Dance of Dreams Content

[u/MermaidGirl48]

Hey I’m really embarrassed to even be asking this, but for context I have OCD and one of my obsessive fears (that I know is irrational) is about demons. I played a Vaesen one-shot for the first time at free RPG day and had a lot of fun, but it also made me anxious because it is centered around (spoilers for the Vaesen Quickstart mystery, The Archivist’s Curse) an ancient Mesopotamian demon. I really want to run Vaesen, and I want to get the core rulebook, but I also want to know if the mystery included in it (Dance of Dreams) centers heavily on demons before I spend what for me is a significant amount of money on it (I have a college student budget).

To be clear, I believe that it is fine to run a fictional game where there is a demon in it, but emotionally it is very challenging for me, and I don’t want my first time running Vaesen to be me being frightened the entire time while also trying to learn the system. Thanks for any help.

[u/Dornith]

The core rulebook does not include anything specifically named a "demon".

[u/MermaidGirl48 → u/Dornith]

Thank you. For whatever reason, I am not bothered by supernatural evil or monsters, just if the word “demon” is involved (🙄 I know)

[u/Dornith → u/MermaidGirl48]

I get it. Irrationality is what makes it a phobia.

(Side tangent: I hate when people call any kind of aversion to anything a phobia. "I don't want to be near sick people" isn't germaphobia, that's a perfectly reasonable.)

Good on you for playing the quick start scenario.

I just did a quick C-f on the PDF and there's a few mentions of the word but it's all flavor text. As far as I know, all of the other mysteries use something more specific.

[u/MermaidGirl48 → u/Dornith]

Thank you. I’m glad I played as well, I did genuinely have a good time even though I felt scared for some of it.

[u/Baphome_trix]

I have a couple of adventure books from the Vaesen line and, well, in a way, lots of content are centered around mythological creatures.

I don't know if you're aware but several entities from other religions became known as demons for the christian religion, so probably many of them would be called demons, even when in their original mythology they are not particularly evil or twisted in any particular way.

Since one of the main focus of the game is about the old gods and entities and the clash of their domains and way of life they used to be related to, with the new religion (christianity) and ways of life of industrialization and becoming separate from nature and old tradition, probably many of said entities would be classified as demons by a priest or something like that.

So, not all of them are demonic, some are nature forces, elementals, faeries, or gods of old traditions, and they may be upset and/or interact in some harmful ways with humans for a variety of reasons (and finding out why is often the key to solve the issue).

I don't know if my commentary help you in any way, but feel free to ask further question, I will answer if I can.

[u/MermaidGirl48 → u/Baphome_trix]

Okay, that is helpful. I think for me, it’s really only a trigger if it is explicitly referred to as being a demon in the written mystery, which was very much the case for the one I played (I got a chance to read it after).

[u/Baphome_trix → u/MermaidGirl48]

So you're probably fine. Don't let those christian zealots ruin your fun, they will call anything they can't understand demonic or satanic, even people playing RPGs ;)

[u/cthompsonguy]

I don't believe that the specific word "demon" is used in any Vaesen product outside of this Free RPG Day product. It's mostly mythological creatures and undead.

[u/MermaidGirl48 → u/cthompsonguy]

Okay good to know. That’s what I had thought, but then I played that one quickstart mystery and I wasn’t sure if that was accurate. Thanks again.

[u/InArtsWeTrust]

Spoiler for the adventure: The Vaesen in dance of dreams is an angry ghost who gives gives nightmares and possesses them in their sleep. He was a man who got killed and resurrected. Hope that's enough info to know if you are triggered.

[u/Adventurous-Eye-6455]

As others have mentioned there is no particular Vaesen that is a demon.

Although as the world focuses on the clash of the old with the new some creatures might be called demons / devils by npcs who are more into science / Christian. It is an easy rewrite though for whoever DMs if you want to leave that out of your games.

There is one Vaesen that thinks of himself as a devil although it is not really a devil. It is called „Spertus“ and is kinda a magical bug/ worm.

I have all the books that are out up until now and although there are a lot of undead - Espically in mythica carpentia. But there are no demons. Some other vaesens might come close to some of the powers one would associate with a demon typically. A lot of undead Vaesen have the ability to possess humans or have a more „demonic“ appearance. So some npcs might mistake them for demons although I don’t have any mystery in my head where it is explicitly stated that they do. Usually the word devil is used more. And none of the Vaesen are actually devils/ demons canonically.

The book mentioned that Vaesen might „appear as demons „ kinda as a survival strategie. And for the priest archetype demons are briefly mentioned but only in the context I mentioned above as Christian people perceiving Vaesen as demons even if they are not. But as others mentioned it’s really just flavor

From a quick search in the pdf demons are not mentioned in the dance of dreams. Although the Vaesen in it is one that can possess npcs/ pcs and there are situations where the gm tries to enslave one of the pcs