Diedream is a bizarre experiment of a game by Alfred Valley. At two pages long, it aims to provide a memory-based roleplaying system for when you’re lying in bed, trying to sleep.
Alfred Valley is a name I’ve seen pop up numerous times for a variety of bizarre things whether that’s tarot readings with synth machines or bizarre conceptual table-top RPGs.
Alfred Valley recently ran the Bluesky event VALLEY100, featuring 100 TTRPG creators, all given characters and tasked with escaping the Baron’s Castle. It lasted five rounds with only three surviving victors. Needless to say, Alfred Valley’s been a busy individual.
“Taking off my strap heels by the poolside, I take a deep breath and dive in. The water offers no resistance as I swim down into the dark. Long rigid spindles begin to emerge.“
“I weave between them toward a clearing where a scaled curved surface awaits. As I come to tread water, the leathery material parts, revealing a leviathan eye that stares back.”
“Reaching out, my hand touches the eye and the jelly consistency of its pupil. I plunge my hand in, followed by the next, and with a moment to steel myself, I slither through into the darkness on the other side.“
“Some of the creature clings on, sticking to my body as I pass. I look at my hands in the dark and see the flesh stretch out as I try to part them. What’s left slithers deeper into the dark.”
Diedream is another game jam submission, this time for the One-Page RPG Jam back in 2023. I didn’t realize this until writing this review, and I am quickly discovering a lot of indie tabletop RPGs tend to be jam submissions. It’s a good tactic — free marketing, some donate to charity, and you get to network with other creators.
I don’t remember all the details of how I found out about Diedream, whether it was through Alfred Valley’s Bluesky or by some other means. Perhaps it’s fitting that this game tied closely to dreams and figments of imagination appeared in my grasp with no memory of how it got there. Like when you mistakenly remember a dream as a memory of reality. Maybe I’ve been too busy.
Design & Art Direction in Diedream
In my You’re Elf review from last month, I spoke about the design style I’d noted as “Digital Nightmare”. Alfred Valley’s work, while not exactly fitting that definition, does have a lot of visual similarities with You’re Elf in particular. Gritty imagery, monochromatic palette, blackletter type, and use of digital disturbance and effects. It also holds a strong surreal element in how images are laid out.
While I developed my recent solo table-top RPG YEARNING, I’d been on a heavy binge of indie video games set in caves, my notable favorite being Technomancy Studio’s Cave Crawler.
The visual direction in this game, the low res, the scan lines, and the pseudo-monochromatic colors tickled my fancy, and seeing the thumbnail of Diedream immediately reminded me of this. Despite Diedream having nothing inherently to do with Cave Crawler or caves at all, I don’t think I would have given it a try had those stars not aligned.
The colours in the Diedream pdf are well chosen, they provide a good contrast and the typefaces are legible. The majority is easy to read except the diagram on the second page showing Harm.
With the lines and the small text, it’s easy to miss this information. I know I did the first time I read the pdf, and the time I looked over the pdf while writing this very paragraph. If the text had just been a little bit bigger to stand out against the graphic, or the distortion turned down a lot, then it would be perfect.
Gameplay & Mechanics in Diedream
Diedream needs to be simple. It is designed to be played while you lay in bed falling asleep. Therefore you have to hold the rules in your head and not refer to your device, and I doubt sleeping with an A4 piece of paper beside you (or reading it in the dark) is comfortable.
Despite the name, you don’t need any dice (that would also be incredibly uncomfortable). All you do is grab the first two numbers you can think of and add them together, and continue adding until you end up with a single-digit number that can give you an answer via the simple oracle.
The oracle doubles both as a yes/no and an element table. The player can take five harm, counted on each finger, and that’s all the rules you need. You don’t even need a tabletop to play!
For example, say I want to smash my war hammer against a crystal golem. The first numbers that come to my mind are 46 and 39. I then add numbers together until I get a single digit.
-> 46+39=85,
-> 8+5= 13,
-> 1+3 = 4.
A 4 is a ‘No, But,’ so I rule that my war hammer misses its mark, but the momentum swings me out of the way of the golem’s next strike.
The biggest issue I had with this game wasn’t the rules, it was my ability to keep a steady train of thought. If you’re the scatterbrained type this may not be the game for you, but if you’re a streamlined daydreamer, I’d say give it a shot, especially if you don’t have time in your day to play a full tabletop game.
For the TTRPG creators out there, Diedream is also accepting third-party modules, with Alfred Valley including an InDesign Template and Diedream logo for you to use. I’ve added the idea to my junk drawer of “Things I Wish to Do If Life Would Stop Life-ing For a Minute.”
Conclusion
“The room was square and empty. Glaringly bright walls hurt the eyes. My heels click against the cold floor as I step inside. A clatter behind me as a faux potted plant clatters to the ground.
A thump as a book on sailing stories falls nearby, crumpling its pages on the floor. More items fall. A hobby knife, a USB drive, a dozen more books. I pick the sailing one up and glimpse the wall beside me. A mirror now hangs on the formerly blank wall.”
“I see my up-done hair, simple black dress, a face of make-up and realise that I am not me. My reflection stares, frozen as I walk up to the mirror and punch it. Glass shatters across the empty floor. Blood seeps down my fist. The woman on the other side walks out of the door behind her.”
In light of the past month of work and, not much time for gaming for gaming’s sake, Diedream’s been useful as a quick and easy alternative to scratch the itch. Too tired to continue playing? Simply roll over and go to sleep.
It doesn’t take a lot to get started, so I do recommend giving the Wild of Eye module a shot and experiencing it for yourself.
- Playtime: 15 minutes to 40 minutes max.
- This Game is: Quick, Experimental and Unique
- Final Rating: Two Non-Identical Reyes’ (Reyesi? Reyeses?)
More from Alfred Valley
- Pick up a PWYW copy of Diedream
- Pick Up a PWYW copy of Wild of Eye
- Follow Alfred Valley on Bluesky
- Follow Alfred Valley on YouTube
- Haus of Valley Website for Physical Copies
About the Author
(It/They/Him)
Independent Game and Graphic Designer based in Australia.
I make physical tabletop games, primarily roleplaying, but I haven’t shied away from card games in the past.
My main focus now is solo games, both playing, creating, and reviewing.