For Story Game Sunday, we played Society of Dreamers.

For Story Game Sunday, we played Society of Dreamers. I am happy to report it is excellent, and I can’t wait to play it again (maybe on Halloween night). 

The gist of it is you play a group of people in the 1800’s committed to researching creatures that invade your dreams, called mnemosites. The game’s strength, to my mind, is the direct connection between the mechanics and the theme. The way it works is, after a scene concludes, you have a conversation about whether anything new was learned about the mnemosites and then write it on a card. This process of discussing the mnemosites, and learning about them, is incredibly engaging and is a close approximation of what you’d probably be doing if you were an actual secret society researching dream creatures. 

The game has many strengths and very few flaws. Among its strengths is a genuinely compelling game structure, which sees you exploring incidents from the characters’ childhood and teenage years, and then, later, their time in the Society as they work together to help a specific dreamer. Another strength is the game’s strange, quasi-LARP ‘rules,’ which have you performing cleansing and bonding rituals before the game begins, and obeying strict edicts about the inappropriateness of jokes at the table. It all goes a long way toward enforcing a creepy tone, and several people commented it was one of the creepiest games they’ve ever played (which is why it might make an appearance on Halloween). The only quibble I had with the game was a superfluous, time-consuming ouija board thing (pictured below), but fortunately it is easily ditched. 

I loved it. Thanks to everyone who came out: Daniel Lewis Steve Mains Ferrell Riley Russell Benner and David LaFreniere .