Nightmare Curses
As you may have seen on the World and Culture page, current events in Silverland are very distressing. On the brink of war, the people of the kingdom have suddenly been afflicted with a strange illness that appears to be related to nightmares. Player characters are not immune to this curse! If you do not choose to begin the game with a nightmare curse in the early stages, I may afflict you with one later on. If you choose to have a nightmare curse, you have several options available to you — read on to see what they are.
Nightmare curses often come in two parts. First, the afflicted may gain a new ability of some type. These abilities can be very useful and may even seem very good — but keep in mind that whatever advantages given by the curse are counterbalanced, and possibly even overbalanced, by the corresponding disadvantages. For example, let's say someone gains the power to heal others using the power of dreams. A nightmare curse might deal an equal amount of damage to the healer as that being healed. (The ratio may change depending on the severity of the curse; for example, you might start out taking a slight amount of damage when you heal someone, but that damage goes up in relation to how much is healed as the curse gets worse.) Perhaps you gain the ability to teleport short distances, but whenever you do so, you incur a stat penalty of some sort.
Anyone with a nightmare curse will gradually grow weaker — the rate depends on their physical and mental strength and on the appropriately related skills (such as stamina and willpower). It may take quite some time, but eventually the afflicted's ability to stand against the curse will give out. Once this happens, a dreamwalker must intervene, or the afflicted could die, possibly within days. Other possible effects include transformation into some sort of monster or the complete control of the person's body by a dream demon, or possibly some form of insanity.
If you don't start the game with a nightmare curse, you could gain one as time goes on. The more you sleep and open yourself to dreams and nightmares, the greater the chance that a curse will eventually take hold. You can slow or prevent this by not sleeping, but this, of course, has serious physical and mental consequences as time goes on. For this reason, the personal skill "Stamina" is important, as it determines your ability to stay awake for long periods without suffering serious physical and mental side effects. Such effects could include lowered stats, impaired judgment, and eventual collapse or temporary insanity.
Two other personal skills can affect a character's ability to deal with nightmare curses — Willpower and Foresight. While Stamina allows you to stay awake for long periods and thus avoid risking curse affliction, Willpower allows you to actually withstand curses even if you do fall asleep. You cannot be afflicted with a curse as long as you stay awake. If you must sleep, however, your Willpower will determine your ability to stave off the strange disease. Finally, the skill known as Foresight will allow you to battle the effects of a nightmare curse once it has already taken hold, or to mentally battle a dream demon, whether it is part of your own curse or someone else's. These skills will become increasingly valuable as the game progresses.
Now, if you are prepared to begin the game with a nightmare curse, you will need to consider some possible abilities and penalties as part of your curse. I will discuss your plan with you and help you balance the effects appropriately for the game, but you'll need to come up with a general idea of what you want, to help me get started. Some suggestions:| Limited telepathy | Random explosions nearby when asleep | Nadia — guzzled coffee to stay awake |
| Prophetic dreams | Dreaming while awake, unceasingly | Sybill — strange, eerie personality and behavior |
| Unusual insight & perception | Multiple personalities, mild insanity | Elene — unpredictable behavior, creepy and crazy |
| Takes on traits of another creature | Violent tendencies, transformation | Kline — takes on aspects of a wolf — hunting instincts, strength, loses humanity |
| Connected dreams | Connected dreams | Bergus & Nestus — only available to twins and others who are very mentally close, this is a combined advantage and vulnerability. |
| none | Extreme paranoia, transformation | Giles — personality change, transformation into werewolf |
Other possible suggestions
Abilities/Advantages: Prophecy, clairvoyence, increased strength (or other stat increase), connection/communication, healing, dream creation and manipulation, short-range teleportation, other mentally based abilities
Penalties/Disadvantages: Spoiling of nearby food supplies or breaking of equipment when asleep, bouts of mental instability, personality changes, increased cruelty, periods of indecision and fear, forgetfulness & memory loss, physical illness, despair
One trait common to almost all nightmare curses is the increased difficulty in anything involving creation, whether it be of an object or an art. Craftsmen and artists are the most seriously afflicted in this. Creation using dreams as a tool, however, actually improves, if the afflicted can figured out how it can be done.
Remember, above all, please be creative! Use your imagination and come up with some curse ideas that make sense for your character. And as always, feel free to ask me if you need help! I'm available both by email and in either #rpgcafe or #alundra on LunarNet.
