Our world is poisoned. Humanity is infected, blinded to the wonder around us, our will sapped. It’s easier to simply exist than to reach for the impossible. Even your dreams are laced with the insidious belief that you are “normal.”

“Just another face in the crowd.”

“Nothing special.”

That whisper? That belief? It’s the Doubt; a dark sentience that infects our world, hiding the truth - hiding Magic. Centaurs, pixies, androids, and mutants, walk the streets. You even know a few. The Doubt twists their image, rendering them mundane or invisible to Sleepers. It tortures us in our dreams, robbing us of the source of our Magic. It wields Nightmares like a blade, keeping us in our place.

Except for you.

You’re different. You fought back. In your dreams, you became stronger, faster, or smarter. You brought your dreams into the world, because you are an Anima; you’ve broken free of the Doubt’s clutches. You are awake to things the Doubt was trying to hide. It will throw everything it has at you, so be ready. You have magic at your command, and friends in unlikely places.

So when your will begins to ebb, remember

Magic is real, and Dreams matter.

The Waking World is the second edition of the tabletop RPG Of Dreams and Magic.

The Waking World is about living in a world where anything is possible. When playing The Waking World, you will assume the role of Anima, magic wielders capable of making their Dreams real. Chief among their abilities is the Animus - the dream-self. They can take on the form and abilities of their Animus in the real world, whether their Animus is a wizard, space marine, or kleptomaniac ninja.

Anima use their powers to battle the Doubt, which turns their nightmares into Reavers. Horrible creatures from the depths of the human subconscious, Reavers torment Anima, targeting their loved ones, their goals, their jobs, and their lives, all to convince the Anima to give up their dreams, surrender their magic, and submit to its version of “reality.”

With a bit of Conviction and trustworthy friends, an Anima might survive, or even thrive in the middle of this war they didn’t sign up for.

In The Waking World, each player gets two characters for the price of one:

The Anima is a human capable of seeing past the Doubt and working minor magics. By spending Conviction, they might even enter dreams, chasing Nightmares or inspiring others to pursue their dreams. What makes them an Anima, though is the ability to channel their Animus.

The Animus is a dream identity that the Anima can take on, gaining their superhuman abilities in the real world. By spending Conviction, the player will turn their character sheet sideways, and will now be playing as a powered-up alternate character, capable of all sorts of superhuman and magical feats.

Your Animus acts as your sword and your shield against Nightmares, sent by the Doubt to ruin and destroy. Beware! This form can only be sustained for a limited time, so you must ration your Conviction wisely.

An Anima’s power extends far beyond the Waking World. Through a process called Dreamwalking, all Anima are capable of exiting their bodies in Animus form, and traveling both into their own dreams and the dreams of others.

In this way, Anima can visit entire new worlds. Alien planets, Fantasy kingdoms, even different versions of our own world. Some of these worlds are temporary, reflecting the dreamer’s consciousness. Others exist independently; these are Dreamscapes, like those found in our other gamelines, such as Dreamscape: Laruna. The Waking World is a nexus from which a multiverse may be accessed, and players can bring back skills and magic from their adventures into the unknown.

In dreams, anything is possible. You might have to play soccer against a team of elves, or defend your innocence in an ogre courtroom. You might have to chase a Reaver through a minotaur’s maze, or fight in a steampunk version of World War II. You may even find that your Anima has taken on a new form altogether, with new powers and abilities that fit the world you’ve entered.

The Doubt suppresses all magic, but particularly hates Anima. Every Anima who refuses to give in will eventually have to pay The Doubt’s toll. It sends Nightmares after all those who use magic, and reserves a special breed of Nightmare just for the hated Anima - Reavers. Reavers are dredged up from the worst fears and dark desires of an Anima’s psyche. These monsters are driven to sow discord terror in an Anima’s life, attacking their sanity, livelihood, social circles, families, and even their life. Each Reaver uses its own method of causing terror, in its effort to convince the Anima that dreaming isn’t worth it. The worst of these is your character’s Nemesis. The antithesis of your Animus, your Nemeses is an ultra-powerful Reaver custom built to take you down. It will exploit your weaknesses, it knows all your secrets, and it will never give up. Thematically opposed to your Animus (such as a Supervillain to your Superhero), you will have to rely on others if you want to survive. Nightmares are a reminder of the price we pay for our dreams. If Dreams can be real, so can Nightmares. When playing The Waking World, players create three separate but related characters: The Anima, the Animus, and the Nemesis. To guide players through this process,The Waking World has two forms of character generation. Quick Character Creation is for players who wish to jump right into the action with a minimal of fuss. After creating their Anima, the player selects from one of our classic Archetypes, such as The Superhero, the Cybercop, the Valkyrie, or the Wizard, and by following a simple step-by-step flowchart, will make a unique and balanced character in just a few minutes. Custom Character Creation is for players who want to create exactly the character they envision. This process is a bit more involved, and requires more time, but our plethora of gameplay options, including custom equipment, special powers, and passive benefits, will let you craft the Animus of your dreams! Quick character creation offers a series of character templates that are then further personalized to better reflect how the player wants to customize their character.

The Waking World uses ODAM's Over/Under CAP system, a scalable die system that puts an emphasis on player control and agency while maintaining the mechanical flexibility to work across multiple character types and dream settings. As its name suggests, the system has 2 core components:

Over/Under: All die rolls are made using two ten-sided dice. One die, referred to as the “Over” die, represents how far above (or Over) a character’s base level of ability they can perform. Similarly, the second die (the “Under” die) represents how far beneath (or Under) a character’s base level of ability they can perform. When rolling, the numbers on the face of the Over die are positive, and the numbers on the face of the Under die are negative.

When a roll is required, a player rolls their Over and Under dice simultaneously to achieve a result that ranges from -9 to +9 by adding the two values. This result is then added to the Ability score that is being tested (usually a skill + an attribute.)

Since the Over/Under die system produces a predictable range of results (-9 to +9,) success and failure hinge more on a character's skills and statistics rather than the player's dice rolling. While the dice still allow a character to perform above or below their ability, the greatest archer in the world will never suddenly miss the broad side of a barn. Unless, of course, his competition used-

CAP: The CAP system (Competitive Advantage Points) gives the player a degree of control over what kind of success they can achieve.

For every point above a set Difficulty a character rolls, they are awarded 1 CAP (one Competitive Advantage Point). These points can be spent to do extra damage, complete a task faster, change the way a Power works, and other effects. This reflects the character’s mastery (or luck) in the current situation.

As you can see in the above example, as a character gets better results when using Lay on Hands, they can customize their results by making the power stronger, altering it so it no longer requires touch, or even turn it into an attack. And of course, the CAP system is used no matter what your character is doing. Healing a partner, hitting a home run, and writing a love letter all use the mechanism: test your ability and skill versus a difficulty, gain CAP, and use that CAP to improve or change your results.

If you're already familiar with Of Dreams and Magic, here's a list of the major changes between the editions.