Watch: Forgotten Footage of WOTC’s Doomed Skirmish Game Dreamblade
As the tabletop gaming world floats in a void of chaos, we look back to Dreamblade, WOTC’s attempt at an extremely competitive tabletop game.
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If 2020 isn’t nightmarish enough, take a time warp back to June 22, 2006 and reimagine Wizards of the Coast’s dystopian Dreamblade from the comfort of your own bedroom.
As Magic: the Gathering is dispelled by emergency bans, Dungeons & Dragons is debating Darwinism, and Warhammer stores are battling to reopen, maybe it’s time to reexamine this Lovecraftian disaster of a game with a clear third eye.
Dreamblade is a fast-paced Night Fusion of chess and Magic with the tactics of Go and the extravagance of Battletech, in which a pair of psychics wage war to conquer the dreamscape and bend reality to their will.
At the start of the game, each dreamer summons their imaginary legions using an innovative initiative rule that gives both players the same spawn points. This simple mechanic of both combatants rolling a six-sided die and adding their rolls together wakes gamers up from the recurring nightmare of mana screw while still tossing and turning with variance from match to match.
Players form a warband of sixteen figures from four personality traits: Valor, Fear, Madness, and Passion. Like the five colors of Magic, these aspects can be freely combined. Each figure on the battlefield or in the graveyard makes subsequent allied miniatures cheaper, punishing players for greedy splashes by forcing them to pay the full cost of lone powerhouses like Dreadmorph Ogre.
Each match is a bloodthirsty race to win six turns. Aggressors are rewarded by winning tied initiative rolls, but calculated disruption of enemies blocks reinforcements. Spreading out forces covers more precious ground, but tight formations of synergistic units in a well-placed location results in more attack dice and more chances to roll a critical blade ability like Panic or Terrify.
With Dreamblade, Wizards shifted to strike the collectible miniatures market just like Magic: the Gathering dominated trading card games, and they went all-in. A massive marketing campaign, quarterly expansion schedule, Base Set, Baxar’s War, Chrysotic Plague, Anvilborn, Edge tournaments, 1Ks, 10Ks, cash prizes so ludicrous they could only be a feverish scheme by Seto Kaiba to take over the world. Ben Stoll won the first and last Dream Series Championship, assuming it wasn’t all a dream.
Dreamblade’s competitive focus was a double-edged sword: some feared the game was too hardcore for casual players, but the randomness of its custom dice didn’t appease pros. Pre-painted miniatures were gorgeous, yet left fans’ wallets defenseless. As the meta mutated from month to month, the prices of pieces like Scarab Warcharm and Unwishing Well skyrocketed.
On October 8, 2007, Johnathan Tweet made the inevitable announcement: “Despite our best efforts, we will no longer be producing any new sets for Dreamblade.” The sun set on Serrated Dawn, the game’s cancelled expansion. Tournaments were recalled. Wizards had delivered Dreamblade its deathblow. Today, as local game stores burn down amid civil unrest, Dreamblade still lives on in the minds of its fans, a fading memory of a brighter time.
Source: Guy Fullerton/YouTube
Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/forgotten-footage-wizards-of-the-coast-skirmish-game-dreamblade-resurface/