Character Progression: Loot

Character Card Overview

In Dreamstate, players do not level, but the GM does. Nevertheless, characters will need to significantly progress in order to face the challenges in the dungeon and they progress in three ways:

  • They obtains better equipment
  • They find increasingly powerful Skill Books that open up the use of new Skills
  • They sacrifice points by using Treasure of Renown to craft epic level equipment

Attributes and are represented by the smaller squares which will house custom, color-matching dice. Usable items are equipped on the brown squares in accordance with the rows associated with each attribute. Skills and talents are represented by cards that are reusable and playable during encounters. Below is an example of the Knight’s character sheet.

Huntress Character Sheet
  1. Primary Attributes
  2. Equip Squares
  3. Secondary Attribtues
  4. Physical Defense
  5. Main-hand Weapon Attack bonus
  6. Main-hand Weapon Damage bonus
  7. Off-hand Weapon Attack bonus
  8. Off-hand Weapon Damage bonus
  9. Magic Defense

Equipment

Diagram of the Short Sword item

When a character finds a usable item, they can equip it onto their character card if the character currently meets certain requirements. To the right (or above) is an example of a Short Sword with its key elements diagrammed.

  1. Name of the item
  2. Item Art
  3. Equip Slot Count: The number of dots represent the number of Equip Slot types that exist. The orange dot indicates how many of that slot it uses.
  4. Equip Slots: In this example, the Short Sword is a One-handed weapon (1h) and a character can carry two one-handed weapons (two dots). The Short Sword uses a single 1h slot.
  5. Description: This will show damage, defenses, and/or other benefits, depending on the item. This info will not always be comprehensive and sometimes will be located on a different section of the tile.
  6. Rarity: The color of the border indicates its rarity, which is an approximate indicator of it’s power and value. Green represents Uncommon.
  7. Attribute Requirements: In this example, the Short Sword can be equipped on either the Strength, Agility, or Charisma (because style) attribute rows. In addition, the primary attribute value for the row must be 4 or greater. Characters do NOT need to have 4 of each attribute to equip the Short Sword.

Equipping Items

Example of equipped items.

Many items will have Attribute row requirements which will determine 1) the minimum required values to equip the item and 2) the allowed position(s) in which an item can be placed on the character sheet. In addition, many items will gain stat boosts from the attribute row they are equipped on. Consider the Field Legplates below:

Example of an item that takes up more than one equip square: Field Legplates
  1. The red and orange colored squares that do not have values overlaid determine the position. The left side must be placed on the either the Strength or Constitution row.
  2. The red and orange colored squares that have overlaid values determine the value requirement. The character must have either 5 Strength or 5 Constitution.
  3. The item uses the single Legs Primary Armor Equip Slot. (There are 6 primary armor equip slots: Head, Chest, Legs, Hands, Feet, and Shield).
  4. The item gives the character a number of attribute bonuses when it is equipped and meets all the requirements.
Examples of Item Placements

Since some items are larger than 1×1 inch, players will discover they need to tetris their equipment to achieve the bonuses they prefer. Very quickly after the game begins, there will be a number combinations with trade offs that players will have to decide on.

Equipping an Item that does NOT meet the Attribute Row Color Requirement

On rare occasion, a player may want to equip an item even if it doesn’t meet the requirements. If the player does this, if they die, they will not drop the item. The drawback is that it will use up the equip slot, in this case, the Hands Primary Armor Equip Slot.

Spitfire Chains Grips do NOT meet any Attribute Row Color Requirements while placed on the Intelligence Row. The character will not receive any benefits listed on the item, but the item will not drop if the player dies.
The Field Legplates are on the Constitution row (top) and Agility row (bottom). Since the bottom does not have a yellow square, this position does not meet the Attribute Row Color Requirements. The character would not receive any of the benefits, but the item will not drop if the player dies.
Equipping an item that meets the Attribute Row Color AND Attribute Value Requirement
Meets The Attribute Row Color and Value Requirements via Strength. The character would receive all benefits.
Meets The Attribute Row Color and Value Requirements via Constitution. The character would receive all benefits.
Meets The Attribute Row Color Requirements via Strength and Constitution. Meets The Attribute Value requirements via Strength (only need to meet 1). The character would receive all benefits.
Equipping an Item that meets the Attribute Row Color Requirement, but NOT the Attribute Value Requirement

Equipped items that meet the Attribute Row Color Requirements will always receive the listed bonuses to Primary Attributes.

In the example below, the Field Legplates give a handful of bonuses to defense and armor, but it also gives +1 to Constitution, which is one of the six primary attributes. As long as the character positions the Field Legplates to meet the Row Color requirements, the character will receive the +1 to Constitution, even if the character does not meet the Value requirements.

If the player does not leverage the Strength row, the item will require 5 Constitution to receive all its bonuses. Characters that have 4 Constitution can equip this item, receive the +1 bonus to Constitution, and therefore receive the remaining bonuses to armor and defense.

Character starts with 4 Constitution, decides to equip the item completely on the Constitution row.
Character receives the +1 to Constitution, bringing their total to 5, thus receiving all benefits of the item.

Obtaining Equipment

Throughout the game, characters will obtain numerous useful items to aid them in their quest. Items are gained through a number of different avenues, including simply finding them in plain sight, finding hidden treasure, from defeated enemies that drop them, through trade, and rewards from NPCs.

Class restrictions on certain items are very minimal. In general, as long as the character meets the equip requirements for any given item, they can equip and use it. Each class begins with different values for each attribute, but characters are free to increase any attribute, increase the available equip slots, and equip most any item, preventing them from being overly locked to a specific class. If a player wanted to build a battlemage, they have the freedom to do so.

Character Progression: Skills

Continuing reading on Character Progression: Skills page.