Not standard cosmology, but in my world, we have a place called the Plane of Dreams. A Djinni has agreed to Plane Shift the party to the Plane of Dreams, where they will spend a day before he can cast the spell again and take them back to the material plane in a location of their choosing.
What sort of encounters might go into a Plane of Dreams one-shot session? I didn't anticipate this turn of events, so I have to prepare it all in one week.
Will PCs be entering their own dreams? Or is it some kind of inception style enter dreams of others and raise havoc? Can they find out the dreams of important NPCs and give themselves leverage when they go back to the real world? Or is it some kind of Monsters Inc. holding area where different elements of dreams (dream elementals?) wait until they’re called upon to go into a dream?
Is it only sleeping dreams, or are daydreams there? What about dreams as in things a person hopes to do?
Flip it so physical tasks use mental stats? Dexterity is replaced with Wisdom, intelligence replaces strength, and charisma is constitution. Might need some tweaking balance-wise, but the idea that you need a strong mind/soul/force of character to influence anything in the dream world is a fun one.
Was there a specific reason the Djinni agreed to Plane Shift them or a reason the party wanted to Plane Shift?
I am running some planar travel stuff soon which gives opportunity for all sorts of crazy monsters and enemies you wouldn't encounter in the normal world (dream elemental?). Perhaps the mental consciousness of a significant NPC or enemy has the capacity to walk the Plane of Dreams and they could have some sort of encounter that way. It should also emphasize stats like Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma like already mentioned. I also enjoy the idea of Dream Winds which require a save or getting blown about by a rush of human psyches and getting pushed elsewhere or brushing with the chaos of people's minds. You could also use it to reveal something about your over arching campaign.
I run a LOT of dream based encounters, which serve as a way of exploring character backstory. Dreams really let you play with normal story telling limitations! Here's an example:
My 4 PCs entered a trippy dream state after a ritual imbibing mushroom tea.
At first they were in a weird trippy fluorescent mushroom place, with flumphs gliding about saying hello. Then something went wrong (the BBEG had the Dream spell and invaded); the shaman controlling the dream tells them something has gone badly wrong!
The PCs appear on a ship in a choppy sea. They are all dream figures, and I hand them stat blocks for guards, one of them is a dwarven rune knight. The BBEG Dimension Doors in, fights and take on all of them, summoning a terrible fire demon that sets the ship alight. A surviving genasi dives overboard with the baby she's holding, who the BBEG is trying to attack as the flames draw in. My Cleric has written in his backstory that he was washed up as a baby with a burn on his face; he has just participated in his origin story.
The dream fades out, and a new one starts
The PCs (now themselves again) are all spread across a map in near-total darkness. They discover they are on the page of a vast book, and each of them encounters a long-dead warrior of varied types to fight (we use VTT so they couldn't see each other). They find their way to the middle of the page where they find a fountain of blood. The Rogue PC realises this is the cursed book he has carried since level 1. He jumps into the fountain, and the dream advances.
The PCs find themselves in a shadowy plane where an ancient entity is chained amidst a circle of standing stones. This is the warlock's patron. The patron imparts that there are 6 locks binding him inside a demiplane and needs the warlock to free him. The jailer, a devourer closes in and the level 3 PCs have to run, escaping to the next dream.
The PCs find themselves at the climax of the titanic battle that set the events of the campaign in motion. They see a Solar who will become an NPC later, and who is also tied to the Barbarian's backstory (which again he didn't know). The BBEG turns up for reals, and they have to escape him as the shaman conducting the trippy dream finally gives them a way out.
This was a way to further the backstory/narrative of each of the party members, and give them clues to who they truly are or what they need to do during the campaign. It allows for quick cutting from location to location, with a few varied combat encounters.
The first thing that came to mind when I read your post was "Alice In Wonderland" I have no idea why but I like the idea of this whimsical land that anything can happen because it is a dream and there are no constraints to what your conscious can think of. Just brainstorm the craziest and outlandish ideas that come to mind.
Flip through MM or other books and just look at creatures and think out of the box-- against type and create your world.
Just a few seconds bad idea example but...you get the idea (I hope)
What if this kobold was the rules of the Dream Plane? What if this Pit Fiend is the ruler of Nightmare zone? What happens if you fall do you keep on falling until the player leaves the dream plane? What if the party visits a city of Dragons? What would the building look like how big would they be to fit a family of four? What if characters' memories become reality (you can replay combats from past games) or are slipping out of their minds the longer they stay in the plane. What if the character's background goals become reality be careful what you wish for. What if the popular sport is Gazer ball? (Read up on Gazers, they are from Beholder dreams)
Flip it so physical tasks use mental stats? Dexterity is replaced with Wisdom, intelligence replaces strength, and charisma is constitution. Might need some tweaking balance-wise, but the idea that you need a strong mind/soul/force of character to influence anything in the dream world is a fun one.
Just pointing out that that's precisely how at least the Astral Plane worked either in Planescape proper or Planescape adjacent books, I was just reading about it recently in Vortex of Madness.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You can just take a real world location or dungeon and apply these effects to make it weird. Maybe use the limbo rules and only the area you have stabilized appears in the dungeon (becoming like your line of sight). You could also apply the environmental effects at any time to mix it up when you need too.
Personally Ive run a more complex fey wild style thing. Such as having locations actually be parts of stories on loop and fey might be preventing scenes from progressing and alike stopping you moving forward. Like the balcony scene of romeo and Juliette but a fey turned romeo into a rabbit so Juliette is just waiting there. Some one else has to give a performance or find and turn back romeo in the garden.
Will PCs be entering their own dreams? Or is it some kind of inception style enter dreams of others and raise havoc? Can they find out the dreams of important NPCs and give themselves leverage when they go back to the real world? Or is it some kind of Monsters Inc. holding area where different elements of dreams (dream elementals?) wait until they’re called upon to go into a dream?
Is it only sleeping dreams, or are daydreams there? What about dreams as in things a person hopes to do?
It could be any of those things. In my world, dreams are an element, and this is an elemental plane. So certainly it includes daydreams and aspirations. The idea is that nothing exists without first being an idea or daydream, either of a human or a god, and that dream is part of the substance of the thing.
Perhaps they will encounter real-life embodimemts of the BBEG's evil plot, and thus learn about it.
Was there a specific reason the Djinni agreed to Plane Shift them or a reason the party wanted to Plane Shift?
They freed him. They could have commanded him to do it.
The party doesn't care about Plane Shifting. They need to go somewhere else on the material plane. But the Djinni doesn't have Teleport, only Plane Shift.
So many good ideas, I'm having a hard time keeping it a one-shot.
I like the idea of incorporating characters' backstories. This can effectively be a way to reveal backstory that the PC couldn't know directly. I've been thinking one of my characters has been role-playing well, asking questions about his faction, so maybe it's time for a reveal about that. The others don't deserve it as much, but maybe I'll give it to them out of generosity.
I've been thinking about incorporating common dream tropes, like flying, rising waters, or being in your underwear in public.
I'm thinking maybe like three encounters. A combat encounter, for one, but also a more "What is going on here?" encounter where you have to use dream logic (illogic ... like the Alice in Wonderland suggestions) so solve the puzzle. Lastly, I'm thinking of having a shopping encounter: a bazaar where there are magic items for sale. Tell me your suggestions for the weirdest magic items. It's a barter economy. Each player can homebrew a magic item, manifest it in their dream, and then optionally trade it for one offered by an NPC. Then when they exit the dream plane, the item becomes mundane: still useful and maybe even magical, but with a uncommon power level instead of the probably legendary stuff I'll let them manifest while in the dream plane.
So many good ideas, I'm having a hard time keeping it a one-shot.
I like the idea of incorporating characters' backstories. This can effectively be a way to reveal backstory that the PC couldn't know directly. I've been thinking one of my characters has been role-playing well, asking questions about his faction, so maybe it's time for a reveal about that. The others don't deserve it as much, but maybe I'll give it to them out of generosity.
I've been thinking about incorporating common dream tropes, like flying, rising waters, or being in your underwear in public.
I'm thinking maybe like three encounters. A combat encounter, for one, but also a more "What is going on here?" encounter where you have to use dream logic (illogic ... like the Alice in Wonderland suggestions) so solve the puzzle. Lastly, I'm thinking of having a shopping encounter: a bazaar where there are magic items for sale. Tell me your suggestions for the weirdest magic items. It's a barter economy. Each player can homebrew a magic item, manifest it in their dream, and then optionally trade it for one offered by an NPC. Then when they exit the dream plane, the item becomes mundane: still useful and maybe even magical, but with a uncommon power level instead of the probably legendary stuff I'll let them manifest while in the dream plane.
Don't reward players for their inquisitiveness, shove it down everyone's' throats!
If you reward the one who is inquisitive, it will spur them on. They'll ask for more. The other players will not see their storylines progressing, so they won't start asking for more. This risks the game turning into a single player narrative.
The more you give the players, the more they're likely to engage. Try to distribute everything evenly, even if they haven't been on the uptake. I'm hitting an issue in my campaign where one player out of 5 is getting a LOT of spotlight time, it's just how the chips fell so I'm going to be throwing in some stuff for the other characters to try to balance it out.
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Not standard cosmology, but in my world, we have a place called the Plane of Dreams. A Djinni has agreed to Plane Shift the party to the Plane of Dreams, where they will spend a day before he can cast the spell again and take them back to the material plane in a location of their choosing.
What sort of encounters might go into a Plane of Dreams one-shot session? I didn't anticipate this turn of events, so I have to prepare it all in one week.
Will PCs be entering their own dreams? Or is it some kind of inception style enter dreams of others and raise havoc? Can they find out the dreams of important NPCs and give themselves leverage when they go back to the real world? Or is it some kind of Monsters Inc. holding area where different elements of dreams (dream elementals?) wait until they’re called upon to go into a dream?
Is it only sleeping dreams, or are daydreams there? What about dreams as in things a person hopes to do?
Flip it so physical tasks use mental stats? Dexterity is replaced with Wisdom, intelligence replaces strength, and charisma is constitution. Might need some tweaking balance-wise, but the idea that you need a strong mind/soul/force of character to influence anything in the dream world is a fun one.
Was there a specific reason the Djinni agreed to Plane Shift them or a reason the party wanted to Plane Shift?
I am running some planar travel stuff soon which gives opportunity for all sorts of crazy monsters and enemies you wouldn't encounter in the normal world (dream elemental?). Perhaps the mental consciousness of a significant NPC or enemy has the capacity to walk the Plane of Dreams and they could have some sort of encounter that way. It should also emphasize stats like Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma like already mentioned. I also enjoy the idea of Dream Winds which require a save or getting blown about by a rush of human psyches and getting pushed elsewhere or brushing with the chaos of people's minds. You could also use it to reveal something about your over arching campaign.
I run a LOT of dream based encounters, which serve as a way of exploring character backstory. Dreams really let you play with normal story telling limitations! Here's an example:
My 4 PCs entered a trippy dream state after a ritual imbibing mushroom tea.
At first they were in a weird trippy fluorescent mushroom place, with flumphs gliding about saying hello. Then something went wrong (the BBEG had the Dream spell and invaded); the shaman controlling the dream tells them something has gone badly wrong!
This was a way to further the backstory/narrative of each of the party members, and give them clues to who they truly are or what they need to do during the campaign. It allows for quick cutting from location to location, with a few varied combat encounters.
The first thing that came to mind when I read your post was "Alice In Wonderland" I have no idea why but I like the idea of this whimsical land that anything can happen because it is a dream and there are no constraints to what your conscious can think of. Just brainstorm the craziest and outlandish ideas that come to mind.
Flip through MM or other books and just look at creatures and think out of the box-- against type and create your world.
Just a few seconds bad idea example but...you get the idea (I hope)
What if this kobold was the rules of the Dream Plane?
What if this Pit Fiend is the ruler of Nightmare zone?
What happens if you fall do you keep on falling until the player leaves the dream plane?
What if the party visits a city of Dragons? What would the building look like how big would they be to fit a family of four?
What if characters' memories become reality (you can replay combats from past games) or are slipping out of their minds the longer they stay in the plane.
What if the character's background goals become reality be careful what you wish for.
What if the popular sport is Gazer ball? (Read up on Gazers, they are from Beholder dreams)
Just go crazy it's only a dream.
Just pointing out that that's precisely how at least the Astral Plane worked either in Planescape proper or Planescape adjacent books, I was just reading about it recently in Vortex of Madness.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The limbo rules might work well you can manifest objects or stabilize an area with intelligence.
Some environmental effects from tasha's might be good too
You can just take a real world location or dungeon and apply these effects to make it weird. Maybe use the limbo rules and only the area you have stabilized appears in the dungeon (becoming like your line of sight). You could also apply the environmental effects at any time to mix it up when you need too.
Personally Ive run a more complex fey wild style thing. Such as having locations actually be parts of stories on loop and fey might be preventing scenes from progressing and alike stopping you moving forward. Like the balcony scene of romeo and Juliette but a fey turned romeo into a rabbit so Juliette is just waiting there. Some one else has to give a performance or find and turn back romeo in the garden.
It could be any of those things. In my world, dreams are an element, and this is an elemental plane. So certainly it includes daydreams and aspirations. The idea is that nothing exists without first being an idea or daydream, either of a human or a god, and that dream is part of the substance of the thing.
Perhaps they will encounter real-life embodimemts of the BBEG's evil plot, and thus learn about it.
They freed him. They could have commanded him to do it.
The party doesn't care about Plane Shifting. They need to go somewhere else on the material plane. But the Djinni doesn't have Teleport, only Plane Shift.
So many good ideas, I'm having a hard time keeping it a one-shot.
I like the idea of incorporating characters' backstories. This can effectively be a way to reveal backstory that the PC couldn't know directly. I've been thinking one of my characters has been role-playing well, asking questions about his faction, so maybe it's time for a reveal about that. The others don't deserve it as much, but maybe I'll give it to them out of generosity.
I've been thinking about incorporating common dream tropes, like flying, rising waters, or being in your underwear in public.
I'm thinking maybe like three encounters. A combat encounter, for one, but also a more "What is going on here?" encounter where you have to use dream logic (illogic ... like the Alice in Wonderland suggestions) so solve the puzzle. Lastly, I'm thinking of having a shopping encounter: a bazaar where there are magic items for sale. Tell me your suggestions for the weirdest magic items. It's a barter economy. Each player can homebrew a magic item, manifest it in their dream, and then optionally trade it for one offered by an NPC. Then when they exit the dream plane, the item becomes mundane: still useful and maybe even magical, but with a uncommon power level instead of the probably legendary stuff I'll let them manifest while in the dream plane.
Don't reward players for their inquisitiveness, shove it down everyone's' throats!
If you reward the one who is inquisitive, it will spur them on. They'll ask for more. The other players will not see their storylines progressing, so they won't start asking for more. This risks the game turning into a single player narrative.
The more you give the players, the more they're likely to engage. Try to distribute everything evenly, even if they haven't been on the uptake. I'm hitting an issue in my campaign where one player out of 5 is getting a LOT of spotlight time, it's just how the chips fell so I'm going to be throwing in some stuff for the other characters to try to balance it out.