The Dream realm - a place where you can try new things and discover that anything is possible. You can have different skills and abilities than your character's normal life.

Shared dreaming = Playing a cooperative round robin minigame to learn story telling

Each player will get a turn to present a challenge to the group,to create this challenge you will make up a situation to solve. Choose an attribute or skill category and then think of a situation that would require a roll to resolve. Like climbing a cliff side, charming an angry animal, giving a speech before a crowd, resisting the temptations of a demon's false promises. Now, think of a reason the group needs to solve this problem. Remember, you are in the dream realm, so things don't always have to be consistent, but they have to be reasonable. So, the players want to climb the cliff to pick a golden pear that is desirable. Or they need to charm the angry animal so he doesn't destroy the village potatoes, or the speech needs to be grand and impressive to distract the crowd so the rest of the players can sneak through, etc.

So, a challenge needs three things:

1. A setting where it will be. You will describe this to the other players.
2. The goal of the challenge: tell them what they are trying to achieve
3. An attribute or skill that you think the challenge can be solved by. Think of a difficulty level of this based upon the core mechanic.

Now, it is the players turn to talk amongst themselves and decide what they want to do. The players can ask you for more details or descriptions about the scene, including requests for specifics like: "How hard would it be to climb that cliff?" "It is quite difficult, it would take a climbing 3 roll. But if you didn't have that skill you could use Agility -1, and if you could fasten a rope then you would get a plus 1"
If you are trying to change something that wouldn't be possible in the normal reality, it is a test using your Soul attribute.

The players tell you what they want to do, if it is easy, just assume it was successful. Only when it is uncertain or difficult should they roll. And if they can combine skills, like casting a spell together, or all pushing a big stone, they can get bonuses if their skills/attributes are equal.

The most important thing you can do as a storyteller (the one describing the situation) is to avoid saying no. Don't try to defeat players if they aren't going to do what you wanted them to. It is not about either side winning, it is about thinking through options and solving problems as a group. Players will probably surprise you, they might decide they are not going to climb the cliff, and instead they are going to try and shoot down the pear with an arrow. This might be hard, but maybe you get another idea. You let them roll, and your idea is now they have to catch the falling pear!

Once the challenge goal is met, the next player takes over, and has to tell how the two challenges connect. It is a dream, so sometimes random things happen. You can always ask other players for their ideas, or discuss what things are reasonable together. But, when it is your turn as storyteller, you have the final say about the difficulty of any roll. Continue playing until every player has had a turn at being the storyteller

Image CC

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hondanews/3673804794/sizes/z/in/photostream/ - cloud eyes dream the impossible