Somnian Stalkers has you take on the role of an operative, whose job is to enter the dreams of others in order to perform actions that help or harm others by inserting, extracting, or destroying information within the dream in order to affect the dreamer in subtle, but profound, ways.
Potential: The game offers a lot of potential both in the concepts being presented and the way that players can affect the dreams of others. The nature of missions can vary from interrogating figures within the dream, assassinating characters found within the dream to alter aspect of the dreamer, or locating an object within the dream to discover its hidden meaning, just to name a few. The concept of entering someone's dream and being either a defender or invader of the subconscious of others is a concept that, while not entirely unique on its own, offers a wealth of possibilities that deserve to be explored fully at a later date.
Mechanics: The mechanics for affecting the dreams of others is simple, straightforward, and about as profound and interesting to utilize in play as they are in concept. Character creation involves you having to answer a brief questionnaire, where the answer to each question not only grants you a +1 to an action/humor, but also helps give insight into who your character is before they delve into the dreams of others. Rolling involves rolling 3d6 and adding one action and one humor of your choice, where the combination thereof can have many different effects depending on the action that you're using and the aspect that you're altering based on the humor being used. The way that damage affects how many dice you roll/keep is a nice touch that cuts down on the amount of math required to play, while also selling the idea that while your physical form isn't being harmed, the dream is still affecting you in ways that can affect your overall performance. The way that one can theoretically cause distortions within the dream world that can do anything from generating the operator's deepest fears to seeing the visage of someone your character killed appearing throughout the dream. While the groundwork for many possible interactions are here, it still feels as though the book is missing some aspects of how its rules are supposed to work, specifically in how one who wishes to run the game would generate a dream or hostile entities for players to interact with, destroy, or alter during the course of a session.
Presentation: The Presentation on display here is pretty top notch. The white text is easy to read and contrasts sharply against the purple background and also helps to evoke a quiet night. The font used for this project also evokes a feeling of mystery, with how some of the text used in the headers are wavy like thin trails of smoke, while still being clear enough to read at a casual glance.
Theme: The game's theme is an ever-present concept that shapes everything about the game, similarly to how a character's actions and humors help shape the ways that an operative can interact with a dream. The concept of using the four humors as a means of resolving actions within the dream world is something that I haven't seen done very often, and the actions that you can use to alter a dream also grants a wealth of possibilities in play, especially with how open-ended the game presents itself.
Overall: Somnian Stalkers is an excellent game that really does evoke the profound, distinct, mysterious, and sometimes terrifying aspects of dreams and how one would attempt to alter one to either help or hinder a target.