Game Premise

[Black Plauge]

If you've been paying any attention to me (I won't blame you if you haven't, I barely pay attention to me at times) I've expressed interest in using a combination of d20 (or D&D) rules with Dreamblade to create a game within a game. Well, this idea has been stewing around in my head for a bit and I think that I've come up with a game premise that I'm trying to hammer out into an actual campaign plan that I can then run. What I'd like at this point is some feedback on the premise and ideas on how to flesh it out into a proper campaign.

The premise revolves around a serial killer as the BBEG. Players would be connected in some manner or another to the murders: witnesses, surviving family members, detectives, responding officers, etc.

The murders will have been going on for several months now (if not years, that's one of the things I'd like to flesh out) and have only recently been connected. Indeed, in some of the early cases, a suspect has been arrested and convicted. The characteristic that has finally led to the cases being connected is that in each case the victim has been killed in a very similar manner and the prime suspect (or convicted killer) is now certifiably insane, despite having no history of mental illness. These traits, and a final coincidence in assignment of cases, has lead the lead detective on two of the cases (preferably a PC) to see the connection and collect the case files together.

It's the process of this investigation that will bring the PCs together, but they are also tied together in another way. They are all lucid dreamers in a world that is reawakening to the dream world (or should that be falling asleep).

Natually, the BBEG is too, and indeed it is that fact that allows for the unusual nature of his kills and the case history.

I need proper challenges for the PCs. One, it seems to me, should be the convincing of superiors (and the public) that these murders are indeed the result of a serial killer given the prominence of an easy and obvious suspect, the lack of physical evidence, and the prior convictions. However, this challenge falls squarly on the shoulders of the investigating officers and detectives. PCs who are connected to the case in a more perifial manner aren't going to have to face that challenge.

So, what do people think?

[nightinverse]

First, I think you almost sold me on it already, which is somewhat distressing, considering that I may not be able to play for reasons of time constraints, or indeed be somebody you would wish to have play.

In terms of additional challenges, you will probably have to tap into the psychological and possibly even construct challenges in the dreamscape. However, one method of challenging the characters not involved in the investigation is through making one of them a target of the murderer, and then using the resultant fallout to drag all of the witnesses and survivors into police custody or direct investigation. It isn't a great solution, however, so I will leave it at that.

[zachol]

Too complex for a pbp.

Unless you're ok with the fact that'll drag on for ages, I would honestly hammer this out a little more and ask some of your RL friends for help, then set it up as a face to face game.



That said, if you felt confident running this, I would certainly be interested in playing.

I think I would need to think about it a bit more, and I wouldn't fully trust my ability to keep player knowledge and character knowledge divided, but it would indeed be awesome, if finagled correctly.


As a suggestion, or perhaps instead a suggestion an observation, I know that as a character I would likely tend to retreat to the dream world as a refuge from my life.
Perhaps I am the detective, and as such am far too stressed out.
Thus, when lucid dreaming, I consider myself to have free reign to relax.
There would be a complete disconnect between the two personas, and this could be taken to extremes, such as having myself act like the very killer I'm attempting to hunt down as a detective.
As I progress further in the dream world, becoming even more and more wild in my shenanigans, I both become calmer and more disconnected from the crimes, and more emotionally invested from them, as I come to rely on them for release, even though this release is from the murders themselves.
Slowly, I become slightly more insane, as the line between the dream and the real world blurs, and I occasionally take actions normally limited to the dream world in the real world.
Then, the fact that the lucid dreams have been connected, set in a world and not in "my private refuge," is revealed, and I go insane, the line shattering, and I go on a killing spree, opening the door, perhaps, to another PC who has been more prudent with his dreams to pick up the investigation.
Perhaps I remain in the dream world, and in the real world I am "guilty by insanity," relegated to a mental institution while I remain perfectly "sane" in the dream world, visiting the PC who has picken up the shards of the case, offering advice in the same style as Lecter and Clarice.
But, at the end, I "escape," my mind fully leaving my body, and I become free in the dreaming, as my body goes into a coma.
I leave the campaign, engrossed in the dream world, and perhaps even picking up the murderer's trail after he is captured, although only in the dreaming.



...hmm. This is the second time in a few days I have purposefully designed a character that I intend to critically fail and die in a certain way in order to make a nice story.

Also, this is the first time I've ever described a character's actions with "I."



You seriously have to figure out a way to make this work.