For those who are curious about how to play Dancing In Limbo, we’ll be going over the rules in these weekly posts in the run-up to the start of Wonderland. This first part will go over the basics of how the game is played.

Dancing In Limbo is a tabletop role-playing game run by a Dreamweaver (a DW for short) focussed around two different worlds – the “waking world” and the “dream”. Players take on the role of a character living in the waking world, doing normal things like going to school, working a job or travelling the country.

However, you always need to keep a careful eye on your surroundings. Whilst the Dreamweaver is describing the scenes for you, you might notice some details begin to change. Wasn’t the pizza you ordered a Hawaiian? Why are you sat in the kitchen when before, the Dreamweaver said you’d sat down in the living room? Was your friend always wearing a blue shirt, or was it green before?

If you’re faced with these kinds of questions, it means only one thing: you’ve fallen asleep. When you notice that something isn’t adding up, you need to tell the Dreamweaver that you think you’re dreaming. If you’re right, the false reality will fall away, and you’ll enter the dream proper, where the real game begins…

Here in the dream, you’ll find rooms from your own memories, re-ordered and shuffled into a brand-new, confusing layout. Each “floor” of the dream is made up of locations you’ve visited in the waking world – your house, your place of work, your old school, the local supermarket, and more. In the darkness of the dream, however, they’ve become a haven for monsters.

Facing these monsters and venturing deeper into the dream is the responsibility of dreamers. Using their two most powerful assets – their familiar and the power of dreamcraft – the dreamers will have to face their fear and overcome whatever is waiting for them in the dark.

Some monsters are filled with power, able to slay a dreamer in a single blow. Others thrive on fear, lurking in the shadows and building the terror before they strike. Some fight through their words, breaking a dreamer’s spirit as they bring up long-forgotten traumas, used as psychological weapons. Defeating these monsters requires dreamers to work together, because being killed is a fate worse than death in the dream.

If a monster kills you, your soul is separated from your body… and when your body wakes up, the monster will be in control of it, becoming you in reality, whilst the real you, your soul, remains entrapped within the dream…

Dreamers must avoid this fate at all costs, and next time, we will explore how familiars and dreamcraft can help dreamers turn the tide against these frightening odds.