Amplitude & Frequency

A 24 Hour RPG using the factors Ham Radio, Dreams, and Tools

You are Technicians, intrepid explorers of the human psyche. Your job is to enter the dream of
a sleeper and repair a gaping Wound in their mind, a chasm from which the darkest poisons of
their subconscious leak out into their mind and corrode their dreams. To do this, you are armed
with your skills, your knowledge, and a state of the art Dilitheal Radioscopic Ether-based
Alternating Modulation device (or ​D.R.E.A.M.​), a masterwork of technology that aligns dream
occurrences with radio waves and allows you to track them to the source. To repair the Wound
and save the sleeper, you must lock onto and recover Implements, tools created by the
sleeper’s subconscious to repair their injured psyche. But it is not an easy path to heal the mind;
Nightmares lurk around every corner, and to die in the dream is to die in the flesh.

In ​Amplitude & Frequency ​players take on the role of Technicians, intrepid dream-surgeons and
explorers who are charged with attempting to heal the Wound, a psychic scar inside the mind of
a sleeping dreamer. To do this, they must find Implements, tools left behind by the dreamer’s
subconscious, while fighting off hordes of Nightmares and navigating outlandish dream-logic.
Should they manage to assemble the implements and close the wound, they will have saved
another soul from descending into terror and fear as their unconscious horrors corrode their
waking thoughts.

This game requires at least two people: A Dream Master (or DM) and a player, although 2-4 are
recommended, and uses a single ten sided die. Some kind of tokens to note where the players,
the Wound, and various Nightmares are is also recommended.

Basic Mechanics
All rolls are resolved via a roll of a single ten-sided die, following the table below. Notably, a roll
of a 1 is ​always​ a dramatic failure, and ignores any bonuses that would apply. The DM has final
say on the exact nature of the complications and hazards that arise from failed rolls, but should
keep in mind that these complications should be not insurmountable, but present.

Dice Rolls

1 An overwhelming and dramatic failure. This failure

causes some kind of additional complication to the
scene.

2-4 A failure, but not a major one. The attempted

action fails, but likely can be tried again.

5 An incredibly marginal success. The action is

completed, but causes an additional complication
of some kind.
 6-9 A success. The attempted action is completed, at
least in part and does not invite additional
problems.

10 An overwhelming success! The action is not only

completed, but a separate complication in the
scene is neutralized because of it. If there are no
additional complications to remove, instead
attribute a secondary success to the next action
the player attempts in the same section.

Terms and Jargon

● Technicians: ​The player characters. Psychic repairmen using revolutionary D.R.E.A.M.
radio devices to find the source of corruption.
● Dilitheal Radioscopic Ether-based Alternating Modulation Radios (D.R.E.A.M. Radios)​: A
state of the art tool that lets the Technician lock onto the location of Implements. The
presence of Nightmares causes radio static.
● Injuries:​ Any successful roll involving harming another creatures gives that creature an
Injury. Once that creature has an injury (or injuries depending on the creature or
Technician), any subsequent harm will kill or incapacitate them.
● The Wound: ​The psychic scar the players are here to fix. The Wound continually
disgorges Nightmares until it is healed.
● Implements​: Items created by the sleeper’s subconscious that are the key to repairing
their psyche and closing the Wound.
● Nightmares: ​Fragments of the subconsious of a broken mind that are trying to kill the
Technicians. Nightmares are divided into two types.
○ Lesser Nightmares: ​Minor shades and frights of the dreamer. Lesser Nightmares
can withstand a single injury before vanishing.
○ Greater Nightmares: ​Larger, more dangerous creatures formed from the fears
and insecurities of the dreamer. Greater Nightmares can withstand two injuries
before falling.
○ Phobias​: Unnaturally strong, skilled, and horrific creatures formed from the worst
fears of the dreamer. Phobias take three injuries to fell, and deal an extra injury
on a successful hit.
● Section: ​A portion of the dream, dominated by a singular concept.

Dream Generation
The first thing to do when setting up a game is for the players to create the Dream (or Dreams
for a particularly inventive DM who can string the dreams together.) This is done in three steps
by both the players and the DM.
1. First the players and DM each think up three concepts, words that they think would
either appear within, occur inside, or in some way describe the Dream. Keep these
concepts secret.
 2. Next, everyone takes three post-it notes, small pieces of paper, or other such moveable
items they can write on. On the back of each, they write one of their concepts and draw
two spaces on the edges marked “entrance” and “exit”. They then place these on the
table with the concepts facing up.
3. Each person picks one paper, reads the concept, and then flips it over to draw the layout
of the area on it. The drawing must have an entrance and exit that matches the marks on
the other side, but can otherwise be whatever the person wants, so long as it includes its
concept in some way, even obliquely. Once they are done, they place paper face down
again and pick another. This continues until all of the pieces have been chosen.
4. Once all of the pieces have been chosen, the DM takes them face down and arranges
them so that all their entrances and exits connect. They then mark one piece of paper as
the Entrance, mark it, and then flip it over.
The DM has control over what occurs in each section of the Dream, but must somehow
incorporate the concept that section represents. Next, the DM creates a single tool for each of
the players and secretly notes which section of the dream it lies in. The DM then notes which
section of the dream hosts the Wound and notes it publicly.

Character Creation
Next, the players create their characters. Each chooses a Title, two Skills, a piece of Gear.
Technicians can withstand one Injury, but items and events in the dream can boost the number
of Injuries necessary to take them down.
● A ​Title​ is a core concept for the character, themed in the manner of a heist movie
nickname. This appellation describes the role the character provides on the team, while
also giving hints to their motives and actions. Whenever a player performs and action
that is in line with the abilities and description of the Title they get +1 to that actions
outcome. ​Examples: The Bruiser, the Acrobat, the Femme Fatale, the Lookout
● Skills​ are either learned or innate abilities the Technician has. These skills can be
anything that the Technician can reasonably have trained in using. Whenever a
Technician performs an action that is associated with a Skill they have, they get +1 to
that actions outcome. ​Examples: Driving, Kung Fu, History, Electrical Engineering
● A Technician’s ​Gear​ is an item that resonates so strongly with them that they can
manifest it within the dreams of others. This item is unique, something intrinsically tied to
their character, and something they always have on their person. Any action a
Technician makes that uses their Gear they may reroll once. ​Example: A sword, a
handheld mirror, a winter parka, a sextant
Once the player has chosen these, the game is ready to start. Place the Technicians at the
Entrance and begin.

Gameplay Actions

Traversing the Dream

When the Technicians enter the dream, the first thing they have to do is lock on to a signal from
one of the Implements, which requires an action roll with their D.R.E.A.M. radios. Catastrophic
failures can scramble the signal, or spawn Nightmares with cause radio static.
Once they have a heading, they can start traveling in that direction. The Technicians can move
one section per turn, and when they go onto a new, face down section they flip it up and are
presented with some kind of problem, danger, puzzle, or other such obstacle that prevents them
from moving onward. Solving this grants the Technicians passage, and can bestow items and
bonuses at the DM’s discretion.

Spawning the Nightmare

Every turn once all the players have moved, the DM creates a Lesser Nightmare at the Wound,
then moves all Nightmares towards the players. Once the players have acquired one
Implement, the Wound creates two Lesser Nightmares per turn. Once the players have acquired
half of the implements, the Wound creates one Greater Nightmare for each of the remaining
Implements, who move towards those Implements and guard them. Once the players have all of
the Implements, the Wound creates a Phobia which stands guard around it. The DM has free
reign to modify the spawning system via things happening in the dream however, so it’s up to
them.

Obtaining the Implements

Once a Technician reaches the location of an Implement, they must pass some strange test of
dream logic to obtain it. The DM must create an ordeal of some kind involving both the
Implement and the surrounding concept of the section, which requires a minimum of three rolls
to obtain. These should be difficult, but it is impossible to truly lose an Implement. Should the
players fail enough times to completely flub the actions, the Implement will vanish and reappear
in another section of the dream.

Closing the Wound

Once all of the Implements have been gathered and the Technicians have made it to the
Wound, the greatest test of their skills begins. To close the Wound, the Technicians must make
two separate successful actions with each Implement while next to the Wound. However,
whatever character is doing this becomes the priority target for any Nightmares in the area,
including the Phobia. The DM is encouraged to create new abilities and obstacles for the Phobia
as the Wound is closed, to represent its desperate attempts to stop the Technicians. If the
Wound is closed, the Nightmares vanish and the players win.

A Dream Master’s Guide

A few notes for the Dream Master on creating Nightmares, obstacles, and running the game.
● Employ Un-Logic: ​As you are in a dream, everything makes sense even when it’s
nonsense. Create a set of rules that are exceptions to reality but are ever present in the
dream you have created. Things like “All mirrors are portals to other mirrors” or “Gravity
only applies to the surface your feet connect to” or “Everyone must speak in rhyme or
 they cannot speak more than monosyllables”. Make sure to put visible means of figuring
out these rules for the players in the dream.
● Embrace Melodrama: ​Inside a dream, everything is melodrama. Constructs and puzzles
in the dream should be over-the-top and absurd, landscapes are exaggerated, fears are
overdramatized and everything takes on a surreal tinge. Play up the dramatics of
scenes, even if the actual stakes aren’t that high.
● Focus Fears​: Nightmares are going to be varied creations, so to make them here’s a few
brainstorming tips to make creating the multitude of them easier.
○ Lesser Nightmares are manifestations of small fears, minor insecurities, and
other such miniscule things. Think up a small list (four or five) of minor fears the
dreamer might have and then give a feature related to them to the lesser
nightmares, while keeping the rest of their appearance similar to one another.
Someone with body image issues might fight rail-thin creatures with mannequin
joints, while another with a small fear of dogs might fight nondescript men
wearing hollow rubber wolf masks.
○ Greater Nightmares are more complicated than Lesser ones, and should
combine the concept of the section they are in with a more elaborate and unique
design. Each Greater Nightmare is visually different, and somehow ties into the
area it is encountered in. A dreamer with a fear of drowning in a section with the
concept “hands” could spawn a deep black pool that extends out grasping limbs
from its inky mass, while a dreamer with a fear of academic failure in a section
with the concept “inquisition” could spawn a grotesque torquemada-esque
torturer with a great “F” shaped branding iron.
○ Phobias are *specific* but incredibly potent fears at their root, and should
implement that in their design but take it to extremes. They should be monstrous,
dangerous, and imposing compared to their fellow Nightmares. An example
would be a dreamer with a phobia of spiders could spawn a gigantic towering pile
of jagged, multi-joined, grotesque insect limbs sharp as blades, while another
dreamer with a phobia of heights could face a creature that transforms the floor
into a bottomless pit strewn with pillars, and manifests as a giant pair of bone-thin
hands that reach up to pull others down.
● Have Fun:​ You’re making stuff in a dream, have some fun with it! Make cities made of
clouds or peppermint cannons on a ship of graham crackers, create caricatures of
historical figures of modern day celebrities, shift genre and tone with new areas and
encounters, and above all remember that you can do whatever you want in a dream.