Dreamscaping

Dreamscaping is far more involved than simply riding a dream. A dream-rider simply experiences the dream as it already exists, making small changes here and there. A dreamscaping oneiromancer, however, is literally creating the dream in its entirety, using his raw Glamour and the power of his Wyrd to shape a dreamscape from the latent stuff of the dreamer's dreamscape. There is a limitation to this ability, however — because it relies on the confluence of the dreamer's own dreamscape and the creative endeavors of the oneiromancer, an oneiropomp cannot actually dreamscape his own sleeping hours. Thus, many motleys assist one another with the creation of dreamscapes meant to bolster and nurture one another.

In order to do this, the dreamer must not be actively in the middle of a dream. An oneiromancer who enters a dreamer's dreamscape before she enters REM sleep may take the opportunity to shape his will into the fallow, unattended dreamscape, setting the stage for his own psychodramas. However, the mind of a dreamer fights such unnatural intrusions. A dreamer's psyche has its own unknowable agenda, and fights any changes to the symbolic, subconscious presentation the psyche has in store for a sleeper.

To dreamscape a fallow psyche, the oneiromancer spends a point of Glamour and makes a Wits + Empathy + Wyrd roll, opposed by the sleeper's Wits + Resolve roll. This contest immediately triggers REM sleep -- if the changeling's roll wins, he shapes the dreamscape into a scenario of his own choosing at an Intensity equal to his net successes. If the dreamer's psyche wins, it begins a dream of an Intensity equal to the net successes on the Wits + Resolve roll.

A somewhat easier way of dreamscaping is to scour a dream already in progress, using dream riding. Once the Intensity of the dream has been reduced to 0, the oneiromancer may immediately craft his own dream, resulting in a swift and strange transition from one dream to the next for the sleeper. Though this is easier to accomplish, it is more demanding in terms of Glamour: the changeling must pay two points of Glamour to weave a dreamscape in the wake of a scoured natural dream, instead of the normal one point.

There are several benefits to creating dreams of whole cloth. The dreaming mind serves a purpose, relieving stress to the psyche, triggering a variety of physiological functions that normally lie dormant, providing incredible access to the subconscious and generally providing something of a "power down" cycle for the machine that is the human body. Dreamscapes may be crafted to do any one of the following. In addition, it is said that some entitlements teach unique forms of dreamscaping that no one else knows or is empowered to use. Any single dreamer can only benefit from a Glamour-crafted dreamscape once per night — thus, an oneiromancer could craft a healing sleep dreamscape and then a stress relief one, but the dreamer would only gain the mechanical benefits of the first dream.

Healing Sleep

By creating a dream that interacts with physiological processes, the oneiromancer may speed the dreamer's healing. With a healing sleep of any Intensity, the time the dreamer spends asleep counts as a full day of rest. Thus, if the sleeper experiences a true day of rest and then a night of healing sleep, he is considered to have gained two days of rest toward the purpose of healing wounds. If the Intensity roll is an exceptional success, the healing sleep counts as two days of rest alone.

Stress Relief

Tapping into the subconscious affirmations of self that some dreams embody, the oneiromancer who knows a dreamer's Vice and Virtue can shape her dreams to assist her recovery from stress -- in game terms, he can shape dreams that allow her to recover Willpower. A stress relief dream allows the dreamer to recover a point of Willpower as though she'd fulfilled a Vice, in addition to that normally gained from dreaming. If the Intensity roll is an exceptional success, the stress relief dream allows the dreamer to recover all her Willpower, as though she'd fulfilled a Virtue.

Sleep Teaching

Much of teaching involves more than simply the flow of information -- most students learn in different ways. These techniques are what allow the students to truly process the information on a subconscious level. An oneiromancer may take advantage of the easy access to the subconscious of a dreamer to augment the learning process, crafting a dream that serves to teach the dreamer. Jokingly referred to as "montage dreams" by some changelings, a single sleep teaching dream acts as a full day of learning on a given topic. If the Intensity roll is an exceptional success, the sleep teaching dream actually grants the dreamer an experience point that can only be spent to increase the given Skill, Merit or Contract being taught. A dreamer may not gain additional such experience points for that Skill or Merit again, until the first experience point has been spent increasing the trait in question.

Per the House Rules: Recipients of Sleep Teaching do not gain an experience point if the oneiromancer rolls an exceptional success for the Intensity of the dream. However, Sleep Teaching Glimpses will still earn the author extra experience at XP Report time

Nightmares

Though most oneiromancers rarely use dreamscaping to create nightmares, many changelings enjoy tormenting their fetches with horrible visions of their inevitable deaths. Dreamscaped nightmares are treated as normal nightmares, in terms of the effects of their Intensity on a dreamer.