DDE: Iounian
Artwork by Jason SholtisSince my Christmas post sharing a monster from the abandoned Dwimmermount Des...
2026-01-06 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
James Maliszewski posts
Artwork by Jason SholtisCommentary on Dwarves & Gnomes
Happy New Year!
In Tuesday's post, I promised to provide some commentary about Dwarves, Gnomes, Kobolds, and other related topics, since I didn't want that post to be any lengthier than it already was — and it would have been, as I have a fair bit t...
2026-01-01 05:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostDDE: Dwarves & Gnomes
Following last week's Christmas post and yesterday's Substack post, I have decided to offer up some posts over the next few weeks that give some idea of the kind of thing that I had in mind for the Dwimmermount Designer's Edition, had I ever produced. Consider these d...
2025-12-30 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAn Old School (Essentials) Christmas Gift
Artwork by Jason SholtisThe Dwimmermount Designer’s Edition is a project I still return to from time to time, though no longer with any real expectation that it will ever be completed. What c...
2025-12-25 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostYear's End
2025 is rapidly coming to a close. One of the unexpected consequences of getting older is that time seems to move much more quickly than it did when I was younger. That only makes sense, I suppose. When you're ten years old, a year is 10% of your entire life; when you're fifty, it's only 2%, which is a significant difference. Even so, I'm astounde...
2025-12-18 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHouse of Worms Commemorative Portrait
Today, I thought I'd take a break from sharing more of my thoughts about Dream-Quest in order to give you, my patrons, something unavailable to other readers of Grognardia — the full commemorative portrait of the major p...
2025-12-16 05:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostThe Current State of Dream-Quest (Part II)
In my last post, I talked about the origins of the Dream-Quest project and how my desire to honor not just the memory of H. P. Lovecraft, but more spec...
2025-12-11 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe Current State of Dream-Quest (Part I)
Though I haven’t posted anything new about the Dream-Quest project lately, it’s not for lack of activity — provided one is willing to count thinking as a form of work. I mean that only half in jest. Thinking can be real work...
2025-12-09 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: The Great Ones
As I continue to ponder Dream-Quest and just what I want this project to be, a recurring topic concerns the gods of the Dreamlands and their priests. While there are a number of reasons why I keep returning to this particular topic, one is practical: would the priests of these gods be available as a player character clas...
2025-11-18 05:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostInquiry
(Dream-Quest posts will resume next week with some thoughts about the Great Ones, the gods of the Dreamlands. Today, I wanted to talk about something much more mundane.)
One of the things that has surprised me most over the years is how much ...
2025-11-13 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: An Example
After thinking some more about my previous post, I concluded that it might be helpful — both for myself and patrons — if I tried to offer some concrete examples of what I was talking about. If nothing else, they'll serve as yet more fodder for discussio...
2025-11-06 05:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Mirroring the Psyche
As I continue to think about Dream-Quest, I keep coming back to the idea that the Dreamlands are not a fixed geography but rather a landscape of the psyche. This idea was reinforced when I reread “Celephaïs” fo...
2025-11-04 05:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Generating the Dreamlands
In my public post a couple of days ago, I discussed the idea that every referee’s Dreamlands ought to be his own. There is no a fixed geography or canonical map common to every Dream-Quest campaign, but instead a personal landscape of wo...
2025-10-30 04:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Building the Dream
As I discussed in two previous posts, I've begun to realize that, from a game design perspective, it's best to think of the Dreamlands not as a place but as a process, a way of seeing. Lovecraft never drew a map of them and, despite the best efforts of later generations of fans, it's almost impossible to establish a canonical ver...
2025-10-28 04:00:36 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: The Mutable Dreamer?
Lately, I’ve been pondering an intriguing — and probably difficult to implement — idea for Dream-Quest. I’m not yet sure if it’s good or even workable, but it’s been rattling around in my head long enough that I feel compelled to explore it a little.
The idea is this: what if each player character — t...
2025-10-14 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: The Mutable Dreamlands (Part II)
As I mentioned in Part I of this post, I’m still very much in the “thinking out loud” stage of developing a system and set of guidelines to help referees create their own Dreamlands for Dream-Quest campaigns. Nothing here is final; like ...
2025-10-09 23:23:08 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: The Mutable Dreamlands (Part I)
One of the guiding ideas behind Dream-Quest is that there is no such thing as a definitive version of the Dreamlands. Lovecraft himself wasn't completely consistent about them. The places mentioned in his stories, like Ulthar, the Enchanted Wood, or Celephaïs, shift in tone and detail from tale to tale. Geography in his Dream Cy...
2025-10-07 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Anchoring Items
As Dream-Quest continues to take shape in my mind, I keep circling back to the question of permanence within the Dreamlands. What, exactly, endures from one visit to the Dreamlands to the next and what inevitably fades away?
2025-10-02 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostVarieties of Dreamborn
At the end of last month, I suggested two possible character origins in Dream-Quest: earthborn and dreamborn. Earthborn characters, as their name implies, are mortals who dream their way into that otherworld, while...
2025-09-30 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Poet-Seer Spells (Levels 3 and 4)
3rd Level Spells
Binding Rhyme
Range: 30’ Duration: 1 turn
The Poet-Seer speaks a binding riddle.
One creature within range cannot cross a threshold, doorway, bridge, or river for the spell’s duration.
The target may approach the barrier but cannot pass un...
2025-09-26 01:43:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Dream-Quest: Poet-Seer Spells (Levels 1 and 2)
As promised, here are the 1st and 2nd-level Poet-Seer spells I've currently created. Levels 3 and 4 will follow on Thursday (September 25, 2025). They all follow the format used in Old-School Essentials, so their meaning should be fairly obvio...
2025-09-23 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Poet-Seer
Poet-Seer
Words woven from moonlight. Verses that stir the soul. Prophecies whispered from the hidden cadences of slumber.
Origin: Earthborn or Dreamborn
Requirements: Minimum WIS 9
Prime Requisite: CHA
Hit Dice: 1d6
...
2025-09-18 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe Dreamlands Campaign
As I continue work on Dream-Quest, I find my thoughts drifting into places I never expected — surprising, yes, but in the best possible way. That’s fitting, I suppose, since I never intended to create a game inspired by Lovecraft’s Dreamlands in the first place. The idea arrived unbidden and since then it’s taken on a life of its ...
2025-09-16 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Shadow
Shadow
Footfalls erased. Faces forgotten. Whisper where the dark gathers.
Origin: Earthborn or Dreamborn
Requirements: None
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1d4
Maximum Level: 14
Armor: 2025-09-11 04:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Alone in the Dreamlands
On Thursday, I’ll be sharing another Dream-Quest character class — the shadow, my take on a thief-analog for the Dreamlands. However, today I want to digress a little into something inspired by my work on this project that has broader implications, both for the design of Dream-Quest and for roleplayi...
2025-09-09 04:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Knight of Dreams
Knight of Dreams
Vows made flesh. Steel made dream. Champion of the unreal.
Origin: Earthborn or Dreamborn
Requirements: None
Prime Requisite: STR
Hit Dice: 1d8
Maximum Level: 14
Armor: Any, inc...
2025-09-04 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest Table of Contents
Today, I thought I'd take a brief break from presenting sample rules from my Dream-Quest draft and instead share the very rough outline I've got for the work as a whole. Bear in mind, this is all incredibly rough and subject to change. In some ways, it's more of a fond hope on my part than a coherent and well-realized plan. There's still no certainty that I'll even finish Dream-Quest, however much i...
2025-09-02 04:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostDream-Quest: Death & Return
The Lands of Dream are indeed wondrous – but they can also be perilous. Yet death is not always the same for all who walk its roads.
Hit Points & Dying
Above 0 HP: A character fights on as normal.
At or Below 0 HP:
The character falls unconsciou...
2025-08-28 04:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Dream-Quest: Character Origins
Every soul who treads the Dreamlands must come from somewhere. Before any other choice is made, each player decides whether his character is Earthborn or Dreamborn. These origins shape not only what gifts and burdens the character carries but also what roles are open to him (see Character Classes, pXX 2025-08-26 04:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Dream-Quest
If you’ve been reading Grognardia during this past month, you’ll know that I’ve been thoroughly immersing myself in the works and thought of H.P. Lovecraft, whose influence over fantasy, science fiction, and popular culture (including roleplaying games) is nearly unpara...
2025-08-25 17:59:44 +0000 UTC View Post