realise that they are somewhere with companions, but only have limited memories of what happened the days before. But what happened can be the key of the current situation...
When a character dies, his dragon wakes up and then falls asleep again ; at the same time, the character wakes up in a new dream, a new life. This means that the character is recreated with the same abilities, but a different past, a different job, different skills, a different name. The player thus plays the same character again — well, not exactly the same — the character is not a newborn, he is already adult, just coming from another dream.
The "sum" of all these incarnations are the archetype of the character. When the character is himself sleeping, he can remember his past incarnations, and thus learn skills he never practiced nor studied. These memories of a past life can also be the key of the adventure...
But the gnomes discovered the gems and the magic they carry. The dragons realised they did not control this world and woke up massively. This created a cataclysm in the world, which ended the First Age.
The Second Age was the age of magic. The magicians (called haut-rêvants, highdreamers) were powerful, but they manipulated amounts of dream energy far beyond their skills. Moreover, they learned to master nightmare. These excesses created rips (called "rifts") between the dreams and the dragons once again woke up massively ; new cataclysm, end of the Second Age.
The Third Age is the age of travelling. The magicians left a very bad memory, so they are hated and most of them hide their skills. Due to the multiple cataclysms, many places were intermixed, so it is not unusual to find a harbour at the top of a mountain. Everybody knows that he can go to another dream just by wandering, without any chance to come back, so the travel has become a way of living for most humans. Everybody makes one day a journey ; this can be just going to the next village and back, or living everyday on the road. The player characters are such journeyers.
The world has three levels :
(1980
).
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
tabletop role-playing game created by Denis Gerfaud and re-published in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by Malcontent Games. It is the translation of ("Dragon Dream"), a best-selling game in France. The first French edition was published by NEF (Nouvelles Éditions Fantastiques) in 1985, the second by Multisim
MultiSIM
NI Multisim is an electronic schematic capture and simulation program which is part of a suite of circuit design programs, along with NI Ultiboard. Multisim is one of the few circuit design programs to employ the original Berkeley SPICE based software simulation...
in 1993, reprinted by UbIK (now Edge Entertainment), the French editor for Fading Suns
Fading Suns
Fading Suns is a science fiction space opera role-playing game published by Holistic Design. The setting was also used for a PC game , a live action role-playing game , and for a space combat miniature game .- Game setting :The action is set in a future medieval-analogue empire built on the remains...
, in 2004.
There was also a simplified version for beginners called Oniros (1994).
The world of Rêve
- Note: The main author of this section is French and has therefore never read the English version of the game ; there may thus be discrepancies with the terms used in the official translation
External history
The world of Rêve is a dragons' dream. The dragons, fabulous creatures, are asleep and each of them dreams a creature ; but at the same time, all of them dream the world. When a creature dies, his dragon awakes, but as the creature is also dreamt by the other dragons, its body remains.This is a metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
of the role-playing game itself : when players gather to play, they imagine — dream — together an adventure, and each player imagines his own character.
As well as different stories often interfere (e.g. a player plays different games in the same week), the different dreams (worlds, universe) can interfere; there are rips between them, and the character can go to a different world sometimes without noticing it! Strange creatures can also come to the present dream.
Just like a sleeper has only partial control over his dreams — why would we have nightmares otherwise ? — the dragons do not completely control their creatures and worlds. The dreamed creatures have the possibility to modify the dream (the world) itself ; this is the source of magic, highdreaming.
The life of a character is fuzzy between the game sessions ; the player only has little ideas of what happens to his creature. In the same way, characters of Rêve de Dragon sometimes experience a gris-rêve (greydreaming): they suddenly realise that they are somewhere with companions, but only have limited memories of what happened the days before. But what happened can be the key of the current situation...
When a character dies, his dragon wakes up and then falls asleep again ; at the same time, the character wakes up in a new dream, a new life. This means that the character is recreated with the same abilities, but a different past, a different job, different skills, a different name. The player thus plays the same character again — well, not exactly the same — the character is not a newborn, he is already adult, just coming from another dream.
The "sum" of all these incarnations are the archetype of the character. When the character is himself sleeping, he can remember his past incarnations, and thus learn skills he never practiced nor studied. These memories of a past life can also be the key of the adventure...
"Inner" history
The present era is the Third Age. During the First Age, dragons liked to represent themselves in the dreams, served by creatures such as gnomes, humans, etc.But the gnomes discovered the gems and the magic they carry. The dragons realised they did not control this world and woke up massively. This created a cataclysm in the world, which ended the First Age.
The Second Age was the age of magic. The magicians (called haut-rêvants, highdreamers) were powerful, but they manipulated amounts of dream energy far beyond their skills. Moreover, they learned to master nightmare. These excesses created rips (called "rifts") between the dreams and the dragons once again woke up massively ; new cataclysm, end of the Second Age.
The Third Age is the age of travelling. The magicians left a very bad memory, so they are hated and most of them hide their skills. Due to the multiple cataclysms, many places were intermixed, so it is not unusual to find a harbour at the top of a mountain. Everybody knows that he can go to another dream just by wandering, without any chance to come back, so the travel has become a way of living for most humans. Everybody makes one day a journey ; this can be just going to the next village and back, or living everyday on the road. The player characters are such journeyers.
The world has three levels :
- the basses terres du rêve (lower dreamlands) is the land the characters live in ;
- the terres médianes du rêve (middle dreamlands) is a land that only highdreamers (magicians) can reach in mind, in a state of demi-rêve (half-dream) ; this is were they can gather the dream energy to cast spells ;
- the hautes terres du rêve (higher dreamlands) is were the spirit of a character goes when he is asleep ; this is were he can have the memories of his past life, and sometimes meet a reflect of the dragons themselves - an experience nobody goes through unchanged.
Sources and influences
Les Hautes Terres du rêve (literally "The Highdreamland") is a fantasy novel from Jacques SadoulJacques Sadoul
Jacques Sadoul is a French author.He has produced a number of anthologies on the history of science fiction.His Histoire de la science fiction moderne was a major encouragement for the serious, academic study of SF, particularly among the East European peoples of that time, because the book was...
(1980
1980 in literature
The year 1980 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Marguerite Yourcenar becomes the first woman to be elected to the Académie française....
).
External links
- Official website of Malcontent Games
- Rêve: The Dream Orobouros on RPGnet