Ever thought about every few levels or even randomly your character has a dream, and some can be a puzzle, and some challenges like a fight. The higher the level, the higher the reward. Maybe you get a bonus to a skill from it, or a reward when you wake up, though waking up to something like a full set of daedra armor is likely. But sometimes instead of a dream, there would be a nightmare, and it would have a greater reward, but this would have to be freakier, like make you sit on the edge of a chair, and sometimes jump, like a deep dark dungeon you have to work through. Any ideas or takes?

I don't have any problems with dream sequences as part of the main quest, although I'd rather they be cutscenes rather than playable - and having minigams in dreams, with the potential for real-world rewards, seems a bit odd.

yooooooo sounds like someone been playin too much catherine lol

i did really enjoy the going into the guys head in OB and the painting... there was others.

though non-physical rewards seem plausible with such a game mechanic. Like lessons learns, perks and whatnot.

A bit odd?

not reali feelin it il be honest

I made a mod for Morrowind that involved a long dream sequence. Can't remember for the life of me what that was all about (it's on my broken computer at the moment), but it was fun as heck making it. For official stuff, there was a dream sequence quest in Oblivion, and of course the few dream-related quest start encounters. The painting quest was rather dreamlike. Other than that, dreaming is pretty untouched.

Some of the concepts you described sound kind of cool, but it could get pretty unbalancing, or at least make the game far easier, pretty quickly... especially if you are getting bonuses to skills and sets of daedric armor. For you to get anything at all when you wake up would insinuate it wasn't really a dream at all, which means it would be really important to describe exactly what caused the dream. It would have to be an outside cause, such as through magic, the gods, or whatever.

If there is fighting of any sort during the dream sequence, you could skill up and would gain experience anyway, so adding more on top of that might be excessive.

I would definitely be interested in revitalizing my old mod to do a dream sequence quest set in Skyrim, but I'll have to wait and see what the editor is like and what capabilities we have. I have some doubts that we'll have the kind of access we had in Morrowind. It was cut back a bit in Oblivion, and if the trend continues, we might have even more limits this time around.

that would be awesome

Given that this is a fantasy game I don't think it would be outside the realm of reason to learn something in a dream (like the location of a hidden treasure) or to gain special powers (like a small boost to a magic skill, or perhaps a new spell). In Morrowind there are a number of dream sequences, so there is precedent for powerful beings contacting others in their dreams.

But even if this is plausible it doesn't do much for me. I'd rather dreams not result in acquired abilities/XP/dungeon locations/et cetera.

Rewards for dreaming?

Where would the reward come from, out the ear, the nose or the... hmmm... only 1 place left for it to pop out of...

-KC

it could be a reward that is hidden that its location is revealed in the end.

What about all the deadric questlines done in this manner. Dreamscaping on the edge of thier planes, for thier rewards?

I never really found a dream sequance I liked since they were either too freaky or too silly for me to enjoy them. If they must put one in then hopefully its a short cutscenes like Hungry Donner suggested or else leave it out entirely. :happy:

Seeing how shamanism is rather important in Nordic culture, things like dreams and visions probably plays a valuable if not vital role in the
minds and lives of many Nords.

Bleh, you just reminded me about a http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087175/ that really freaked me out when I was a kid. Was actually afraid to go to sleep for a while.

I could see this occurring in Dragon Age, with the connection to the Fade for some races.. But in TES, I would rather have a written message describing the dream (if interesting or foreboding) like the vampire dreams in Oblivion.

The Scarecrow sequences in Batman Arkham Asylum would work very well as dream sequences in Skyrim (the hallucinations, not the platforming bit), but they'd be pretty difficult to pull off in an open world environment.