placation | LABY PERSONA DREAM EVENT

Character Canon: Persona 5 Royal

Brief Explanation: P5R takes place in a modern day Tokyo where the cognitive layer of the world underpins all of reality. This cognitive world can either be accessed through an individual’s cognition, or as part of the collective unconscious that governs all of humanity.

More info about the mechanics of that are in the Notable Elements section below, but for the purposes of a dream event, we think it would work better if it was the cognitive layer underpinning Somnius, rather than changing Somnius into Tokyo. A couple Tokyo elements could be included (see Suggested Ideas section!) but it would mostly be about bringing the cognitive world aspect into the game.

Notable Elements:

Palaces – A cognitive world based on an individual's distorted desires (flaws, secrets, deep dark trauma, etc.) All design elements and functions are completely unique to the individual in question, no one Palace is like any other.
Persona awakenings – In P5R specifically, a character's Persona is a manifestation of their willpower and rebellion. That rebellion can be against anything – a societal expectation placed upon them, a family member, the injustices of the world at large, whatever. Personas are usually figures from mythology/folklore, but can truly be anything (sometimes, a Persona is a motorcycle!) so long as it thematically fits the character. Personas can do battle, support and heal, or just be the buddy you created from your very soul.
Confidants – The most important aspect of any Persona game? The bonds that you create with other characters. In P5R this is called the Confidant system, and for the purposes of a panfandom game, it's basically free CR building/strengthening real estate. A character's confidant assignment is a tarot arcana that represents them – for example, Akechi is the Justice arcana confidant. The higher a confidant level between characters, the stronger the bond. Increasing confidant levels grants abilities/power boosts to the involved parties.
Changes of heart – An individual with a distorted desire (see Palaces above) can have their heart changed to remove this distortion, either through battle or through good old fashioned talking it out. Normally a "treasure" represents this distorted desire, and once a heart is changed, it reverts into a real object that was the source of the distortion – to use a totally random example, in canon Maruki's treasure was a torch to light the way to guide the world, and when his heart was changed it reverted into the newspaper article about his ex-fiancée's family's murder that first started him down his distorted path.

Free Reign: Yes!

Suggested Idea: For what it’s worth, Lexy and I worked on this together, and if it ever gets chosen as a dream event, we are more than happy to write up the prompts and work with the mods to tweak and make sure they’re befitting of Somnius/the larger metaplot! We Have So Many Ideas. : ) If there are any questions to flesh out the outlined ideas below, please hit both of us up and we’ll be on it!

Persona awakenings – Characters are placed in a simple prompted situation (could even be like – a special door has appeared in the labyrinth, if your character chooses to explore it this is what happens!) where they are under enough emotional stress/danger to awaken their Persona that will help them escape through whatever means (battle, negotiation, deus ex machina magical exit – whatever the player wants.) Not all characters in the event have to awaken a Persona, but for those who want to get to do some introspection and play around with how their character's rebellion would manifest, it would be a nice way to ease into the universe!
Palaces / Changes of heart – Players who want to explore their character's distorted desires (again, this could really be anything – flaws, dreams gone too far, trauma, secrets, etc.) could have the opportunity to create their own Palace for their character, essentially creating a character-specific Boss Level prompt they could write for other characters to enter and interact with. The goal should be to have the character's heart changed through whatever means the player wants – we're of the mind that this shouldn't be a heavy combat-focused dream event, but if the player wants combat, they could make it so. Either way, it could simply be negotiation between characters to revert the treasure and change the heart. For the purposes of a panfandom game, this wouldn't cure the character of their flaw/trauma/whatever the way it does in canon, it just serves as an interesting way for players to explore it with their CR.
Confidants – Players get to assign their character a confidant arcana (could be done by player choice or by RNG – Caitlin would gladly build an easy Arcana randomizer lol) and have free CR building/strengthening with other characters! The confidant system works by two characters both needing something from each other, so the player's prompt could easily be their character laying out either what they need or have to give. Maybe there's a power boost incentive for collecting many different arcanas in your CR? Maybe you straight up turn it into a Persona style simulator with dialogue options, as folks have done in the arcade event? The world is your oyster! Build that CR!
A little Tokyo slice of life – As stated in the summary up top, our vision is more for Somnius to take on the cognitive aspects of the Persona series rather than becoming Tokyo, but a chiller/more slice of life prompt could easily incorporate some P5R!Tokyo aspects into to the town. There's a jazz club called Jazz Jin where characters can relax and build confidant CR, there's an arcade called Penguin Sniper where they can play games like darts or billiards to increase their stats/abilities, there's a restaurant called Big Bang Burger where they can try to gain the courage to eat a massive goddamn burger, there's even a meta area called the Thieves Den where they can break the fourth wall a bit by looking at their achievements! Just some lighter stuff to throw in for folks who don't want to go hard in the paint with the cognitive mess that is Personas/Palaces and free areas for Confidant prompts to take place.