What method was used by the referee to keep the dreams you were exploring "stable" enough for you to try and form/verify coherent conjectures about their natures?
What is *worldbuilding* for?
The idea of "external modification" has come up quite a bit in this thread, but to some extent it's a red herring.
The action declaration I search for a secret door is not a statement of external modification, nor an attempt at external modification. It is an in-character action declaration.
But depending on how setting is established in a particular RPG - eg by prior GM worldbuilding, contrasted with (say) as one possible output of action resolution - then the adjudication of that action declaration may proceed quite differently. In the former case the GM's worldbuilding doesn't just create a "real" world to interact with, but also determines (in advance) some of the outcomes of those interactions.
happyhermit
Adventurer
Nah, it isn't a distraction it is rather central to that feeling I was referring to, for a lot of players. For a lot of players if the world feels too amorphous that feeling is gone, the more it seems like the world is fully formed in a person's mind/notes, etc. the less likely it is to be disrupted.
Yep, that's an action declaration. If it seems like action declarations are impacting the world in any sense other than what a PC attempting those actions would, then it can get in the way of that feeling, if it doesn't then it won't.
Ideally (for that feeling), it does, yeah. That feeling relies on some sort of consistency and understanding of the other world. Just as the written rules of the game can work to provide that sort of framework, so too can the GM or the table, they can even override or add to the system rules to facilitate it.
Sadras
Legend
How did the campaign end? As it sounds that there were many questions left unanswered.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Sure it does, at least in the mind (or in the notes) of whoever thought it up.
The secret door shown on the DM's map that connects rooms 23 and 27 exists in the DM's notes and mind even if the PCs don't find it and thus it never comes up in play.
The set of loaded dice my PC carries around in her backpack exist in my notes (i.e. written on the character sheet) and mind even if I never bring them into play or make anyone else aware I have them.
3e's NPC classes were a not-great but still appreciated attempt to solve a very real believability headache that's been around forever: that of how non-adventuring NPCs can mechanically acquire some skills and hit points and luck during their lives.
Doug McCrae
Legend
That's a good question. Dreams in the Dream Game seem to be more stable than real world dreams, which I think according to the Dream Game's 'pseudoscience' is due to the presence of outsiders such as Externals and oneironauts. The dream must now conform to the perceptions of multiple individuals. The group of Externals we investigated in the campaign appeared to have developed an unusual technique for manipulating dreams and making them more stable by maintaining a persistent and hard to detect intrusion that, within the dreams, appeared to us as a ghostly figure.
In the world of the Dream Game, dreams are also more long-lasting than they are in our world, seeming to have an existence even when they're not being dreamed. When we entered a dream, we'd be entering one of several that that person possesses and, during an intrusion, could move from one to another. Often we would be seeking out the dreamer in order to investigate the way in which they were being manipulated by Externals, or prevent it. I think there was some difference of emphasis and interest between team members on this, my focus was more on investigation.
That said though, learning what was really going on in the Dream Game campaign was extremely challenging to say the least. It was difficult to distinguish between random dream nonsense and External manipulation. The Externals themselves and their human victims and/or allies were incredibly cagey and secretive. And we only ever had access to part of the picture via dreams. But for me that process of discovery was a big part of the game's appeal. The sheer volume of occult knowledge and its weirdness. It was the 90s and that kind of thing was particularly popular back then.
They're still unanswered! The Dream Game campaign is technically on hiatus I believe (I dropped out). I'll probably never know what was really going on, and I quite like that idea.
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Doug McCrae
Legend
Further regarding the Dream Game campaign, another player in the game, Mark, had this to say about it.
He seems to agree with me that the uncovering of hidden knowledge was a big part of the game, but disagrees as to what our approach ought to have been.
He seems to agree with me that the uncovering of hidden knowledge was a big part of the game, but disagrees as to what our approach ought to have been.
Doug McCrae
Legend
I've been reading through the campaign journals and just found a bit which is very relevant to your question.
Mark: Back to mission objectives - I would like to try to determine if there is a source of this sphere cluster's weirdness and deal with it.
Baz: And I want to see everything that's there. It's my turf.
Jaimie: I'd like to map it carefully.
Prof: I don't know if it'll stay 'solid' and real-worldly enough to the extent that it could be mapped, but certainly you could create a map of sorts which indicates all the constituent sphere environments.
Baz: And I want to see everything that's there. It's my turf.
Jaimie: I'd like to map it carefully.
Prof: I don't know if it'll stay 'solid' and real-worldly enough to the extent that it could be mapped, but certainly you could create a map of sorts which indicates all the constituent sphere environments.
We had very D&D-y concerns sometimes! However in some respects the Dream Game was very unlike D&D. It was solidly rooted in real world occult and mystical belief, as opposed to D&D's Appendix N, which coupled with the ridiculous amounts of prep Paul was doing helped to give it much more of a 'real' feeling. The game was very amenable to What's Really Going On theories created by the players, moreso than any other rpg I've ever participated in.
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Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
Woof. I love Legion, but it's so damn weird that I have serious reservations recommending it to anyone. The layers of unreliable narration are so deep that it's like actively accepting that the entertainment is in finding out how much you've been lied to all along. Or not finding out and just wondering. Personally, I like that, and it's done well so far in making the lies meaningful rather than arbitrary, but there's such a huge risk that the endgame will be banal and disappointing I can't, in good conscience, recommend it until I can vouch it goes somewhere worthwhile.
Don't mistake me, I love that FX has the balls to keep running with such a edgy property (and I loved the risks they took with Fargo). And, if it comes up, I'll tell others that I love it while also providing strong cautions that it's very, very weird. I think that it's maybe too make-believe about make-believe, though; that it requires not just suspension of disbelief, but suspension of belief at the same time to be enjoyable. It's like having tea and no tea at the same time and liking that feeling.
