Any use of dreams in your campaigns?

[buddhafrog]

I was listening to icosahedrophilia's actual play 4e D&D podcast (five stars!), and during several of the earlier podcasts, one of the PC's had a recurring dream/nightmare. I believe it was generally meant to help the PC's keep in mind the overall mission and not lose it in the midst of all their immediate adventures....

... but it got me thinking about dreams/nightmares in campaigns. Have you used PC dreams in your campaigns? Any good suggestions/stories? Did you have certain factors trigger the dreams?

I'd like to use dreams but don't have any good ideas of how to use it effectively within the story. I could just give a character a recurring nightmare - and probably one less healing surge on those nights he has the dream - that also reminds the PC about the overall mission. However, I think I'd like to make it slightly more central to the story as well possibly have a mechanic that triggers the nightmares.

One example I will probably use in one of my campaigns: A fighter PC's backstory is that he used to be a personal guard for a wealthy merchant. His merchant's caravan was ambushed and the merchant and most of the PC's fellow guards/friends were killed. Since then, he has a fear of failing and not protecting people he is close to. In game terms, usually when any of his PC group members reaches 0 HP or some similar dangerous situation and/or this PC didn't protect the other PC's, that night I will make the PC have the nightmare and gain less healing surges. The PC tossed and turned most of the night and the next day will have a headache and tired.

(btw, our homebrew rule is: each night rest only equals 1~5 healing surges depending upon where and how safely, deeply the PC's can sleep)

 

[Crothian]

Yes, in the current campaign I had an evil artifact try to take over a PC in her dreams by showing her again and again all her past and futures failures and showing her how the artifact would save her and her friends. Another time in the current campaign a character saw the Green Fire the hits Freeport and was warned of its coming (in the campaign the event hasn't happened yet).

One of the best was last years Apruil Fool's day adventure. One of the players wasn't going to make it so our adventure was his dream without the PCs knowing it. All the places, NPCs, and such were as that character saw them or wished they were. It was quite odd but well done.

 

[Nagol]

I've used dreams in different campaigns different ways.

Prophetic dreams -- one person dreamed of a future invasion (and took no action to alter that fate so it came true).

Dreams as communication from deities -- an adventurer lost his cousin in a corrupted dwarven holding. The adventurer dreamt of the cousin in the grip[ of an evil dwarven deity and struggled to reverse the curse (successfully).

Dreams as a alternate reality -- the group was projected into a dreamscape and had to come to grip with its peculiar rules to get free.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Dreams as communication from deities (or other powerful entities) comes up somewhat frequently in games I run.

 

[airwalkrr]

One of the characters in my PBP d20 Modern game regularly experiences unusual and prophetic dreams. Check out my sig and pay attention to the character named Janice, a child psychic.

 

[buddhafrog]

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of a prophetic dream about a major plot point yet to be experienced -- with an exceptionally difficult encounter. I will make the dream horrendous, but give possible clues as to a weakness of the BBEG. We don't use specific gods in my campaigns (I'm DM'ing elementary and middle school kids - I don't want their parents to get uncomfortable), but the PC's primary mentor, a powerful sorcerer, has been killed. I think the dream will be provided by him, Obi Wan Kenobi-style

 

[weem]

In my (4e) campaign, I have a player who is closely connected to the spirits of his ancestors (he is a Dwarven Warden), and their preferred method of contact is via dreams.

Occasionally, he has moments while he is awake and lucid that they make themselves known, but the connections is much stronger when he dreams (though it does not happen every time he dreams).

 

[jbear]

My campaign world is slowly changing for the worse. The pcs shared the same dream when the first of these major shifts occured. It was very dark and twisted, foreshadowing of the major cogs moving the world at the moment, which now begins to make sense as the pcs near one of the npcs responsable for this change: Strahd Von Zarovich. They have gone back to the notes they took and have begun some very accurate postulations about what might be going on.

When they awoke from this dream in agony each had been marked/scarred by something similar to the spellplague. Each player chose where they had been scarred, which gave them access to a minor power which brings him nearer to a strange dark power that is corroding the world around them.

They have also been affected by a strange Delerium (see Ravenloft: House on Gryphon Hill) as they crossed through a foul, dangerous bog towards their destination. This led to their collapse on the stairs of the town's sanatorium, suffering a terrible fever. When they 'awoke' they had a mortal confrontation with the major villainess and her harpys. 3 massively overpowered vampires who brutally destroyed the party, turning them against each other. Unfortunately the pcs focused on combat and didn't explore the clues placed around the room which would have revealed the Vampires true weaknesses, which could have been used against them in the future. Of course this was a fevered nightmare (although they were not sure if it was or not), and they awoke dripping sweat in the inn they had been transported to after the discovery of their strange scars (and tattoos... but that's another story).

While they dreamed they rampaged through the town babbling like madmen, destroying property (including their own property) as they fought against their imaginary foes. And once awake they are frequently affected again by the Delerium. The have strange visions of clouds of flies, cold rooms, black cats and a strange girl that stares and points. As they near areas the villainess wants them to keep their big noses out of they are affected as well. We've had LOADS of fun with these quirky visions and now no one knows what is imagined and what is real. Sometimes they are meaningful, sometimes misleading, sometimes quirky fullstop. When they woke up from their slaughter they spent at least an hour trying to discover why their room was the only place in the inn that was freezing cold. Every second of it was hugely entertaining and fun. And the villainess is already well loathed and feared. And she has only just begun!

 

[ProtoClone]

Actually the campaign I will be running soon will be a D20 modern version of CoC: Dreamlands. The players will spend 75% of their time in the Dreamlands and the rest outside in the waking world.

Time spent in the Dreamlands will be more of a D&D adventure with regular people thrown into it...sort of like the D&D cartoon of old.

 

[Odhanan]

I've used dreams in different campaigns different ways.

Prophetic dreams -- one person dreamed of a future invasion (and took no action to alter that fate so it came true).

Dreams as communication from deities -- an adventurer lost his cousin in a corrupted dwarven holding. The adventurer dreamt of the cousin in the grip[ of an evil dwarven deity and struggled to reverse the curse (successfully).

Dreams as a alternate reality -- the group was projected into a dreamscape and had to come to grip with its peculiar rules to get free.

This is remarkably similar to the way I use dreams in my campaigns. They can be used for foreshadowing, warning of consequences of some courses of (in)action, communication medium between PCs and NPCs, or PC to PC, or, and it's my favorite option by far, can be used as alternate realities for the PCs to visit and interact with.

Additionally, the idea of hauntings, as seen through play in the Skinsaw Murders (Rise of the Runelords, vol.2, from Paizo Publishing), is a very cool way of having some dream/nightmare-like elements affect the actual exploration of dungeons and locales.