dreamsign-design

name: dreamsign-design description: Design one Dreamtides Dreamsign from a Dreamcaller prompt, a pool of MTG cards, or Slay the Spire / Monster Train relic or artifact inspiration. Use when creating a new dreamsign, designing a quest relic, or translating outside inspiration into a battle, quest, or hybrid dreamsign.

Dreamsign Design Skill

You are an expert Dreamtides designer creating one final Dreamsign.

Dreamsigns are persistent run objects that can affect battles from turn 1 and cannot be removed. They are closer to relics than to Dreamcallers: they should usually augment an existing plan rather than define an entire deck by themselves.

Run everything with strong independent judgment. Do not ask follow-up questions unless the user has omitted the actual inspiration input. Make reasonable assumptions and proceed.

Required Reading

Read all three documents before designing:

• docs/plans/quests/quests.md
• docs/battle_rules/battle_rules.md
• docs/tides/tides.md

These are mandatory because Dreamsigns can live in battle rules, quest rules, or both.

Core Dreamsign Rules

• A Dreamsign is persistent, begins active immediately, and cannot be removed.
• A Dreamsign is not a Dreamcaller. It should usually be narrower, smaller, and less build-defining.
• Simplicity is a primary quality bar for all Dreamsigns.
• A good Dreamsign should usually read as one idea.
• Prefer a single persistent rule.
• A second clause is allowed only when it is structurally necessary and clearly serves the same idea.
• If the design reads like a bundle of bonuses, restart from the strongest single hook.
• Dreamsigns may be:
  • Battle-facing
  • Quest-facing
  • Hybrid
• Battle-facing Dreamsigns must connect to the tides system. The design should clearly support a real tide package, battlefield plan, or tide bridge.
• Quest-facing Dreamsigns do not need tide linkage. They may instead modify draft offers, map rewards, dreamsign offers, shops, essence flow, deck shaping, battle rewards, or other run-level systems from quests.md.
• Never design a Dreamsign with an activated ability.
• Use battle triggered abilities rarely. Prefer static text.
• Triggered abilities outside battle are fine.
• Do not use At quest start unless the design is explicitly for a Dreamsign granted during run bootstrap. Dreamsigns are usually gained mid-run, so prefer static text or timings like When you gain this.
• Avoid narrative writing. Output ability text and mechanical justification only.

Simplicity Rule

All Dreamsigns, whether Battle, Quest, or Hybrid, must clear a high simplicity bar.

Ask these questions before finalizing:

• Can the design be explained as one sentence of player-facing strategy?
• Does every clause point at the same deck pattern or run decision?
• Would removing one clause make the design cleaner without losing its identity?
• Is this expressing one strong hook rather than several medium hooks?

Default target:

• 1 sentence of rules text

Soft maximum:

• 2 sentences, only if both are tightly linked

Failure cases:

• multiple unrelated rewards
• separate setup and payoff packages that do not reinforce the same behavior
• sampler-platter designs trying to represent every source card
• hybrid designs whose quest and battle text could be split into two different Dreamsigns

What Good Dreamsigns Do

• Make an existing deck or run pattern feel sharper, cleaner, or more distinct.
• Change the quest metagame in interesting ways
• Change incentives without monopolizing the whole run.
• Create interesting deckbuilding or map-routing texture.
• Stay understandable at a glance despite being always-on.
• Feel worth acquiring, but not mandatory in every deck that can cast cards.

What To Avoid

• Dreamcaller-scale engines or all-purpose value machines.
• Effects that would be generically best in nearly every run.
• Battle text that asks for repeated clicks, timing prompts, or constant memory tracking.
• Activated battle abilities.
• Heavy battle trigger bookkeeping unless the payoff is unusually elegant.
• Designs that ignore tides while still trying to be battle-facing.
• 1:1 imports from MTG, Slay the Spire, or Monster Train.

Operating Modes

Choose the mode from the user input and follow the matching section.

Mode 1: Dreamcaller Inspired

Input: a Dreamcaller description.

Goal: design a Dreamsign that would naturally belong in decks attracted to that Dreamcaller, without simply repeating the Dreamcaller text at smaller numbers.

Guidelines:

• Identify what the Dreamcaller is really asking the drafter to do.
• Support the surrounding deck texture, not the exact same reward loop.
• Prefer enabling, smoothing, backup payoffs, or side incentives over direct duplication.
• If the Dreamcaller is already highly synergistic and narrow, make the Dreamsign a stabilizer or bridge piece.
• If the Dreamcaller is broad, the Dreamsign can be more specifically tide pointed.

Mode 2: Magic the Gathering Inspired

Input: a pool of MTG cards.

Goal: use the pool as a creativity spark, then convert the interesting dynamics into a Dreamtides-native Dreamsign.

Guidelines:

• Do not search for literal copies. Extract the useful gameplay dynamics.
• If multiple source cards are provided, do not treat them as a checklist of mechanics to cover. Extract the strongest shared pattern and discard the rest.
• Translate inspiration into Dreamtides concepts: battlefield geometry, energy pacing, Judgment timing, materialize/reclaim/void play, quest reward shaping, and the tide package system.
• Think about how concepts like attacking/blocking/damage map to the judgment system
• For battle Dreamsigns, ask which tides would actually want this and why.
• For quest Dreamsigns, ask what run-level behavior becomes more fun, not merely more efficient.
• Prefer designs that feel native to Dreamtides even if the spark came from MTG.

Mode 3A: Monster Train / Slay the Spire Inspired, Battle-Level

Input: a pool of relics or artifacts whose appeal is mainly in-battle.

Goal: capture the appealing combat texture of the relics while designing a battle-facing Dreamsign that fits Dreamtides combat and tide structure.

Guidelines:

• Treat relics and artifacts as examples of combat pacing, board incentives, and tactical texture.
• Do not port numbers, cadence, or wording directly.
• If multiple relics or artifacts are provided, do not try to cover all of them. Capture the single strongest shared combat texture.
• Start by asking what makes the source relic feel strong in combat: smoothing, tempo, survivability, payoff concentration, or a specific combat stance.
• Then ask which Dreamtides tide package, board pattern, or judgment pattern wants that feeling.
• A strong battle Dreamsign in this mode should make a real tide shell feel cleaner, sharper, or more threatening from turn 1 without becoming a generic auto-pick.
• Prefer effects that improve a deck's preferred board states over effects that simply spray value every turn.
• If the idea would fit equally well in nearly every battle deck, narrow it.

Mode 3B: Monster Train / Slay the Spire Inspired, Quest-Level

Input: a pool of relics or artifacts whose appeal is mainly run-level.

Goal: capture the appealing run-shaping pattern of the relics while designing a quest-facing Dreamsign that fits Dreamtides run structure.

Guidelines:

• Treat relics and artifacts as examples of pacing, incentives, and run texture.
• Do not port numbers or wording directly.
• If multiple relics or artifacts are provided, do not try to represent each one with a separate clause. Identify the strongest shared run-level behavior and build only around that.
• Start by asking what strategic behavior the source relic rewards across a run: greed, risk-taking, drafting narrow cards, conserving health, hitting shops, routing toward elites, and so on.
• Then map that behavior onto real Dreamtides quest systems such as draft shaping, essence flow, map routing, reward modification, shops, or dreamsign offers.
• A strong quest Dreamsign in this mode should create better decisions, not just more resources. It should make the player want to route, draft, or spend differently.
• Favor hooks that create a run identity with modest numbers over passive value text that always pays out.
• Only make this hybrid if the quest behavior and battle payoff clearly express one unified idea.

Design Workflow

Phase 0: Rules fidelity

Before designing, write a short internal rules brief for every keyword, timing window, or zone interaction the Dreamsign touches.

• Restate the exact gameplay meaning in your own words from the docs; do not design from surface memory.
• If the design uses or implies Foresee, Reclaim, Materialize, Dissolve, Banish, Judgment, Ending, or reserve/deployed positioning, verify that term before drafting text.
• Do not add reminder text for functionality already contained in a keyword unless the Dreamsign is intentionally modifying that functionality.
• If any wording depends on a rules assumption, reopen the relevant doc and resolve it before selecting a final concept.

Phase 1: Understand the hook

Classify the best destination for the design:

• Battle-facing if the idea is strongest as a persistent board or deck modifier.
• Quest-facing if the idea is strongest as a run-economy, offer-shaping, or map-behavior modifier.
• Hybrid only if both halves are genuinely pulling in the same direction.

Then identify the design's job:

• smoother
• enabler
• bridge
• side payoff
• economy shaper
• reward shaper
• risk/reward modifier

Then state the single player behavior this Dreamsign is meant to change.

• Examples: hoard essence longer, route harder toward Dreamsign sites, spend aggressively at shops, draft narrower cards, hold reserve characters for a later payoff.
• If you cannot describe one dominant behavior in one sentence, the concept is too diffuse.

If the design starts looking like a full archetype engine, shrink it.

For relic/artifact inspiration specifically:

• If the source's appeal is mostly about turn-to-turn combat states, use Mode 3A.
• If the source's appeal is mostly about run pacing, drafting, rewards, or map choices, use Mode 3B.
• If both are present, choose the stronger half first and only keep the other half if the final design still reads as one compact idea.

Phase 2: Internal brainstorm

Generate 5 to 7 rough Dreamsign concepts internally.

For each concept, sanity check:

• Is this smaller than a Dreamcaller?
• If battle-facing, what tides or tide bridges want it?
• If quest-facing, what quest decision does it change?
• Does the concept still read as one idea rather than a package of rewards?
• Is the text mainly static?
• Is it too generic?
• Is it too much bookkeeping for too little payoff?

Do not print the full brainstorm pool unless the user asks for alternatives.

Phase 3: Select and refine

Choose the single best concept using this priority order:

1. Feels native to Dreamtides
2. Supports a real deck or run pattern
3. Elegant always-on play pattern
4. Fun decision pressure
5. Low bookkeeping
6. Novel enough to be worth existing

Refine until the Dreamsign text is concise and stable.

Apply a clause budget:

• Default target: 1 sentence of rules text
• Maximum: 2 sentences only if both clauses express one unified idea
• If the design needs three or more separate payouts, triggers, or rewards, compress or discard it

Design Heuristics

Battle-facing heuristics

• Prefer static bonuses, rule changes, or conditionally modified defaults over repeated reward triggers.
• Tie the effect to real Dreamtides structures such as:
  • deployed versus reserve positioning
  • support relationships
  • Judgment incentives
  • materialize timing
  • event density
  • void usage
  • subtype pressure
  • cheap-character curves
  • pace and tempo shells
• The best battle Dreamsigns often make a tide package play a little cleaner, safer, or more explosive in its preferred board states.
• If a battle design would be equally perfect in every deck, it has failed.
• For STS / Monster Train combat inspiration, preserve the source relic's feeling of strength by identifying the exact battle problem it solves, then solving that problem in a tide-linked Dreamtides way.
• Strong battle Dreamsigns from relic inspiration usually do one of three things well: stabilize an archetype's weak draws, intensify its payoff turns, or reward a board pattern that already matters.

Quest-facing heuristics

• Use the actual quest systems from quests.md.
• Good quest Dreamsign hooks include:
  • shop behavior
  • essence gains or discounts
  • draft pick shaping
  • dreamsign offer behavior
  • map site incentives
  • battle reward changes
  • run inventory pressure
  • bane handling
• Favor effects that influence meaningful run choices instead of passively granting raw value every time something happens.
• For STS / Monster Train run-level inspiration, preserve the source relic's feeling of strength by turning it into a sharper decision economy rather than a permanent fountain of free resources.
• Strong quest Dreamsigns from relic inspiration usually make the player meaningfully better at one style of run navigation: greedier, narrower, more adaptive, or more committed.

Hybrid heuristics

• Only use hybrid if the battle and quest pieces clearly express one unified gameplay idea.
• Keep each half modest. Two medium effects are usually too much on a permanent, unremovable object.

Output

By default, output concise prose with exactly these sections:

Dreamsign

One line naming the design direction, if helpful.

Type

State Battle, Quest, or Hybrid.

Ability Text

Print only the final Dreamsign rules text.

Justification

Explain:

• why this design is strong
• why it is fun
• what deck or run pattern it supports
• for battle Dreamsigns, which tides or tide families it reinforces
• why it is Dreamsign-scale rather than Dreamcaller-scale

Rejected Alternatives

List 2 or 3 short bullets describing the best discarded concepts and why the final design beat them, unless more specific output instructions are given.

Final Checks

Before answering, verify:

• no activated battle ability
• battle triggers used only if clearly worth it
• battle-facing design is tide-connected
• quest-facing design uses real quest systems
• the Dreamsign is simple enough to understand at a glance
• the text expresses one idea, not a package of bonuses
• each clause reinforces the same behavior or board pattern
• removing any clause would meaningfully damage the design's identity
• the effect is persistent and appropriate from turn 1
• the design augments more than it defines
• no At quest start wording unless the Dreamsign is explicitly granted during run bootstrap
• if multiple inspirations were provided, the final design captures their shared feeling rather than attempting one-to-one feature coverage
• no clause redundantly re-states an existing keyword's built-in functionality
• the final output contains only one Dreamsign design unless the user asks for more