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Mad City
Don't Rest Your Head
A Game of Insomnia in the Mad City
You haven't slept for... days? Or is it weeks now? It's hard to remember. You've been so busy with... well, whatever it is that's been keeping you awake.
Then one night you're walking down the block toward your apartment, when you realize there's a new building on your street. A new building, somehow... in between two buildings that used to be side by side... that's impossible, isn't it? You pause to take a closer look. It's a bar. The sign says "Serious Moonlight", and a bright white moon blinks through the phases from new to full and back again, waxing and waning with the buzz of neon.
It's been a stressful week. Or is it month now? It's hard to remember. But you could sure use a drink. So you cross the street and step inside.
The citizens of The City welcome you with open arms. After all, you're one of them now. With all the gifts and curses that come with being Awake in a world of sleepers.
Just be careful. The Nightmares you've been dodging haven't forgotten about you. They're waiting, just around the corner; waiting for you to nod off- and then they'll have you.
They won't wait much longer.
Whatever you do... don't rest your head.
You haven't slept for... days? Or is it weeks now? It's hard to remember. You've been so busy with... well, whatever it is that's been keeping you awake.
Then one night you're walking down the block toward your apartment, when you realize there's a new building on your street. A new building, somehow... in between two buildings that used to be side by side... that's impossible, isn't it? You pause to take a closer look. It's a bar. The sign says "Serious Moonlight", and a bright white moon blinks through the phases from new to full and back again, waxing and waning with the buzz of neon.
It's been a stressful week. Or is it month now? It's hard to remember. But you could sure use a drink. So you cross the street and step inside.
The citizens of The City welcome you with open arms. After all, you're one of them now. With all the gifts and curses that come with being Awake in a world of sleepers.
Just be careful. The Nightmares you've been dodging haven't forgotten about you. They're waiting, just around the corner; waiting for you to nod off- and then they'll have you.
They won't wait much longer.
Whatever you do... don't rest your head.
77 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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58 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 14, 2009
Fred Hick's game is an excellent trip down disturbing dreams lane. In 70+ pages he presents an elegant and innovative rules system tailored for the kind of high-emotion/high-bizarreness stories he wants the game to tell, as well as a fly-by gazetteer of the Mad City, a world of Nightmares and Lost Dreams where the protagonists will live out their forced daymares. The text is approachable and easy to read, well explained and atmospheric, all that a roleplaying game manual should be. I can't wait to play in the Mad City.
May 4, 2020
Horror game about insomniacs that will die if they fall asleep and who live in a twisted, nightmare version of Wonder Land. Also has an interesting resolution mechanic, where risking madness and exhaustion can give you greater chances for success.
May 7, 2010
This is a great RPG. The setting is one that is very interesting, all the PC's are currently insomniacs fighting with the demons that keep them awake at night. Through this something in their head snaps, and eventually realize that the world is not what it seems.
It is a very free formed game that uses dice as last resort and gives the players a major role in the development of the story. The character sheet is essentially a questionnaire asking what is keeping them awake, what's bothering them deeply, what is pretty obvious on the surface and things like that. The players make their own powers and the game get's pretty crazy.
I can see Dark City being run with this rule set. For 15 bucks you can't beat it.
It is a very free formed game that uses dice as last resort and gives the players a major role in the development of the story. The character sheet is essentially a questionnaire asking what is keeping them awake, what's bothering them deeply, what is pretty obvious on the surface and things like that. The players make their own powers and the game get's pretty crazy.
I can see Dark City being run with this rule set. For 15 bucks you can't beat it.
April 27, 2020
Based on reading through the rules a couple times, and then a single one-shot session involving adventures being stuck in a cyberspace, this is a fairly strongly-themed little system that can do a lot of good nightmare-stuff... or almost anything crazy, really.
January 1, 2009
One o0f the best roleplaying games ever. Period.
February 28, 2018
Not just an interesting roleplaying game, this book is well written, and introduces its mechanics and its world clearly.
And even if I never wanted to play the game, I would very interested in its weird, horrible, fascinating world of nightmares.
And even if I never wanted to play the game, I would very interested in its weird, horrible, fascinating world of nightmares.
May 27, 2010
The setting and premise for this game are very interesting. The players are all chronic insomniacs who become "awake" to find a second reality just beneath our own, the "Mad City" who's inhabitants are literally the stuff nightmares are made of or worse, nightmares incarnate.
It's a very visceral setting that draws deeply on the player character's issues and fears. I like that very much.
The game system itself involves three d6 dice pools: discipline, exhaustion, and madness. Challenges involving rolling a combination of the pools. An interesting twist is that if a pool dominates (has a stronger roll), then that pool takes narrative control and affects exactly how the challenge was overcome or failed.
The characters choose talents (aka stunts/feats) powered by a given pool. There is no list of available talents. It's up to the player and GM to think of something fitting.
The mechanics are fairly simple and not covered in any sort of depth to sometimes to the frustration of the reader.
Overall, great setting, but the game mechanics didn't blow me away.
It's a very visceral setting that draws deeply on the player character's issues and fears. I like that very much.
The game system itself involves three d6 dice pools: discipline, exhaustion, and madness. Challenges involving rolling a combination of the pools. An interesting twist is that if a pool dominates (has a stronger roll), then that pool takes narrative control and affects exactly how the challenge was overcome or failed.
The characters choose talents (aka stunts/feats) powered by a given pool. There is no list of available talents. It's up to the player and GM to think of something fitting.
The mechanics are fairly simple and not covered in any sort of depth to sometimes to the frustration of the reader.
Overall, great setting, but the game mechanics didn't blow me away.
August 20, 2011
Don't Rest Your Head is a very strange, minimalist roleplaying game about one or more really messed up characters who have been awake for so long that reality has gone mad around them. As they try to achieve whatever goal drove them to Awaken, various tricks with how the dice work express their madness and exhaustion as they drive themselves on.
It's pretty dark, and strange. I like it, but I'm not sure I'll ever actually play it.
It's pretty dark, and strange. I like it, but I'm not sure I'll ever actually play it.
December 25, 2008
Holy crap do I love this game. Creepy, disturbing, relentless... and those are the heroes. The book includes suggestions for one story, but really this book is the gateway to unlimited stories, each darker and more harrowing than the last. Get some friends together and take a trip into the Mad City... chances are, some of you won't come back.
May 29, 2019
This book is freaky. i would really like to play it but my gaming group does not like Horror
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September 10, 2021From the "Bundle of Nerves" bundle from the Bundle of Holding. (I will say "bundle" as many times as I want, but also I am steadily being driven into madness by skimming all these bundles.)
This was a bundle of horror/scary RPGs, some well known and some less well known (to me). And I'm going to rank of them in this bundle according to how good they are:
(a) Dread -- the rpg most famous for using a Jenga tower as its decision mechanic, top of the list just for that
(b) Don't Rest Your Head (including Don't Lose Your Mind supplement and Don't Read this Book anthology) -- insomniacs unlock magical powers tied to their madness, try to survive the Mad City
(c) Murderous Ghosts (and Northampton State Hospital) -- a one-on-one game where the protagonist tries to escape a haunted and abandoned building
(d) Ocean -- amnesiacs awake in a seabase, have to deal with monsters and try to uncover the mysteries (feels very computer game-y, including finding abandoned clues)
(e) The Demolished Ones (amnesiacs in a nightmarish Victorian city), Spookybeans (a comic goth rpg), Final Girl (a slasher movie emulator), Kingdom of Nothing (you are ghosts?)
This was a bundle of horror/scary RPGs, some well known and some less well known (to me). And I'm going to rank of them in this bundle according to how good they are:
(a) Dread -- the rpg most famous for using a Jenga tower as its decision mechanic, top of the list just for that
(b) Don't Rest Your Head (including Don't Lose Your Mind supplement and Don't Read this Book anthology) -- insomniacs unlock magical powers tied to their madness, try to survive the Mad City
(c) Murderous Ghosts (and Northampton State Hospital) -- a one-on-one game where the protagonist tries to escape a haunted and abandoned building
(d) Ocean -- amnesiacs awake in a seabase, have to deal with monsters and try to uncover the mysteries (feels very computer game-y, including finding abandoned clues)
(e) The Demolished Ones (amnesiacs in a nightmarish Victorian city), Spookybeans (a comic goth rpg), Final Girl (a slasher movie emulator), Kingdom of Nothing (you are ghosts?)
February 25, 2020
This is hands down one of the best near-diceless systems I have seen, if not THE best. As for the atmosphere, if Changeling the Dreaming and Wraith the Oblivion had a child and baptized it in the waters of Ravenloft, this would be it.
At a mere 70 pages, it's a tremendous inspiration and possibly one of the best descriptions of what personal horror should look like.
I cannot wait to give it a go with my gaming group!
At a mere 70 pages, it's a tremendous inspiration and possibly one of the best descriptions of what personal horror should look like.
I cannot wait to give it a go with my gaming group!
December 12, 2017
To be clear, my review of this book was for the short story anthologies only (kindle edition?).
I’ve not tried the game.
I’ve not tried the game.
October 13, 2020
There's a lot of good ideas here presented in a really neat way.
August 31, 2021
Sistema fuera de lo habitual y ambientación extravagante. Un juego fuera de lo común pero no por ello menos entretenido. Recomendado por variar un poco las sesiones de juego.
April 16, 2015
Unsettling, personal, a game that let your raw imagination mix with Alice in Wonderland, Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run, The Matrix, and french extremity cinema with psychodelia. In less than 80 pages. This is a true jewel of RPG, concise, imaginative, dark... And with a very innovative game system that propels narration with character background. Worth twice a read.
April 24, 2017
Finally, read this cover to cover and took notes. I think I'm ready to run this after my group's current Pathfinder campaign is over. It's a simple system with a very imaginative world. I'm really looking forward to running it.
October 31, 2011
Interesting system. I like the way the die mechanic informs the story. Probably not anything I would run for my group though.
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September 12, 2013Excellent...!
July 26, 2016
This book presents a simple yet interesting system alongside a crazy wonderland-ish setting. I can't wait to run this!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews