So....based on some thoughts in @Harzerkatze 's thread:
What would you add, mechanically, to a scene (conflict or otherwise) set in the realm of dreams.
Things we know, narratively:
From Emerald Empire:
"Yumeji, the pursuit of supernatural wisdom through dreams, is a fashionable and fast-growing activity among Rokugani of all social classes. Spirits both good and evil, high and low—from hungry ghosts tormenting living folk they blame for their sorry lot to Fortunes announcing great heroes’ destinies to them—have communicated with Rokugani via their dreams since time immemorial. However, the era when a samurai might receive Hachiman’s nod in their sleep, then wake up to find an enchanted bow and arrows beside their bed is long lost now.
Dreams provide a scandalous and thrilling escape from Rokugan’s social conventions and niceties. In Yume-dō, a scholarly samurai and a curious farmer may interact as equals. A beggar may explore a palace in an Emperor’s memory. A general may unburden herself to a child. Even lucid dreamers with a little practice can conceal their true identities and appearances beneath a disguise of intention and will. A mazoku may dream he is a lovely human geisha. A fisherman may dream he is a butterfly. Rumors even spread of spies and saboteurs filching secrets from privileged minds through dream.
The question of whether a given interaction was a mere figment of someone’s imagination or a legitimate transmission from beyond the veil fascinates budding coteries of dreamwalkers, who practice lucid dreaming and divinatory techniques to explore the Path of Dreams more and more deeply. While interest in this field is growing, the most successful practitioners—the Dreamweavers of the Moth Clan’s Kaikoga family— have explored Yume-dō for centuries.
Concerningly, since this pastime has caught on, the veil between the dreamworld and Ningen-dō has begun to fray. Stories of dream-born yōkai once thought apocryphal, such as the long-trunked baku who either torment sleeping souls or fight off their nightmares, have multiplied fast, particularly stories of sinister baku escaping into the waking world to bedevil the innocent. These stories greatly trouble the Kaikoga, who may ultimately be the only ones with the ability to clean up the mess created by careless dabblers."
From Fortune & Winds (previous edition)
There were points of direct access from the Shinomen, The High House of Light (via a hidden lake), The Islands of Spice and Silk (via a shrine to Yume-do), the Forest of Dreamers (near Shiro Iuchi), and Otosan Uchi (via a specific opium den - though how would you know?).
From way of the Shadowlands (previous edition)
You cannot contract Shadowlands Taint in dreams.
From Mask of the Oni
It is possible to send the spirits of the dead to Yume-do instead of them travelling on to Meido. If it can happen, it has probably happened accidentally or at other times, so spirits of the dead might occasionally be encountered.
Mechanically, Yume-do should be a realm where pretty much anything is possible, in many cases whether you like it or not.
Comparing with the Shadowlands effects from Mask of the Oni and Shadowlands:
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There is a special rule for each element to bring in to narrative scenes:
- Air (Tainted Air) - Whenever a character receives strife for any reason, they receive 1 additional strife.
- Earth (Unstable Ground) - PCs must succeed at a TN 2 Survival (Earth) check or suffer 2 fatigue.
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Fire (Freezing Flame) - PCs must succeed at a TN 2 Fitness (Fire) check, or temporarily reduce their endurance and composure by 2. This penalty ends when they are either subjected
to a suitable mundane or supernatural warming effect, or when the scene ends. - Water (Contaminated Water) - Anyone who drinks suffers the Afflicted condition, and if the water contacts any food or drinking water brought from outside the Shadowlands, it immediately contaminates it.
- Void (Spiritual Corruption) - PCs must succed at a TN3 Meditation (Void) check or gain Afflicted
- A Table of opportunities for spending in the environment
- A Table of opportunities for spending when facing tainted opponents
- A Table of opportunities for spending when tainted
Creating an equivalent rule-set feels like you should have a similar set of 'elemental' rules you can pull in as required and a few tables of opportunities. For Yume-do, it should mostly be about reshaping the world and any items in it which aren't people.
There's also a secondary note that players aren't technically...there. Just because you're dreaming doesn't mean you're not in danger - and doesn't necessarily mean you can't be killed - and certainly doesn't mean you can't be hurt, but it should be rather more unlikely that the players will wake up to find consequences like severed limbs and bleeding wounds. Disadvantages of either mental or non-specific physical weakness if lasting consequences are to be suffered make more sense.
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Air - truth is a relative matter in dreams and anything is possible.
- Any character may temporarily add or remove advantages or disadvantages by spending of the appropriate ring equal to the highest vigilance of any observer (including themselves!)
- Any character with at least one technique in any technique category may attempt any technique in that category, following the rules for Importune Invocations (offerings are not required).
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Earth - Injuries in a dream are not 'real'. That does not mean they are not dangerous.
- Any effect which would cause a character to gain a Scar disadvantage causes you to gain a Mental disadvantage associated with the same ring, which persists into the waking world.
- Any character who re-enters the waking world with the lightly wounded condition removes the condition and instead gains the Dazed, Disoriented, Enraged or Exhausted condition, chosen by the character who caused the condition.
- Any character who re-enters the waking world with the severely wounded condition instead gains all of the above conditions.
- The Dying condition functions normally and persists into the waking world.
- Characters cannot gain the Unconscious condition. Any character who would receive the condition awakens. If they are unable to do so (depending on how they entered Yume-do), they instead resolve the critical strike at +10 severity as if they had the Unconscious condition when they received it.
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Fire - A big part of the difference between a lucid dream and a nightmare is your ability to control things
- Whilst a character has the Compromised condition, they may not keep die results containing
- If you cause a character to suffer the Incapacitated condition, you may immediately change the environment of the scene to show one of the character's memories of your choice.
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Water - The landscape of a dream is infinitely mutable
- Whenever a check resolves one or more , resolve an additional which must be used to resolve a General Opportunity (such as adding a terrain feature or a common item in your possession)
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Void - The taint of Jigoku cannot penetrate a soul through its dreams.
- cannot gain Shadowlands Taint disadvantages or the Afflicted condition. If already suffering these conditions their effects apply as normal.
suggestions? thoughts? insults?
Some opportunities might be good. I don't think a Yumeji technique class is really justified, but a Yumeji Ritual might make sense - a character can use it as a downtime activity before entering Yume-do and [????].
Edited by Magnus Grendel