What is the Dreamblade Collectable Miniatures Game?

Some people will call Dreamblade a whole new category of game. Some will call it a mixture of many existing categories. What people do agree on is that Dreamblade is a miniatures strategy game.

When designing Dreamblade, we looked at what made each category of game popular and tried to capture those elements. We also looked at what didn’t work in each category and tried to find different solutions to improve those elements.

For example, lots of people like the replayability of card games, because in every game you draw a new hand of cards. Dreamblade utilizes this strength by including a random element in what you can build each turn.

At the same time, a lot of people like miniatures games because the playing pieces are solid and cool. We tried to appeal to this segment of players by making all of the Dreamblade miniatures large and either cool or exotic in some way.

We also tried a new idea for the board by using a five-by-five strategic-level grid rather than the more detailed tactical-level grid used by the Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, and Axis & Allies miniatures games. This means that Dreamblade doesn’t have line-of-sight measuring or counting out of movement.

Additionally, we put everything that you need to play right on the minis. The top of each creature base has all the stats and abilities listed so you can glance at the mini and know what it does. If you need to know more about a special ability, the underside of each mini’s base lists the full ability description of each of its abilities on a sticker. The stickers have the same amount of printing space as a Magic card text box.

We wanted the game to be easy to teach, so the basic concepts are simple and quick to pick up. This allowed us a lot of room for complexity in the actual game play and in the interactions between special abilities. Learning the game is easy; winning the game is where the challenge is.

Finally we wanted to optimize the game for tournament play. This is something we kept in mind at each step of development. The game sets up in no time, and plays out pretty fast.

How big are the miniatures?

They have bases that are the same size as the large creatures (like ogres) in the D&D miniatures game (40mm). The creatures themselves vary in size, but on average they are similar in size to the large ogres, abominations, and dragons of D&D minis.

When does Dreamblade come out -- When is the first tournament?

Dreamblade comes out in August 2006, just before GenCon. GenCon has the first big tournament with $20,000 in prizes. That money doesn’t all go to first place though; we have cash payouts for everyone in the top 64. In fact, one of the organized play goals is to spread the winnings out so that more people, in more different locations, can win.