A Simple Rule for Dream Combat

[Palanan]

I’m scrambling to prep for tonight’s game session, and I’m planning to have some dream-sequence combat for the PCs.

I’m not sure if there are rules for this, but I’m thinking of running it like a regular combat, except that all damage taken during the dream will be converted to nonlethal damage when the PCs wake.

This is on the fly, but does this seem reasonable?

[Nifft]

If anything, it's too reasonable.

My expectations for dream combat is that it's more ... surreal.

But your version would work perfectly well, and it has this major benefit: "If you die in the dream, you don't wake up... because you're unconscious from all the nonlethal damage."

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Nifft
My expectations for dream combat is that it's more ... surreal.

How so? What would you do to make it more surreal?

I'm very open to ideas here.

.

[noob]

Make dream fights work like how the fights are supposed to work according to people like me on the forums here.
Only T1 spellcasters with 3242344444444444444444444444444 contingent spells and infinity of actions everywhere and infinity of efreets casting wish for more solars.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Nifft
My expectations for dream combat is that it's more ... surreal.

Just to clarify, I'm open to ideas that make dream combat more surreal. I have two hours left until I need to leave for the game, and right now I got nothin'.

Also, should I give XP for a dream encounter? I feel like it shouldn't bring full XP, since there's not the same risk as a real-world fight...but on the other hand, it doesn't seem right to give no XP at all.

[Nifft]

Just to clarify, I'm open to ideas that make dream combat more surreal. I have two hours left until I need to leave for the game, and right now I got nothin'. Nah, most of the dream mechanics fail for one reason or another. Yours are refreshingly sane.


Also, should I give XP for a dream encounter? I feel like it shouldn't bring full XP, since there's not the same risk as a real-world fight...but on the other hand, it doesn't seem right to give no XP at all. If the players spend time on it, then it should give XP -- combat XP, or RP XP, or exploration XP, or something.

[AuraTwilight]

This is my go-to:

https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/02/psychonauts-of-floating-realm.html

[Zaq]

Just to clarify, I'm open to ideas that make dream combat more surreal. I have two hours left until I need to leave for the game, and right now I got nothin'.

Also, should I give XP for a dream encounter? I feel like it shouldn't bring full XP, since there's not the same risk as a real-world fight...but on the other hand, it doesn't seem right to give no XP at all.

XP is about overcoming challenges. Why is this dream-sequence fight happening on camera, taking up table time? I presume it’s important to the game for some reason (if not, keep it the hell off screen!), so the players deserve XP for overcoming the challenge before them.

Presumably there’s a reason they care about winning this fight, right? Something good happens on victory and/or something bad happens on defeat? Doesn’t have to be HP damage or even real immediate danger, but I hope that they’re seeking some kind of information or making a lasting impression on someone or otherwise working towards some kind of goal. That’s a challenge, so it’s worth XP.

[Selion]

It's hard to come up with rules in such a short time.
You could introduce a value of "awareness" which unlocks powers able to change the environment or the physics inside the dream (did you watch Inception?)
For example, every round there is an opposed check with the highest mental ability score for both contendants, who wins adds one point to his "awareness" score.
These points can be spent to produce spell-like effects including telekinesis, hallucinatory terrain, reverse gravity and similar spells.

Illusions should have a probability to become real (10% per spell level?)
Enchantment spells should affect the environment. I expect a fear spell to bring the target in a grim place inhabited by her worst nightmares, while under an hideous laughter spell maybe even trees and rocks would begin to laugh.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Nifft
Nah, most of the dream mechanics fail for one reason or another. Yours are refreshingly sane.

That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about one of my houserules. Thank you. :smalltongue:


Originally Posted by Selion
You could introduce a value of "awareness" which unlocks powers able to change the environment or the physics inside the dream….

I love this. Kicking myself for not thinking of it.

No time to develop this for tonight, but I’ll definitely be implementing this for future sessions. I often “edit” my own dreams as they’re unfolding, so this makes perfect sense to me.

[Florian]

I’m scrambling to prep for tonight’s game session, and I’m planning to have some dream-sequence combat for the PCs.

I’m not sure if there are rules for this, but I’m thinking of running it like a regular combat, except that all damage taken during the dream will be converted to nonlethal damage when the PCs wake.

This is on the fly, but does this seem reasonable?

Have you checked out the Dimension of Dreams and Mindscape sections of Occult Adventures? The ability to use "Impossible Actions" is what makes the whole stuff so interesting and fun to play with.

[DeadMech]

I have notes from a rp I was going to run. Not dnd persay but maybe something will inspire someone.

The set up is a mental hospital. Home for the protagonists, likely a disparate group some self admitted, some there due to run in's with the law. They perhaps aren't even aware of each other to begin as they attend therapy sessions or pass in the cafeteria or other common rooms. But the game opens up on night 1. The various players are asleep and dreaming starting off separately dealing with what appears to be nightmares relating to their own fears and life situations. That is until they start running into one of two of the other patients. Not too unusual one might think.

These being nightmares the environments don't have to make a terribly large amount of sense. To begin with though they will fairly closely mirror something normal. Locations familiar to the people, physic's behaving as expected but there is something dark and unnerving stalking the PC's ready to startle or attack them unexpectedly. These events would deplete their "HP" or in more in game terms increase their agitation. As their reserves run lower the dreamscape becomes more alien, disjointed and increasingly unfriendly. Geography and time will break down. A building they are in might turn out to lack a wall and lead out into a completely unrelated place. After the first shocks is when the PC's start crossing paths most likely. Appearing in common areas of the dreamworld asylum or even appearing in the locations of other character's backgrounds. When they run out of hp they wake up individually. Once the party wipes it's morning and the players go through their daytime activities. And this should happen pretty quickly. The dreamscape is pretty unforgiving and initially seems to just be randomly punishing the players with agitation for interacting with random objects. Like dnd traps for instance. Except the triggers aren't pressure plates or hard to see tripwires, they are things like creepy children's toys, or bugs, or fridges full of spoiled food, or judgemental strangers, things in mirrors that were not otherwise there, ect.

Back in the real world the staff is noticing the PC's are dead tired so in group therapy art classes or the like are where the characters discover they are sharing dreams. I as DM will prod them with the staff into drawing something they remember from their dreams and give opportunity afterwards for them to see each others work. To start with if the players want to pass it off as coincidence that is fine. Nights and days will continue passing in this sort of set up regardless. The players should figure out that something unnatural is happening eventually. Character who were living there for longer periods will know that this is a new occurrence. It doesn't seem to be something that's going to stop on it's own. Once the PC's accept that this is a thing they will start their dreams in groups and find out that they have limited abilities to influence their surroundings or perform unnatural acts to fight off the dangers and monsters. Though using up mp or in the case of game terms I'd name it belief or sanity or something. Like hp loss the more mp they use the more into the dream they become and the more prone they become to attracting it's dangers.

From this point the PC's would come across clues in the dreamscape that relate to the waking world. Details about various patient or staff they wouldn't have known otherwise. Maybe in the dream they see a situation that will occur in the following waking day that they could use to their advantage to steal a keycard while the staff is distracted with dealing with another patient or something. Or maybe rummage through some papers or whatnot. Their adventuring in the waking world would mostly be about trying to gain access to and explore areas of the hospital that are usually inaccessible so that they can get to those places in the dreamscape to find more clues. Ultimately they need to discover what is the source causing these shared dreams and the looming threat to the sanity of the patients in the hospital (Less an issue for the PC's and more for the npc's)

Ultimately is was going to lead to a secret plot involving an Illuminati type secret society and a seriously unstable psychic girl in the facility they are holding who may be the vessel of an eldritch horror or simply inventing it as a coping mechanism for dealing with her own issues.

Overall it was meant to be a pretty dark and dreadful game. So by the time the PC are unnerved enough in the dream that monsters are literally chasing them they would probably end up getting one shot in some ghastly way like being torn in half if they were caught with no effective way of fighting back. It was all meant to be pretty unfair since there were no real consequences to failure. Never ran it because I'm not sure if I really had the group for this sorta thing