The books describe a futuristic form of live action role-playing games (LARPs), although the term was not in use when the original novel was published.

The novels inspired many LARP groups, notably the International Fantasy Games Society which is named after a fictional entity in the book.

The novels are replete with references to dice rolls, character sheets, and experience points, although there's no mention of anyone playing pen-and-paper (just video games).

Most Dream Park games use massive, elaborately decorated, climate controlled sets, that cover thousands of acres.

The blades on sharp weapons can be removed and replaced with holographic edges; this allows participants to engage in safe combat.

A combination of computers and gamemasters monitor events, prompt actors playing non-protagonist parts, and resolve simulated actions.

The creator of the game takes the recorded footage and edits it into a movie (with enhanced post-production effects) and other media for resale.

The reader is given parallel stories involving the game story itself as the player characters learn the scenario, solve various puzzles and engage in simulated battles with enemies; the players and their real-world relationships with each other and the game organizers; events affecting the venue staff; and usually some kind of out-of-game plot or conspiracy that will impact everyone involved.

To have the author/programmer themself serve as the game master, to face surprises no one has seen, even the most jaded of elite players compete fiercely for such a spot.

The Game Master, Richard Lopez is one of the best authors in the business, while Chester Henderson (team captain of the players) is a living legend .

Sent to (simulated) Melanesia to retrieve some sort of World War II-era superweapon, dark magic rips Henderson's team out of the sky, forcing them to fight their way across New Guinea.

Set in (simulated) Northern Alaska, it was supposed to explore Inuit mythology, with players heading off a Lovecraftian cult's efforts to plunge the world into a new ice age.

But some enterprising individuals want to repackage it as a "fat ripper special", the LARP equivalent of a diet and exercise program.

The company is pitching investors on a mission to Mars, and some of the wealthiest people in the world are there to review the proposal (and have the theme park rides all to themselves).

Someone who looks at the Barsoom Proposal, and sees only new ways to inflict global terror – and ruin Dream Park in the process.

Further, they're hosting this year's LARP "superbowl", where five competing teams will race each other to discover the secrets of an abandoned "post-apocalyptic" arcology, way out in the desert.

As the players prowl through the arcology, battling zombies, bargaining with voodoo gods, and befriending giant alien catfish, Alex Griffin's life falls apart.

A group of mercenaries infiltrates the game dome to kidnap Ali in order to compel his father to step down from his throne.

The novels Achilles' Choice and Saturn's Race, also by Niven and Barnes, are set in the 2020s and feature a quick reference to Dream Park technologies.

The events of another novel, The Descent of Anansi, by the same authors, are referred to in the latter two books of the Dream Park trilogy.

An antecedent to Dream Park is the 1973 movie Westworld, in which vacationers pay to spend time in one of several historical role-playing "worlds" (including one set in the US Old West).

It shows flair and imagination not evident in, for example, The Magic Goes Away; the multi-level plot is more than intriguing enough to hold the reader's attention.