What dreams are these?

Tonight I and a friend played my newest gamebook: Shakespeare vs Cthulhu: What Dreams May Come by Jonathan Green.  I read aloud while she made the choices and rolled the dice.

What a fun and weird time.

So, you’re Shakespeare and you’re up late writing the final touches to Love’s Labour’s Won. The Earl of Gloucester, who’s paying for the play, stops in to check on you and share some wine. Then you get sleepy, and wake up into a series of weird dreams loosely inspired by your own plays. Verona, Elsinore, Macbeth’s castle, a seaside where Dagon rises from the sea, and more – as you fight weird creatures, flee from strange scenarios, and collect Stage Directions (keywords) that hopefully will help you at the big ending.

She picked a keep-safe approach to almost everything. When asked if she wants to investigate why Macbeth is acting funny, she said No and left. A man with a bloody sword is running away from the guards – step away, nope! Check out the cemetery on the way to the castle – she thinks not!

As a result, there was very little fighting – just one pair of murderers in the night – and only a little bit of investigation accomplished. She woke up back in Avon, fought off some cultists, and won the big boss fight – in time to see Cthulhu rise from rip in space-time. Her collected knowledge was lower than her collected Madness, so she collapsed into a blubbering heap on the floor as the Great Old One began its rampage across the world unchallenged.

Fun time. Weird time.