Oneiromancy Primer
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Contents |
Getting Where You're Going
Entering the Dreamscape
While a Changeling can access their personal dreams anywhere, Oneiromancy that moves beyond their own dreamscape must take place while in the Hedge. When a safe space has been secured, the player can make a Meditation roll augmented by their Wyrd and whatever equipment they have available to them. When the appropriate number of successes is reached the dreamer successfully enters lucid dreaming.
If loud noises occur near the sleeper’s body, they may be required to roll Resolve+Composure to resist waking. To awake intentionally is also a Resolve+Composure roll, though it can be contested by another oneiromancer.
How to find your destination dream
Moving between dreams involves navigating the Skein, the ephemeral dream-stuff that connects each sleeping mind, and to travel it you need to have an idea of where you’re going. There are three options to help you get to where you want to be:
- Oneiroscopy: An Autumn Courtier with the appropriate Occult specialty can cast an Oneiroscope. They target an individual and a particular kind of dream (maybe a memory dream they can analyze for insight into a specific topic) and divine the next time a dream appropriate to their needs will occur. Changelings working from an oneiroscope also need no assistance noticing gates between dreams.
- NOTE: An oneiroscope is only possible if the oneiromancer has a name and physical description of the target, or a close personal item to work from.
- Gate-Shaping: An impatient oneiromancer can force a target to have an appropriate dream that will link them to the next dream on their path, via dreamscaping. This disturbs the minds of those whose dreams the changelings move through, leaving nightmares in their wake.
- Guides: Incubi can be hired to take the oneiromancer to their dream of choice, for a price.
No matter the mode of guidance, several dreams may be moved through before the destination dream is reached. The number of gates between the starting dream and the destination is determined by how close the dreamers are, physically and otherwise. There is less space between the dreams of two people sharing a bed, and more between people who are little more than acquaintances.
Dream Intensity
Dreams have one main stat: Intensity. The higher a dream’s Intensity, the more real it feels and the more resistant it is to change; any roll made to change the dream suffers a penalty equal to the Intensity. A dream with low Intensity will be hazier and easier to manipulate, but also easier to destroy. If a character rolls above the dream’s Intensity in successes to change something, the dream breaks. The oneiromancer may immediately spend 1 Willpower to preserve the dream, but this does not prevent it from breaking again in the future. If they choose not to spend the Willpower, they can instead use the Dreamscaping rules to create a new dream, with a new Intensity.
Many oneiromancers choose to hold back when manipulating dreams so as not to break them; as a player, this translates to voluntarily taking a penalty to a roll, at your discretion.
Actions that target the dreamer, such as Oneiromachy, are not subject to Intensity and so cannot break the dream.
Scouring: If the Intensity of the dream is inhibiting the oneiromancer’s progress, they can attempt to lower it. Scouring is a Wits+Empathy+Wyrd-Intensity roll, where each success lowers the Intensity by one. If this lowers the Intensity below 1, the dream ends abruptly and the dreamer wakes. Scouring may be attempted only once during any given dream.
- NOTE: If a dream drops below 1 Intensity, the Oneiromancer may make a Dreamscaping action at the cost of 2 Glamour to create a new one.
Manifesting vs. Remaining Incorporeal
When entering a dream other than their own, an oneiromancer is a background element: they have no form and are not visible to the dreamer. A dream riding roll may be made to give the Changeling a form, but most oneiromancy-based actions do not require a visible presence within the dream, with the exception of Oneiromachy.
- NOTE: Manifesting counts as a change to the dream itself, meaning that if a character manifests they can no longer use the action Learn About the Dreamer for that dream, or find out if a dream was prophetic.
Dream Riding and Dreamscaping
Dream Riding
Dream riding is subtler than most other forms of oneiromancy, and can be used to learn more about or influence the dreamer, among other things. It includes:
- Analyzing the Dream (Wits+Empathy-Intensity) : Through creating small changes to the dream and gauging the response, a Changeling can determine if a dream is a nightmare, a memory dream, a recurring dream, or a wish fulfillment dream.
- Convincing the Dreamer (Wits+Empathy+Wyrd) : One roll represents a whole night of work in which an oneiromancer hides subliminal hooks in a dreamer’s subconscious. For each success they may ‘store’ a die in someone that is activated through particular social cues, giving the oneiromancer that many dice to the Manipulation roll or rolls of their choosing. The hooks remain for a week, and only one set can be stored at a time.
- Learning About the Dreamer (Wits+Empathy+Wyrd, extended) : By watching several nights worth of sleep, a Changeling can determine information about the dreamer. This is an extended roll, at a single roll per night and every five successes reveals one of the following details about the dreamer: their Virtue, Vice, one of their Derangements, Willpower, one of their Merits (Mental or Social only) or one of their Flaws (Mental or Social only). It can also reveal the use of mind or emotion altering powers on the dreamer within the last month.
- Psychotherapy (Wits+Empathy+Wyrd-Intensity) : An oneiromancer with the relevant knowledge (perhaps a skill specialty in Psychotherapy) may attempt to treat a dreamer’s mental or psychological problems from within their dreams. Each night of successful work is the equivalent of a week of regular therapy.
- Searching for Dream-Poison (Wits+Empathy+Wyrd-Intensity) : Searching for the taint of the True Fae is time consuming, each roll equalling a night of work.
Dreamscaping
Dreamscaping is the art of creating dreams from the ground up. To use this on a sleeping individual, they can't already be in a dream: the oneiromancer must either break any current dream by rolling above Intensity, scour the intensity to zero and then spend 2 points of Glamour, or arrive in the dreamer’s mind before they have entered REM sleep (also known as a fallow psyche).
Creating a dream in a fallow psyche requires the use of 1 Glamour and a Wits+Empathy+Wyrd roll, which is opposed by a Wits+Resolve roll from the dreamer. If the oneiromancer wins, the dream begins with an Intensity equal to their successes; if the dreamer wins, a dream begins with an Intensity equal to their successes.
Dreamscapes can be crafted to do any of the following: Healing Sleep, Stress Relief, Sleep Teaching, and the creation of nightmares. Also see Dreamweaving.
Oneiromachy
If the need arises and an oneiromancer has materialized into a dream, they can take part in dream combat. Oneiromachy is traumatic for the dreamer whose dreamscape it takes place in, and they always lose 1 Willpower regardless of the size of the fight.
Oneiromachic attacks inflict points of Willpower damage, instead of Health. In the case of an exceptional success, however, a single point of Bashing damage is also done to the target.
Similarly, oneiromachy involves different stats for Defense and Armor:
- Defense is equal to the highest of the character’s Finesse Traits (Wits, Dexterity or Manipulation)
- Armor is equal to the highest of their Resistance Traits (Resolve, Stamina or Composure)
Attacking
- Personal Attacks : Personal attacks are made with a character’s best Power Trait (Intelligence, Strength, or Presence) + their combat skill of choice (Athletics, Brawl, Firearms or Weaponry, where appropriate) + their Wyrd. The attack itself is a combination of body-memory and connection to the Wyrd; the exact weapon envisioned does not matter.
- Environmental Attacks (Wits+Empathy+Wyrd) : The environment of the dreamscape itself may be used to attack opponents: storms, animals, buildings, narrative elements of the dream- all are fair game. No matter how large or devastating the attack is described to be, it never affects anyone beyond the target that has been declared.
- Stunting : Stunting involves gaining bonus dice through interesting, imaginative, or thematically appropriate narration. It is explained more here, and is subject to ST discretion.
- The Dream Combat Fighting Style and the third stage of Contracts of Dreams can also be used for Oneiromachy.
Cheat Sheet
Entering the Dream: Meditation roll, extended (Composure+Wits+Wyrd, +equipment)
Waking: Resolve+Composure
Resisting Waking: Resolve+Composure
Stopping Another Lucid Dreamer/Oneiromancer From Waking: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd, reflexive, may be Teamworked
Dream Riding
Analyze the Dream: Wits+Empathy-Intensity
Convince the Dreamer: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd
Learn About the Dreamer: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd, extended
Psychotherapy: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd-Intensity
Searching for Dream Poison: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd-Intensity
Dreamscaping: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd (costs 1 or 2 Glamour, depending on circumstances)
Oneiromachy
Damage taken in Willpower, not Health
Defense: Highest of Finesse Traits (Wits, Dexterity or Manipulation)
Armor: Highest of Resistance Traits (Resolve, Stamina or Composure)
Personal Attack: Highest Power Trait (Intelligence, Strength, Presence) + Applicable Combat Skill (Athletics, Brawl, Firearms, Weaponry) + Wyrd
Environmental Attack: Wits+Empathy+Wyrd
Stunting: cool narration that may result in 1-3 bonus dice, or no bonus dice at all; it’s up to the ST
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