Are some dreams rarer than others?

[li]Exactly what it says on the tin. Perhaps one only notices luck in its absence, but I’ve been trying to get a particular dream for about a week now. In doing so, I’ve taken much closer note of all the dreams I do get, mostly out of a disgruntled sense of ‘you could have been the thing I’m looking for, but you’re not’.

Well, I haven’t seen a single Death By Water dream for this whole week, which is rather depressing, given that’s the type I’m looking for. But it’s not just the fact that certain dream types seem more common - for instance, What The Thunder Said is pretty common, whereas The Fire Sermon is not; I think that’s already an established fact. And I only ever found my first A Game Of Chess dream yesterday, after about four weeks of playing.

Rather, I’ve noticed that the exact same dream cards keep coming up. For What the Thunder Said, I’m constantly drawing 'A Dream About the Mist (level 1), A Dream About the Desert (level 10; another of which I just drew as I’m writing this), and A Dream About Shelter (level 7). I think those are the only three I’ve seen over the past week, although I drew all of them multiple times. For The Burial of the Dead, the only card I’ve seen all week is A Dream About a Tombstone (level 5); but it has come up around four or five times. The ‘Is Someone There’ ones I’ve been getting haven’t shown much repetition, although that may be because I haven’t found many. And for the Fire Sermon, I’ve gotten perhaps three or four of those over the past week, all of which were the ones where I was throwing books into the Stolen River. Can’t remember the title for that one, though.

Granted, this is only a week’s worth of dreams, so it’s not exactly the greatest sample size. Nor is it the most refined sample. But do you think this is luck and lack thereof, or have you also observed that certain cards come up more often than others?

I mean, obviously some cards are more common than others. I’m just rather confused by this turnabout, because I can’t really see a reason to make certain dreams in a set more common or more rare than others.

I seem to get the Fire Sermon, Burial of the Dead, and Is Someone There often enough. I’ve very rarely gotten A Game of Chess dreams. I haven’t seen a Death By Water or What The Thunder Said in a very long time. The Death by Water ones may actually be rarer, as they can start someone, such as myself, on a dangerous search for forbidden knowledge.

That particular search is what I seek. But honestly, if I don’t get a dream about my home by the time I become a scholar of the correspondence, I’m just going to have to ask another Seeker to send me on my way. I really want to do it via dreams, but I can’t find any Death By Water dreams as of late, much less the single one I seek. Then again, perhaps I should get used to this sort of delay. XD I feel that I’d be much happier once I can finally start Seeking, though.

Hmm, odd that you’re not finding many What the Thunder Said. That’s by far the most common dream I have. Its progress is halfway to level 13, whereas the rest of my dreams are around 6 to 8 (and a Game of Chess is at one. Oddly enough, I’ve gotten two chess games on my new alt.) Well, Death By Water is at 9, but that’s only because I went on a somnambulent binge of false saints’ heads as soon as it hit five. I’ve only seen one Death By Water dream since then, and not recently.

At some point I remember reading that that card doesn’t show up if Death by Water is higher than 7 (it has to be exactly 7). You should be able to lower it by visiting Dr. Schlomo or by checking in to the Royal Beth.

Oh dear. Thank you - that’s quite helpful. Otherwise I would have been floundering around for a while.

Does anyone know exactly how much Schlomo or the Royal Bethlehem lower it by? I don’t fancy trying to bring it up again; if I could get an exact measure down, it would help (since I can’t do the head thing if it’s less than five, and it’s notoriously difficult to get dreams)

You can also start SMEN on Wednesday at mahogany hall apparently
edited by Anstruther Barron on 10/29/2013

I don’t believe insanity lowers it by much these days anymore—I can’t say for sure though. Used to be that it snagged all of your dreams entirely.

Also, I can confirm that in my considerable time playing, the Fire Sermon is indeed rarer than the others and Death by Water rarer still.[li]

Edit: [color=#ccffff]If you’re looking to start down the road to damnation [/color][color=#ff3300][DON’T, FOR PITY’S SAKE, TURN BACK ETC.] [/color][color=#ccffff]and don’t care much for how you do it, I encourage you to track down someone who will provide you with a dream of dark water. There is a stage involved in the process that requires seekers to betray others into seeking the Name, a horrifyingly difficult process if you’ve no-one to invite. I’m sure your willing sacrifice would be appreciated. [/color][/li][li]
edited by Dawson on 10/29/2013

I am really struggling to find a Fire Sermon one, which I desperately need to advance in my ambition.

Trading dreams with the manager really isn’t worth it at all, especially as you’ll need a ship shortly afterwards if i recall. Just wait until you can head out to Hunter’s Keep and get a Stone-Tentacle Key instead, that way you won’t get set back massively in the dream storylines.

I… kinda already drove myself insane. XD Oh well.

I’m aware of the other ways to start SMEN; for roleplaying purposes, I wanted to do it this way, although if I can’t find it by the time I’ll actually be able to progress with the storyline, then I’ll take the shortcut. As it is, I’m too low-level to enter Mahogany Hall, unfortunately.

Edit: Well, I can say with certainty that recovering from a State of Some Confusion removes less than 9 CP of dreams. Guess it’s time to go loco again. Probably twice.

[color=#c2c2c2]Edit 2: If it’s any use to the wiki, I can say with some certainty that leaving a State of Some Confusion lowers your recurring dreamstates by 5 CP.[/color]
edited by Laluzi on 10/29/2013

Thanks for your tip, Spacemarine9. Sadly, I have no clue where to ever start searching for the keep

Once you’re a person of some importance, you’ll be able to buy a ship (for the love of god just get the tramp steamer, it takes several months to grind for the others so unless you’re exceedingly patient you’ll have a no-fun time) and getting to the Keep will be extremely easy.

I know just kind of leaving off on your ambition like that is kind of lame, but the alternative is losing all your dreams and then getting stuck until you need a ship shortly afterwards anyway.

[li]
Raising Investigating… at the University -> ‘Raid A Message Drop’ in the Flit is actually a remarkably fast way to acquire the zee-clipper, since the payment is almost entirely in Use of Villains and you’re grinding large quantities of Cryptic Clues. Of course, for someone that’s already progressed beyond that part of the University story, or someone that feels (ab)using the Investigating… quality this way is unsporting, then the tramp steamer may be the way to go at first.

All in all the Tramp Steamer is a good ship - the Clipper is marginally faster and the other ones are mainly good for the Bizarre/Respectable bonus, but basically a Steamer does its job, so I’d advise to get a Steamer as soon as possible, then grind without hurry for the required components for some fancier ship (Use of Villains for the Clipper can be obtained from the War of Assassins, Whirring Contraptions for the Zubmarine from Wilmot’s End, for the Yacht the main ingredient is sheer good luck XD)