The Gaming Den

Made another attempt at reading through it, this time baked:

Basics
-This is a dicepool game with a 50% chance of getting a hit.
-There's a kind of stat called Disposition, which has three stats under that umbrella, Desire, Will and Image.
-You also get another kind of Stat which isn't named and is derived from your Dispositions:
--Hearts are a combination of HP and your soak roll. Max Hearts equals Desire + Will. You get Desire HP at the end of every combat.
--Thoughts are MP. Max Thoughts equal Will+Image. Arts cost MP, some passives require a minimum MP and you get Will MP per scene.
--Pulse is AP. Max Pulse equals Image+Desire. Combat actions require AP to do and you get Image AP at the end of every combat round.
-You also have 3 Arts per Disposition, which are like skills and can be used for MP.
-Dispositions also make your character have a different personality.
-To do stuff, roll a straight Disposition check using the relevant Disposition against a fixed TN of 2. Failure costs you 1 MP, successes cost 0MP and net hits means you succeed extra good. Doing this in combat costs 1AP, success or no.
-There exists dicepool fuckery called Illumination and Shadowing. Each point of it subtracts one from your dicepool and gives you an automatic success (or failure) instead. Every time you roll, go one point closer to 0.

Chargen
-All Dispositions start at 2 and you get 3 points to split between them. Write that down.
-Add your Dispositions together to derive Hearts Thoughts and Pulse. Write that down.
-You may optionally take a Vice and a Virtue, which is like an Advantage and a Disadvantage. Write them down if you take them.
-There's nine Arts. You Start with 1 in every Art and can split your Disposition worth of points between all Arts for that Disposition.
-Each Art has 6 forms. You start with 1 form in each Art.
-You get a Revelation number, which is 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4. If you get exactly that many hits on a Disposition Check, you get to advance along that Disposition's advancement track.

Using Arts
-There are 9 Arts, 3 for each Disposition.
-Each Art lets you use one of 6 forms.
-You roll Disposition+Art to use a Form.
-Arts can be Locked, which means that you just roll Disposition when trying to do a Form for that Art.
-You can unlock Arts that have been locked using other Arts or at the end of each combat round with 50% chance to suceed.
-Forms have a TN of 1 to work at all and stage up their effects at 2, 3, 5 and 8 hits.
-Each Form has a Range, plus a couple other stats. You consult the table relevent to the Stat to see what your net hits get you.
-Each Disposition has one Art that costs 2 AP; one that costs 1 MP and 3 AP and one that costs 1 AP but requires 1 MP to go unspent.

The Arts
-Hits always increase range, except on Absorb, Shift and Body forms which only ever work on yourself.
-Hits on Rage forms increase damage, and can, depending on the form, either Shadow a Disposition or do unsoakable damage to H/T/P.
-Hits on Love forms increase restore H/T/P, buff max H/T/P or Illuminate a Disposition.
-Hits on Voice forms increase strength of enemy you can effect and force enemies to behave certain ways.
-Hits on Absorb forms increase the amount of damage negate, Illuminate a Disposition and buff H/T/P.
-Hits on Judge forms increase the Shadowing on Dispositions, drain more T/P and Lock various Arts.
-Hits on Eye forms increase the strength of an enemy you can effect and tell you about a target's Dispositions, T/P or Shift Art.
-Hits on Shift forms move you, Unlock an Art and either Illuminate Desire or give you evasion that does something.
-Hits on Change forms Illuminate a Disposition, Unlock an Art and either give or take away H/P (it isn't clear which)
-Hits on Body forms make you bigger, faster and stealthier. The effects of this are unclear.

That actually pretty much sums it up pretty well. I apologize I haven't been posting much today; birthday celebrations.

Did I ask you which big Canadian city already? I've forgotten already. But either way, sincere respect for you actually listening to people's suggestions rather than frantically burying your head in the sand.

Also, @Grek; now I actually understand what I'm looking at. Thank you.

Grek wrote:Made another attempt at reading through it, this time baked:

Basics
-This is a dicepool game with a 50% chance of getting a hit.
-There's a kind of stat called Disposition, which has three stats under that umbrella, Desire, Will and Image.
-You also get another kind of Stat which isn't named and is derived from your Dispositions:
--Hearts are a combination of HP and your soak roll. Max Hearts equals Desire + Will. You get Desire HP at the end of every combat.
--Thoughts are MP. Max Thoughts equal Will+Image. Arts cost MP, some passives require a minimum MP and you get Will MP per scene.
--Pulse is AP. Max Pulse equals Image+Desire. Combat actions require AP to do and you get Image AP at the end of every combat round.
-You also have 3 Arts per Disposition, which are like skills and can be used for MP.
-Dispositions also make your character have a different personality.
-To do stuff, roll a straight Disposition check using the relevant Disposition against a fixed TN of 2. Failure with 1 costs you 1 MP but allows success, successes cost 0MP and net hits means you succeed extra good. Doing this in combat costs 1AP, success or no.
-There exists dicepool fuckery called Illumination and Shadowing. Each point of it subtracts one from your dicepool and gives you an automatic success (or failure) instead. Every time you roll, go one point closer to 0.

Chargen
-All Dispositions start at 2 and you get 3 points to split between them. Write that down.
-Add your Dispositions together to derive Hearts Thoughts and Pulse. Write that down.
-You may take a Vice and a Virtue, which is like an Advantage and a Disadvantage. Write them down if you take them.
-There's nine Arts. You Start with 1 in every Art and can split your Disposition worth of points between all Arts for that Disposition.
-Each Art has 6 Forms my lazy ass has made so far, with many more possibilities available for starting dreamers, let alone the many of very different power level they can find on the way. You start with 1 form in each Art.
-(Please Consider Proposed System On Page 2, because I tend to agree that the current one is obnoxious.)

Using Arts
-There are 9 Arts, 3 for each Disposition.
-Each Art lets you use one of 6 forms.
-You roll Disposition+Art to use a Form.
-Arts can be Locked, which means that you just roll Disposition when and can not use Forms with this Art (Formless Art will be explained at the end of the Arts chapter, but it basically means no special abilities, lowest effects possible)
-You can unlock Arts that have been locked using other Arts or at the end of each combat round with 50% chance to succeed.
-Forms have a TN of 1 to work at all and stage up their effects at 2, 3, 5 and 8 hits.
-Each Form has a Range, plus a couple other stats. You consult the table relevent to the Stat to see what your net hits get you.
-Each Disposition has one Art that costs 2 AP; one that costs 1 MP and 3 AP and one that costs 1 AP but requires 1 MP to go unspent.

The Arts
-Hits always increase range on Forms that focus on range, except on Absorb, Shift and Body forms which only ever work on yourself.
-Hits on Rage forms increase damage, and can, depending on the form, either Shadow a Disposition or do unsoakable damage to H/T/P.
-Hits on Love forms increase restore H/T/P, give H/T/P or Illuminate a Disposition.
-Hits on Voice forms increase strength of enemy you can effect and force enemies to behave certain ways.
-Hits on Absorb forms increase the amount of damage negate, Illuminate a Disposition and give H/T/P.
-Hits on Judge forms increase the Shadowing on Dispositions, drain more H/T/P and Lock various Arts.
-Hits on Eye forms increase the strength of an enemy you can effect and tell you about a target's Dispositions, H/T/P or any Art.
-Hits on Shift forms move you, Unlock an Art and either Illuminate a Disposition, or increased Evade; Evade allows your to avoid Arts like Rage, and Judge. The user of those Arts must have a number of weals equal to your Evade to target you.
-Hits on Change forms Illuminate a Disposition, Unlock an Art and can give Hearts, Thoughts, or Pulse, or move the target a small number of steps.
-Hits on Body Forms might make a character bigger, or smaller. They also grant varying degrees of stealthiness or enhanced movement. I admit, it needs clarifying at this point.

Now that I'm a little less otherwise occupied by Christmas shopping and Birthdays, I can properly go through this. It's MOSTLY right, but I found a couple of opportunities to clarify some things. Hopefully. My signature is there for a reason.

Also, this response probably made my week. You have my highest respect, Grek, for both the excellent analysis and making me eat my words.

Ikeren wrote:Did I ask you which big Canadian city already? I've forgotten already. But either way, sincere respect for you actually listening to people's suggestions rather than frantically burying your head in the sand.

Also, @Grek; now I actually understand what I'm looking at. Thank you.

I'm in Toronto, actually. I could go on for paragraphs about the adventures that got me here, but you didn't ask for that.

Thanks, but really, I suppose I just remember that I want this game to be fun for people. If they can't understand it, or some mechanic is so annoyingly stupid that they hate it, I should probably change it here while I have the chance.

Can't deny it also has the effect that people keep commenting, and I will continue to get the feedback I desperately need in order to make this project a success. Plus, sand is itchy.

I am going to be chained to this table, metaphorically, until I finish clarifying Arts and Forms so that they might be understood and built by the masses, rather than the select few (and baked).

Thanks for all your help so far, everyone, and I look forward to hearing from even more of you!

As a random thought, I am considering linking Virtues and Vices to high level advancement. I worry that would make them absolutely required. I wonder if making more of them would make up for that.

More ramblings.

A technical difficulty literally broke the metaphorical chains, because my computer had a seizure. I will try to work on Arts while I chill at home, fat from Birthday Pizza.

The day has come. Though I am technically a year older, I will never be an adult.

XD

Happy Birthday!

Have you considered looking at Frank's Game Design Flowchart? I'm honestly somewhat fuzzy on what you see a typical adventure as being or what the various PC's would contribute to the party, and I think this project would benefit from having that all out in the open.

Korgan0 wrote:Happy Birthday!

Have you considered looking at Frank's Game Design Flowchart? I'm honestly somewhat fuzzy on what you see a typical adventure as being or what the various PC's would contribute to the party, and I think this project would benefit from having that all out in the open.

I've. Seen this before, actually, but it's still relevant. Having no classes, so to speak, makes it a little tougher, but I should be able to do it.

Did some renaming. I was working on redoing the whole Arts chapter, scrap-note version, but my computer ate it. It's still pretty hungry, I think, but I'll keep working.

I also worked on the Game Design Flowchart, but I wasn't sure what form the part on the adventures were supposed to take. When I started writing, it got long, because I ramble, so I might tighten it up before I post it. I do not believe I failed it, however. Lots of possibilities arose.

I got some good ideas on how to tighten some things on character creation, and Dreams as a setting from the process, so that's a plus.

I sincerely apologize for some of the garbled crap I have spouted, and the rest people have taken the time to understand. Thanks to everyone who contributed so far!

I've broken a thousand views! I suppose I should thank everyone who looked, but I just wish they'd say Hello too.

Six characters, described in words, not mechanics.

Corbin is a youth, bullied at school; he is a Mobile character who focuses on being hard to pin down, and strikes from a distance; he can easily change into a bird and fly to otherwise inaccessible places.

Conor was a pro-athlete, now he's bitter from a relatively minor but career-ending injury. He is a Power character who hits hard in combat, and intimidates those around him.

Mortimer, a possibly expired funeral director; he's a gentle soul who brings peace to those he's with. He is a Gentle character, able to effectively heal other characters at a distance, with tolerable defensive capability.

Kendra, a brave single mother; she's willful, focused, and composed, seeming to be an old hand to chaos. She is a Tough character, with a very high defensive capabilities.

Selene is a Ghost Writer, a focused, creative woman with exceptional vision. She is a Seer character, able to both see things closely and bring out the best in others.

Agatha is a very elderly woman, sharp tongued and quick-witted. She is a Curse character, able to disable, wound, and slow her opponents.

Three characters, described in words, not mechanics.

Pixie is a street girl, possessed by powerful urges and moods. She is primarily a Power character, but she has also devoted some of her capabilities towards healing.

Arnold is an extremely old, cranky Scottish man. He is primarily a Tough character, but can both see and analyze things, and disable his foes.

Huck is a savant living deep in a low-technology region with his family, where his incredible creativity is stifled. He is a Mobile character, primarily, with the capability to bring the best out in others and changing his form to a flying cat.

Each character has either escaped, defeated, or outwitted their Nemesis and run into each other in the Mansion. They meet wandering the halls when all of their paths meet at an intersection.

[30 minutes, mainly describing and interacting]

Eventually, the dreamers will enter a doorway and enter their first Dream. In this case, a fairly simple dream containing a large black forest with mostly shy archetypes, a couple of cruel ones, a powerful Witch, and several traps. There is a hidden gate at the end, but passing near it summons the Nemesis one by one until the dreamers are overcome or they escape.

They enter the dream and immediately have their back to a wall; the door is gone, a looming stone cliff side in its place. There are two paths leading deeper into a twisted, dark forest, that appear at first glance similar.

There is an opportunity here for dreamers to make use of their abilities to try to discern some information about the path; at least one character has an opportunity to learn something about the paths.

Both eventually lead to the same place, but they take wildly divergent routes. The high road leads to the field of compelling flowers, and the low through the swamps.

[30 minutes, debating and using abilities]

Both paths have interactions with the small, grey dusty sprites, the Archetypes of the Dream, and the cruel Wisps, glowing balls of malevolent air. The Dust Sprites require coaxing, allowing characters with a gentle approach to learn from them. The Wisps will prank dreamers, or lure them towards dangerous locations, and don't stand up to a losing fight.

Each path has its own unique traps (the swamp, and the flowers) and each passes the river before approaching the Witch's Hut.

[1 hour, combat, bypassing and avoiding dangers, interaction]

The Witch is technically a much higher power level creature, and poses another sort of problem. She can be persuaded, tricked into doing something, bargained with, or defeated in a contest of some sort. It is, of course, possibly for dreamers (especially larger groups) to defeat her, but it is hardly worthwhile. If the dreamers overcome her without chopping her to pieces, she may reveal something about the hidden gate behind her shack. If they really pull one on her, she might mention that the cliff-sides are dangerous.

[45 minutes, any possible combinations of abilities]

Either way, the dreamers eventually go behind her shack and begin to investigate the gate into the next dream. As they pass dangerous looking cliffs on the way to a depression in a stone wall, they activate a trap.

It becomes a race between the Nemesis who begin to appear and the dreamers to find and open the gate. Larger groups may have more Nemesis appear, and may have a more complicated gate, requiring more steps to open.

[1 hour, combat and other abilities depending on the gate]

Adventure Ends

The Forest; The dreamers meet each other, and dive into their first dream, exploring a strange primeval forest. They encounter fey creatures, strange landscapes, and a Witch that may tell them a little something about the dreaming, and lead them to the gate.

The Castle; The dreams find themselves in a busy, semi-modern castle during a large wedding celebration. Dreamers enjoy festivities, explore the castle, and meet Archetypes until the ceremony begins. The Bride vanishes, and the dreamers are blamed for kidnapping her; they must either find the Bride, and quickly, or fight their way out of the dream.

The Threshold; Dreamers find themselves in a strange landscape made of floating, flat, translucent globs drifting among stars. Advancing through perilous terrain and meeting strange beings, the dreamers eventually find another dreamer. He explains many things about dreaming, and plants the seeds for the dreamers to surpass their Nemesis.

The Face Off; The dreamers force some sort of final confrontation with their Nemesis, using their new abilities, tactics, and teamwork to overcome them for the last time. One or more dreamers may meet their Guide, and most dreamers should gain their first higher-level abilities.

Lift Off: The dreamers find the right time and place to surpass the Mansion and move onto the next layer of dreaming. They find themselves in the Island, an even stranger world. They find themselves on a single-palm-tree island with a single Persona, the Castaway. He's amiable enough, explains a few things about the place, and is completely friendly until the dreamers try to leave.

Sailing: Dreamers, after escaping from Castaway Island, learn how to move from place to place in this level, and discover two things: that they aren't alone on the waters, and their first island.

War Island: A place in constant battle, and turmoil; archetypes slaughter each other constantly in a world of modern war. Most things here don't even understand what rational discussion might be. Dreamers eventually find, and perhaps defeat the Persona of the Island, the Player.

Lost Island: A strange Island where not all is as it seems; an abandoned city, save for frightened, lost children, and one lonely, sad man. A giant Cathedral looms at its center, the Persona of the Island acting as God. Someone's God, in fact. Do the dreamers dare defeat this powerful being?

Freedom: The dreamers find themselves in the real world, after defeating their greatest foe, much to the confusion of the person whose head they all popped out of all at once. The waking world is a strange for a dream body, and the world beyond it are stranger still.

Good news everyone!

I have found a play-test group, so far consisting of three players. We had a session a few days ago, for approximately six hours. To follow will be my idea of an analysis on how it went, and things I may need to work on improving. Hopefully it might encourage a little activity; suggestions, and comments are critical at this point.

Regardless, Merry Christmas, Everyone, and Thanks for all the help so far!

The group consisted of a initially, two young men who I will nickname Green and Red for simplicity. It took approximately an hour and a half to teach them the basics of the game, and have them each make a character. Could have been better, though I am, perhaps, a poor teacher.

I'll skim over their characters; Green played a character named Stryder. He balanced out his Dispositions, but was generally built for versatility and combat. Red was Dimitri, an ex-military assassin; he chose the path of low Desire, good Will and moderate Image; he, specifically, chose the path of the Seer.

About halfway through the game we had a third player come in, a girl we will call Purple. She played a character made by her boyfriend, Red, in less than twenty minutes (excellent improvement). He made her a Sociopath Nurse, and the Healer of the group for some reason; she spent as much time cutting people as she did healing, but being graced with the Mercy Virtue made her invaluable. The flying needles took some getting used to.

Note: Immediately I see that I need to both clarify and simplify the mechanics for Voice and Eye.

Now, I was caught with my pants completely down for this game; never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be play testing this soon, and I didn't have much material drawn up. Their Nemesis are simple, as are the settings, and the later adventure we got into was one mentioned in this very thread.

I also began both Dimitri and Stryder in their Nightmare, which had melded due to similar sleeping locations and lust for violence. Their campsite melded, and they emerged from their tents from a very unexpected scene. To their south was a plain, grey stone tower that stretched into the sky; the the north, a handful of steps form where their both their campfires became one was a fountain, indistinct for now. Hills to the east, and a river to the west completed the simple nightmare.

The Dmitri's Nemesis was, as Red believed his character mostly incapable of fear other than, perhaps, of his own corruption, predictably a ruined, evil version of himself. Half the flesh around his jaw was missing, exposing teeth, blackened gums, and bone. He was watching from the hills. We'll nickname him Toothy.

Both Stryder and Dmitri, after initial mandatory tough guy posing, and realizing they are in a dream, approach the fountain. A cheeky Cherub statue winks at them, its cupped hands over the source of the water in the fountain. Dmitri decided to make the first throw of the game, and used his Eye Form, keyed to movement (Shift).

He threw 8 weals, and I had ruled he saw both the lurking Nemesis', the Gate at the top of the tower, and absolutely nothing was special about the fountain.

Stryder also threw for his Form, one that detected Desire, and had enough weals to be aware of the approaching Nemesis. Combat began, and both of them predictably used Shift Arts to bound forward. Dmitri was closer, in the end.

The Nemesis didn't actually move during the entire combat, and simply used its long range Judge at a distance (Needle, some might be familiar with); he began being more defensive, using Absorb more as they closed and were able to land attacks. Both Stryder and Dmitri were wounded, once, but eventually they hit Toothy hard enough to knock him down to 2 Hearts.

After that, the other Nemesis came over the hill: Stryder's. He had a similar theme for his fear, so I slapped on a beard, rotted teeth, unnatural eyes and called it done. Didn't really have time to come up with much else, due to my pants, as I said, being down. They nicknamed him Beardy, hilariously.

Note: As combat goes further I am noticing that things, such as Lock, and illumination, have a tendency to be forgotten. I will have to develop better notation systems and tools to make this flow better; eventually I begin using pennies. Combat might have been a tad slow, but it didn't seem to matter to the players. We were averaging about 6-7 throws per instant, and although this part took about an hour, it seemed to pace well enough. This is an area that can be improved, I hope.

The players are, at this point, a little less confident about their chances, become much more defensive. Absorb Arts work about as they should, and they take a couple more small hits, thankfully soaked by Hearts.

Eventually the third player comes in with her Nurse. I rule that she, having escaped her nightmare into the Mansion, had happened to fall into a Pit containing this nightmare fairly quickly. She lands at the bottom of t he tower, unharmed, to a scene of conflict.

With some urging, she decides to start moving towards the other dreamers in the hope of helping, rather than cutting them. Her ability to give higher range to all her Love Arts sent hypodermic needles flying into her allies, which I supposed was enough like cutting someone to satisfy her, for the moment.

They eventually move in close together, and the formation seemed to be working exceedingly well. Toothy charged at them, eventually, trying to get a solid shot on its foe, and was cut down by, well, a knife and a scalpel.

Stryder eventually managed to overcome his Nemesis with his own long-range Form, and the day was won. For the moment. This immersed the dreamers in a discussion on what to do next, and whether or not they felt like stabbing each other.

More later. This unit needs sustenance.

I have two observations after looking at your story. The first is that, damn, that is a boring Nemesis. You were under time crunch and generally feeling underprepared, which is understandable, but I think that's a pretty god stress-test. While of course this kind of introspective dream-quest appears to call for a very long campaign arc, I think this brand of abstractionist improvisation is likely to appeal to a lot more people as a brief diversion from their normal gaming than as a staple RPG. Particularly since many players are going to default to surrealism, and though surrealism is fun while you're doing it few people like going back and picking through the leftovers of the previous week's flight of fancy. The fact that you've designed it around coins, and that apparently it works best if the players are high, also suggest that this game needs to work well as a one-shot. Fortunately, I think it is possible to aim higher, even in that context. In less than five minutes, I came up with:

• An Afghan or Latin woman with no mouth and a threshing flail
• A flying red-painted spy-bot that can turn in a humanoid robot with wires poking through its skin and a star on its forehead
• a frankenstein ragdolled together out of Anastasia and Trotsky
• a double-headed eagle, weeping blood
• the grim reaper, but in US army fatigues

I don't think my ability to barf forth psychedelica on command is the result of some kind of genetic superpower. It's a learned skill that I've prcticed a lot, but what some people don't realize is that the content is basically procedurally generated. Since this game calls for on very play to spew up a lot of evocative imagery, you should probably have a lot of sidebar with detailed advice on how to be "creative" and print some of the procedures explicitly.
I would take a crack at it myself, but to do so I'd need to know more about the intended function of the Nemesis. It seems to be a major part of the early game, so you probably want to say something more explicit about the nature of Nemeses and their relationship to the players, and decide which sorts of story-arcs are going to be supported. Fortunately, we can tackle both of these issues at the same time. I'd start with a list of Resolutions you find desirable, and then reason backwards to the instruction for setting up that conflict. So let's take a look at how these confrontations with dream monsters tend to go in the literature, focusing on the relatively happy endings. If something is hunting you in your dreams, you might solve the problem through

• Integration: Sometimes the dream monster turns out to be part of the dreamer' Jungian Shadow, generally a part of themselves they do not like or want to acknowledge. In these cases typically the only solution is to get over it and allow the hunter to merge with you and become part of your personality.
• Rejection: sometimes the hunter represents survivor's guilt, internalized __-ism, past psychological abuse, or some otherfalsenegative self-perception. In these cases the monster can be banished as soon as the dreamer realizes that what happened in the past wasn't their fault, or they actually aren't a bad person.
• Conquest: sometimes the monster represents disproportionate fear of an external threat. Maybe it's a classically-conditioned phobia, maybe it's a childhood anxiety, maybe it's a post-traumatic flashback, or maybe it's prejudice, but it's definitely an unreasoning fear of something that does not threaten their safety in the present day. This hunter can be fought and destroyed as soon as the dreamer realizes that it is not actually dangerous.
• Assertion: sometimes the monster represents an actual external force or group who really do threaten the dreamer, or at least judge and disapprove of them. It's harder to characterize the appropriate response to this one since by definition the actual problem isn't going away, so the dream-conflict is usually ended by the dreamer gaining the resolve to struggle and endure, thus transcending the dream-monster in order to face the real one.
• I thought about salami-slicing these and adding Acceptance (of an irresolvable problem) and Atonement (for a past misdeed) and so on, but I'll leave it here for now. Obviously the list is not exclusive and hybrids are possible.

Dmitri looks like he's on the path towards a Rejection (he fears becoming this person, so he resolves not to), or conceivably an Integration (he accepts that he has the capacity to act in those ways). Monk is again probably headed for Rejection (the old monk is his own superego) but conceivably for Assertion (the old monk is the establishment's determined attempts to crush the spirits of the young). My Innocent seem headed for Rejection of her Nemesis, who represents the "model prisoner" she feels she ought to be but can't. Interestingly, confronting her nemesis feels like a side-project for her, because her bigger problem is that she is in jail, which calls for some Assertion. I bring this up here for two reasons: one, because you can mine it for a paragraph in your character creation section listing broad ideas about Nemeses, but also because it has mechanical consequences. You need to decide early whether to support Integration, for instance. It's a really powerful tradition that gets played a lot in fiction; when you have both Jung and Le Guin in your corner you're in a good place. But, it's a pain to support mechanically. I know if I finally merge with my Shadow I want to get more than a +1 to Wisdom, you know? At the same time, if you go to the trouble of writing really cool and satisfying rules for integrating an external personality fragment, it might get so tied into the basic rules that you have to mandate Integration as the endgame for all Nemeses.

Anyway, once you've sorted that out, you can come up with a bunch of sample "categories" of Nemesis and throw them in a side on the character creation chapter. (A dreamer's nemesis might be a real person who threatens them or who approval they crave, a representation of a broader social force that oppresses them, an item or fragment of scenery from a traumatic moment, or an alternate-future or funhouse-mirror self.) That's the hard part. Then you just have to throw together some really simple lists of place to dig for visuals. (Try organizational symbols, exploit the uncanny valley, consider cultural associations with animals, add imagery related to the technology or means by which the dreamer committed evil or has had/fears to have evil committed against them, consider adding a few human body parts to something inhuman or removing body parts from something humanoid to highlight function and limitation) And boom! you're done.

(You could also have a sidebar on "brainstorming" i.e. free association. For Dmitri, mine went something like "red, surveillance, eagles, america, the security state, oppressed peoples, Kafka [esp. In the Penal Colony], cyborgs, Matrix Agents, mass graves, sniper rifles, vodka)

So, I've read through what you had there, Orion, a couple of times. I admit that those were terrible Nemesis, but the flexible nature of dreaming itself allows me to thankfully exchange that error for a better option, all of which the ones you generated there are. I can see the method you're getting at there, and I'll make sure to include that in both the book, and the future sessions.

Now, you spoke of the Nemesis, and you seem to grasp the intention with them. Although I had not had original plans for a specific Integration mechanic, the concept was to allow for such things. I did get at least some of my inspiration on readings of the Shadow, and the purpose of the Nemesis is reminiscent of that. I had not yet though of making specific classifications of Nemesis, but it certainly may work. The intent, however, was that after the Nemesis is defeated, the dreamer may have access to a Guide, which acts like a familiar, or a summoned creature, a minion, or all of those things. I'm sure we can get the best of both worlds, perhaps as a powerful option for dreamers who do not Integrate.

Thanks for your analysis, it was concise and helpful as always. Have a Merry Christmas!

Fun Fact: my personal nightmares come from my superego, not my shadow. I don't dream about being threatened with violence, or about actually doing bad things, just about people telling me I'm bad and I should feel bad. You might notice this as a recurring theme in my characters.

Gave a quick look over since it is a slog and I have barely enough energy to eat let alone parse all of this.

One thing that would be far faster than counting heads or tails with every action would be to actually paint the sides of the coins since it is a 50/50 dice pool anyways, how many of color X did you get is the simple answer.

A lot of the descriptions have things fall under both good and bad categories. Emotional, flirtatious, bossy getting you higher stats while calm and honest getting you lower, only to have lust and impulsiveness as vices then mercy and humility as virtues?

Speaking of which, having specific and major mechanics for anything sexual is often a good way to either make sure that your game alienates large groups of people or attracts creepy players, that or they tend to get ignored outright. I find it tends to fall under extremes in its use in the groups I've played in.

As someone else said earlier in a post pretty much describing how the game works in regular terms, with Pulse as AP, Will and MP and the like, having so many different terms for everything will make it far less intuitive for new players, especially when you have so many different stats for seemingly everything. Arts being the best example as there are so many with so many different loosely defined forms with specific attributes.

The simple dice pool mechanic lends itself nicely to a dream based scenario, but I think that most of the actions should be more free form and roleplay based. As you are "damaged" you start to panic more as a dreamer and your pool may shrink while a more powerful dreamer has a larger starting pool. Manifestations may become more powerful from your fears and failure would often mean waking up which isn't a huge deal necessarily and could allow for better preparation next time.

These fears could also just be situational since I know my own nightmares tend to hit my control issues. I find myself unable to affect others (inability to cause harm unless you focus on the reaction of what you hit being commonplace in many dreams) or sleep paralysis nightmares which are terrifying. Waking up into another nightmare while a manifestation keeps you asleep until your allies weaken it enough to let you awaken removing the source of its power (the fear of the defeated player)

As players explore you could add up the woes that they end up with and that could be the initial power of the nightmare manifestations that appear to them. Or they could feed off of your woes in an inefficient manner (Otherwise a 50/50 pool would be ridiculous)

Either way, just some thoughts. I may return to parse through the rest at some point in more detail, but for now I am a fart in the wind.

Gave a quick look over since it is a slog and I have barely enough energy to eat let alone parse all of this.

One thing that would be far faster than counting heads or tails with every action would be to actually paint the sides of the coins since it is a 50/50 dice pool anyways, how many of color X did you get is the simple answer.

A lot of the descriptions have things fall under both good and bad categories. Emotional, flirtatious, bossy getting you higher stats while calm and honest getting you lower, only to have lust and impulsiveness as vices then mercy and humility as virtues?

Speaking of which, having specific and major mechanics for anything sexual is often a good way to either make sure that your game alienates large groups of people or attracts creepy players, that or they tend to get ignored outright. I find it tends to fall under extremes in its use in the groups I've played in.

As someone else said earlier in a post pretty much describing how the game works in regular terms, with Pulse as AP, Will and MP and the like, having so many different terms for everything will make it far less intuitive for new players, especially when you have so many different stats for seemingly everything. Arts being the best example as there are so many with so many different loosely defined forms with specific attributes.

The simple dice pool mechanic lends itself nicely to a dream based scenario, but I think that most of the actions should be more free form and roleplay based. As you are "damaged" you start to panic more as a dreamer and your pool may shrink while a more powerful dreamer has a larger starting pool. Manifestations may become more powerful from your fears and failure would often mean waking up which isn't a huge deal necessarily and could allow for better preparation next time.

These fears could also just be situational since I know my own nightmares tend to hit my control issues. I find myself unable to affect others (inability to cause harm unless you focus on the reaction of what you hit being commonplace in many dreams) or sleep paralysis nightmares which are terrifying. Waking up into another nightmare while a manifestation keeps you asleep until your allies weaken it enough to let you awaken removing the source of its power (the fear of the defeated player)

As players explore you could add up the woes that they end up with and that could be the initial power of the nightmare manifestations that appear to them. Or they could feed off of your woes in an inefficient manner (Otherwise a 50/50 pool would be ridiculous)

Either way, just some thoughts. I may return to parse through the rest at some point in more detail, but for now I am a fart in the wind.