Friday, September 7, 2012

Dreamblade Monsters



The latest campaign idea I've started throwing some energy behind is to develop a setting inspired by feudal Japan, the warring states period, but put a lot of the action on a nearby mist-shrouded island I'm calling "Spirit Island".  Spirit Island is a place where the walls between the mortal world and the spirit otherworld are thin; beings can slip sideways between the worlds on Spirit Island - especially near the shrines and dungeons the players will be seeking out.

One of the things I'd like to do is build out a bestiary of strange and unusual creatures… and then it hit me, I have this gigantic collection of Dreamblade figures just hanging out in the garage.

Anyone out there also play Dreamblade back when it was in print?  I was all in on that game - tournaments, qualifiers, the whole thing.  Game play featured a strong analytical component like chess, requiring constant calculations of future moves and probabilities.  It ended up being a bit too intense for the casual crowd, the random boosters were pricey, and I'm sure the design costs for the minis were high; Dreamblade was killed after 5-6 sets were released.

There are nearly 400 sculpts across the various Dreamblade sets, drawing inspiration from a wide range of cultures and themes.  The figures are usually a bit weird and unusual, and many of them are horror-themed.  I should be able to find some excellent inspiration for the bizarre and otherworldly inhabitants of the spirit realm by browsing the Dreamblade figure pool.

Listed in the picture is the dreadmorph ogre, the windborne blademaster, the thunder sultan, the inspired samurai, the boneblade serpent, and the fleshless reaper.

1 comment:

  1. I never played while it was in print, but my FLGS has a huge glut of them. I've taken to grabbing them on occasion with the intention of either playing or using the miniatures for something.

    ReplyDelete