Re: [DL] Dreams (long)

["Vincent Vandemeulebrouck" <vvandemeulebrouck@yahoo.com>]

First, you will want to have only one guy dreaming. Not always the same
player, but generally only one character has the dream.

Then, try to play on the edges and hindrances of the character, it is good
if the player really has a "personnal" dream. If a player doesn't play an
hindrance, make him feel bad with bad dreams haunting him, linked to his
failure to play the hindrance. And as it is Deadlands, chances are the dream
will be nightmarish, or really odd.

Example:
An heroic character sees an old man waiting to cross the street, while he is
busy. He leaves town, pursuing some bandits/looking after an abomination.
During the night, he sees the old man crossing the street. He is on the
other side, and feels dizzy. When the man is in the middle of the street, a
big group of horsemen come galloping down the street. The heroe sees the old
man looking at him, her eyes begging for help. But as he begins to run to
help her away, he feels his legs becoming old and frail. He falls on the
side and the street, and the horsemen are still closing up. He can see the
dust raising under the hooves, and the saliva on the horses mouths. He sees
the grin on the faces of the men who look at him, laughing at his incapacity
to move forward.
Then, the horses crush the old man. The character sees her body rolling on
the ground. The character painfully walks toward the middle of the road, and
suddenly the horsmen are back in the street, galloping through. The
character tries to move out of the way, but he feels too slow. He looks for
help, and sees a man looking at him. But it is too late, as the horses crush
him down. Time passes, and then he sees a face looking down at him. He lifts
his hand, but then the man moves away.



Other idea:
Make the dream an "interactive" one, with the character in a situation which
will slowly turn out strange.

The character is moving out of his room in the saloon. It is the evening,
and he just remembered of a bag he forgot at a gambling table (or any other
place). As he gets down in the main room, he sees some light coming from the
kitchen door. The light is bright and white, but not enough to see the room
very well in the dark main room (in fact, the main room is just fading away
in the dream, but don't tell this to the player).

The average player will move to look at what is going on down there. If he
wants to get upstairs for help, have him wake up one of the other
characters, as he wakes up himself in the coridoor. He feels strange while
knocking at the door. Let things go on, but now that he is awake, the dream
is gone. There's nothing going on downstairs.

So, for the average player, as he moves toward the kitchen door, he can see
a young blond haired boy looking at him. The boy only wears a long white
night shirt. He may be mute, as he does not answers to the probable
questions of the character, but signals to follow. He just smiles, and
gestures the character to follow.

As the character moves out of the saloon, he can see that in fact, the light
is coming from the little boy. The street is empty, and the boy seems to be
leaving town. [As long as the character follows, the dream continues.] The
character has been walking for what looks like hours. He just did not saw it
before, but now he feels cold. The young boy is waiting for him, still
silent.

Then, either another dream character appears to tell something to the
character in an enigmatic way (if you want to introduce some important
clue), or the young boy just begins to fly in the sky. It might be the place
where he was killed (and the character wakes up in his bed). Or, the boy
just suddenly vanishes, as it was a silly joke, and the character wakes up
in the wild, wondering what he is doing there.



Another dream that happened to a blessed character in a play by e-mail, that
was half played (extract from the pbem story on my web site). The Father
Paldano had been having bad feelings about Harold, a geezer man with a
strong roting odor who was a bit strange sometime.

Here is the dream. For the full story, come on the web site, on the
Stagecoach part.

<<The day has been long and tiring, but now, the coach will only depart
tomorrow morning. The freshness of the air and the sunfall are enjoyable, as
well as walking here, in this quiet town. Travelling by coach is tiresome,
but also stressful, as closeness to fellow travellers can become anoying.
There is not really something wrong, even Harold did his best to make the
travel bearable. It is just the lack of privacy, and the closeness...

Darkness is coming, the air is still and clear, and on the horizon, clouds
are covered with layers of beautiful colors. It is an heavenly evening, even
more agreable after the day travel.

As Father Paldano closes to the church's door, it opens in a sinister
creaking. A tall man exits, wearing a dark duster. His hair are sparce and
white. The growing shadows give him an unheavenly, supernatural look. The
dust raised by his steps is lightened by the last suns rays, making him look
as if he was in fact a ghost flying towards the Father.

As the Father walks toward the church, Harold's old, wrinkled face can be
recognised. This old timer has a cigar in the mouth, and as the Father
closes to him, the disgusting roting odor that precedes the man can be
smelt. The father stops a few yards from him, overcoming his disgust. Harold
is, after one of God's children, and The Father is his shepherd.

Harold stares in his eyes. Another odor begins to be smelt, something like
burning wood, or smoke, perhaps. Something linked to fire, anyway.

"So, father, what do you think about this nice little town? Isn't the church
pretty?"

A restrained laugh escapes from his mouth, as he looks behind him.
Definetly, there must be a fire behind the church. Or perhaps even WITHIN
the church ! ! !

For a moment, Father Paldano stands rooted to the spot, paralyzed by shock.

"Harold!?!" he cries, "wh...what have you done?!"

"Nothing, I swear. It was probably the child who was playing with the
candles within the church. He must have fallen from the chair."

Father Paldano stares in horror at Harold for a moment, then begins running
toward the church. The flames begin to lick the roof of the small building.
Fire crackle as the wall begins burning. Strangely, nobody in town seem to
be aware of the starting fire. Harold follows Paldano to the church, the
blazing light reflecting unearthly in his eyes.

Quickly, in spite of the heat, the Father tries to open the church's door.
Within, childish howls can be heard. As the door is jammed, Father Paldano
tries to break the door open. The fire comes toward the door, and the cries
behind the door become more horrified. Harold in his turn tries to smash
down the door.

Weakened by the beginning of the fire, the door suddenly explode in bits of
burning wood. Within, the flames are burning high. The shape of a child is
near a top of a table, knocked over, with candles spread all around.

The Father closes his eyes, whispers a brief prayer, and rushes into the
builing toward the child on the table... to see that the poor child is
hanging from one of the church's beams, desperately trying to grasp the rope
behind his neck. Somehow, the father manages to reach the child, and unties
the node from the rope. The child falls over the burning floor, fighting to
remove the rope from his neck. Michael, without a thought, takes the child
in his arms and runs for his life. Before he reaches the exit, his clothes
begin to burn. There, in the middle of the door frame stands Harold, flames
licking his legs and body. He looks to the father with an evil grin on his
face. His eyes are deeply within their sockets, seem to glow with an unholy
fire. A gloomy laughing voice stops the Father in his running.

"Welcome To Hell, My Son."

Rooted to the spot with shock and horror, Michael is unable to think clearly
for a moment. A harsh whisper, "Dios mio...", escapes his lips. Suddenly he
seems to snap back to the situation.

"Harold!" he screams, "whatever you are doing, don't involve this child! He
is just an innocent boy! Let him leave, then do with me what you must."

Harold's face begins to dry, and quickly only his skin is left on his skull.
Outside the church, the flames have began to burn the bushes near the
church, burning higher and brighter. Suddenly, one of the churches beams
collapses on the Father and the child.>>

This is when the Father suddenly wakes up in the stagecoach... It could have
been anywhere else.

Well, I hope this helps...


Vincent Vandemeulebrouck
The French tinhorn with a Great name
====================================
http://vvandeme.free.fr/Deadlands/


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