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Dreams and Dragons
My campaign is based on dreams. Not mine, and not anyone else's, but dreams in general. I, despite my efforts, suck at updating my wiki here on OP. However I would like to share my ideas with anyone willing to listen. Here are some thoughts and ideas as well as some stats and abilities that I use in my game.
Locations:
Dreamscapes are a realm of exsistance all their own, created by unconsious minds of dreamers. However most people only dream of locations that they know of, with a few skewed or shifted details. This is why lucid dreaming is even an available practice for just about everybody. Very few people dream of places that don't exsist, with visual or literary artists being the most dominant people being able to. (I dream of a place that doesn't exsist. It is a city with grass plains on 1/3 of its borders, and forested mountains on 2/3. This is whats know as a "Static Created Dreamscape." A fictional place that repeats itself in the unconsious mind.) So what that means is the Dreamscaped World as a whole, for everyone on Earth, is only slightly larger than earth itself. Now lets look at the last demographic, those who don't dream. It's been shown that those who don't dream still have the same brain patterns of those who do, which means that the Dreamscape World is probably plagued with zones of nothing. Kind of like in the Neverending Story.
Inhabitants:
When you dream you fill your dreamscape with inhabitants. It's something we do on a primal level. We are built to be social, and we feel frightened when alone. So, in order to ensure peaceful rest dreams are populated to our individual comfort levels. For some, like me, that means sparce population. For others however that could mean hundreds of people. To top that off, most people only have 2-4 definitive characters in a single dream. That could mean a dream where dreamer and 4 defined characters are in a space with hundreds of faceless static background characters. Lets call them "shells". Now lets head back to the "creation dreams". If you create your own Dreamscape, more than likely you create fictional creatures/people/objects as well. (I have a static villian in my dreams called Morphos. His original form is that of a shaggy blue and teal chinese style lion statue with glowing white eyes and a grossly over-comical smile. Like "Aku, Shapeshifting Master of Evil". Also true to his Aku like qualities, he is a shapeshifter. His only tells are the eyes and smile.) These creations stand out and are fantastical in nature, form horrific and obvious to sublime and subtle. We will call these "Ideas" just to have a point of reference
Dreams as a Seperate Reality:
What if after we create this Dreamscape, it never went away, as though it was indeed a seperate reality. One every sleeping person shared in. What's more, what if after we finished our dreams and woke, all the characters we created, both Shells and Ideas, stayed in the Dreamscape and just exsisted there, now free of our minds subtle influences? Most would be terrified. And what's worse is the next dreamer will add to the population, and the next will add, and the next etc. etc. The nothing zones will wipe out alot of the Shells and some of the Ideas, but that is still a startling population boom, with a space that almost never grows!
Super-Static:
If a person dreamt of a Idea for years and years eventually the Idea would gain a consiousness of its own. This would allow it to traverse the whole Dreamscape and even interact with other Ideas from other areas of the Dreamscape, and possibly even appear to other dreamers.
Theology of sleep:
There are plenty of gods of sleep, such as Morpheus, Hypnos, and Phobetor. However they are a startling few compared to the gods that rule over the physical plane. And not only that, but theirs is population that grows by millions daily. Seeing their subjects suffer would lead them to try to rectify the problem.
Breaching the norm with dreams:
Either the gods of sleep or super-static Ideas would eventually discover the conduit to pass from the dreamscape to the physical world. This would start a revolution, and an invasion. A benevolent Idea may start brining weak Ideas barraged by nothing on all sides (A budding artist dreams while in the surrounding neighborhood, a mojority have dreamless rest.) would carry the Idea to this world so that it may live in peace and learn to grow. On the other hand Phobetor, god of nightmares, would use Nightmarish Ideas(Such as my own Morphos) to launch a war against an unprepared and outnumbered world of mortals.
I have more to say on the above subjects, but it's difficult to describe without appearing to repeat myself. So lets look to the practical use of Dreams in todays D&D.
Locations:
Dreamscapes are a realm of exsistance all their own, created by unconsious minds of dreamers. However most people only dream of locations that they know of, with a few skewed or shifted details. This is why lucid dreaming is even an available practice for just about everybody. Very few people dream of places that don't exsist, with visual or literary artists being the most dominant people being able to. (I dream of a place that doesn't exsist. It is a city with grass plains on 1/3 of its borders, and forested mountains on 2/3. This is whats know as a "Static Created Dreamscape." A fictional place that repeats itself in the unconsious mind.) So what that means is the Dreamscaped World as a whole, for everyone on Earth, is only slightly larger than earth itself. Now lets look at the last demographic, those who don't dream. It's been shown that those who don't dream still have the same brain patterns of those who do, which means that the Dreamscape World is probably plagued with zones of nothing. Kind of like in the Neverending Story.
Inhabitants:
When you dream you fill your dreamscape with inhabitants. It's something we do on a primal level. We are built to be social, and we feel frightened when alone. So, in order to ensure peaceful rest dreams are populated to our individual comfort levels. For some, like me, that means sparce population. For others however that could mean hundreds of people. To top that off, most people only have 2-4 definitive characters in a single dream. That could mean a dream where dreamer and 4 defined characters are in a space with hundreds of faceless static background characters. Lets call them "shells". Now lets head back to the "creation dreams". If you create your own Dreamscape, more than likely you create fictional creatures/people/objects as well. (I have a static villian in my dreams called Morphos. His original form is that of a shaggy blue and teal chinese style lion statue with glowing white eyes and a grossly over-comical smile. Like "Aku, Shapeshifting Master of Evil". Also true to his Aku like qualities, he is a shapeshifter. His only tells are the eyes and smile.) These creations stand out and are fantastical in nature, form horrific and obvious to sublime and subtle. We will call these "Ideas" just to have a point of reference
Dreams as a Seperate Reality:
What if after we create this Dreamscape, it never went away, as though it was indeed a seperate reality. One every sleeping person shared in. What's more, what if after we finished our dreams and woke, all the characters we created, both Shells and Ideas, stayed in the Dreamscape and just exsisted there, now free of our minds subtle influences? Most would be terrified. And what's worse is the next dreamer will add to the population, and the next will add, and the next etc. etc. The nothing zones will wipe out alot of the Shells and some of the Ideas, but that is still a startling population boom, with a space that almost never grows!
Super-Static:
If a person dreamt of a Idea for years and years eventually the Idea would gain a consiousness of its own. This would allow it to traverse the whole Dreamscape and even interact with other Ideas from other areas of the Dreamscape, and possibly even appear to other dreamers.
Theology of sleep:
There are plenty of gods of sleep, such as Morpheus, Hypnos, and Phobetor. However they are a startling few compared to the gods that rule over the physical plane. And not only that, but theirs is population that grows by millions daily. Seeing their subjects suffer would lead them to try to rectify the problem.
Breaching the norm with dreams:
Either the gods of sleep or super-static Ideas would eventually discover the conduit to pass from the dreamscape to the physical world. This would start a revolution, and an invasion. A benevolent Idea may start brining weak Ideas barraged by nothing on all sides (A budding artist dreams while in the surrounding neighborhood, a mojority have dreamless rest.) would carry the Idea to this world so that it may live in peace and learn to grow. On the other hand Phobetor, god of nightmares, would use Nightmarish Ideas(Such as my own Morphos) to launch a war against an unprepared and outnumbered world of mortals.
I have more to say on the above subjects, but it's difficult to describe without appearing to repeat myself. So lets look to the practical use of Dreams in todays D&D.
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Comments
On a medium scale you could use dreams to launch an adventure, Inception-esqe. An old weak necromancer could be using dreams to manipulate people to bring him the ingredients for a powerfull spell, or night terrors to terrorize the surrounding villagers to madness. Using clerics of Hypnos (see cleric domains Dreams and Nightmares) or spells (see Sleeping Spells) to confront, chase, or even defeat the villain. This could happen on both the Dreamscaped World and the Material Plane, with defeats in the Dreamscaped World imposing penalties on the adventurers upon awakening. After a few defeats in a row a fatigued adventurer or even a party could begin suffering from paranoia, halucinations, hysteria, or worse. On the other hand a successful party could bring others back from the brink of madness by rescuing them from their own dreams.
On a grand scale you could make the Dreamscaped World start to break into the Material Plane. This would be truly frightening in any kind of aspect, to any kind of race. Any Idea or Dreamscape would have a disturbing feeling of un-realness about them, while still being vaguely familliar. Low intelligence creatures would start have mental breakdowns, siezures, or even develope tumors as the brain tried to make sense of how the unreal is real. Creatures of average intelligence would daze out or ignore the Idea or Dreamscape in an attempt to save prevent extreme mental harm. Creatures with high intelligence would be able to react in only slightly productive ways as they begin to call their sanity into question. Something else to consider is what effect it would have on the landscape. An Idea would even unintentionally impose its own reality upon what surrounds it (see Dream Aura power). A Dreamscaped land would shift continuously, even if only slightly. This would wreak havok on those trying to navagate it without some kind of assistance (see Dreamstride).
These are just some ideas on how dreams can be used in a game, whether they are your whole campagn, a(n?) unique encounter, or just something to add some flair to your game in progress.
Abilities:
Abilities can be affected by sleep and are subject to change in the Dreamscape.
Sleep depravation causes fatigue. On the first day of fatigue the subject takes -2 on all ability scores. Each day after the first of sleep depravation Int, Wis, Cha drop by 2 as the subject becomes scatterbrained, distracted, and irratable. Str, Dex, Con all drop by 1 as muscles become sore and stiff.
Healthy sleep leaves you well rested. A well rested subject gets a +1 to all ability modifiers. A well rested mind is more alert, faster, and more jovial. A well rested body is invigorated, relaxed, and ready for use. Heathy sleep bonuses do not stack, however after the first day the subject needs -1 hour of sleep to be well rested. This may not go under 2 hours of restful sleep.
In a Dream a dreamer is stronger and heartier, but is unable to focus too much. Strength and Constitution get +4 in dreams but Int and Wis are reduced by 2. A good night dreaming counts as Healthy sleep
In Night terrors what is happening and the environment they happen in seem hyper real. A dreamers senses are hightenend , but his is made to feel weak and inept. Strength and Dexterity get -4. Skills such as Spot, Listen, Perception, etc. however get a +8.
Ill finish this tomorrow, I'm tired.