Crown of Ruin

Statistics: H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands

Core Game Ratings

Rating: 6.49 / Ranking: 483

These ratings are based on 23 ratings with 2.39 average weight and 7 reviews.

This is compared to an index-wide 3.64 average ratings and 1.98 average weight.

This rating earns a high level of trust because it is high weight and thus probably the result of knowledgeable raters weighing in.

Ratings + Reviews:

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Index Ratings Only:

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RPGnet Reviews Only:

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Core Game Comments

All User Comments

Rating User Comments
10 / 10Ars MysteriorumAn odd book that is like a universe unto itself. Great for taking Call of Cthulhu in wonderful new directions.
9 / 10NightwalkerSo odd, but so interesting. While this book may seem to show its age, there's gaming gold to be found within its beautiful blue covers. Remember to engender the aspect of being within a dream when using this book, otherwise the entire feel of your game will probably be silly rather than otherworldly.
9 / 10Pierce InverarityShannon is right with his criticisms, but Dreamlands is still an awesome setting. CoC at its most Kadathian. My personal favorite.
8 / 10g026rI'll admit that I have a soft spot for the Dreamlands. It's a place where, if it's so desired, players can buckle their swashes and engage in the sort of high-flying adventure that Call of Cthulhu normally doesn't encourage. That said, it's even less supported than the Gaslight setting; I think it's a rule that settings I'm interested in will promptly be ignored when it comes to adventures and supplements.
7 / 10ShannonAA great resource for Dreamlands play. It's a bit too overview, and I wish that the market would support much more extensive background, but nonetheless this is a good start.
7 / 10SkiorhtOne of the best CoC sourcebooks out there. Too bad the later editions dropped one of the best CoC adventures ever - "The Land of Lost Dreams"
6 / 10FlexiLots of information on the setting and it has an appropriately weird bestiary. An uneasy and ridiculous mixture of fantasy & horror that comes across as being rather silly to read and too daft to play.
6 / 10AdrienneI really enjoyed H. P. Lovecraft's dream cycle and thought the Dreamlands would make a great game setting, and this book does a pretty good job of collecting many of the evocative references in the stories for GMs to use. I can't speak to the rules content (NPC writeups and spells), since I got the book to adapt to another system, but the maps and setting summary--a big part of the page count--were worth my money.
5 / 10JDCorleyThe brilliant source material deserves better.

Core Game Reviews

All RPGnet Reviews

[ Link Reviews ]
Rating User Summary
4 + 4E. N. BouchardThe Complete Dreamlands.
3 + 3Scott ShaferThe Complete Dreamlands.
3 + 3Eric BrochuThe Complete Dreamlands.
4 + 3GrahamThe Complete Dreamlands. A well written and detailed suppliment, but unsupported by the publisher.
4 + 4David ConyersThe Complete Dreamlands. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands was an Arabian Nights style fantasy world which we can visit when we dream. When Chris Williams came on board for the Fourth Edition I felt the supplement came to life.
4 + 4NPC JeremyH.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands. A pretty good overview of the Dreamlands of HPL(and a few others). A fairly small evolution from the last edition, but worth buying if you have an interest in exotic fantasy settings. Probably deserves to be a full RPG itself, rather than a supplement for Call of Cthulhu.
4 + 4Lev LafayetteH.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands. Very good product; beautiful cover art, great content. Book bindings could be a little stronger. Integration with core game rules mostly painless.

All Magazine Reviews

Year Magazine Synopsis
1997Valkyrie #15Complete Dreamlands edition. "There's potential here."
1987Different Worlds #47Boxed, first edition. 3.5 out of 4 stars. "Highly recommended."
1987Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer #79"opens up a vast new area of role-playing potential"
1990Dragon #158"The meat of this book is dedicated to providing high-quality adventures..."

Ratings Explanation

The following components make up a rating:

Ratings. The ratings that users enter into this index are each averaged into the final rating with a weight of between 0 and 4, with weight based on trust algorithms.

Reviews. Each review is averaged into the final rating with a weight of 8. Sometimes reviews can skew high, but they also display fan interest (or disdain) in a product.

Content. The average rating of each content--before its own bayesian weight is inserted--is averaged into the final rating. The weight of a content is equal to its own weight divided by the number of contents, and divided again if it only appears in a fraction of editions.

Bayesian Weight. A rating of 5.00 is inserted into the final rating with a weight of 35. This is an arbitrary weighting of the average rating that keeps things toward the center until they're better rated.