S

A
N
D
 INTRODUCTION
Or, what we are preparing to relate

Sand is a role-playing game about dreams.

This is, self-evidently, the short version. The
longer version is that it is a pretentious product of
latter-generation game design; the result of late
nights, dreams good and bad, and a saturation of
material about insomnia and insanity.
It is my considered hope that you will enjoy
Sand, as a tool for stories, as a game, as an
opportunity for cleverness. I have enjoyed creating it,
and playing and reading the many other works that
went into it.
To acknowledge these sources, briefly- I owe a
deep debt to Wraith: the Oblivion, another fine
product from our friends at White Wolf; and I owe a
goodly many hours of pleasure to Neil Gaiman's
much-touted, but still deserving, Sandman, and Alan
Moore's height of didactism, Promethea. Ultimately,
however, this game owes its origin to the serpents and moments of flight that sleep
has seen fit to bring me.
Sleep well.
A.M.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

01: THE NIGHTMARE MERCHANTS

Lucid Dreamers, an explanation of what the players portray

Character creation, an explanation of the process by which said dreamers

define their powers

Images, the essence of the powers so defined

02: AT THE GATES

Inspirations, those malevolent ideas a lucid dreamer must combat

Multiples, invasive dreams that threaten sanity

Shadows, enemies from within

Immersion, the reality of dreams

Use of images, the method by which these various enemies may be fought

03: THE LAND OF DO-AS-YOU-PLEASE

Dreamscapes & dreamers less lucid, those places lucid dreamers inhabit,
and their natural owners

Realms of dream, the less temporary fiefdoms of the unconscious

Consequences, the ultimate plans of the enemy, and the advancement of

heroes to their height of power
 THE

N I G H T M A R E

M E R C H A N T S
Or, who are you, who are we

Within the ordinary world of waking, we can still recognize the echoes of our
night-time visions; in the scent of a lover, in the feel of insects passing across the
skin, we discern the shadows of our nocturnal imaginations. Even as we walk in the
sun, we are still, fundamentally, as humans, dreamers.
Some more than most.

One day, you went to sleep, and realized where you were- within a dream.
Accordingly, you spread your wings to fly; the manipulation of those images your
sleeping mind chose to birth became as second nature. Night became a time of
perfect and unfettered choice.
Until something appeared that you did not choose.

Out of the corner of your eye, a butterfly, or a crucifix, or the smell of rain;
beyond your control, from outside yourself. The horror of invasion and infection could
have frozen your heart. You might have died in your sleep.
Or you might have woken, to speak and walk and love, with, behind your eyes, a
maelstrom of butterflies. Instead you became something you were and were not,
before.

A Lucid Dreamer.

Past the wit of man

As a lucid dreamer, you interact with your unconscious in a way most people
do not understand, and indeed, may well fear; this attitude is
not without a certain reasonable basis.
You are capable of manipulating your own dreams,
granting yourself abilities beyond those of your waking self,
summoning up memories and thoughts by your lonely will to
aid you and hinder your phantom enemies. If your abilities
stopped there, you would be merely fortunate, rather than
heroic.
However, in this latter age of the unconscious, not all
of your foes are entirely phantasmal, nor do they content
themselves with inhabiting the realms from which they
spring. Hostile memes are on the wind, embedded in the
advertiser's screed, in the white noise of urban life and the
hum of the high-tension wire. Most of all, however, they
invade dreams not their own. In consequence of which, you
do the same, hopping from your own dreamscape into the
sleeping minds of neighbors, friends and strangers.
There you do battle with entities ancient and modern,
actively malevolent and mindlessly acquisitive; your waking
life, a pale imitation of this war. You are exposed to dangers
in accordance with your newfound power- dangers to your
identity, your memory, your sanity. There is no gift that is
entirely without price, in any life.
 Beneath your feet

An unarmed mind, of course, would not stand a chance in

such environs as the modern dream. You are, luckily, not
unarmed. Your weapons are Images, the retained contents of
your own dreams and imagination. These images are defined
by their Form, what they appear to be, the Intent with which
they are invested, and the Origin from which they spring.
As a newborn hero, you possess seven images, in
addition to your Persona, the image of identity. Your Persona
is, at first, how you wish you were; steadily, you may reveal how
you are; and, at last, you can peal away desire and doubt to
reveal what you should be, the essential Archetype that
underlies identity. Let the dreamer beware, however; an
Archetype is no mere quiescent idea- it has its own agenda,
and though it will preserve its host, your own good self, its
decisions will not always accord with your own.
Most images are nouns, in short; people, places, and
things you carry with you. This is by no means the final limit,
however; particular actions, even those only dreams will
support, are images as well. So, too, are sensory impressions,
or strong emotion. Imagination is virtually the only limit on the
content of an image.
In the waking world, you usually have no access to your images, and are far
more vulnerable to attack; you are more likely to succeed if you act in concert with
your persona, but otherwise you will succeed or fail on the merits. The most powerful
dreamers can bring their images forth into reality itself; to do so, however, is to make
your enemies as real, and as flesh-and-blood dangerous, as your tools, risking not
just madness, but mutilation and death of the most terrifying sort.
Nonetheless, from time to time the chance must be taken; you are, after all, the
only protectors of the unconscious realm. You are the sentry on the walls of the land
of nod.
You are the last hope.
To put matters in more concrete terms:
As a starting hero, you begin with seven (7) images. For
each of these images, define:

I:Form- how it looks, and/or what it is; your father's

favorite tie, the smell of popcorn, running so fast you
can leap the grand canyon, the way you felt when your dog
got run over. Form defines many of the limits of an image,
and is the least mutable aspect thereof.

II:Intent- what it does, what you want it to do. The scent

of blood can enrage, bring joy, or cause sorrow- form and
intent are not intrinsically linked. Intent can be changed
more easily than form, but an image used in concert with
its intent will be more potent than one used in
opposition.

III:Origin- where it comes from, how you obtained it. Some

images, particularly the more fantastical, originate in
dreams; some originate in memories of the past, or fears
or hopes for the future. An image's origin is an
associative door through which both you and your opponent
may strengthen or weaken an image, and, like intent, an
image used in concert with its origin is more potent.
Your PERSONA is the most powerful image at your
disposal, not merely a tool, but a facet of
yourself.

It has the same attributes as a more ordinary image-

a Form, an Intent, and an Origin.

These decisions are weightier with regard to your persona, however,

because your persona is your identity within the world of dream.

The attributes of your Persona are things from which you cannot be
divided, facets of self on a deeper level. They are
correspondingly more powerful- especially as your persona
begins its transformation into Archetype- than your other tools
and pet impressions.

This power is not without its disadvantages, however; should

your persona be changed, infiltrated, or infected, your very self
will be correspondingly changed.

The loss of identity is among the most fearful dangers facing a lucid
dreamer.

Your persona may be similar to your flesh-world body; it may be

entirely dissimilar, of a different gender, a different age, or even a
more monstrous difference.

Lucid dreamers, spending their time among landscapes of fantasy and

mythography, often take on the forms of myths or dream-creatures in either
defense, or desire.

A Persona is a mask, but it is also entirely true.

Dramatis Personae
Some examples of Personas:

The Forest-walker
FORM seems only vaguely human; a shifting mass of shadows and
sunbeams, tinged green as if seen through leaves, forming
ephemeral limbs and half-glimpsed faces.
INTENT is of the gentlest sort, enfolding and cradling like a
bed of moss. The central purpose of the forest-walker is to
conceal and to comfort.
ORIGIN lies in memories, of considerable distance; of days
spent running away from troubles into the woods, where wait
brooks and streams and silence.

The B lind Man

FORM nearly identical to the dreamer himself, save only that
in place of eyes, two blackened pits stare out, of startling
depth.
INTENT is as bleak as appearance, to fascinate and entrance,
drawing forth those who meet the eyeless gaze to hold them, for
all time.
ORIGIN is unacknowledged, two figures, voices raised- wishing
not to see.

Their Fair lady

FORM is feminine, cartoonishly exaggerated; breasts full and
high, legs spider-like in their extension. Like the willendorf
venus, the face is smoothed to a featureless sheen, pale as
ivory.
INTENT is to inspire love and confirm identity; to cast aside
the expectations of others as to form and grasp a mystery flesh
would not allow to be inborn.
ORIGIN is in an accident of birth, a history of cruel jests
and half-measures, and a certain lack of courage.
MASQUES
Some examples of Images:

Walking on Air
FORM: with every step, you bound ten feet forward, floating
and gliding over the earth; you can't quite fly...yet.
INTENT: freedom from all strictures.
ORIGIN: within your dreams, and there alone.

The Eel
FORM: an eel, or a serpent; twining through windows and
across floors, graceful and perilous.
INTENT: infiltration, stealth, a hidden path; never to be
seen or heard.
ORIGIN: certain matters better left unsaid- certain shames
linked to the flesh.

Smell of B lood
FORM: the scent, the taste of one's own blood, from a split
lip or a cut above the eye.
INTENT: to bring shame, fear, and disgust.
ORIGIN: once a gesture of defiance led to reciprocal
violence- born in youth, remembered in age.

Home
FORM: a house, creaking chairs on a porch; closets, kitchens,
bedrooms.
INTENT: to provide a haven from the dangers of an uncertain
world.
ORIGIN: all the earliest years of one's life.