ImagiNation — Print Edition

Roleplaying in a world of art and madness.

Mainland Britain has fallen—not to invasion, plague or nuclear war, but to a breakdown in reality itself.

The barriers separating imagination from the physical world have shattered. Dreams, nightmares, obsessions and private fantasies have taken tangible form, transforming Britain into a shifting landscape shaped by the minds of those trapped within it.

The roads, towns, schools and factories remain beneath the transformation.

So do the people.

Some wander through worlds built from their own thoughts. Others remain aware and can influence the strange new reality around them. The most powerful imaginations may overwhelm those nearby, forcing entire areas to conform to one person’s dreams or fears.

Britain is lost.

Lost, but still there.

The Mainland Has Become ImagiNation

The surviving population has withdrawn to the islands around the coast, watching the mainland from across the water.

Northern Ireland has joined with Eire through necessity, while the largest remaining unaffected British population is based on the Isle of Wight. Beyond them lies a multinational blockade intended to contain the phenomenon and prevent it from spreading.

Inside the quarantine zone, imagination has remade the country.

The media, stories and folklore absorbed before the disaster continue to influence what appears. Travellers might encounter childhood creations, local legends, talking animals, ghosts, vampires, dragons, serial killers or other figures drawn from the collective unconscious.

Even familiar places may no longer obey familiar rules.

Gravity, landscape and physical reality can all bend beneath the pressure of human imagination.

Become One of the Scouts

Very few people can enter the mainland without being altered, overwhelmed or absorbed by its mutable reality.

Those who were already considered “broken” in some way may possess the resilience needed to survive there. They can resist the phenomenon—and, in some cases, exert a degree of control over it.

The players take the roles of scouts sent into the lost country.

Their work includes:

• Searching for answers.

• Investigating the nature of the disaster.

• Attempting to rescue people still trapped on the mainland.

• Exploring landscapes reshaped by dreams and nightmares.

• Confronting the products of individual and collective imagination.

• Looking for some means of understanding, controlling or curing what has happened.

Beyond the blockade, monstrous acts are being committed in the name of saving Britain. The scouts must contend not only with the transformed mainland, but with the decisions made by those attempting to contain and exploit it.

The Description System

ImagiNation uses The Description System, originally developed for the Neverwhere fan roleplaying game.

The system places language and description at the centre of play.

Descriptive paragraphs are used to define:

• Characters.

• Powers.

• Challenges.

• Monsters.

• Objects and equipment.

• Other elements of the game world.

The strength and significance of something within the story are reflected by the strength of its description. Mathematics are kept to a minimum, with resolution based upon a single dice roll and simple addition.

The result is a game system built around words, interpretation and creative expression rather than extensive numerical statistics.

A Personal Game About Depression and Creativity

ImagiNation grew from personal experience of depression and explores the relationship between mental illness, creativity and the desire to regain some control over experiences that can otherwise feel overwhelming.

It was intended to help people with invisible illnesses broach difficult subjects and explore them through a medium in which they possess greater agency.

That purpose is reflected directly in the setting.

The characters’ difficulties do not simply mark them as weak or damaged. They are also what allow them to enter a place that most people cannot survive, understand or influence.

The game does not separate its themes from its adventures. Mental illness and imagination are embedded in the nature of the disaster, the player characters and the world they must explore.

A Distinctive Work of Psychological Horror

A contemporary survey of horror roleplaying games praised ImagiNation’s clean and clear text design and singled out its choose-your-own-adventure section as a particularly clever element.

The same review highlighted the central image of dreams and nightmares invading the British Isles, with scouts entering the isolated mainland in search of knowledge and survivors.

ImagiNation can support horror that is personal, surreal and unpredictable, grounded in a recognisable Britain that remains visible beneath the products of countless altered minds.

Cross the Water

The blockade holds.

The refugees wait on the surrounding islands.

Across the water, millions remain trapped inside landscapes built from memory, obsession, art, fear and desire.

Most people who enter will become part of the nightmare.

You may be broken enough to survive it.

Return to Britain. Search for the lost. Enter ImagiNation.

This listing is for the physical print edition of ImagiNation, an A5-format paperback of approximately 126 pages. The game deals directly with depression, mental illness, psychological distress and horror.