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Leliel
2008-01-12, 06:08 PM
I have always had the want to have a Psychonauts-esque "Journey through the Mind" ever since I became an aspiring DM. During my lurking on RPG World, one of posters showed off a game he had made (Its called Dreamwalker d20, if you're interested), in which the players fight a race called the Brood-basically, social insects (think ants) that feed on negative emotions through provoking nightmares and other forms of insanity-which gave me the medium I needed for the objective of the adventure. So here's the stitch:

PCs confront a villain who, as a desperate measure, implants mature Brood queens in the characters' psyche. That wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that the villain's group can use the queens to gain a limited control over the PC's feelings-nothing much, just make them lose their will to fight in the middle of a boss battle, make them doubt the fact that BBEG is doing the wrong thing when he's about to blow up the world-and the whole, you know, "nightmare" thing. What's more, since the caste of self-aware (most have a hive mind) Brood can enter the Material Plane, so long as their resident queens exist, the players have to worry about bloodthirsty and evil monsters crawling out their brains. So, the PCs have to play psychic exterminator, going into their dreams and confronting both the Brood infestations and the no-doubt deep set emotional issues that allowed them to gain a foothold in the first place. The Brood only provoke negative emotions, they don't cause them. Soooo...

Is this a good idea? If so, how should I present the nature of their dreams? What forms should the Brood take? Should I consult the ghost of Sigmund Freud?

Couple notes about the Brood:

1) Although the Brood's hive structure (larva, drone, queen, broodking) and basic biology remain the same, their form is personalized to the dreamscape they take root in. For an example from the preview of Dreamwalker, someone with acute acrophobia may have a Brood hive whose larvae have absurdly long legs, drones being cloud creatures, and the queen being an extremely large cloud creature making her nest at the top of a tall building with floors of glass and lots of holes. The queen doesn't even have to be a physical creature: In a dreamscape about the news business-for some reason-the queen may take the form of the legal agreement allowing a rival PR corporation to exist. In any case, she, and by extension the hive, is destructible; in the case of the cloud creature, basic combat is fine, while in the case of the legal agreement, exposing a crippling scandal within the corporation it relates to may force it to dissolve, thus "destroying" the queen.

2) Each dreamscape has a "dream seed", a goal that the dreamer in question tries to reach, and which the Brood try to prevent from being achieved at all costs. This is because the Brood use the frustration and despair from the dreamer not being able to achieve his or her seed as their primary food source, and it being achieved robs them of nourishment, causing them to be greatly weakened. This is why the PCs must confront their own emotional issues as well as the Brood.

Let the inspirational dreaming of the forum commence!

I just hope that there isn't any Brood trolls on it...

EDIT: Just a mild note: The Brood's proper name is Taenia Spiritus. "Brood" however, is much easier to spell, and they're called that throughout the whole preveiw, so that's what I'll be calling them.

Collin152
2008-01-12, 06:19 PM
First of all, I love the concept. Really, it's quite wonderful.


But, with regards to the queen taking a non physical form, I think that rather than making it dissapear, resolving it would cause it to desperatley assume a new form that may or may not align with the fears- therefore, a much weaker physical form. After all, this is a queen here!

axraelshelm
2008-01-12, 06:19 PM
Very interesting and not very hack and slash i applaud. I take it you and your players have very well developed characters so that you can pull on some fraudian magic?
Each character is different so maybe for a rouge the hive is a thieves guild that is robbing the "city" mindscape dry and the rouge has to steel the treasury so that the theives guild collapses. that my two cents for you.

Leliel
2008-01-13, 03:31 PM
First of all, I love the concept. Really, it's quite wonderful.


But, with regards to the queen taking a non physical form, I think that rather than making it dissapear, resolving it would cause it to desperatley assume a new form that may or may not align with the fears- therefore, a much weaker physical form. After all, this is a queen here!

Thanks, though it wasn't my idea, it's just a cool concept I found.

And yes, that idea would give the players a good monster hunt after an RP session, but some people would just like the RP part sans boss battle.