Nightmares as a source of power?

[Psylion]

I mostly build campaigns for D&D or Pathfinder games but I can crutch on the material such as monsters or loot to help me along with my story. So I'm kind of at a loss when it comes to building a forum roleplay. I'm also a bit rusty when it comes to building roleplays so any help would be accepted greatly lol.


Now on to my idea. I've been reading this series of comics (I think it' a manwha, but not too certain) called Dreamland. In it we follow the story of a group of college students and their adventures in the world of dreams. Like all people they have a phobia or fear of something. In Dreamland they experience nightmares and once they overcome their nightmares they become aware that they are dreaming and even gain powers in line with their nightmare. For example the main protagonist, Terrance, has a fear of fire. They explain it as a traumatic experience for him as a child. Anyways he overcomes his fear in his nightmare. The next time he falls asleep he has full control over what he does in his dreams and even learns how to control his new found pyrokinesis.


In essence, what I want to do is recreate that same idea. The idea that your nightmares grant a source of power once you overcome them and you gain a sort of awareness while you dream. Following suit with this concept I thought of a great power struggle between the dreamers known as Nightmare Lords. They aren't as scary as they sound trust me. They are just dreamers who are deemed the strongest within a group of dreamers with similar phobias. Commonly speaking, arachnophobia would have a nightmare lord for example along with acrophobia and other fears such as a fear of thunder and lightning or darkness. The power struggle is a territory war among all the nightmare lords. I haven't figured out a lot of things such as:

1. How many nightmare lords should be present for the current war?
   
2. How to handle combat situations?
   
3. How to better explain the story?
   
4. Criteria for powers
   
5. World building
   

These are the five major points that I want to touch base and would need the most help with. Things such as character building and the like somewhat go hand in hand with one or more of these core issues. Namely numbers 1, 2, and 4. That's all I have for now. I'd love to hear any feedback be it good or bad. Criticism is the fuel of a writer right? Lol.

 

[White Masquerade]

( ) Oh my..are you asking for help in building a world...? Omg. Yes! I do! (^.^) I am so ready. Let's do this. (:3)


Number one

1. Kay, so I'll be honest. I stalked your profile. Now from what I've gleaned, it might be easier for you to start off doing 1 Nightmare Lord. To kee things simple you know? I also say this because I whole-heartedly believe in Rps that end. Not Rps that have an end, but actually end. So in your case, one Lord instead of four would be good.


If your Rpers end up liking the challenge of beating that one Lord, then feel free to make a part two using another one. It's akin to breaking up one large thing into small manageable pieces. Ever wonder why stories have arcs? Well, that is the reason why. Clear distinctions help move the story along in a neat and organized way.


^


If someone doesn't like one part, no prob, in one page that plot will be over, and maybe they like a little better will begin.


Number Two

2. Lol. I hate this question. Because the answer is dice, and I hate dice. I wish Dice would buurrrnnn (} ) There..is...an alternative system I thought up that uses tokes, but because of it, the RP will be turn-based. Once I gather the details together, I'll make a post and tag you in it. If you like the system you can go ahead and tweak it. Maybe you see something I don't *shrugs*


Number Three

3. You'll have the painstaking task of explaining why these people are even in dreams. Why are they fighting these Nightmare Lords? Ya need some background. The easiest option would be to say it's a video game LOL. Like this Dream Game is popular because it taps into people's heads and activates while they dream. So if this is the case, you don't even need to explain why dreamers are fighting these Nightmare Lords.


Player vs. Player competition is all you have to say. If you want more elaborate lore, just let me know and we can brainstorm.


Number Four

4. This ties in with point number two. The criteria is dependent on how you want combat to go. Depending on the system, you may have to make some powers naturally stronger than others, especially if you're using dice. Though using dice will eliminate most of the casual portion of your audience. It's something to think about as you do this.


Number Five

5. Dreamworld~ For this one. Close your eyes and feel it. What do you envision? Look up pictures that make sense and use them as inspiration. When I close my eyes, here's what I see:

Pick out certain parts from the picture and give them your own special names. The Whistling Mountains, Meadow of Broken Dreams, Soul River, Dark Crevasse, etc. It will all come together. Believe it.

 

[Psylion]

One nightmare lord would be a good idea. It will allow me to plot build over the course of the RP. Working from one point of view instead of four is easier to deal with. I'll have to consider what phobia to use for this one nightmare lord. Fire, thunder and lightning, or maybe darkness? I've so many ideas for the nightmare lords I'm not sure which one to go with first. Common fears and phobias would be best to build an army of dreamers. But the more rarer the fear, the more research I'd have to do.


I'd love to see what you have in mind for your alternative for combat. I'm used to free form combat but the issue with that lies within the players themselves. not saying some people aren't fair in their combat scenarios, just that it's hard to moderate from time to time.


I can work with the concept of a video game. PvP would make players fighting each other seamless. Especially if there is a nightmare title on the line. Or perhaps even make the Nightmare Lord the BBEG for the PvE? Ugh options! Let's brainstorm more on that. I like it better than what I had planned on people just naturally entering the dream state.


I've got an idea for how to handle the powers, it's more a concern on the variants of said powers. Because a lot of the powers are going to be based on fears there will obviously be similar powers. Let's take pyrokinesis for example. The basic idea is the conjuration and manipulation of fire, but there are many variants of pyrokinesis. Pyrokinetic constructs, pin point combustion, full body flame immersion, etc. Instead of everybody having the same power, we each have a variant on a core power. My only concern is that most people probably won't take the time to figure out something as minute as that. That's the only issue I have really.

 

[White Masquerade]

Gotcha. Okay, so what are you looking to do next?

 

[Psylion]

Well I've got to rewrite the story so that it fits with a video game theme better. A few minor tweaks here or there nothing major. Aside from that, I need to build the character profile format. The only issue again lies with how to handle the combat. If I need to handle stats to work more with the video game aspect then I'll have decide what stats to implement. The world picture you have up above is a good start. I can work in the various location names. Hmm, I can't think of anything else to point out that I'll need to work on at this time. Can you think of anything?

 

[White Masquerade]

Haha. Not at all. The main thing really is the dreaded combat issue. Once that's solved, everything else will fall in line. What I started on the alternative is not long; I'll tag you in a bit with it.

 

[CloudyBlueDay]

I am actually doing a roleplay right now that's slightly similar to this. The characters are in a dreamworld, which I call in the roleplay, the Dreamscape. I am honestly making up a lot of it as I go because for me, the point of roleplaying is to not have everything completely set in stone, but you have an idea of where you want everyone to go, who you want them to defeat, how you want them to defeat the main antagonist. The 'Dreamworld' you have going there could be anything. I'm still wondering if I should give the characters to dream up anything, from a weapon, to a bed made out of cotton candy. You're in a dream. It can be so easily godmodded it's scary! So in this roleplay rules could be very important.


I like what you have here, although I am a little confused. So the people, these college students, they have nightmares of their fears. But in these dreams, they learn how to overcome their fears, and they suddenly get powers relating to their fears? So if I was afraid of snakes, in the dreams, I'd overcome the fear of snakes and then gain powers to summon snakes or something like that. Just to be sure.


1. How many nightmare lords should be present for the current war?


-I agree with Masquerade on this one. One Nightmare Lord to rule them all! Four is just too many to handle all at once, but if people are enjoying it and you've already defeated #1, then go ahead and make more! But I have an idea for the Nightmare Lord. What if he was once afraid of others? Then his power would be control over others, or maybe to see inside others, very evil-y powers and wonderful for plot development, also making him tough. That may be a tad too OP though.


2. How to handle combat situations?


-Oooh. Toughie. I haven't even gotten to that part of my roleplay yet. Honestly, since I dislike dice, I was going to do a thing where I would send NPC's to fight each player's character separately. I obviously wouldn't kill them, but my NPC would attempt to do so and it would be up to them how badly they would get hurt, even die.


3. How to better explain the story?


-As I said before, dreams could be anything. A video game, ey? Where did that idea come from? I'll be honest; dreams are dreams in my opinion, not video games! I feel like maybe the people would dream about their fears, and then somehow get stuck in this dream, unable to wake up, forcing them to overcome their fears or be afraid FOREVER! Dun dun dun...


4. Criteria for powers


Hmmn. Well, of course, every power has it's weaknesses, and every person or ability is beatable. It does matter what combat system you go with, and how strong you're allowing these characters to be as well.


5. World building


Totally with Masquerade on this one. For my roleplay, the Dreamscape looks like this.

If you want to see my roleplay for inspiration or whatever, the link is in my signature, the one that says 'Nightmares are only black horses', and I'd be happy to tell you what's going on with my roleplay so you can get an idea of what I'm doing with the idea of a Dreamworld. I hope my answers helped you somewhat and I'm certainly interested in this idea and lurking.