Nightmares
Nightmares are sinister parts of dream that cling to Jacks for survival. Jacks get them when they run into something that triggers a fear in the Jack and their Pilot leading to them holding onto the thought of that nightmare even when the dream is over.
Every Jack can usually only have one nightmare linked to them at one time. They are uncommon so not every Jack will have one.
​
What do Nightmares do?
Nightmares linger in the corners of the Jack's vision, they might leave an object here or there or potentially possess the occasional occupant just to remind the Jack of their existence. They can stay dormant, dropping hints of what they are or even tips on how they can be defeated.
If the Jack chooses to focus on the nightmare, the nightmare grows stronger and starts to inhabit more aspects of a dream. In doing this the Jack gains more opportunities to learn more about the nightmare and potentially they can confront their nightmare. This is at the cost of the nightmare interrupting and increasing the difficulty of the dream.
​
The nightmare at its strongest point may manifest itself as a nightmare Jack that opposes them players Jacks and has a special affinity with different passives. This nightmare Jack is of a higher level the more engrained it is.
How is it overcome?
The Jack might choose to interrupt the progressing of one dream to pursue their Nightmare and confront them. This usually results in a fight with the nightmare that could be a collection of Occupants unrelated to the current dream, an evil Jack that represents the nightmare or even some sort of mental puzzle that needs to be overcome.
​
If the Jacks succeed, the nightmare becomes dormant for a while. If the Jacks fail, the nightmare grows stronger and has an even greater effect on the dreams the Jack enters. This could be resembled by a unique nightmare condition applied to that Jack.
​
The only way to completely destroy a nightmare is to have the Jack enter their own dream and defeat the Nightmare on their home ground where their power is greater.
Example Nightmare
A few dreams back the Jacks encountered a Mark that had a dream set in a carnival. One of the clowns really unsettled one of the Jack's Pilots as they had a fear of clowns. For the past few dreams there have been balloons and little red noses popping up places. There has also been the occasional occupant that has acted strange and squired water out of a lapel flower at the Jacks before running off.
​
The Jacks ignored them for a while but one time they followed the fleeing strange occupant. They followed the occupant to a clearing with some carnival stalls. standing around the clearing are many occupants all with badly painted faces and little lapel flowers. Standing behind the bench of the primary stall is the clown from the old carnival dream. The players enter a combat where the occupants try to wet the players and the main clown fires a Icy "flamethrower" at the players trying to freeze them. The clown is a level 3 meteorologist mechanically which makes them a huge challenge for the player. If the players destroy the clown, they go back to leaving the occasional balloon around. If the players loose they are frozen while the clown performs a hideous dance around the Jacks further ingraining the clown into the Jacks mind but eventually the Jacks thaw and can finish their mission with a time loss and they need to rush to get what they needed from the dream. The Clown appears more often to try to freeze the players or change the weather to all sorts of crazy weather events.
​
The Pilots must enter the dream of the Nightmare-linked Pilot in order to get rid of this nightmare. This dream is its own multi scene dream with the clown as the "big bad" at the end.
Nightmare - Affinity
A dream filled with pain and anguish is what a nightmare desires
Level 1
A nightmare cannot wake up. Failing wake checks simply involve the nightmare slinking away to whatever corner of the dreamer's mind they lurk in. In addition, Nightmares create fear in those around it. Each player must roll a d6 if they are nearby the Nightmare, on a 1 they receive the Feared condition.
Level 3
A nightmare is closely linked to their host and gains power from them. Gain the first passive and ability of the host Jack.
Level 2
A nightmare slinks around in the shadows. Nightmares can hide in plain sight and requiring a decisive roll two difficulties higher to be seen while doing so.
The dream's hostility scale is at 6 or below.
The dream's hostility scale is at 6 or below.
Level 4
A nightmare manipulates all aspects of the dream, even the things their host holds close to their heart. The nightmare may change up to 3 things about the host Jack's weapon, trinket or memento to better suit the nightmare.
Level 5
A nightmare is at its strongest when it can never be destroyed only moved to a new host. If this nightmare is destroyed in its host Jack's dream, instead all the Jacks make a normal difficulty empathy decisive roll. If a Jack fails, they become the new host. If multiple Jacks fail, the Jack furthest from their success number becomes the host.
