Dare to Dream
Dare to Dream Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Objective
Dare to Dream is an asymmetric card game of nocturnal terror. One player is The Darkness and seeks victory by waking the Dreamers. While The Darkness player has a variety of nightmares at their beck and call, the Dreamers are protected by their loyal Guardians.
For this demo, the goal of The Darkness is to score either 3 points in in the 3 player demo or 4 points in the 4 player demo. The Darkness scores 1 point each time they wake up a Dreamer.
The Dreamers win by surviving until the end of the game without The Darkness winning. In this demo, the game is only 5 turns long.
Setup & Components
The Blue player is The Darkness and is always alone on a team of 1. The other players are The Dreamers and are working together as a Team.
Component Set-Up is more or less already handled in the demo. All players need to do is shuffle their decks and draw cards from the appropriate deck. The Dreamers should only draw cards from the Dreamer Deck (5 each for a three player game, 4 each for a 4-player game) and The Darkness should draw 4 cards from The Darkness deck.
The large white cubes are the Sand tokens. The Dreamers begin play with all 6 of the Sand tokens as a team. Sand is the main resource in the game and it is explained in more detail below.
The small yellow, red, blue, and gray cubes are there to track temporary bonuses Guardians or Monsters may be receiving to their strength. It will explain on the card how many and what color of bonus a Guardian will receive. Monsters receive gray cubes whenever they would gain Strength; these bonuses to a Monster's Strength apply across both colors if a Monster has more than one color.
The large white cylinder should be moved down the Hours track on the board at the end of every turn. The large black cylinder should be used to track The Darkness' total score on that column of the board.
Sand
In order to play Action cards, players must usually pay Sand. Certain Guardians, Equipment, and Wards may also have a Sand Cost on them to use their Abilities.
When a Dreamer pays Sand, they give that Sand to The Darkness. Many of The Darkness' Monsters, Nightmares, and Action cards can be improved by holding a certain amount of Sand or by paying a Sand cost.
When The Darkness pays a Sand cost, set that Sand Token in the Sand Pile on the game board. Certain cards may give either The Darkness or Dreamers more Sand. Dreamers may only gain Sand from the Sand Pile. If an effect would cause a player to gain Sand when there is not an available Sand token for them to take, they do not gain that Sand.
Sequence of Play
At the start of the night there is a Tuck-In Phase where the Dreamers prepare their Guardians and Wards, then there is a Sleep Phase which is broken down into 5 Hours where The Darkness attempts to wake the Dreamers.
A demo game of Dare to Dream consists of the following phases:
A preliminary Tuck-In Phase, where the Dreamers prepare their Guardians and Wards. This phase may recur if The Dreamers are woken again during the night.
5 Hour Phases, which each represent an hour of the night passing. During these phases The Darkness attempts to wake the Dreamers. A full game consists of 10 Hours and includes a Final Showdown.
Tuck-In
Each Dreamer may play any number of Item cards on their Guardians and play a Ward card in front of themselves.
Each Guardian may only have 1 Item card equipped and each Dreamer may have only one Ward card in front of themselves. A Dreamer may also move or swap Items between Guardians they control. Dreamers may not spend Sand during the the Tuck In Phase.
Once all of the Dreamers have played any Items or Wards they wish, they flip their cards to the Asleep side. Once all Dreamers have the Asleep side of their card showing, proceed to the Hours.
Hours
At the start of each Hour of the Night phase The Darkness draws 2 cards from the Darkness Deck. Each Awake Dreamer may put Wards into play or equip Items to their Guardians as if it were the Tuck-In Phase.
The Darkness may then play up to 2 cards from their hand face down in front of themselves. Monsters and Nightmares placed this way will trouble Dreamers in the future, Actions played this way will be discarded to no effect. Actions must be played from The Darkness' hand to have an effect.
The Darkness then chooses either to Lurk or to Strike.
Lurk
If the Darkness chooses to Lurk, they may choose to discard a card from their hand and then draw a card. Each Awake Dreamer is now considered Asleep and flips their Awake/Asleep card back over to the appropriate side. Then advance the Time Tracker by 1 Hour.
Strike
If The Darkness chooses to Strike, the Darkness reveals all of the facedown cards in front of it one at a time. As The Darkness reveals cards with 'When revealed' effects, resolve those effects. The Darkness may reveal these cards in the order of their choice. If The Darkness reveals an Action, discard that card.
Then The Darkness chooses a Monster and assigns it to a Dreamer. Before any Dreamer may be assigned 2 Monsters, each Dreamer must be assigned at least 1 Monster. Before any Dreamer may be assigned 3 Monsters, each Dreamer must be assigned at least 2 Monsters.
Sidebar: For a 4 Player Game: The Dreamers get a bonus power. After all of The Darkness cards are revealed, the Dreamers may select one Monster and assign it to any Guardian of their choice. The Darkness then assigns the remaining Monsters as explained in the Strike section.
Each Dreamer with a Monster assigned to them then assigns a Guardian to face that Monster. The Dreamers may now use Guardian Abilities, Items, Wards, and play Action cards, remembering to pay The Darkness any Sand those cards may require. Once the Dreamers have played all the Action cards and used all of the abilities they wish to, The Darkness may play Action cards. (See Sand below for a more detailed explanation of how Sand works)
When a Guardian faces a Monster, compare the relevant attributes; either Shadow, Noise, or Dread. If a Monster has multiple attribute symbols on it, the Dreamer may choose which attribute their Guardian faces that Monster with. Whichever Monster or Guardian has a higher attribute wins. Monsters win ties.
If a Dreamer cannot assign a Guardian to a Monster, or if a Dreamer's Guardian is defeated by a Monster, that Dreamer is woken up and flips their Awake/Asleep card to the Awake side. An Awake Dreamer may not play any cards, spend any Sand, or use any abilities on their cards. When a Dreamer is awoken, they immediately draw back up to a full hand of cards. The Darkness advances their score tracker by 1. The Darkness wins immediately when they reach the number of points needed to win.
Once all Monsters have faced a Guardian or awoken a Dreamer, discard all Monsters from play. Any Dreamers who have been Awake since the start of the hour now flip their Awake/Asleep cards back to the Asleep side. Then advance the Time Tracker 1 Hour. If the Time Tracker would move past Hour 5 and The Darkness has not won, the Dreamers win!
Awake Dreamers
An Awake Dreamer may not play any cards, spend any Sand, or use any abilities on their cards. When a Dreamer is awoken, they immediately draw back up to a full hand of cards.
Any Dreamer who is Awake at the start of an hour may put Wards into play or equip Items to their Guardians as if it were the Tuck-In Phase. They do this before The Darkness places any cards facedown.
At the end of an hour, any Dreamers who have been Awake since the start of that hour now flip their Awake/Asleep cards back to the Asleep side.
Guardians Facing Multiple Monsters
A player may choose to have one of their Guardians face any number of Monsters, or occasionally card interactions may cause this to happen.
When a Guardian has multiple Monsters assigned to it the Monsters add their Strengths together. The Guardian then compares its Strength in one attribute to the combined Monsters Strength. The Guardian must select an attribute to compare that at least one of the Monsters has.