Dream Travel is a refinement of Astral Projection, combined with elements of telepathy. A dream traveler can cause her astral form to enter the mind of a sleeping person and interact with the sleeper during his dreams. The psychic must first astrally project using the normal rules for that Merit. She must then navigate astrally to the physical location of a sleeping person, although doing so may not require any roll if the sleeper is physically near the psychic’s body. Once the psychic locates her subject, she can enter the subject’s dreamscape and communicate with the sleeper as if the two were in the same physical location.

To the dream traveler, the dreamscape is exceptionally realistic, even more so than it is for the person who is actually having the dream. Anything encountered by the psychic in the dreamscape is “real” to her and potentially capable of causing her injury. Normally, this harm occurs only if the psychic enters a nightmare, the dream of a mortal who is a lucid dreamer able to defend himself against an intruder or if the traveler encounters someone else intruding in the same mind.

If a psychic is caught within another’s nightmare, the psychic may be subjected to an attack, depending on the nature of the nightmare and how the psychic responds to it. If the dreamer possesses the Lucid Dreamer Merit, he may be able to initiate dream attacks at the expense of one Willpower point per attack. (Anyone with Dream Travel can initiate attacks in her own dreams without the expenditure of a Willpower point.)

Regardless of the form the dream attack takes, all attacks are represented by a Wits + Resolve + Dream Travel pool, from which the target’s Composure is subtracted. Even if the attack is the result of an ordinary person’s nightmare, the nightmare itself may attack the intruding psychic using the dreamer’s Wits + Resolve pool. Each success inflicts one point of “phantom damage” to the target.

Any phantom damage inflicted has no lingering effect once a psychic withdraws to her own body, unless the phantom damage is enough to kill her in a dream. In that case, the psychic’s physical body dies instantly, usually of a heart attack or cerebral hemorrhage. Attacks initiated by lucid dreamers or by other dream travelers customarily inflict bashing damage. A psychic with Dream Travel •••• or higher can inflict lethal damage. No form of dream attack can inflict aggravated damage.

hile a psychic uses this Merit, she is subject to all the limitations of Astral Projection, including limited awareness of her body’s surroundings and vulnerability to a killing blow. The length of time a psychic can remain free of her body is determined by your initial Astral Projection roll. A dream traveler can remain within her subject’s subconscious only while a dream takes place, however. Generally, REM cycles last between five and 45 minutes, so any attempt to enter and manipulate a dream does not usually last beyond a scene.

If a dreamer wakes or dies, any dream travelers present are expelled back to their bodies. A psychic can make minor cosmetic changes to the dreamscape with an instant Wits + Resolve roll. At the Storyteller’s discretion, particularly vivid, evocative or just plain cool descriptions of how a psychic manipulates a dreamscape may translate into bonus dice.

Cost: 1 Willpower to project into another’s dream. None to initiate dream attacks. Characters with the Lucid Dreamer Merit can initiate attacks by spending one Willpower point, but only in their own dreams.
Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve to enter a sleeping person’s dream and to manipulate it. Prior to an entry effort, a psychic must successfully use Astral Projection in order to leave her body and travel to the target’s location; Astral Projection typically requires a character to enter a trance first.
Action: Instant

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic fails to enter the sleeper’s mind and cannot try again until the sleeper’s next REM cycle. In dream combat, the psychic inflicts one point of phantom damage on herself.

Failure:
The psychic simply fails to enter the sleeper’s mind, or no damage is inflicted.

Success:
The psychic successfully enters the sleeper’s mind. Each success in dream combat inflicts a point of damage.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic enters the sleeper’s mind and gains a +1 bonus die to all other rolls for the duration of her stay.