Giving players something that’s folded up and printed out so
that it looks fancy is like free topping day at the yogurt place. Yeah, it’s
maybe not as good as gelato, but everyone changes their tune when the chocolate
sprinkles come out, don’t they?
I have some skill at prose writing, so I always take this
opportunity to put a little literature on what I want them to know. Mostly this
is tied to the player and how he or she would process a block of information.
But the nice things about making a dream a letter is that the player can keep
it and refer back to it. No missing a clue because they took the wrong notes;
the dream is the diary entry that stays with them forever. And my players
certainly look back on old dreams to see if they have missed anything.
I also use a different tone with them, mostly in an effort
to get and keep that player’s attention. This is fun for them and also fun for
me. I write each dream up with a fun font, and use my meager photoshop skills
to add artwork if necessary. These letters are delivered at the start of each
session, and they read them before we get going, as I am setting up my screen,
papers, etc.
Below are a few examples of dreams I have given to the
players in my Eldritch Piracy game.
Each of these dreams or visions is very pointedly specific
as to what needs to happen. There should not be a dream interpretation portion
of the table play, unless you do something like this:
“That night, you all dream that you are flying, on your
backs, whizzing along with the breeze stinging your face. But when you look up,
you can’t see the sky, or the moon, or even the clouds. You’re not worried
about that; merely curious. The last thing you remember is something shiny and
metallic, glinting in the moonlight, and then…”
“You wake up. All of you are on an embankment on the side of one of the mountains, looking down at the keep.”
“You wake up. All of you are on an embankment on the side of one of the mountains, looking down at the keep.”
I did this in a game where the players were trying to run
down who was stealing building supplies from the keep. Spoiler: It was a Copper
dragon, who was actively opposed to expansion and was playing jokes on the
soldiers to make them think the keep was haunted. When the players started to
get too close, the dragon clocked them with a sleep spell and flew them up to
the top of the embankment.
No one has yet figured out what happened that night. They
all come charging down from the mountain, asking questions, looking for footprints,
etc.
But my point is, that dream happens at the table because
everyone is involved and it’s a group-wide event. For everyone else, their
dreams are secret, and usually private. This keeps the plots interesting as
well, since it helps them pick a direction to pursue and that will always lead
to dramatic conflict where someone will have to make a difficult choice. And that's how you get to those epic moments that (hopefully) the players will remember for the rest of their gaming days. All you have to do...is dream...