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You know how the movie studios will often have a movie called by a "working title" while its under development? Well, that is what has inadvertently happened with Dream Palace. From now on, "Dream Palace" will now be titled "Silver Screen Dreams."

Originally, I had intended for the title to refer to the large movie palaces that used to dot the landscape. Peoria had quite a number of them. There are only two left now. I wanted to honor those old buildings downtown that used to bring me so much joy.

As I worked on the game, it came to me that very few people would get the reference since it is such an older term. In fact, it would be more likely to be mistaken for a fantasy game. So, out of sense of sheer marketing, I have renamed it. I am quite happy with the new name and the new logo. I hope it appeals to you as well.

ALL HAIL "SILVER SCREEN DREAMS!"

(The crowd goes wild!)

This came up unexpectedly today. I have been asked to be a guest designer in a chat discussion at RPGbomb.com! You can see how surprised I am. The discussion will take place on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 9 PM Eastern Time, 8 PM Central.

I plan on chatting about Dream Palace, of course, and my plans for it. This is a good time to talk about it since the Second Beta of Dream Palace is almost complete. I will be happy to feild any questions about SOL: The Omniversal Roleplaying System or The Outsider Chronicles.

I would certainly enjoy meeting those of you that visit the site and take in your thoughts.

I am very pleased to announce that the first Dream Palace Beta has been uploaded to the Dream Palace Yahoo Group for the perusal of those who are interested. I have also included a file for the forms and some of the cards that will be used in play.

Feedback on the group is strongly encouraged. If I have a dog of a game on my hands, I want to know it. The game is playable, but it is still extremely rough. I am still making changes to the rules in order to improve play.

If you would be so kind to take a look to the right side of your screen, you will see there is a Poll up.

I need your help. One of the plans I have for Dream Palace is to have a number of Genre Books written that would cover the conventions and histories of popular Movie Genres. They would be mostly history and discussion, but they would also have helpful tweaks to the base Dream Palace rules to help simulate the feel of these movies.

What I would like to know is what genre should the first book be? You'll need to register with the site in order to vote, but this is your chance to influence a game company to go in the direction you want it to!

I'm a bit late with this, but I promised to keep everyone in the loop.

Ralph Mazza should be at Dreamation now with the Demo version of Dream Palace that I whipped together for him. With any luck, he didn't leave it at home.

The last playtest went well. We decided to start fresh with a new Movie instead of continuing "The Dog from Hell" or "Another Brick in the Wall." The former was a Romantic Comedy involving an Uptight New York Lawyer and a Free-Spirited Dog Walker. The latter was a testosterone-soaked Action Blockbuster set during the Cold War.

“Another Brick in the Wall” Was the first playtest we had where we introduced the Played By concept into the game. Played By doesn't affect game play directly, but it does add a fun element where you can cast any actor or actress into a role. In this Movie, we cast Will Smith as the Young Spy and Bruce Willis as the Experienced Spy. Arnold Schwarzenegger played the Sadistic Head of the Secret Police and Nick Nolte was Arnold's partner in crime as the Turncoat Spy. Woody Allen played the Defector

Woody Allen died at the beginning of the Movie. Poor Woody.

Imagining a known actor in a part helped considerably with the visualizing the story and upped the fun factor as we went into many bad impressions of the actors.