I’m playing a one-on-one campaign with my roommate and I had this idea for my next session but I wanted to post it and see what your thoughts were, if you had anything to add, etc.
Last session she pissed off a criminal group of wizards. They’re quite powerful and I don’t want there to be no consequence for her pissing off this huge group, so I thought it would be a fun idea for one of the wizards in the city she just arrived in to have somehow encountered her and magically induced sleep, trapping her in a repeating nightmare.
I’m pulling from the Curse of Strahd adventure and just changing up some stuff to fit better into the situation, so basically we will begin the next session in front of the fortune teller who is currently reading the fortune. Surely my player will be confused, but this first go around she will have no memory of how she got here, it will seem like real events with just hints of her being a nightmare with missing chunks of time, weirdly unrealistic events, etc. She has a companion that her character has really built a close relationship with, but she will be nowhere to be found here.
Basically, she runs through this story and ends up in a big fight (hopefully) against big baddie Strahd, but she’s only level 4 and he’s a CR 15, so she’s doomed to lose. However, I will take away some legendary actions and other powerful features of Strahd to give her a fighting chance, but when she probably still loses she just starts over. When she restarts the nightmare she rolls a Wisdom check with a DC between like 15-18 (maybe, I’m still deciding which kind of check). If she passes, she regains part of her memory and either she gains stronger traits or I take away another powerful feature of Strahd to make him weaker. If she fails, Strahd gains a powerful feature. The whole thing will be adjusted so she can just skip to the showdown once she realizes that’s the whole point, so that this doesn’t have to take forever. When she defeats Strahd, which eventually should become possible, she will wake up. Depending on her rolls, she might remember everything or she might still have to piece some things together post-escaping. I’m thinking of having her wake up in the wizard’s tower.
What do ya’ll think? Are there other things you would do to either the character, NPCs, etc to make it more dream-like? Is this too difficult? Is it majorly railroad-esq? I’m open to any and all constructive criticism or extra ideas!
Strahd is a bit too much. If you have gotten the Ravenloft Book, there is a domain of dread called I'cath. This domain is ruled by a Wizard who has trapped every resident in a dream-like version of the Domain (The dream is a golden city, the reality is stalked with Jiangshi and Nightmares). A person enters the "dream" when they fall asleep. Tsien Chang the wizard has three cursed daughters that are trapped in the reality. If you can make these daughters fall asleep the borders of the Domain can open and the PC can leave. Just an Idea!
That's actually really cool! I like that making the daughters fall asleep makes the character wake up, that's an awesome concept to me. Thank you so much for the feedback!
The whole premise is that the Darklord Tsien Chang is obsessed with perfection and her domain is designed to fuel this obsession. She would rather make her entire world a tremendous lie than ever fix reality. It has come to the point that her schizophrenia physically warps the land. The dream is constantly changing day by day because she is forever unsatisfied. Her daughters were cursed because she carried this obsession too far. The premise is letting this arch-wizard come to terms with imperfection and to unite her with her daughters.
As for the story, this would basically require a dream within a dream (which is pretty cool if you ask me.)
I’m playing a one-on-one campaign with my roommate and I had this idea for my next session but I wanted to post it and see what your thoughts were, if you had anything to add, etc.
Last session she pissed off a criminal group of wizards. They’re quite powerful and I don’t want there to be no consequence for her pissing off this huge group, so I thought it would be a fun idea for one of the wizards in the city she just arrived in to have somehow encountered her and magically induced sleep, trapping her in a repeating nightmare.
I’m pulling from the Curse of Strahd adventure and just changing up some stuff to fit better into the situation, so basically we will begin the next session in front of the fortune teller who is currently reading the fortune. Surely my player will be confused, but this first go around she will have no memory of how she got here, it will seem like real events with just hints of her being a nightmare with missing chunks of time, weirdly unrealistic events, etc. She has a companion that her character has really built a close relationship with, but she will be nowhere to be found here.
Basically, she runs through this story and ends up in a big fight (hopefully) against big baddie Strahd, but she’s only level 4 and he’s a CR 15, so she’s doomed to lose. However, I will take away some legendary actions and other powerful features of Strahd to give her a fighting chance, but when she probably still loses she just starts over. When she restarts the nightmare she rolls a Wisdom check with a DC between like 15-18 (maybe, I’m still deciding which kind of check). If she passes, she regains part of her memory and either she gains stronger traits or I take away another powerful feature of Strahd to make him weaker. If she fails, Strahd gains a powerful feature. The whole thing will be adjusted so she can just skip to the showdown once she realizes that’s the whole point, so that this doesn’t have to take forever. When she defeats Strahd, which eventually should become possible, she will wake up. Depending on her rolls, she might remember everything or she might still have to piece some things together post-escaping. I’m thinking of having her wake up in the wizard’s tower.
What do ya’ll think? Are there other things you would do to either the character, NPCs, etc to make it more dream-like? Is this too difficult? Is it majorly railroad-esq? I’m open to any and all constructive criticism or extra ideas!
Strahd is a bit too much. If you have gotten the Ravenloft Book, there is a domain of dread called I'cath. This domain is ruled by a Wizard who has trapped every resident in a dream-like version of the Domain (The dream is a golden city, the reality is stalked with Jiangshi and Nightmares). A person enters the "dream" when they fall asleep. Tsien Chang the wizard has three cursed daughters that are trapped in the reality. If you can make these daughters fall asleep the borders of the Domain can open and the PC can leave. Just an Idea!
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.
That's actually really cool! I like that making the daughters fall asleep makes the character wake up, that's an awesome concept to me. Thank you so much for the feedback!
The whole premise is that the Darklord Tsien Chang is obsessed with perfection and her domain is designed to fuel this obsession. She would rather make her entire world a tremendous lie than ever fix reality. It has come to the point that her schizophrenia physically warps the land. The dream is constantly changing day by day because she is forever unsatisfied. Her daughters were cursed because she carried this obsession too far. The premise is letting this arch-wizard come to terms with imperfection and to unite her with her daughters.
As for the story, this would basically require a dream within a dream (which is pretty cool if you ask me.)
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.