Emergent Dreams

A class project in which students craft their own living, breathing imaginary world.

Synopsis

Emergent Dreams is a class project spanning across the entire semester in which students craft their own imaginary world, and 2 other classmates participate in that world as characters. This exercise is heavily inspired by traditional Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying sessions, but simplified greatly to allow greater flexibility.

For those who do know understand how a D&D styled game is carried out, check out Titansgrave on Youtube:

 

Basic Explanation

Each student will maintain a single imaginary world. He or she will determine how the world looks like and functions. This role is henceforth known as the Director. 2 other students will participate in the Director’s world as characters, these students will henceforth be known as Actors.

The framework of Emergent Dreams is built on 3 attributes:

  1. Strength
  2. Agility
  3. Intelligence

Each player will have a set of these attributes on a range from 0 to 12, which will be determined at the beginning of the campaign by actors from a common pool of 8 points.

When an action is required from the actors, the Director will first determine the number to beat, either by choice or by rolling two six sided dice (2D6) (this number is usually secret), then decide which of the 3 attributes actors should “roll against” to determine success. Actors who participate in the action will then roll 2D6 and add their related attribute to the final score. If the Actors arrive at a higher number than the Director’s, the action is considered to be successful.

For example, the Director describes screams coming from behind a locked door. An actor decides to kick the door down to investigate. The Director asks the Actor to roll against his strength to see if he succeeds, while determining the locked door requires at least an 8 to wreck. The Actor has a strength of 2, he rolls a 4 and a 3, totaling a 9 – he succeeds in breaking the door down.

Emergent Dreams is built for storytelling, not gaming, hence there is no combat system or class system built into the framework. However, it’s also possible to build additional rules into the world as long as the participating Actors agree.

 

Role of Director

At the beginning of the semester, the Director will determine a category on OSS to for all posts related to this Emergent Dreams campaign. NO ONE except the Director, can post in this category. Actors are only allowed to interact with the campaign via comments.

Each post title should begin either with “Lore” or “Chapter”.

“Lore” posts provide additional information about the world (e.g. Lore: Pets and Animals). It can be anything ranging from the food they eat, to the cars they drive, etc. Think about it as an imaginary Wikipedia article about your imaginary world. Each week as an in-class activity, the lecturer will specify a theme (such as entertainment, food, culture, etc) and the student will add additional information to the world in the form of a lore post according to the theme.

“Chapter” posts forward the core narrative (e.g. Chapter 2: The Old Gentleman). It usually contains a setting, characters and an objective. On top of that, the objective is also usually not so straightforward and there are some stumbling blocks along the way. Do note that this is just a recommendation, in some cases, it will be more fun to leave out the characters and let Actors discover them by exploring, or allow Actors to determine the next course of action (i.e. the objective).

Example: The adventurers arrive at a small clinic in the middle of a desert. The outside of the institution looks plain and even dilapidated, betraying the astonishingly clean and strangely sterile interior held within. The main entrance opens into a waiting area, with an important looking corridor leading to a door that says “Doctor Soman”. Two nurses go about their work wordlessly, occasionally looking up at the handful of patients to make sure everything is in order. Although you don’t speak their language, you desperately need to find some directions to the ancient city of Alkabareen, and you feel the answer lies here.

Actors will propose actions their characters will take in the comments to achieve the objective. If the Director determines that the action proposed requires a attribute check, the Director can ask the Actor to roll against their related attribute (as described above). If it’s a minor action, like walking to the counter and talking to the nurse, then no checks are required.

Example (in the comments of the above post):
Actor: I attempt to walk straight to Doctor Soman’s room, I presume he’s learned enough to speak my language.
Director: Doctor Soman’s room is locked, and you hear him yell something you don’t understand, presumably “go away”.
Actor: I try to pick the lock.
Director: Roll 2D6 against your agility.
Actor: I have an 8.
Director: You successfully picked the lock. Opening the door, you find the doctor in a compromising position with a nurse.

Once the Director feels enough progress has been made in a Chapter, or the objective has been achieved, he or she may begin a new one, progressing the story. Directors are recommended to post at least ONE chapter a week.

Because ADM is an art school, illustrations accompanying the posts are preferred and recommended.

 

Role of Actors

Actors interact with the Director’s world via the comments. It is advised to stay in character while posting, so as not to disrupt the mood of the narrative. Also, try not to propose actions to intentionally disrupt the narrative, such as randomly murdering innocent villagers.

When you need to post something out-of-character, such as asking a question directly to the Director instead of proposing an action by your character, start the comment with the tag “[OOC]”. For example, “[OOC] I won’t be around next week, I’m attending a competition, can my character be sick and rest at an inn till I return?” The Director should also reply with an [OOC] tag.

Similar to Directors, Actors are encouraged to post with illustrations and pictures where ever possible.

How to start a new campaign?

To begin a new campaign, the Director should start a Lore post introducing the new world.

The Director should have a rough idea what the narrative is about, but always keep in mind that it is subject to change according to the actions of the actors, that is the beauty of Emergent Dreams. The introductory Lore post should be written with this rough concept in mind, providing the Actors with enough details to begin their journeys. Example of information include, what are the Actors role in the world? Adventurers? Warriors? Plumbers? Travelling performers? What is the overall theme of the world? Post apocalyptic? Western? Sci-Fi? Somewhere in between? If possible, the Director should include a few images of this world as well.

The Actors, posting in the comments of the above-mentioned Lore post, create their characters.

Based on the introductory Lore post, and in the comments section, Actors create their character within the bounds of the world described. Talk about the character’s backgrounds, where were they born? What was their family like? How did they end up here? What are their abilities? What are their weaknesses? Because of the aim to keep this system flexible and open-ended, there are no restrictions to your abilities and weaknesses, but keep in mind that due to the same reasons, you may never get to use your abilities in the context of this adventure.

Actors distribute their attribute points.

Actors distribute 8 points among their 3 attributes. Example, I may decide to put 4 points in Strength, 2 points in Intelligence and 2 points in Agility. Do make sure that this point distribution matches what you described in your character background.

Director begins first Chapter post.

After all the characters have been created, the Director may begin the first Chapter post. This post should give the Actors a starting point from which they can explore the world. Refer to the “Role of Director” section for details of how to write a chapter post.