Dream Catcher (2024)
Dream Catcher (2024) Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Overview
Welcome to the world of dreams! In this cooperative game, you will witness whimsical stories and will try to "catch a dream" — to identify the picked story by touch.
Every round, the lead player picks a Dream card and handles specially selected Touching cards with raised pictures to the other players. The lead player's goal is, without saying a word, to help the other players guess the picked Dream card. The core goal of the other players is to discuss the pictures they can feel on their Touching cards and to collectively choose one of the Dream cards.
You will flip Night tokens for correct answers and discard them for wrong answers. To win the game you need to have as many flipped Night tokens as possible by the end of the game.
Components
- 83 Touching cards with raised patterns
- 87 Dream cards with unusual pictures
- 9 Night tokens
- 4 Card Choice tokens
- 1 Dreamcatcher token
- This rulebook
Game Setup
- Place 9 Night tokens on the table with star sides down.
- Place 4 Card Choice tokens in the center of the table. Note that the face up side of the tokens is the same, except for one — that token will indicate the picked Dream card.
- Shuffle all Dream cards and place them face down next to the Card Choice tokens.
- Shuffle all Touching cards and place them face down next to the Night tokens.
- Place the Dreamcatcher token next to the Dream cards.
Choose the lead player — let it be the one who woke up today later than others.
You are ready to play.
Playing the Game
Round
- At the beginning of each round, the lead player draws 4 Dream cards and 5 Touching cards from the tops of respective decks. They look at their cards without showing them to the other players.
The Dream card is the depiction of an unusual dream. The lead player must help the other players to guess the picked card by using associations with the story, characters or patterns depicted on it.
Touching cards are the cards the players will be touching. Raised pictures on these cards will serve as associations or hints about the story picked.
- The lead player chooses which Dream card they want to pick. Hint: choose the card which better fits the Touching cards in your hand.
Then they randomly place 4 Dream cards face up in the center of the table, so all players can see them. They take the Card Choice tokens and place each token face down below each of those cards, secretly placing the star one below the picked card. There has to be one Card Choice Token below each card.
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The lead player chooses 2–5 cards from their Touching cards to help the other players to guess the picked Dream card. They handle those cards to players face down, one card per player. The lead player decides who receives which card.
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Each player touches their card without flipping it and looking at it. If every player received a card from the lead player, they can't exchange their cards. If any of the players didn't receive a card, the other players can give them one card received from the lead player. One player only gets one card per turn. In a two-player game the player can touch all cards that they received from the lead player.
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The players as a group discuss what they feel on their Touching cards and what Dream card might have been picked. The lead player can't give them any hints.
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During the discussion, players confer and choose one Dream card which they believe have been picked. Any of the players takes the Dreamcatcher token and places it on that Dream card.
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The lead player flips the Card Choice token below that card:
- a star: you guessed the lead player's card! Flip one of the Night tokens face up. This dream was a pleasant one, and you got closer to victory!
- a storm cloud: you didn't guess the card. Discard one unflipped Night token. You can't discard the tokens with star sides up. Alas, you didn't manage to catch the dream, and had nightmares that night.
Now the next player sitting clockwise becomes the lead player. Discard the used Touching cards and Dream cards.
The game ends when you run out of unflipped Night tokens.
The End of the Game and Victory
Check the amount of your Night tokens with star sides up:
- 1–3 tokens: it was hard for you to catch the dream. Try playing again to develop your mutual understanding and sense of touch.
- 4–6 tokens: you are a good team! You didn't manage to catch every dream, but keep exercising, and you'll get better with time.
- 7–9 tokens: a brilliant victory! You are skilled dreamcatchers.
Round Example
Amber, Troy, Rob and Sophie are playing the game. Troy is the lead player, so he draws 4 Dream cards and 5 Touching cards. He believes that, given his Touching cards, the easiest Dream card to guess would be the paramedics in the rain. One card will be a hint to the cross and the other - to the rain.
He places the Dream cards and the Card Choice tokens, secretly marking the picked card. Then Troy handles the Touching cards — one to Amber and one to Rob. Amber and Rob describe what they feel on their cards.
"It's a square with something inside, the lines, like a window," says Rob.
"Maybe it hints at a door or at the constructor set piece the mantis has," Sophie suggests, studying the pictures.
"I have something prolonged and roundish, can't make it out," says Amber.
"Sounds like a mountain or a hill," muses Sophie.
Then Rob gives his card to Sophie, as she didn't get a card and Rob is not quite sure about his guess.
"Yes, I also think this is a window," says Sophie. "Maybe the cross inside the square hints at a medical cross?"
"Then my card might have a drop and not a mountain," realizes Amber.
The players discuss which card has been picked. This is unlikely to be the card with yin yang, nothing points at it. Most likely it's the last card with the paramedics in the rain. They place the Dreamcatcher token on that card.
Troy flips the Card Choice token below that card: it has a star! The players have guessed correctly so they flip a Night token the star side up.