[Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen] Oneiromancy III: Dreamweaving

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

A Primer on Oneiromancy

Part III: Dreamweaving

My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle. 

Sources: The original source material is from Changeling: The Lost, 1^st Edition, adapted for use by Mind Mages in Mage: The Awakening 2^nd Edition.

Oneiromancy Series:

Part 1: Magic & Dreams

Part 2: Dream Riding

Part 3: Dreamweaving

Part 4: Dream Combat

Painting over the canvas of a dream is a delicate undertaking. An oneiropomp — one who walks in the dreams of others — must swim against the current of the dreamer’s mind, engaging with his imagination to build currency with which to pay for the changes she wishes to make to his sleeping subconscious. People dream to wrestle with their demons, their fears and worries, their fondest wishes and their most fragile hopes. An invader here must take care not to stomp too loudly, lest she become the very demon the dream is meant to excise.

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 magic and the power of his Gnosis 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 Geotic cabals 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. Thus, 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.

Dreamscaping (Mind •••)

Practice: Weaving

Primary Factor: Duration

Withstand: Composure

Suggested Rote Skills: Empathy, Medicine, Persuasion

Cost: 1 Mana

The mage accessing the subconscious of another gains access to the Dreamscaping actions outlined below:

Reach +1: The caster can create a dream from a destroyed dreamscape.

To dreamscape a fallow psyche, the oneiromancer first makes a Wits + Empathy + Gnosis roll, opposed by the sleeper’s Wits + Resolve roll. This contest immediately triggers REM sleep — if the mage’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 Reading and then 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 magic: the mage must use a Reach and a point Mana 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.

In addition, it is said that some Oneiromancers teach unique forms of dreamscaping that no one else knows. Any single dreamer can only benefit from a magic-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.

Dreamscapes may be crafted to do any one of the following.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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 mages, a single sleep teaching dream acts as a full day of learning on a given topic and a Beat. If the Intensity roll is an exceptional success, the sleep teaching dream actually grants the dreamer an additional Beat that can only be spent to increase the given Skill, Merit or Contract being taught. A dreamer may not gain additional Beats using Sleep Teaching for that Skill or Merit again, until the first experience point has been spent increasing the trait in question.

4. Nightmares:

Though most oneiromancers rarely use dreamscaping to create nightmares, many mages enjoy tormenting their enemies 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.

Dreamweaving

The last kind of oneiromancy is dreamweaving, the craft of creating dreams outside of a sleeper’s mind and storing them in an appropriate object for later use.

Dreamweaving (Mind ••••)

Practice: Patterning

Primary Factor: Duration

Withstand: Composure

Suggested Rote Skills: Empathy, Medicine, Persuasion

Cost: 1 Mana

The mage may imbue a crafted dream into an object, using the rules outlines below:

Reach +1: Allows the potency of the Dreamweaving spell to be the Intensity of the dream crafted into it automatically.  The dream must still be sculpted per the rules below if they want it to be exactly what they want.

Reach +1: Allows the amount of time between Dreamweaving rolls to be accomplished based on the Gnosis casting interval of the spell.

Reach +2:  Allows the time between Dreamweaving rolls to be accomplished using Instant actions.

An oneiromancer who wishes to use dreamweaving must find an appropriate object to serve as a vessel for the dream. The object’s nature must be appropriate to the kind of dream he desires to create, and will most likely feature in the dream itself somehow. A soft, cuddly teddy bear might be an excellent vessel for a healing sleep dream, while a clown doll with a sinister grin and missing one eye serves perfectly for a nightmare. Oneiromancers often use objects that can be in contact with the sleepers while they are asleep: stuffed toys, blankets, underclothes and jewelry are all popular objects, as are small things that might be tucked up under pillows.

Once the vessel is chosen, it is invested with a point of Mana (from the spell’s cost). Then, within an hour of investing the vessel with the Mana, the oneiromancer must begin creating the dream the vessel holds. This is similar to dreamscaping, except that the oneiromancer is not resisted by an active psyche — the oneiromancer is literally sculpting a dream into an empty void. The process for doing so is far more intense, however, requiring a great deal of time; after all, there is no innate dreamscape to draw upon for the form of the dream in the vessel, so it must be far more carefully created.

This is a process then can take days as long as the Dreamweaving spell’s duration allows for it.

This is an extended Intelligence + Empathy + Gnosis roll to create this dream, with each roll taking one day. The successes on this roll accumulate to form the Intensity of the dream contained in the vessel. In order to unleash the dream, the sleeper need only lie down to sleep with the object in contact with her. This causes the dream to unweave in her psyche naturally, as though the dream were naturally hers. Thus, the dreamer does not fight the onset of the dream. If the dreamer is unaware of the vessel as the source of strange dreams, however, the Intensity of the dream is opposed by a Resolve + Composure roll as the dreamer enters sleep.

One of the true benefits of dreamweaving is that any dreamer may experience the dream — not simply a specific dreamer or the creator of the dream. This allows oneiromancer-craftsmen of tremendous skill to weave dreams into vessels and sell the fruits of their labor. It is also worth noting that an oneiromancer can dreamweave for himself; being outside of his actual dreamscape allows him to create an idealized dream for himself to experience. A vessel may contain any of the kinds of dreams that may be created with dreamscaping.

In addition to the effects of Dreamscaping, the Dreamweaving spell can also be used to create the following:

1. Personalized Dreams:

If the oneiromancer knows a specific dreamer well — having used the “Learn about the Dreamer” dream riding action on multiple occasions, or has known the dreamer for years — the final Intensity of the dream is increased by the oneiromancer’s dots in Empathy. This bonus applies  only to the dreamer it is intended for, however; if the bonus is used on a dreamer other than the one it was intended for, reduce the final Intensity of the dream by a similar amount. Many skilled Oneiromancers may create such “emergency” vessels for those they protect, placing healing or protective effects into them, or providing vessels with soothing dreams.

2. Analyzing Vessels:

With an extended Wits + Composure roll, a mage can ascertain the contents of a dreamwoven vessel. The target number equals the Intensity of the dream within it, and each roll requires 10 minutes of study to get the full knowledge of its structure.