Pleasant Dreams
Update: Print n Play goodness! (all pics from my laminated PnP copy)
Following its successful Kickstarter campaign, Aerjen
Tammingas Pleasant Dreams has now been forwarded to the eligible backers in
print and play format so they can play a few games in preparation for the
physical copy being delivered later this year. I was lucky enough to be on that
list and here is my opinion on the game....... GOOD GRAVY IT’S GOOD!!!!!
Pleasant Dreams, for those who have yet to read any more
about it is a one-to-two player card game in which the players are trying to
remain blissfully asleep in the face of a night wrought with terrifying dreams.
The players each have a ‘Wakefulness’ card which charts their state from 0 –
being fully asleep to 5 – waking up screaming. Each turn a player declares how
many ‘Dream Fragments’ they are going to face from the deck of 19 double sided
cards, from1 – 5 and then deals them out, resolving them in reverse order. Some
of these fragments will increase your wakefulness, taking you one (or two)
steps further towards waking up. Others will help lull you back to sleep.
The game isn’t exactly adversarial but there is an element
of ‘take that’ gameplay involved. Some of the helpful cards have a ‘flip’ icon
on them. If you wish to scare your fellow dreamer, you can flip the card so you
both see what the new result is and return it to a secret position in the deck,
usually for your opponent to face later!
Each player is also furnished with two bonus cards. The
barrier, which allows you to send a fragment to the bottom of the deck instead
of facing it, and the Premonition card, which allows you to peek at the top
three cards on the deck. Useful if you are close to waking and are unsure of
how risky the next step will be.
The game plays in 5 – 10 minutes and can be taught in one
turn, it’s that easy a concept. The best challenge is not in the game for the
most part but the person you are playing! The deck, when well shuffled (I’ve
had a game where I didn’t even make it half way through as I had shuffled most
of the positive cards to the bottom and faced all nightmare cards in the first
two turns!) offers a challenge in itself, pushing your luck against the
nightmares, but your opponent is just as big of a threat. If they flip a card and
it is a nightmare, you don’t know where they have placed it. Is it just below
the surface or deeper in the dream deck waiting for you? How evil is the person
sat across the table from you?
This indirect adversarial gameplay is brilliant and for such
a quick game it begs to be replayed many times. My print and play copy has become
a surefire hit already and everyone is looking forward to the real deal!
The ‘Lucid Dreams’ expansion has also been funded through
stretch goals, adding more bonus cards to be dealt randomly to the players
allowing effects such as using the same card twice, flipping the entire deck
over (which would be a nightmare, literally, as you would have almost no good
cards to look for) and choosing the order in which you deal with the dream
fragments. The expansion adds more elements to the strategy and only serve to
improve the game.
The game plays equally as well in the solo variant. You play
the same way as in the two player game but any flipped cards are inserted
‘somewhere’ in the middle of the deck so you don’t know quite when you’ll see
it again. The risk in waking up is just as great and you can make it harder for
yourself by starting at a slightly less sleepy position (I tried once and
lasted two turns!)
Preorders are now available at www.pleasantdreamsgame.com and I
advise anyone who is a fan of two player games, hell, anyone interested in
games at all, to pick yourselves up a copy. This is a very well put together
little game and me and my beard FULLY recommend it.
