This document is intended for the eyes of Game Masters, in both their planning and their practice.
Players in a Daydream campaign, whether current or anticipating, should avoid reading any material on this page.
Firstly, the GM Guide to Daydream is intended to lift the curtain and reveal the intrigue and the inner workings of Reverie and the Tapestry. Specifically, unlike the Player's Guide, the GM Guide is written to be informative, rather than to be a narrative. Its intent is to be comprehensible.
Secondly, the GM Guide to Daydream aims to be helpful yet not controlling. Much of every world is up to one's own invention; Daydream is a tapestry, a consensus reality. Indeed, no setting has been upheld just as the author intended; every character is always told in a different way by each person. Where possible, the GM is given free reign to control their version of the world - often with suggestions, but rarely should there be extraneous demands. Its intent is to guide.
Finally, the GM Guide to Daydream should be all a GM needs to understand Reverie. There should be no extraneous notes, or study of secondary material; the GM Guide to Daydream, in concert with the Player's Guide, should have all material needed to prepare a game set in Reverie. Its intent is to be comprehensive.
Thus the GM Guide to Daydream is a comprehensible, comprehensive guide. If it fails in this pursuit, it is a failing of execution rather than philosophy, and all blame belongs with the author.
For expanded Player's Guide details on the Arbiters and religion, see here.
For more details on the Tapestry's Cosmology, see here.
For more details on Reverie's History (including new racial details!), see here.
Daydream Adventure Paths take a different approach than most.
See here for more information and a list of Adventure Paths.
If a 1-year campaign via Adventure Path doesn't sound appropriate, some example one-off missions are presented below. Unfortunately, these don't delve nearly as deeply into the history of Reverie. Fortunately, that isn't particularly the goal of most gaming groups.
Levels 1-3
Levels 4-6
Levels 6+
Summary: The Infused, due to their collection of benefits, should be treated as ECL +2. This means a Level 1 party of 4 Infused will be fighting CR 3 encounters. (Level 1 + ECL +2 = ECL 3. Note that due to the use of gestalt rules (and the ensuing "role overlap"), many parties will use only 3 Infused per party; treat such a party as if it were a 4 person party of ECL +1.)
Players in Daydream will be significantly more powerful than in the base Pathfinder rules. With access to gestalt abilities, a bonus Hit Die, Conviction points, an Infusion of Power, a Principle that can be called on in times of need, expanded feat options, and innate enhancement bonuses, one might wonder why it is that a set of rules that claims to use Epic 6th also manages to power up the Infused so significantly.
The solution is not to compare a level 1 Daydream character with a level 1 Pathfinder character, but instead to consider the opposition facing each. A level 3 character in Golarion, with an appropriate adventuring party, will generally be found fighting a CR 3 creature.
This is not the case in Daydream, for Daydream is a world of the immense among mortals. Merely a pair of level 3 characters in Reverie can handle the same power of enemies as the full adventuring party of Golarion given above - and a full complement of these Infused can tackle nearly the challenge that might face their fully-advanced level 6 counterparts.Â