Dreams of Tomorrow Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How the Game Works
• Components
• Setting up the Board
• Player Setup
• Gameplay
  • 1. Move
  • 2. Take Action
• Types of spaces in the Collective Consciousness
  • Resource Action Spaces
  • Dream Action Spaces
• Game End
• Scoring
  • Scoring Example
• Game Modes: Pleasant Night and Troubled Night
  • Troubled Night: Setup
  • Troubled Night: Gameplay
  • Night Mare's Turn
• Solo Game
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo Gameplay
  • Solo Game End
  • Solo Scoring
  • Robot Card Wordings
  • Troubled Night with the Solo Game
• Adding the Robot Player to the Multiplayer Game
• Quick Start Guide

How the Game Works

Dream Engineers have two main career paths: id-naut and id-tech. The first excels in creativity, the second in life experiences. Both rely on hope.

Dreams of Tomorrow players are futuristic Dream Engineers who send dreams to the past to change their present. They accomplish this by moving throughout the Collective Consciousness and using their collected cache of Hope, Experience, and Creativity to aid themselves and their fellow Dream Engineers.

Each turn, players move around the Collective Consciousness (Set of Action Spaces) and use their Experience to capture Dreams. They then apply their Hope and Creativity to weave these Dreams together into a Dream Sequence.

The first player to weave a complete Dream Sequence triggers the end game. When the game ends, the player with the most Dream Points from Dreams, plus bonus points for Resonance in their Dream Sequence, wins!

1-6 players, ages 8+, 45 minutes.

Components

• 8 Consciousness Fragments Cards: form the Collective Consciousness. Each shows an Initial Location (where the card is placed during setup), Player Actions, Shared Actions, a Player Count (cards used depend on number of players), and a Front/Back indication.
• 44 Dream Cards: the building blocks of Dream Sequences. Each shows a Top Resonance Icon, a Bottom Resonance Icon, Dream Points, the Experience Needed to Catch, the Cost to Weave, and an Ability.
• 6 Player Cards
• 6 sets of 4 Resource and Direction Tracking Tokens
• 6 Player Figures
• 6 Reference Cards
• 4 Icon Key Cards
• 2 Robot Player Cards
• 1 Robot Turn Counter Card
• 1 Nightmare Token

Setting up the Board

• Using the Player Count on the bottom of the Consciousness Fragment cards, gather the four cards appropriate to your number of players.
• Using the Initial Location numbers in the upper left corner of the Consciousness Fragment cards, place them front side up in numerical order in the center of the table within reach of all players. This forms the Collective Consciousness.
• Shuffle the Dream deck and reveal cards based on the number of players:

Number of Players	Number of Dreams
1-2 players	Reveal 4 Dreams
3 players	Reveal 5 Dreams
4-6 players	Reveal 6 Dreams

Place these cards face up in rows at the center of the table below the Collective Consciousness. This is the Dreamscape.

• Place the Dream deck face down and to the side of the Dreamscape. The Dream Discard will be next to the Dream deck.
• Place the Icon Key Cards where players can reach them.

Player Setup

• The player who most recently woke up is the first player, and gets the first player card. Give all other players a regular player card. (The player board has an Experience Tracker, Creativity Tracker, Hope Tracker, and Clockwise and Counter-Clockwise Trackers. The First Player board has a first player icon; all other player boards do not.)
• Give each player:
  • A Player Figure in the color of their choice
  • Four matching Resource and Direction Tracker Tokens
  • A Reference card
• Each player sets their Resource and Direction Tracker Tokens to the following values: Experience: 6, Creativity: 0, Hope: 0, Direction: Clockwise.
• Place all Player Figures in the top-left space of the Collective Consciousness.
• Starting with the first player, and continuing clockwise, each player selects one Dream from the Dreamscape and pays the Experience needed to catch it. Caught Dreams are placed to the left of each player's player board. This space is your Dream Catcher.
• Draw new Dreams to replace Dreams as they are caught.

Note: Players may draw Dreams from the deck instead of choosing one from the Dreamscape. This is recommended for a player's first game.

Note: You might choose to catch a Dream for several reasons: the Dream's Ability (see Dream Journal, page 2 for the Ability descriptions), the Dream Points, or for Resonance (see Scoring and Resonance below).

Gameplay

Gameplay takes place over a series of rounds, where each player moves around the Collective Consciousness and takes actions depending on where they end their movement.

Players will use their Experience to catch Dreams and move them into their Dream Catcher, then use their Hope and Creativity to weave the Dreams into a full Dream Sequence.

Once setup is complete, the game can begin. Starting with the first player, each player completes the following two actions on their turn.

1. Move

The player must move at least one space around the Collective Consciousness in the direction indicated on their player board. Players move by spending resources, as shown below:

Total Spaces Moved	Cost
1-3	Free
4	1 resource of your choice
5	3 resources of your choice
6	6 resources of your choice

Note: You may not spend resources to move additional spaces when using an Ability (see Dream Journal, page 2 for the Ability descriptions).

2. Take Action

When movement ends, the Active Player must take the action on the space. There could also be an effect on the lower half of the space, called the Shared Effect, which benefits all other players (but not the Active Player).

The Shared Effect gives the players resources related to the Active Player's chosen action.

Note: When taking an action, it's helpful to state the resources that other players receive based on the action that you have chosen.

Types of spaces in the Collective Consciousness

The Collective Consciousness is both incredibly resilient and highly delicate. Even the slightest suggestion or sensation can cause massive reverberations.

The Collective Consciousness is an area where all the Dream Engineers work together with the goal of constructing Dream Sequences. In this area, each player's actions can affect their fellow Dream Engineers by giving them more resources or by manipulating how the spaces within the Collective Consciousness are arranged.

There are four Consciousness Fragment cards that make up the Collective Consciousness. All of these cards have two spaces, for a total of eight different spaces. Four are based on gathering resources and four are associated with actions for Dreams and your Dream Sequence.

Players move and take one action per turn, unless they land on the Activate space. In this case, they may activate an Ability that allows them to move to another space and take that action (see Dream Journal page 2, for the Ability descriptions).

Resource Action Spaces

• Gain Hope: Gain a large amount of Hope and all other players gain a small amount of Hope.
• Gain Experience: Gain a large amount of Experience and all other players gain a small amount of Experience.
• Gain Creativity: Gain a large amount of Creativity and all other players gain a small amount of Creativity.
• Gain Resources: Gain a large amount of resources of your choice and all other players gain a small amount of Creativity. These resources can be any combination of Experience, Creativity, and Hope.

Note: Resources are not meant to be scarce; they are meant to be used to either catch Dreams, weave Dream Sequences, increase movement, or clear the Dreamscape to look for better Dreams. You cannot hold more than 10 of each resource.

Dream Action Spaces

Catch a Dream: Pay the Experience listed on a Dream in the Dreamscape to add the Dream to your Dream Catcher, located to the left of your player board. All other players gain Experience.

• Before selecting a Dream, you may pay two resources of your choice to clear the Dreamscape of all the Dreams, placing them into the Dream discard pile, and drawing a new set of Dreams to replace them. You may do this as many times as you can afford to do so.
• There is no limit to the number of Dreams that you may have in your Dream Catcher.
• Reveal a new Dream every time one is caught. If there are no Dreams available, shuffle the Dream discard pile to reform the Dream deck.

Weave a Dream Sequence: Select a Dream in your Dream Catcher and pay the amount of Creativity and Hope listed on the card. Either begin your Dream Sequence or add the Dream to the beginning or the end of your Dream Sequence, which is located below your player board. All other players gain Hope. Only one Ability will ever be available for use on your Dream Sequence.

Note: Adding a Dream to the end of your Dream Sequence will cover up the Ability of the previously woven Dream, making it no longer a possible option during an Activate action.

Activate a Dream Owned by the Player: Use the Ability of a Dream either in your Dream Catcher or at the end of your Dream Sequence. Other players do not receive any benefits. There is no cost to Activate a Dream, unless the Ability states a cost.

• Only one Dream can be activated when a player lands on the Activate space. If the Dream's Ability allows the player to move to a different space, they may move to an Activate space again to activate the same or a different Dream.
• You may not spend resources to move additional spaces when using an Ability.
• See Dream Abilities on page 2 of the Dream Journal for more information on the individual powers of the Dreams. A Dream Ability example is on page 4 of the Dream Journal.

Game End

The game end is triggered when a player completes their Dream Sequence by adding the fifth Dream, or the fourth Dream for a 6-player game. Players complete the current round and the game ends after all players have taken an equal number of turns.

In very rare circumstances, the game will end immediately if all of the Dreams in the Dreamscape are caught.

Scoring

Players score Dream Points for each Dream in their Dream Sequence, plus bonus Dream Points for Resonance in their Dream Sequence. Dreams that are not in a player's Dream Sequence do not add to a player's score.

Resonance occurs when two or more adjacent Dreams in a Dream Sequence have matching symbols. The top and bottom of the Dream Sequence are counted separately and the points are added together.

The Rainbow side of a Dream, which has three different symbols, creates Resonance with any adjacent side. The black sides, which do not have symbols, do not have Resonance with any side, even a rainbow or another black side.

Number of Matching Symbols in a Collection, per Side	Bonus Points
2	2
3	4
4	7
5	11

The player with the most Dream Points wins! If two players are tied for the highest score, the player with the least number of Dreams in their Dream Catcher wins. If players are still tied, the player with the most Hope wins.

Scoring Example

Angelus was the first to complete his Dream Sequence with five Dreams. Caryl and Mandi each had four Dreams in their Dream Sequences.

The Dream Points on Mandi's four individual Dreams were: 4, 5, 3 and 2 points, for a total of 14 Dream Points.

The top side has two sets of Resonance: three Dreams with one symbol (4 Dream Points) and two Dreams with another symbol (2 Dream Points). Rainbow Dreams match both symbols they are next to. On the bottom side, Mandi scores for one set of two Dreams with a matching symbol (2 Dream Points). Mandi's Dream Points from Resonance: 4 + 2 + 2 = 8. Her total: 14 (from the points from each Dream) + 8 = 22 Dream Points.

Likewise, Angelus and Caryl would score for their Dream Sequences; since Mandi and Caryl's Dream Sequences are smaller, they will have to have more valuable Dream sections and/or more Resonance to beat Angelus.

Note: Placing a Dream with a Rainbow side will gain you the most points if it is placed in the middle of a Dream Sequence, with a different symbol on each side of the Rainbow Dream as it will match each Dream it is connected to.

Game Modes: Pleasant Night and Troubled Night

When you're experiencing a dream, you can't always fully control what happens in the dream. The same can be true when you're constructing dreams.

In the Pleasant Night Mode, only the current player can make changes to the Collective Consciousness. This is suggested for the first few playthroughs of Dreams of Tomorrow.

The Troubled Night Mode adds in the Night Mare, who changes how the Collective Consciousness is laid out and can move Dreams to the Discard. This mode is for the players that want an additional challenge by adding in a layer of chaos to their game.

Troubled Night: Setup

At the beginning of the game, place the Night Mare token to the left of the last player. Then, choose a Robot Player card to use during this game, which will be used to determine how the Night Mare will change the Collective Consciousness.

Troubled Night: Gameplay

In the first round, after the last player's turn, the Night Mare takes a turn. Then, the Night Mare moves counter clockwise among the other players. This means that turn order will change for the Night Mare throughout the game.

For example, in the second round in a four-player game, the Night Mare will play after the third player's turn. In the third round, they will play after the second player's turn.

The Night Mare will continue to take its turn and wreak havoc in the Collective Consciousness until the Game End has been triggered. Do not take any further Night Mare turns once this happens.

Night Mare's Turn

On the Night Mare's Turn, reveal a Dream from the Dream deck and look at the top Resonance icon. Match the icon on the Robot Card and follow the instructions listed. Discard the revealed Dream card. Then the Night Mare's turn is over. Ignore all other parts of the Robot Player Card.

Solo Game

The Solo game adds an automated Robot Player. This player does not take a turn like a regular player or make choices, but it does use a Player Figure to track its location on the Collective Consciousness.

Solo Setup

• Follow the Game Setup for two players.
• Follow the Player Setup for only you and you are the first player.
• Choose a Robot Player to battle against and take the corresponding card(s). The choices are Easy, Medium, and Hard. The Hard Robot Player has two cards, instead of one.
• Choose a Player Figure and corresponding tokens for the Robot Player to use. The Hard Robot Player will need two colors of tokens.
• Take the Robot Player Turn Counter and place tokens on the zero for both Ones and Tens.

Solo Gameplay

• The player takes a turn as described in the multiplayer rules.
• Then, the Robot Player takes a turn.
  • First, increase the Robot Player Turn Counter.
  • Then, follow the text on the card, moving the Robot Player to a new location and taking an action. How the Robot Player's turn works depends on the Robot Player that is chosen.
  • Discard the revealed Dream card.

Solo Game End

The game ends if any of the following occurs: you have reached 5 Dreams in your Dream Sequence, the Dreams deck runs out, or the Robot Player has taken 29 turns. If the Robot Player has taken 29 turns, you have lost.

Solo Scoring

Calculate your score as normal. The Robot Player's score is equal to the number on the Turns Counter, plus 5. If you have more Dream Points than the Robot Player, you win!

Robot Card Wordings

The Robot Player cards refer to different Consciousness Fragment cards.

• If the cards say a certain number, such as #3, it's referring to the Consciousness Fragment with a 3 in the upper left.
• If the cards say first or last, it's referring to the card furthermost to the left or right, respectively.
• If the cards say second or third, it's referring to the card next to the first or next to the last, respectively.

Troubled Night with the Solo Game

The Night Mare will start taking turns after the Robot Player takes its first turn and will alternate going before the Robot Player and going after.

Adding the Robot Player to the Multiplayer Game

You may add in your choice of Robot Players to the 2 and 3 player games to add in an extra challenge. Set up the game as normal, but count the Robot Player in when setting up the Collective Consciousness and the Dreamscape. This player can be added anywhere in turn order.

The game ends as normal if any player weaves a Dream Sequence of 5 Dreams. Calculate scores for players as normal. The Robot Player's score is equal to the number on the Turns Counter, plus 8 if playing with 2 players or 11 if playing with 3 players. The player with the highest score wins!

Quick Start Guide

1. Select the four Consciousness Fragment cards for the current player count (shown in the bottom) and place them in numerical order in the center of the table within reach of all players. The cards should have the front icon visible. These come together to form the Collective Consciousness.

2. Shuffle the Dream deck and reveal the following number of cards:

   • For 1-2 players, reveal 4 Dreams.
   • For 3 players, reveal 5 Dreams.
   • For 4-6 players, reveal 6 Dreams.

   Place these cards face up in rows at the center of the table. This is the Dreamscape.

3. Place the Dream deck face down and to the side of the Dreamscape. The Dream Discard will be next to the Dream deck.

4. The player who most recently woke up is given the first player board. Give all other players a player board.

5. Give each player a Player Figure in the color of their choice, four matching Resource and Direction Tracker Tokens, and a Reference card.

6. Each player sets their Resource and Direction Tracker Tokens to the following values: Experience: 6, Creativity: 0, Hope: 0, Direction: Clockwise.

7. The Player Figures start on the top space of Consciousness Fragment card 1.

8. The first player is the player that received the player board with the First player icon.

9. Starting with the first player and continuing clockwise, each player selects a Dream from the Dreamscape and pays the Experience needed to catch it.