Dreams Detective
A downloadable game
AN INSTRUMENT OF DREAMS
Someone - or something - is stealing from dreams. Those Who Protect the Dreamers have pulled a detective from a plundered dream, imbued them with a fraction of Their power over dreamstuff, and tasked them with finding the culprit.
You are that detective.
Uncover the perpetrators, discover their plans, and report your findings.
Dreams Detective is a solo journaling game based on the Hints & Hijinx solo mystery game system by Pandion Games. You play the game by yourself, writing down your actions and answers to the questions posed. This book guides you, but you are ultimately in control of where you want the story to go.
Needed materials:
- a journaling method
- a coin
- a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12)
Time to play: 30–90 minutes.
License: Released under CC-BY-SA 4.0. You are welcome to take this game and make it yours, hack it, or make something totally new with its mechanics, even commercially.
Sam Leigh of Blinking Birch Games created a curated playlist for use with Dreams Detective:
The French translation of Dreams Detective was created by Erell of Axolotl. Printed copies are available on occasion; contact them to learn more!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community copy
If you can't afford this game, these copies are for you. If you like it, please consider rating it and/or leaving a comment. Thank you!
Library / Education copy
If you work or volunteer at a library or in education, or would like to make this game available in those settings, thank you. These copies are for you. If you like it, please consider rating it and/or leaving a comment.
Development log
- Dreams Detective: Now in FrenchApr 28, 2023
- Dreams Detective Launch!Jan 30, 2023
Comments
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This is a really awesome game. Well done, Dan and team!
Thank you!
I have been having a lot of fun with this one! Thank you so very much for the community copies!
That’s wonderful to hear, and you’re welcome!
thank you for the community copies! very kind of you!
You’re welcome! 😀
Hi, I just downloaded Dreams Detective and I was wondering, since there is a French translation, can I translate it into Italian and pass it on to you?
That would be amazing! Please contact me at AlmostBedtimeTheater (at) gmail.com to discuss it. Thanks!
Hi,
I just sent an email to your address from d.orzano (at) gmail com.
Thank you so much for the librarian copies! I’m an assistant librarian at an elementary school and I’m trying to test out a possible game library for our students. I was interested in getting some solo journaling games to possible lend out and this is absolutely perfect! For now I’ll print a few copies out, make them into books, and put them in our little free libraries. I hope that’s an acceptable use. Again, thank you for donating to our library. I work in a poorer area with no public library near by so our library is how most of our students have access to books. They’ll be so excited to have some games to play too!
You are most welcome, and this is exactly the kind of reason for which the library and education copies exist! Best of luck with your game library, and if you are not already familiar with TTRPGkids.com, I highly recommend checking them out. Among all their other great contact, they have lists of free RPGs and journaling games.
Thank you again for educator copies! This has been tremendously helpful and added a few solid options for me to include in the journals for this insane undertaking. (Elementary teachers do insane things daily!)
You’re welcome, and thank you for being a teacher!
I've purchased this cool game and started playing this week. In fact, I just completed my first dream entry in my journal. Thank you for sharing your creativity and ideas. I love the freedom that the dream environment offers in terms of choices, and I like the Brindlewood Bay inspiration for making deductions. I think this idea is perfect for solo play.
I had a couple of questions about play, and wondered if you had thoughts. I know the answers could be..."make it anything you want", but I'm curious if you had considered some of this in your game design...
It is apparent that the Dreamweaver skill is only useful within the context of a dream. Where does the Detective skill come into play? Can it take place within a dream as well as in the real world? Do you mind sharing an example or two?
More broadly, assuming some of the clues are found within the dream; can clues also exist in the real world?
Depending on your responses, I have thoughts about how clues might connect to how I draw the map.
Mark
Hi Mark – I’m delighted to hear you are enjoying the game! You are correct that my default answers would be “make it anything you want” and “if you are having fun, you are playing it right.” That said, I’m happy to offer some insight into how I might play it.
First, I love the idea that the main character could end up seeking clues in the waking world. I hadn’t thought of that when crafting the game but I am absolutely in favor of it.
As for skill use, my thought was that there would often be instances where either skill could be used and it would depend on the approach the player wanted to attempt. For example, say there is a dream-being who isn’t telling me the whole truth. If I decide I want to interrogate them, I’d use Detective. Alternately, if I decide to intimidate them through a display of dream power then I’d use Dreamweaver. As a second example, let’s say I’m trying to figure out the path the suspect used to slip from one dream to the next. I might use Detective to investigate the scene for clues or Dreamweaver to rewind the dream and watch the shadow form of the perpetrator as they escape.
I hope that helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions!
- Dan
Hi Dan,
Thanks so much for your response and your examples. This is really helpful. I will play around with a few more dream entries and let you know how it goes! I'll be sure to leave a review soon as well.
Again, really cool concept for this game. Thanks for sharing.
-Mark