Vignettes

“Well I'm certainly not going back in there,” Dash mumbled as they brushed down their now-singed collar - a couple of Trope Cards gleaming in their hand.

“Don't say I didn't warn you,” chuckled Brake-Neck as they glanced up at the door.

Here Be Dragons

“Yeah, but look what I found: A Narrow Escape” Dash exclaimed, to her wide-eyed friend.

A recent exchange between two young Muses.

Vignettes are the representation in Dream of stories that Jo ​has written, planned ​or drafted. Muses can enter them and see the scenes acted out by Jo's Impressions of the characters, while using their powers to reshape the narratives around them. When participating in Vignettes, Muses can also take the part of characters in a Vignette, to act it out as they think it should be. Once playing a part, most Muses are stuck in that role until the end of the Vignette. If the alterations get Jo's attention, the Muse's Creative Juices are replenished.

Wide and varied in their forms, exploring a dark dungeon, rescuing a price from a space monster or solving a grim noir murder are, of course, common enough - but the Dreamscape has much more to offer. A broken 2D platformer may require complex lateral thinking, while a whole universe may be formed in a creation myth. The characters within these are known as 'Impressions', and live their lives acting out their stories - often many times over - and many will venture out to Spindle to seek help from Muses in advancing their aims. Usually this means achieving their end within the Vignette itself or to bring it greater importance in Jo's mind, though how this is best achieved can cause no small number of arguments. Some, however, would much rather be left alone.

Muses frequently visit Vignettes to contribute to Jo's creativity and stave off Fading, explore, try out story ideas, promote their Ideals, collect Tropes, and just to visit the Impressions that live there. Because Muses are creative forces, they do this in one of two ways: either by taking the part of an Impression within their Vignette, taking on their form and powers within it, or as a background 'extra'. Though the former grants narrative prominence and influence, the latter is often good for passing under the radar of other Muses and Impressions.

Although the insides of Vignettes contain fictional worlds, the only parts of those worlds that actually exist are those that have been specified. Wandering away from canon, a Muse would see the world becoming vaguer, until it gives way entirely to Far Dream. Vignettes ​that are still incomplete or that Jo doesn'​t remember well are poorly detailed like this throughout, and will only become worse the further a Muse ventures.

The characters in Vignettes - Impressions - play the parts in their stories, and live complex lives between their own Vignette and the rest of the Dreamscape. Many are aware of their place in Dream and, on top of playing their parts, interact with Muses in Spindle - seeking help, meddling in Muse politics and even interfering with other Vignettes. Not simply caricatures, they have their own high-minded aspirations, dark desires, fatal character flaws and fierce rivalries in a web of relationships that is confusing even to the most dedicated Dream scholar.

Muses maintain a delicate balance between the complex politics of the Dreamscape, extending far beyond the Muses' own interfactional differences. The ultimate goal of all Impressions is relevance to Jo, and the expansion of their own canon. However, ulterior motives and plots abound, with the Academy of Thought and the Free Idea Forum in an arms race to get sympathetic Impressions under their wings.

Lacking a Muse's native power, Impressions are unable to leave their home Vignette on their own, but tickets are issued that allow them to travel to other parts of the Dreamscape - most commonly Spindle. There they petition Muses for help with bringing their home Vignette to greater importance and thereby assure them a continuing presence in Dream. Outside of their Vignette, though, Impressions are not at their full power. They have, to some extent, the same skills they're depicted as having, such as magic, but the scope is always limited and no matter how the character was originally depicted, they lack Muses' ability to effect change within other parts of Dream. Their own personalities also won't develop beyond what is in their story without a Muse's intervention.

However, that doesn't mean that Impressions won't hold Muses to account if they completely muck things up. The new invention of Vig-Net allows Muses and Impressions alike to see what's going on, and where a Vignette isn't being broadcast its Impressions will still always know if a Muse has taken their part, though not necessarily which Muse.

Muses can travel easily between scenes within a Vignette, but it's also possible to transfer between thematically related works, or between Vignettes and elsewhere in Dream, via particular locations within the Vignette. Transitions generally take the form of some element of a Vignette thematically related to transferring from one place to another. Doors are most common, but gaps in dense foliage, mirrors, rabbit holes, wardrobes and bodies of water are all possible. Muses gain an intuition over time of what is likely to be a Transition, but those who are not particularly sensitive can only find out for sure by actually travelling through them. Impressions have no native ability to use Transitions, but can travel through them with the direct help of a Muse or using a Muse-created travel ticket.

Door-shaped Transitions to important Vignettes are stored in Spindle, in the building known as Hub, with those with the most influence and attention collected towards the centre. As Muses interact with Vignettes and bring them more to Jo's attention, the doors move accordingly. Less important Vignettes are only accessible via other Vignettes, or random Transitions found in Far Dream. Known routes are sometimes mapped by NFWS, but in many cases will still require a fair bit of Vignette-hopping.

Vignettes require a constant small supply of Creative Juices in order to remain accessible after Jo's initial rush of enthusiasm. Doors stored within Spindle are plumbed in to the Juice network, and a small amount of Juice naturally turns up within the Vignette and spills through the Transitions into connected Vignettes. However, if a Vignette is no longer active, or is too far away from Hub, portable rucksack-sized Juice tanks can be used instead to facilitate exploration. It's also possible in extreme cases for a Muse to supply a Vignette with their own internal Juice, but this is very taxing and so is generally avoided.

Vignettes appear on a surface level to be physical places such as would be found in real-life, or depicted in a film (plus occasional rivulets of Juice), but Muses are also aware of the deeper narrative structure that controls them. When a Muse is participating in a scene and interacting with a theme that is strongly present there, it is sometimes possible to reach out to it and force the abstraction to take on a concrete form like an object within the Vignette. It is then possible to pick up the new Trope Card and take it to redeploy elsewhere, or keep it for other purposes. Places within Vignettes where valuable Tropes regularly appear can become established as Trope mines, which the Sell-Out Syndicate visits to collect the Tropes.

Participation in Vignettes is important for both Muses and Impressions alike. For Muses, it is an integral part of life in Dream, and plays a vital role in staving off Fading. For Impressions, it is a way to keep themselves relevant and at the forefront of Jo's mind. As such, although Vignettes are by no means the only thing that you'll be able to take part in during turnsheets, it's likely that you'll be wanting to take part in one or more per turn.

If a Muse takes part in a Vignette, they may do so in one of two ways:

• Firstly, they may take the place of an Impression within the Vignette. Each Vignette contains a set number of pre-existing characters, who may highly important to the plot. A Muse may take their place, taking on their form and - within the Vignette - their powers and abilities. However, not all Impressions may be replaced like this, meaning there are a predetermined number of slots available for Muses to do this.

• Secondly, they may take part as 'extras', who are new background characters. These won't have the narrative clout of the pre-existing characters, but may allow a Muse to slip by unnoticed or to influence things without others fully knowing what is going on at first.

If a particular role has not been selected by a Muse, then the original Impression will continue to play the part. They'll do so in the usual way, and unless provoked or otherwise influenced won't try to make any significant changes to the plot. They may become irate or confused if Muses try to change things too much, though they won't break character and start throwing around accusations at the Muses themselves; rather, they'll act as though the characters the Muses are playing are acting up.

However, once things have concluded the Impressions who actually took part will become aware of the fact that Muses were interfering. Fortunately for Muses, such roles are anonymous to Muses and Impressions alike, and so they won't intuitively know that it was you who made everything go off the rails - but they will know that you took part, and so you're a possible suspect.

Whatever the genre, Vignettes consist of a series of scenes that play out over time. These may occur linearly and indistinguishably by leading into each other, and can be considered chapters of a short story, for example. However, they may also consist of levels, versions, reruns, alternate universes or any other number of different ways of breaking up the narrative that are obvious breaks in the story.

Such scenes will be a chance for the story to, in a sense, regain its footing after whatever previous shenanigans have taken place. Later scenes will, of course, be influenced by preceding ones, but will rarely be completely off-track from where the narrative goes overall. Very powerful Skills and Trope Cards - particularly in combination - can completely rewrite the direction of a Vignette, however.

Time within Vignettes may play out very differently to the rest of the Dreamscape. Though a Muse living in Spindle will experience time at the same rate as Jo, a single run through a Vignette may take years within the Vignette itself, while only a few days have taken place in the Dreamscape itself. As such, a Vignette will always take one action to complete.

The most common Vignettes for Muses to take part in are those that are advertised by Vig-Net, which is the network that publicly broadcasts what happens inside each of its Vignettes, and how the story plays out. These Vignettes will be advertised in Brainstorms and accessible directly through Hub, and Impressions from them will be present, seeking help from Muses. If you take part, you will of course be anonymised, though everyone will be able to see what happened.

There are, however, Vignettes in Far Dream that will not be advertised, whether because they're too difficult to reach from Spindle or for other, darker reasons. Impressions from such Vignettes may be present in Brainstorms under a variety of guises, and they won't be broadcast publicly if you take part.

Individual Vignettes may contain a number of sensitive themes that are not present in the rest of the game. All Vignettes will be advertised with Content Warnings, and where themes may involve sensitive topics that go beyond the usual restrictions in our Conduct and Themes Policy, we will include specifics as to how that theme will manifest.

More information can be found in our Conduct and Themes Policy. In particular, please note that players should not bring such themes back into the rest of the game (though may mention their existence).