Dream Park is a 1981 sci-fi/murder mystery novel by American writers Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, set in a futuristicamusement park of the same name. It was nominated for the 1982 Locus Award[1] and later expanded into a series of cyberpunk murder mysteries: The Barsoom Project (1989), The California Voodoo Game (1992), and The Moon Maze Game (2011). The books describe a futuristic form of live action role-playing games (LARPs), although the term was not in use when the original novel was published. The novels inspired many LARP groups, notably the International Fantasy Games Society which is named after a fictional entity in the book.[2]
The Dream Park series is set in a near-future Earth, the first book taking place in March 2051. Technology is used to create realistic games in which participants act out the roles of free-willed protagonists in various stories. These are role-playing games and foreshadowed many aspects of modern live action role-playing games.
Many elements of the Dream Park games will be familiar to players of traditional pen-and-paper role playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. The novels are replete with references to dice rolls, character sheets, and experience points, although there's no mention of anyone playing pen-and-paper (just video games). Most of the classic character classes (fighter, mage, thief, and cleric) are still in use, although "engineer" and "scout" are added in.
The most obvious difference between the games and modern LARP is one of budget and scale. Most Dream Park games use massive, elaborately decorated, climate controlled sets, that cover thousands of acres. In one novel, an entire island is created for the game; in another, a crater on the Moon is domed and heavily developed. Holograms (and later augmented reality glasses) are used for special effects. The blades on sharp weapons can be removed and replaced with holographic edges; this allows participants to engage in safe combat. A combination of computers and gamemasters monitor events, prompt actors playing non-protagonist parts, and resolve simulated actions. Thus, after a player's character has been repeatedly struck with a holographic sword a computer might determine that he has died. The player will be informed that he should pantomime a death and is removed from play.
Although the Dream Park concept assumes future technology, it is still an expensive proposition. Players pay fees to play the games. In addition, the first game played is both broadcast live and recorded (the game areas and player costumes include numerous cameras and other sensors). The creator of the game takes the recorded footage and edits it into a movie (with enhanced post-production effects) and other media for resale. While the resulting movies are heavily influenced by the game's creator, the actions of the players are unscripted. In this way the books anticipate reality television.
The games in the Dream Park series are heavily regulated. One of the regulatory groups is the International Fantasy Games Society or IFGS. The creator of a game has nearly unlimited power in the game; he could arbitrarily change a game to doom a given player's character to death and eject the player from the game. IFGS existed to protect the interests of players and limit abuse by game creators. One group of fantasy based live action role-playing gamers have taken the IFGS name for their rules and organization.
In each of the novels, the plot moves at multiple levels. The reader is given parallel stories involving the game story itself as the player characters learn the scenario, solve various puzzles and engage in simulated battles with enemies; the players and their real-world relationships with each other and the game organizers; events affecting the venue staff; and usually some kind of out-of-game plot or conspiracy that will impact everyone involved. These are high-stakes games with massive publicity and cutting-edge technology, and they are therefore attractive to a variety of criminals.
Plot
Most games are reruns, with team after team of players attempting to complete the pre-packaged adventure. But someone always has to be first – and every player wants to be part of the initial team that beta tests a game. To have the author/programmer themself serve as the game master, to face surprises no one has seen, even the most jaded of elite players compete fiercely for such a spot.
And "South Seas Treasure Hunt" promises to be a doozy. The Game Master, Richard Lopez is one of the best authors in the business, while Chester Henderson (team captain of the players) is a living legend . . .and the two hate each other. Players from around the world have gathered for a chance to play in the biggest grudge match in Gaming history.
And the game opens with a bang. Sent to (simulated) Melanesia to retrieve some sort of World War II-era superweapon, dark magic rips Henderson's team out of the sky, forcing them to fight their way across New Guinea. Demigods, Cargo Cult magicians, and an army of laughing zombies stand between them and victory.
But even as Henderson's team hacks their way through the jungle, the real world threatens the game. A multi-million dollar experimental prototype has been stolen from Dream Park R&D, and a guard murdered. And all the evidence suggests that someone from within the game is responsible.
Caught between the loss of millions from the prototype, and the loss of millions if they stop the game, the higher-ups hit on an unusual solution. Alex Griffin, the head of Dream Park security, will go undercover as a player in the Game. Solve a murder mystery, help a bunch of crazies play dress-up—how hard can it be?
Barsoom Project
The Fimbulwinter Game has a terrible reputation. Set in (simulated) Northern Alaska, it was supposed to explore Inuit mythology, with players heading off a Lovecraftian cult's efforts to plunge the world into a new ice age. Right up until one of the players accidentally shot several people, when a real gun was mixed in with the props.
As a result, no one has played the Fimbulwinter Game in years. But some enterprising individuals want to repackage it as a "fat ripper special", the LARP equivalent of a diet and exercise program. The challenges are re-themed to force the participants to improve their eating habits, and rethink their lifestyle. And so a team of overweight weekend warriors set off to save the world.
Meanwhile, the rest of Dream Park is closed to the public. The company is pitching investors on a mission to Mars, and some of the wealthiest people in the world are there to review the proposal (and have the theme park rides all to themselves).
But the "accident" all those years ago was no accident – the gun was deliberately planted there. An old enemy has returned, lurking among the investors. Someone who looks at the Barsoom Proposal, and sees only new ways to inflict global terror – and ruin Dream Park in the process.
But that is not the only surprise. There is someone among the players who shouldn't be there. Someone whose life was ruined by the original Fimbulwinter Game.
California Voodoo Game
Things have never been better for Dream Park. The Barsoom Project is in full gear, and promises to be the crowning jewel in the company's corporate crown. Further, they're hosting this year's LARP "superbowl", where five competing teams will race each other to discover the secrets of an abandoned "post-apocalyptic" arcology, way out in the desert. The California Voodoo Game promises to be so big, it has actually lured some of the best players in the world out of retirement.
Even better, the arcology is scheduled to be re-used as the center of the Barsoom Project, once California Voodoo ends. Coupled with various tax incentives, the savings promise to be equally astronomical.
Some of the players, though, have more on their mind than just adventuring. One of the most ruthless and manipulative players ever, Bishop is a living legend, and self-proclaimed cheat. Never been caught, though, and bringing him in as one of the five captains ensures even more attention to this year's Super Bowl. But is he here to win? Or something else? Every interview he gives raises more eyebrows.
As the players prowl through the arcology, battling zombies, bargaining with voodoo gods, and befriending giant alien catfish, Alex Griffin's life falls apart. He has never really recovered from the corruption he unearthed during the South Seas and Fimbulwinter Games, and the broken friendships that followed. Worse, Acacia Garcia (his former flame) is captaining one of the Super Bowl teams – and she looks amazing.
Then he gets a call from the police. His current girlfriend (and coworker) has been found murdered in a sleezy love hotel. And a routine review of her computer records indicate that she was downloading files about California Voodoo, mere hours before her death. Back in the game, all of the Super Bowl teams are behaving oddly.
Moon Maze Game
In The Moon Maze Game, gamers travel to the Moon in 2085. Their game is set in the British Empire in the 19th century and takes place on the moon as imagined by H.G. Wells.
One of the gamers is Prince Ali, heir to the ruler of the Republic of Kikaya. A group of mercenaries infiltrates the game dome to kidnap Ali in order to compel his father to step down from his throne. The players, including Ali, are captured but manage to escape. Although the mercenaries have cut off communications between the game dome in Botanica crater and the main Heinlein station, visuals continue to broadcast as the game turns into a real-life pursuit and battle between the gamers and the mercenaries.
Cultural references
The novels Achilles' Choice and Saturn's Race, also by Niven and Barnes, are set in the 2020s and feature a quick reference to Dream Park technologies. The events of another novel, The Descent of Anansi, by the same authors, are referred to in the latter two books of the Dream Park trilogy.
An antecedent to Dream Park is the 1973 movie Westworld, in which vacationers pay to spend time in one of several historical role-playing "worlds" (including one set in the US Old West).
The (real world) game show, The Crystal Maze, makes an appearance in The California Voodoo Game, with two of the "superbowl" teams challenging each other in a futuristic version as a warm-up for the titular Game.
Theme park
In the mid-1990s a real company (Dream Park Corporation) took the Dream Park name to try to realize many of the ideas in the books.[3] Their stated goal was a large theme park with ongoing minor events in which attendees could participate. They would also run the sort of immersive games described in the books. The company made a number of adjustments for limits to existing technology. Instead of holographic weapons, players had foam-rubber weapons. Plans were to attach sensors to the weapons and players. The sensors would beam information about strikes to computers that would track a simulated health for each character. Players would wear headsets, a radio allowing the computers and game masters to inform players of important status information. A head-up display on the headset would display special effects like a dragon's fiery breath or a magical spell.
The complete theme park was never built, though a fantasy dungeon was created and tested. The company eventually went bankrupt in 1997. The new attraction MagiQuest in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina follows a similar combat-less approach using electronically enhanced wands that interact with objects around the attraction.
Greg Costikyan reviewed Dream Park in Ares Magazine #11 and commented that "Dream Park is Niven's best novel in a long time. It shows flair and imagination not evident in, for example, The Magic Goes Away; the multi-level plot is more than intriguing enough to hold the reader's attention."[5]
Review by Brian Smith (1982) in Paperback Inferno, Volume 6, Number 3
Related Research Articles
Arcology, a portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology", is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and ecologically low-impact human habitats.
A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters. The players pursue goals within a fictional setting represented by real-world environments while interacting with each other in character. The outcome of player actions may be mediated by game rules or determined by consensus among players. Event arrangers called gamemasters decide the setting and rules to be used and facilitate play.
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making regarding character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe and considered a classic of science fiction literature. Ringworld tells the story of Louis Wu and his companions on a mission to the Ringworld, an enormous rotating ring, an alien construct in space 186 million miles in diameter. Niven later wrote three sequel novels and then cowrote, with Edward M. Lerner, four prequels and a final sequel; the five latter novels constitute the Fleet of Worlds series. All the novels in the Ringworld series tie into numerous other books set in Known Space. Ringworld won the Nebula Award in 1970, as well as both the Hugo Award and Locus Award in 1971.
The Ringworld science fiction role-playing game was published by Chaosium in 1984, using the Basic Role-Playing system for its rules and Larry Niven's Ringworld novels as a setting.
Traveller is a science fiction role-playing game first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Marc Miller designed Traveller with help from Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. Editions were published for GURPS, d20, and other role-playing game systems. From its origin and in the currently published systems, the game relied upon six-sided dice for random elements. Traveller has been featured in a few novels and at least two video games.
John Carter of Mars is a fictional Virginian soldier who acts as the initial protagonist of the Barsoom stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A veteran of the American Civil War, he is transported to the planet Mars, called Barsoom by its inhabitants, where he becomes a warrior battling various mythological beasts, alien armies and malevolent foes. Created in 1911, the character has appeared in novels and short stories, comic books, television shows and films, including the 2012 feature film John Carter, which marked the 100th anniversary of the character's first appearance.
Steven Barnes is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles.
The Magic Goes Away is a fantasy short story written by Larry Niven in 1976, and later expanded to a novella of the same name which was published in 1978. While these works were not the first in the "Magic Universe" or "Warlock" series, they marked a turning point after the 1973 oil crisis and Niven's subsequent transformation of the series into an allegory for a modern-day energy crisis. The setting was later used as a backdrop for the Golden Road series of novels The Burning City and Burning Tower, co-written with Jerry Pournelle, and the novel The Seascape Tattoo co-written with Steven Barnes.
Live action role-playing games, known as LARPs, are a form of role-playing game in which live players/actors assume roles as specific characters and play out a scenario in-character. Technically, many childhood games may be thought of as simple LARPs, as they often involve the assumption of character roles. However, the scope of this article concerns itself mainly with LARPing in a technical sense: the organized live-action role-playing games whose origins are closely related to the invention of tabletop role-playing games in America in the 1970s.
Oath of Fealty is a 1981 novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, published originally by Phantasia Press, then by Timescape Books, with numerous reprints. Set in the near future, it involves an arcology, a large inhabited structure, called Todos Santos, which rises above a crime-ridden Los Angeles, California, but has little beyond casual contact with the city. The novel popularized the phrase "think of it as evolution in action", which occurs elsewhere in Niven's books. The novel anticipated the building of the Los Angeles subway. It was included in David Pringle's book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels.
Myrskyn aika is a Finnish role-playing game.
Treasure Trap was a live action role-playing game established at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire in April 1982. Various splinter groups broke from the original system, some retaining the Treasure Trap name, and helped to shape the later British LARP scene.
NERO International is a live action role-playing game (LARP) played in the United States. The NERO name originally was an acronym for "New England Role playing Organization", but the game has expanded well beyond its original New England roots and thus simply adopted the acronym as part of the official name.
A live-action game (LAG) is a game where the participants act out their characters' actions.
Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of roleplaying games, which combine indie RPG principles and mechanics with Nordic freeform and American chamber live action role-playing techniques. She has been referred to as the "Dean" of the North American school of structured freeform game design.
Dream Park: The Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game published by R. Talsorian Games in 1992. It was designed by Mike Pondsmith and was based on the 1981 novel Dream Park, which is itself about a live-action role-playing game amusement park. The player characters take on the roles of the players in this holographic game, simultaneously playing both the character and the character's alternate persona.
John Carter, Warlord of Mars is a role-playing game published by Heritage Models, Inc. in 1978.
A list of works by, or about, the American science fiction author Larry Niven.
LitRPG, short for literary role-playing game, is a literary genre combining the conventions of computer RPGs with science-fiction and fantasy novels. The term was introduced in 2013. In LitRPG, game-like elements form an essential part of the story, and visible RPG statistics are a significant part of the reading experience. This distinguishes the genre from novels that tie in with a game, like those set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons; books that are actual games, such as the choose-your-own-path Fighting Fantasy type of publication; or games that are literarily described, like MUDs and interactive fiction. Typically, the main character in a LitRPG novel is consciously interacting with the game or game-like world and attempting to progress within it.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
