Help me model a power: Dreamshaping

[starslayer]

I have a new character I want to build, her titular ability is called dreamshaping and is the ability to take things from a person's dreams and make them into reality; in a very real 'target a was dreaming about a red sports car, PC can get a red sports car' way.

I kind of like the concept that having a dream thus 'stolen' is somewhat hard on the person who is loosing/giving up the dream

GM is cool with the concept but we are unsure about the 'best' way to represent the power (if anything there are too many options).

Setting background: PC will likely be used in two seperate games (as PC is being built TL agnostic) 300 point with up to -150 in disadvantages

1. High fantasy TL 3 (very standardish high fantasy setting, lots of magic, everywhere, and a lot of introspection into the impact of that much magic on the long term)
2. Modern 'urban high fantasy' (think MiB meets buffy- lots of very high supernatural stuff going on and there are multiple groups who's job it is to cover up all of it, PCs do not belong to the government agency, so they get cautioned about being too 'loud' with their powers, but for the most part the average person on the street believes in )

So I have already come up with a few ways this could be represented

1. Affliction: Snatcher (/w costs CP among other 'only for your dreams' limitations); I personally really like this approach, but GM is a bit more 'I'm not so sure'. One of the major concerns he has is 'should it really be CHEAPER to have an afflction that permanantly mars someone- should you be able to pass on your cost saving limitations to someone else to suffer?'.

2. Control (dreams) and Jumper (dreams): Literally enter someone's dream's get the item and get back out with the item(s) in hand, there is no built in 'depletion' of the target built in, and there may have to be some sort of 'reality stabilization' aura or advantage for the PC to make the item not simply fail to work once its in the real world.

3. Gadgeteer 2 (only in someone's dreams) and jumper (dreams): Again, enter someone's dreams, but this time use their dreams as the base point for the gadgeteer advantage and build what the PC wants/needs in there, then return with it- It become more the PCs creations, rather than taking what the person was already dreaming about, and again there is not the built in depleting nature. No need for reality stabilization as the PC is actually building things based on her understanding of the world, and just using someone's dreams as a workshop.

4. Effect shaping RPM with limitations on the magery for 'only things from the person's dreams'- 'only to create objects that are in a sleeping person's dreams' is probably going to get to -80% for magery, which means an effective 2 points for every 10 energy; so even a moderate investment of say 40 points means the PC can put together 200 energy spells reliably- which will be able to easily put together things like 'red sports car' and 'fancy gun' Interestingly none of these items will be permanent, they will all expire, eventually, and they will vanish if they hit a NMZ. I don't like the idea of the creations being impermanant.

5. Create /w transmutation AND cosmic (can create complex mechanisms), possibly with 'cross-world' added to it to let it bridge the dreamworld/physical world- the PC would transmute the 'wealth' of a person's dreams into the wealth of the objects they are trying to create- how this would translate to depletion of the target would have to be discussed (Is it lost sleep, how much is that 'worth', is it temporary disadvantages, like bad luck, same question and how long do the temporary disadvantages last?).

Thoughts, ideas, other ways to do this I have not anticipated?

[Kalzazz]

Well, on 1 and 5, to me (as the entirely to question happy DM in question), it should cost more to both do bad to enemies and do good to me. Just as it should cost more to heal me by hurting my enemy, than it should cost to either heal me or to hurt the enemy separately. And 'it hurts my enemy' is definitely vaguely kosher unseeming to me as a limitation on healing.

Now, I normally try to be relatively open minded on character design, so I would have allowed the character, but starslayer asked me my opinion on it so I told him I wasn't really inspired by the idea and felt dubious on it

edit - starslayer encouraged me to post this idea I came up with
N. Jumper, my own demiplane (only when have a sleeping target), high wealth (only when in my plane), Schrodingers backpack extra option (based off Dreaming) - So you can go to the world of dreams, and the world of dreams is crammed full of Quantum Inventory just waiting for you to realize it

[David Johnston2]

I would go with Jumper (Dreams) and the ability to carry the requisite cargo. Also telepathic suggestion to nudge the dreamer before entering the dream.

[Refplace]

Yeah draining power from someone else should be modeled as an offensive power, not a limitation you get more power for.
I could accept it as a Noisy limitation or Accessibility need appropriate dream but neither hurt the victim in a real sense. They could cause a nightmare and missed sleep and lead the target to you.

Snatcher is the cleanest build, though expensive.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by starslayer

1. Affliction: Snatcher (/w costs CP among other 'only for your dreams' limitations); I personally really like this approach, but GM is a bit more 'I'm not so sure'. One of the major concerns he has is 'should it really be CHEAPER to have an afflction that permanantly mars someone- should you be able to pass on your cost saving limitations to someone else to suffer?'.

Snatcher is the RAW way for getting things, so Affliction: Snatcher, then with a linked Affliction: Whatever the Draining Effect Is.

Or, to get tricky- Afflicting a Disad makes the Affliction cost more for the PC. The Limitations on Snatcher are effectively a Disad, so treat them as a separate Affliction for finding the cost.

[Christopher R. Rice]

How exactly does taking the dream harm the person it's taken from?

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Snatcher is the RAW way for getting things, so Affliction: Snatcher, then with a linked Affliction: Whatever the Draining Effect Is.

Or, to get tricky- Afflicting a Disad makes the Affliction cost more for the PC. The Limitations on Snatcher are effectively a Disad, so treat them as a separate Affliction for finding the cost.

If the person only gets one resistance roll, on a failiure the item is pulled from their dreams and they suffer the bad side effects, on a success they resist your ability to pull from them, then it's not two different afflictions that are linked. No need. One affliction that has multiple modifiers on it.

I also like snatcher a lot. I'd consider leach, memory loss afflictions, active terror, and heavily modified conditioning mind control to model the detrimental effects of the advantage. Or just backlash and then an affliction which grants the advantage and has the backlash effect as an additional modifier... not sure what works best.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

How exactly does taking the dream harm the person it's taken from?

The concept behind the power is that a dreamer connects to a part of the astral plane where there dreams are a mini-domain. In a manner similar to sandman

Because they are loosing their dreams, at least part of their imagination and ability to interpret the outside world is getting remove from their mind/soul. Further whatever mental energy that made the dream object in the first place is gone as well, it can't simply be recycled into another dream object.

Taking the example of the red sports car, once the PC removes the red sports car its no longer in the subjects dreams, whatever the subject had made the red sports car to address is no longer being addressed, and you've got the loss of psycic energy.

Once something is 'missing' from a person's dream they'll rebuild it- so a use or two should not cause irreparable harm, and some preparation can prevent the damage altogether (I was thinking that if the PC is 'guiding' the person's dreams through other powers she will have it will count as CP gained from study/devotional enchantment, and thus ~25 days of visiting a person who sleeps 8 hrs a day will garner a non-damaging use of a CP depleting power)

[spacemonkey]

Snatcher linked to something from Psychic Vampirism: Drain IQ or DX, Drain Emotion, Steal Dreams, Steal Energy (Psionic Powers P 50). Maybe all 5 as alternative attacks, with the limitation that the GM picks the most appropriate one for the dream stolen. The PV stuff would need some rebuilding to match the idea, but it's a good place to start.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by starslayer

The concept behind the power is that a dreamer connects to a part of the astral plane where there dreams are a mini-domain. In a manner similar to sandman

That's "why" not "how". Does the subject lose memories, gain mental disadvantages (if temporarily), feel fatigued, function at lower IQ for a while?