[DRYH] Using talents in the City Slumbering?

[george oliver]

I'm curious how others have approached this in DRYH -- do your players use their talents in the City Slumbering, or only in the Mad City?

My take on it is the talents are 'talents' because the character has crossed over into the Mad City. However I found myself as GM letting players use Exhaustion (but not Madness) talents in the City Slumbering anyway.

[iago]

Well, I hadn't ever intended a difference in talent function, but that doesn't mean it's inappropriate to have them behave differently in the City Slumbering.  The main concern I'd have is whether or not you end up creating disincentives to enter/return to the City Slumbering, if it means you lose some of your "juice".  If the Nightmares don't suffer a similar degradation when entering the City Slumbering, it means it's *better* for the characters to stay in the Mad City itself.

[Pyromancer]

I'm curious how others have approached this in DRYH -- do your players use their talents in the City Slumbering, or only in the Mad City?

When I played, the game started in the City Slumbering, but it was not until way inside the Mad City that one character got desperate enough to start using his Madness Talent. As the rest of the game happend during the 13th hour, the characters couldn't leave, so nobody used talents in the City Slumbering in my game.
But sure, once you are Awake, you can use your talents everywhere. Isn't it even in the example session at the start of the rulebook that this rock star type of character uses both his Exhaustion and Madness Talent to escape from the clockwork policemen?