Daydream Believer!

[Dirigible]

Hi there;

I'm brainstorming up a camapaign...

My idea outline at the moment is that some BBEG (placeholder name Mabion, in tribute to a dream-master villain a previous GM used on me, not to mention the Nicodemus connections) is attempting to take over the world / elevate himself to godhood by taking over the dreams of mortals. Initially, he knows the PCs are the ones destined to stop him, so he manifests in their dreams and does the whole 'Bwah-ha-ha! You'll never stop me!' bit (as per Villains Union regulations), and plunges them together into a nightmare-world, which serves as the initial adventure. They have to work together, escape, get to know each other etc etc.

A note on the metaphysics of dreams in my world: Individual dreams are like islands of thought floating on a roiling sea of subconscious thoughts and emotions, the collective dreams of the world and all beings added together and divided by imagination. This superdream is a bit like Tel Flibbity An Rhiod from the Wheel of Time, in that it has places and properties of its own, and normal dreamers sometimes fall into it for a time.

I'm thinking that in the beginning, the PCs will only know each other through and only adventure together through the shared dream they are sent to every time they fall asleep (a side effect of Mabion's attack, as one of the PCs has a powerful, innate dreamwalking gift), and have to spend some (waking) time travelling and searching for each other before they actually meet.

In the mean time, Mabion is building/acquiring his Plot Device, a big crystal doohicky that will enable him to broadcast a mind-controlling energy throughout the subconscious dreams of all sentient beings. A new thought occurs as I write; I may make Mabion a fae-lord, planning to use the dreams of mortals to dominate his home, the Shadowlands (a parallel dimension of twisted imagery drawn from the real world, home of the fae).

* Can anyone suggest some good sourcebooks, adventures or (best of all) free materials dealing with dreams?
* Any ideas for what they could encounter in the nightmare-trap?
* Plot twists, developments, death threats?

 

[Piratecat]

If you want to have some fun, try a trick that I managed to get away with once: he appears in the PCs' dreams, but in the guise of another one of his (preferably evil) enemies, and calling himself by that enemy's name. Thus, he sends one group of enemies against the other, with the hope that one of the two groups will get wiped out. And if they don't, and ally instead? You have all the amusement of the PCs allying with someone nasty to beat a larger evil....

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Faeries by Bastion Press is a wealth of information for the Shadowlands and the Fae. it should fit in well with your idea. I'm envious.. I want to play in this.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Curse you with boils and sores on your sensitive regions for reminding me of that demon song! Now, for something helpful.
The Diamond Throne has Dream hunters, nasty canine things that can "sniff out" dreaming people, and the Somnamancer, who can look into peoples dreams, transport themself through them, summon Dream hunters, and other coolness. Malhavoc also has an adventure called (I think) Plague of Dreams, and on Monte Cook's website under The Stuff archives, there's a freebie monster for it. Also, on the WotC boards a while back someone was making up a bunch of Dream monsters, and I think there's one on BLACKDIRGE's Suped-Up Monsters thread.

EDIT: And the WoT D20 book probably has stuff about the Dreamworld.

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Curse you with boils and sores on your sensitive regions for reminding me of that demon song!

/confused look. "Moo?"

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

/confused look. "Moo?"

The evil teenybopper song "daydream believer". The thread title.

 

[Dirigible]

Teenybopper song? It was the Monkees, wasn't it?

... he appears in the PCs' dreams, but in the guise of another one of his (preferably evil) enemies, and calling himself by that enemy's name....

Not bad... if I add in someone, say a Dreamkeeper or custodian of dreams, the PC's research will uncover his association with dreams, and they may just decide he's victimising them, and go clean his clogs. Which of course suits Mabion down to a tee.

 

[RangerWickett]

In my current campaign, a major character is The Mother of Dreams. It's a mild secret in my game that when dragons sleep, their dreams become real and roam around, though they usually die when the dragon wakes up.

Trilla, the Mother of Dreams, was a psionic dragon, driven insane by a demon, but then healed by an angel. This had the unforseen side effect of making the dragon's dreams become empowered, so that they would live on even after she woke up. Most of these dreams are weird concept creatures, like Cacophony, Indomitability, Deception, and Aggression, though there are also simple nightmare creatures too.

The Mother of Dreams hid herself deep underground so that her dreams could not harm people, but alone in the darkness, she was unable to control them. They grew in number, and learned to torment her in her sleep so they could create new dreams with specific powers. And now they're trying to get to the surface.



That's my own campaign. I use Monte Cook's Mindscapes to help model some of the psionic dream powers. If you want something else, though, Asgard magazine issue 6 or 7 had an article on a dreamscape. It was a horribly fan-boy article, written by me, basically creating rules inspired by Sagiro's storyhour on these boards. It might give you some ideas, though. You can download the issues for free, though with the site reorganization, I'm not sure where exactly they'd be.

 

[Desdichado]

Teenybopper song? It was the Monkees, wasn't it?

Yep. And the Monkees were the prototypical "boy band."

 

[Derulbaskul]

Except they genuinely had talent....