Idea I had: Real Dreams in Morrowind

[Eyeball88]

While this is an idea I've had for the game, it's so much additional work for something of little importance, so I'm not really expecting it to be picked up and used.

We all know that the player sometimes has a dream in Morrowind. When the player wakes up, a small window of text pops up describing their dream. Well, what if instead of only having a window of text, the player could actually experience dreams.

What would happen is that when the player chooses to sleep, sometimes he or she will experience a random dream. This "dream" would teleport the player to some cell far away that could be done up to look like a dream-state; lots of mist and fog, slightly misshapen walls and doors, etc. Then, the player could go through the dream and try to "finish" it before time runs up and the player wakes up. If the player finishes the dream, he will be awarded a skill or something (Athletics skill increased by 1 or 2,) and the dream will never be repeated again.

However, if the player doesn't finish the dream, it will be added back onto the list of available dreams, so the player will get another chance (at random) to finish it. The dream the player experiences would be selected from a list of 20 or so scenarios. There could be nightmares, puzzles, or whatever. In them, all spell casting would be deactivated, and there would be no way for the player to "sleep" again. If the player dies in the dream, he just wakes up sooner, with his rest being interrupted.

I know all of this would be a nightmare to script, but it sounds like such a cool idea when I think about it. Maybe in Oblivion.

[Darth_Blade]

Mmmmmm, a great idea. I'm good at making "slightly misshapen" interiors . PM me if you're interested.

[Dragon]

Somebody have played baldur's gate, eh?

[Argoth]

Hmmm... I don't think it would be that difficult to script, let em know what you need. I'll see if I can help.

[Dexter]

This was done several times in the Children of the Night part 2 mod. It was actually done almost identical to the way you described it. Someone would say a line of dialogue concearning an event to you, and you would be teleported to an interior cell to witness first-hand what the dude was talking about. In these cells, you were held in place by a series of invisible barriers, so you could not interfear with what was going on. They called them "visions", but it would be the same with a dream.

[Eyeball88]

Oh, I haven't played either CotN or BG2. It was actually inspired by a conversation about dreams on the Tamriel IRC channel last night.

This isn't really a serious proposal because it doesn't fit in, but it sounds like it could be fun. If anyone has ideas for dreams, post them here.

[Zalzidrax]

Maybe if it was part of a quest of some sort of religious significance. Like a vision quest for some nomadic tribe or witch's coven or something.

[Eyeball88]

Could be, though I don't know if there is anything like that in the Morrowind portion of TR. I was thinking that maybe the Argonians in Black Marsh could have some kind of shamanistic ritual that causes the player to "hallucinate" and have visions that he must complete, each vision sequence growing harder and harder.

[Enlil]

That would be a great bolt-on. I think maybe it should be triggered by something specific like eating a certain combo of ingredients before one goes to sleep or something like that. Sounds fun though.

[Anonymous]

Great idea. How about it ties in to a piece of lore. Such as you are in a dream and you have a dream of something from lore. Maybe involving the dwemer.

[Eyeball88]

Well I was thinking it would be neat to make dream scenarios out of the real dreams that you have in Morrowind; I can't remember their exact descriptions, but there were dreams for becoming a vampire, or a werewolf, or the numerous Nerevarine prophecy dreams. Since the player becomes Nerevar, maybe he could have "flashback" dreams to the Battle of Red Mountain, or being killed by the Tribunal.

[Nemon]

...In these cells, you were held in place by a series of invisible barriers, so you could not interfear with what was going on. They called them "visions", but it would be the same with a dream.

Did you ever try equipping your bow, and perform some medieval sniping while standing behind these barriers? Quite funny that...

[Zalzidrax]

So we'll have to disable player spellcasting and combat if we want to do a cutscene type dream. I think Eyeball was talking more about a dream where you can be an active participant, though. And that would be more cool, though harder to make it work, in an artistic sense.