A duet game for a game master and a player of an ongoing campaign game, designed for sessions with missing players or for interludes between adventures.
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Designer’s Note: Most of the example details here are vaguely fantasy-flavored, but I suspect this game could work in other genre spaces as well.
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The game is played with two players: a Dreamer and their Subconscious. You’ll also need a shuffled deck of cards, jokers removed.
You can play this game in a standalone context, if you like; just ignore anything that mentions an ongoing campaign, pre-existing backstory or characters, and so forth. Build The Palette (described below) however you see fit, working together.
Otherwise, you’ll be playing this game in the context of an ongoing campaign game, the Dreamer should portray their player character from that game while the Subconscious should operate as the GM of that campaign, for the sake of consistency of knowledge.
Subconscious: be prepared to hold onto your prep lightly and be excited to introduce new elements to the world and the Dreamer’s destiny based on what you discover in the dream.
Dreamer: be prepared to shine a light on your character’s backstory, bring new elements into focus, and connect the events and mysteries of your past to the adventures that await you ahead.
To ensure that the dream is specific to both the Dreamer and the future that awaits them, the Dreamer and the Subconscious will assemble between them a palette of details to draw from.
Dreamer: Before play begins, jot down a list of locations, characters, memories, fears, and general motifs that are on their character’s mind or important to them in general. Try to come up with 10-12 items in the list, but keep each one very brief, ideally a few words or less. These will help the GM populate the dreamscape with details that are important to the Dreamer.
Listed elements that refer to something specific should be recognizable to the Subconscious. Alternatively, if the you’d like to invent new characters or locations (or expand on them from a backstory which you have not elaborated), have a quick chat about what those elements are like so that you’re both on the same page. Don’t forget that dream logic will warp these things, so perfect accuracy isn’t critical.
Examples: the monastery, my aunt’s farm, the catacombs, my elder sister, the guard captain, my missing mentor, climbing the great tree, arguing about travel routes, searching the ancient library, that evil amulet, rumors of vampires, the missing documents, fresh-brewed tea, embroidered fabrics, moonlight
Subconscious: Before play begins, consult your campaign prep and create your own portion of the palette. While the Dreamer’s side of the palette is yours to draw on, your side of it should stay hidden to facilitate dramatic revelations (and to leave unused prep in your back pocket).
Your list should contain closer to 5-6 elements, but can include a little bit more detail. Ideally, you’ll have some pieces of your campaign prep that slot in nicely.
Examples: an ancient prophecy about the Dreamer or their companions, the existence or location of a valuable weapon or artifact, mysterious goings-on in a faraway place that might spur the party to investigate, a rumor of a mounting threat or waking beast, a hidden place where something sinister is afoot
The Dreamer should be able to see their own side of the palette to help them remember what they wrote; the Subconscious should be able to see both sides of the palette, keeping their side secret.
The game is played over the course of 8 rounds, where each round is a trial on the character’s journey. During each round, players will play a 3-card poker hand, one card at a time, to determine whether the Dreamer is getting a handle on the dream or whether their Subconscious fears and worries are holding them down.
A round is broken down as follows: