Build a better post-apocalyptic future with the TTRPG Dreams & Machines

Modiphius Entertainment, a British publisher, is giving a positive spin to the zombie postapocalypse in its new game. Dreams & MachinesA new role-playing tabletop game. The starter set is available for pre-order today, ahead of the official launch at Gen Con.

“I wanted to create something that’s feel-good because the world’s a grim place and there are enough grim games out there,” Modiphius founder and CEO Chris Birch said.

Birch has a history of subverting genres. He brought World War II pulp to Lovecraftian terror with Achtung! CthulhuThe game is inspired by stories told at the Great Patriotic War Museum of Minsk about heroic figures who fought against Nazis despite their belief that it was impossible. Dreams & Machines The story is set in the future, hundreds of years following a devastating war with a rogue artificial intelligence known as the “Builder” that devastated the society of Evera Prime. This book explores ways that humanity has survived and thrived despite the threat of mutant wildlife, tech-cultists or long-dormant robots.

Modiphius recruited a diverse group of freelance writers including Logan Boese, Mari Tokuda, and Jen Kretchmer to work on the book’s playable factions. The Dreamers take inspiration from the cliff dwellings of ancestral Pueblos in Mesa Verde in Colorado and focus on biology, chemistry, and less mechanical engineering.

“They’re like Ewoks on acid,” Birch said. “They know how to build traps for mechs. They’re really good at non-advanced technology.”

Image: Modiphius Entertainment

Rivers — people who use their boats to bring supplies and news to isolated settlements — draw on modern-day truckers, Louisiana Bayou culture, and Western naval hierarchy. Spears are known for passing on their weaponry from one generation to another, and they never let anyone fall behind. Complex prosthetics were developed to assist those impacted by radioactive environments.

They can build their character with the starter kit by selecting cards to represent an origin (like mediator, guardian or envoy) along with an archetype and a temperament like circumspect. Put together, they provide everything needed to navigate the simplified version of Modiphius’ 2d20 system, including starting gear and a tech level, which limits what type of equipment the character can use.

In other Modiphius titles, the players and game master will trade between using threat and momentum to introduce new facts or complicate the story. Spirit is a new resource for players that can be used to help them achieve their goals, but also to protect themselves from injury or knocking out in a fight. The starter set contains tokens that can be used to represent all of the game’s resources as well as cards for gear the players find.

A character’s temperament doesn’t just provide role-playing tips but determines how they regain spirit and what happens to them if they run out. The exhausted character will automatically fail checks related to one of the four key attributes because they’re physically weary or have given in to despair.

It also includes a reference guide for rules, cards for players and the game master and an adventure. The novel setting is demonstrated by the players’ visit to New Mossgrove. This settlement was built next to a mech, which has its head used for romantic purposes. Handouts, maps, and location cards provide a way to immerse players further in the game’s world. They can be used to provide players with in-game bonuses if they are given the information by the appropriate non-player character.

Image: Modiphius Entertainment

“If you put 50 pages in the book, people aren’t going to read it, but we break it into fragments,” Birch said. “Archivists will pay a lot for knowledge about the old world.”

If players can save New Mossgrove from its troubles, a conflict that involves dealing with giant centipedes and a nanotech dragon, they’ll be offered a ramshackle home to serve as a base of operations. At the end of this adventure, there are many plot points to explore. Dreams & MachinesThe story will be continued in the next release.

More products will be added in the future Dreams & Machines, including a player guide, game master’s guide, campaign guide, and game master’s toolkit. The game is designed to support stories that span several years, where characters retire after achieving their objectives. It allows players to experiment with a different character while enjoying the advantages of an old one.

“If you’re the first person to give up their character to death or retirement, you get to unlock all the shiny stuff,” Birch said. “I tried to build in this concept that people moving on through death and retirement isn’t a bad thing. We want people to evolve their story.”

The books contain sketches, images, or notes. Some even include images of bird feathers and pressed flowers. Those are meant to be from Kari, a young girl who found a mech that doesn’t seem to want to hurt anyone. She painted a smiling face on him and named him Abe. You can also find out more about the following:ir adventures will be detailed in a pending novel and woven throughout the game’s lore.

“Imagine a 12-year-old girl got ahold of our rule book and is commenting,” Birch said. “It’s this scary, dangerous future with these machines who are trying to kill everyone and wrecked cities, yet it has a delightful childlike approach to it.”

The Dreams & Machines Starter SetThe Modiphius website is offering pre-orders for 35 dollars, and the first shipments are scheduled to arrive in August. Gen Con also has a quantity available.