Mech A Dream Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Contents
• Object of the Game
• Set Up
• How to Play
  • Day Phase
    • 1. Assistant Action (each player plays in turn)
      • Working in the Factory
      • Working in Your Workshop
    • 2. The Machines Under Construction Move Forward (simultaneous)
  • Completed Machines
  • Night Phase
    • Night Time Machine Construction
• End of the Game
• Annexes
  • Resources and Packages
  • Description of Machine Tiles
    • Blue Resource Machines and Red Power Machines (purple Completed side)
    • Yellow Crystal Machines
    • Green Economical Machines
• Game Variations
  • Enlightened Robots Variation
  • Specialists Variation

Game Contents

For each player:

• 1 Workshop board with two resource indicators, one conveyor belt with 7 slots, and one workshop with 9 slots (for finished machines).
• 3 Assistant meeples and 2 Electric Sheep meeples.

Shared components:

• 1 Factory board (double-sided) with 3 conveyor belts, one delivery dock, one stock room and one calendar.

• 50 Machine tiles separated into 4 types:

  • 18 Resource machine tiles (blue Construction side/purple Completed side)
  • 16 Power machine tiles (red Construction side/purple Completed side)
  • 8 Economical machine tiles (green Construction and Completed sides)
  • 8 Crystal machine tiles (yellow Construction and Completed sides)

  Every Construction side of the tiles features a price in Magic Ink drops or Rainbows, as well as a construction time symbolized by a number of hourglasses.

• 10 Delivery cards

• 1 Phase pawn

• 1 Day marker

• 4 Cloud tokens

• 28 Rainbow meeples: 8 large and 20 small (a large Rainbow meeple is worth 5 small Rainbow meeples)

For the "Enlightened Robots" variation

• 8 Monitor Screen tiles

For the "Specialists" variation

• 10 Specialist cards
• 4 Price tokens

Before your first game, set the Electric Flowers cursor and the Magic Ink valve on each of the 4 Workshop boards, following the depicted setup.

Object of the Game

In Mech A Dream you manage your own production workshop. Give your Assistants different tasks during the day and optimize the construction time of your dream machines along the conveyor belt of your workshop. Manage the production of your workshop as best you can to earn more Dream points than your opponents at the end of the work week.

Set Up

Shared components

• Place the Factory board in the center of the table, with the side featuring the green calendar facing upward. (A)

• Shuffle the 8 Economical machine tiles (green Construction side up) with the 18 Resource machine tiles (blue Construction side up). Place this 26 tiles pile on the slot the farthest left of the blue and green conveyor belt. Draw the first two tiles of this pile and place them on the two other slots of this conveyor belt, without flipping them over. (B1)

• Shuffle the 16 Power machine tiles (red Construction side up). Place this pile on the slot the farthest left of the red conveyor belt. Draw the first tile of this pile and place it on the other slot of this conveyor belt without flipping it over. (B2)

• Shuffle the 8 Crystal machine tiles (yellow Construction side up). Place this pile on the slot of the yellow conveyor belt. (B3)

• Shuffle the 10 Delivery cards, face down. Draw 3 cards from this pile and put them back in the box without looking at them: they won't be used for this game. (C1)

  Place the 7 remaining cards in a pile, face down, on the slot of the delivery dock on the Factory board. (C2)

  Flip the top card of the pile over, so that it is face up. (C3)

• Place all the Rainbow meeples and the 4 Cloud tokens near the Factory board to create a common stock. (D)

• Put the Day marker on the number 1 of the calendar. (E)

Individual components

• Each player takes a Workshop board and places it in front of them, then takes 3 Assistant meeples and 2 Electric Sheep meeples in the color of their choice. Assistants are placed in the locker room, on the three workday slots: the first Assistant on the morning slot, the second on the afternoon slot and the last on the evening slot. (F)

• Each player places their two Electric Sheep meeples on the right side of their board, near their Dream points tracker. (G) At any moment during the game, when you earn Dream points, move the Sheep accordingly on the tens and units of your Dream points tracker.

  If, during a game, you win more than 49 Dream points, place a Cloud token in front of you, 50 side up, and move your Sheep meeples accordingly.

  If you win more than 99 points, flip the Cloud token over to the 100 face, and adjust your Sheep meeples accordingly.

• Each player sets the Electric Flowers cursor on 3 and the Magic Ink valve on 4. (H)

All unused game components are left inside the box.

The player who has most recently dreamt of robots is first to play. They take the Phase pawn and place it in front of them, Sun side up.

How to Play

A game of Mech A Dream is played in several rounds, with each round symbolizing a day of work followed by an activation during the night. Play each round like so:

Day Phase

The day phase happens in 3 successive parts: the morning, the afternoon and the evening. Play each part of the day in the following order:

1. Assistant Action (each player plays in turn)

Beginning with the first player, and then playing in turn in clockwise order, take your first Assistant meeple, the one assigned to the part of the day being played, and use it to:

Work in the factory or work in the workshop

Working in the Factory

By working in the factory, you can choose to earn either resources in the stock room, or special packages at the delivery dock.

• In the stock room: place your Assistant on the floor that matches the part of the day being played.

  • Take the type and number of resources available on this floor. See Resources and Packages.
  • Move the cursor for the Electric Flowers and for the Magic Ink valve on your Workshop board according to the resources you've earned.

  Watch out, you have to choose between the last two resources: this is shown by a separation between the resources at the end.

  Example: with her morning Assistant, this player has earned 2 Electric Flowers, 2 Magic Ink drops, and then she chose to take 2 more Magic Ink drops.

  Watch out: if you earn resources but your cursor reaches its maximum value of 9, all further resources are lost.

• On the delivery dock: place your Assistant in front of the gate of the dock, on the spot that matches the part of the day being played.

  • Every Delivery card costs a number of Electric Flowers, featured on the sign at the gate. To be able to place your Assistant, pay the price displayed by moving your Electric Flowers cursor down.

  Example: to place his Assistant in front of the delivery dock, this player spends 3 Electric Flowers.

  • Then, in turn, take the content of each package displayed on the delivery dock spot, beginning with the package the closest to the gate and ending with the farthest. See Resources and Packages.

  Example: thanks to his morning Assistant, this player first earns 3 Dream points, and then 2 Magic Ink drops. He then chooses to activate his completed Resource machine in his workshop to earn 2 more Electric Flowers.

Working in Your Workshop

By working in your Workshop, you can choose to either buy a new machine or build a machine.

• Buy a new machine: on the three conveyor belts of the Factory board, choose one of the 6 Machine tiles available, Construction face up, and place the Assistant matching the part of the day being played on top of it.

  • Each Machine tile features a Magic Ink or Rainbow price, displayed on the left of the tile: to buy a machine, spend the specified resources from your Workshop board or your personal stock.

  Example: this player chooses one of the two red Power machines. She places her Assistant on top of it and spends the 2 Magic Ink drops required.

  • Take this Machine tile, without flipping it over, and your Assistant. Place them on the conveyor belt of your Workshop board, on the slot matching the number next to the hourglass featured on the right side of the tile. This Assistant will take part in the construction of this new machine until the end of the day, every time the machines under construction move forward.

  Example: this player takes her Machine tile with her Assistant and places them on the conveyor belt of her workshop, on the spot 3.

  Over the course of the game, you can have multiple machines on the same slot of your conveyor belt. To do this, put the tiles next to each other.

  • On the Factory board, if a slot is empty on a conveyor belt, fill it with the next Machine tile from the top of the matching pile, without flipping it over.

• Build a machine: choose one of the Machine tiles on the conveyor belt of your workshop and place your Assistant on top of it.

  This Assistant will take part in the construction of this machine until the end of the day, every time the machines under construction move forward.

  You can add an Assistant onto a Machine tile whether there is already an Assistant there or not.

  Example: during the evening, this player chooses the red Power machine on his conveyor belt and places his evening Assistant on top of it.

2. The Machines Under Construction Move Forward (simultaneous)

• When every player has used the Assistant assigned to the part of the day in play, the first player says out loud: "Time has passed…".

• All the players move their machines towards the right side of the conveyor belt, by as many slots as there are Assistants on top of it.

  Watch out: any machine without an Assistant on top of it stays put during this step.

  Example: this player has 2 Assistants on his red machine and 1 Assistant on his blue machine. He moves them 2 slots and 1 slot, respectively, towards the right side of the conveyor belt.

Completed Machines

At any moment of the game, when a machine is moved past the ① slot on your conveyor belt, its construction has been completed.

• Immediately take the number of Rainbows or Dream points featured on the top of the green and yellow tiles. See Description of Machine Tiles.
• Flip over the Machine tile on its Completed side; if any Assistant was placed on the tile before its construction, place them back on top of it.
• Place your first Completed machine under the conveyor belt, on the slot at the furthermost right of the board. Your machine can now be activated for the rest of the game.
• Place each new machine next to the previously Completed ones, following along the general power cable.

Example: at the end of an afternoon, this player has 1 Assistant on his blue resource tile. When the machines under construction are moved, this tile is moved past the ① slot: the player flips it over on its Completed side and places this first machine in his workshop, placing the Assistant back on top of it.

Last slots bonus: when you place the 7th, 8th or 9th machine in your workshop, you immediately earn the number of Dream points featured on that slot.

Sometimes, you will build more than 9 machines in one workshop. If this happens, place the extra machines at the bottom of your workshop board. For each extra machine, you immediately earn 3 Dream points.

When every player has finished moving the machines under construction, the part of the day being played ends:

• At the end of the morning or the afternoon, play the next part of the day.
• At the end of the evening, go on to the Night Phase.

Night Phase

The first player flips over the Phase pawn so the Moon side is up: this marks the beginning of the night.

• This phase is played simultaneously by all players: they all take back their three Assistants and place them on the morning, afternoon and evening slots in the locker room.

• Then, all players can activate their robot's effect once per night. This effect is symbolized by the Monitor Screen on your Workshop board. Every night, your robot earns you one Magic Ink drop.

  Furthermore, all players can activate the effect produced by each of the purple machines already completed in their workshop once per night. See Description of Machine Tiles.

  Every player chooses the order in which they want to produce each of their effects.

Example: this player chooses to activate her workshop by first taking 2 Electric Flowers, and then by earning 2 Dream points. Then, she activates the effect produced by her robot, shown on the Monitor Screen: she earns 1 Magic Ink drop. Finally, thanks to her second blue Resource machine, she spends 1 Rainbow from her personal stock and earns 3 construction-time boosts.

Night Time Machine Construction

During the night phase, when a machine is completed, you can benefit from its effects.

Example: this player first uses 2 construction time boosts on her yellow machine. The machine is therefore completed and the player immediately earns 9 Dream points. This player flips over the tile and places it in her workshop.

She then uses her third construction time boost on her blue machine. This machine is then also completed: she flips it over and places it in her workshop. She can then activate it during the same night phase, and she earns 1 extra construction time boost.

She uses this last construction time boost to move her red machine up one slot on her conveyor belt.

When the players have completed the activation of their workshop, the Night phase ends.

• If none of the conditions for the end of the game have been met, the first player gives the Phase pawn to the player on their left. This player flips the pawn so the Sun side is up, and becomes the first player for the next work day. The player moves the marker up a day on the calendar, and then discards the current Delivery card. The player replaces it with the next Delivery card on the pile, face up. They then start their turn for the next work day.
• If one of the conditions for the End of the game has been met, go on to the End of the Game points count.

End of the Game

The Mech A Dream project ends when one of these two conditions are met at the end of a Night phase:

• The Night phase who has just ended is the Night phase of the 7th day on the calendar.

OR,

• A player has built 9 machines or more in their workshop.

At the end of this last work day, figure out your score by adding together:

• the Dream points indicated by the current position of your Electric Sheep, adding any Cloud token, if present,
• the Dream points from the Rainbow meeples in your personal stock: every small Rainbow is worth 1 Dream point, and every large Rainbow is worth 5 Dream points,
• the Dream points from the resources left in your Workshop stock: for every 5 Electric Flowers and/or Magic Ink drops combined, you earn 1 Dream point.

The player who has the highest Dream points total wins the game and can be proud of having produced so many wonderful dreams for their robot!

Example: at the end of a game, this player has earned 37 Dream points. The 3 small Rainbow meeples in his personal stock are worth 3 points, and the 6 resources left in his Workshop stock (4 Electric Flowers and 2 Magic Ink drops) are worth 1 point. He completes his Mech A Dream project with total score of 41 Dream points.

If it's a tie, the player with the highest number of machines in their workshop wins the game. If it's still a tie, the player with the highest number of Rainbows wins.

If, after this, there is still a tie, the players can share the victory, and dream about their next game together!

Annexes

Resources and Packages

• 1 Electric Flower
• 1 Magic Ink drop
• 1 Rainbow
• 1 Dream point

If an item features a number, take or spend (depending on the action you have chosen) the corresponding number of items.

Example: these symbols respectively show 2 Magic Ink drops and 2 Rainbows.

Construction time boost: when you earn 1 Hourglass symbol, move one of your machines under construction up one slot towards the right on the conveyor belt of your workshop, whether there are already Assistants on top of the tile or not.

If you earn multiple construction time boosts, you can use them either on one or several machines.

Example: with these 2 Hourglasses, move one machine up two slots towards the right, or move two machines up one slot towards the right.

Robot or machine activation:

Activate your robot's effect, featured on the Monitor Screen.

OR,

Activate one of the completed purple machines in your workshop. See Description of Machine Tiles.

Description of Machine Tiles

Blue Resource Machines and Red Power Machines (purple Completed side)

• These machines feature a Gear symbol at the bottom of the tile.
• Once placed in your workshop purple Completed side up, you can benefit from their production or conversion effect, at a rate of one activation per Night phase.
• You can also activate them thanks to the content of the packages obtained from certain Delivery cards.

Production effects: you earn the items featured on the small conveyor belt of the machine.

Example: earn 1 Electric Flower and 1 Magic Ink drop.

Earn 1 construction time boost.

Conversion effects: you can spend the resources featured above the machine to earn the items featured on the small conveyor belt.

Watch out: you can only transform one lot of resources per activation of one Machine tile.

Example: you can spend 1 Electric Flower and 1 Magic Ink drop to earn 1 Rainbow and 1 Dream point.

You can spend 1 Rainbow to earn 3 construction time boosts.

Yellow Crystal Machines

• These machines have a Shooting star symbol at the bottom of the tile.
• When you build a Crystal machine, earn the number of Dream points featured at the top of the tile once.
• Once placed in your workshop with its yellow Completed side up, a Crystal machine has no other effects for the rest of the game.

Green Economical Machines

• These machines feature the Infinity symbol at the bottom of the tile.
• When you complete an Economical machine, earn the number of Rainbows featured at the top of the tile once.
• Once placed in your workshop with the green Completed side up, benefit from its permanent power until the end of the game, each time you do the specified action.
• If you own two Economical machines of the same type, add up their effects.

When you buy a blue, red or green Machine tile, spend one less Magic Ink drop than the price indicated on the left of the tile.

When you buy a yellow Crystal machine, spend 1 less Rainbow than the price indicated on the left of the tile.

When you buy a Machine tile, place it on your Workshop conveyor belt on the slot with 1 less Hourglass than the number indicated on the right of the tile.

When you place your Assistant on the delivery dock, spend 1 less Electric Flower than the price indicated on the sign at the gate.

Game Variations

The diverse possible combinations of Machine tiles allow for great replayability for the basic Mech A Dream project. If you wish, you can also add one of the two variations described below to your games, or combine both.

Enlightened Robots Variation

The Enlightened Robots change the power of your workshop thanks to their new effects featured on the Monitor Screen tiles. To play with this variation, take into account the following rules:

Set Up

• Take the 8 Monitor Screen tiles and deal 2 tiles randomly to each player. Every player chooses one of them, then puts the other tile back in the box.

• Look at the black side of your tile: it features the number of resources that this Enlightened Robot gives you to start the game. These resources replace the starting resources from the normal game: adjust the resource cursors on your Workshop board accordingly.

  Watch out: some Enlightened Robots also allow you to take 1 Rainbow from the common stock.

• Flip the Monitor Screen tile over with its purple side up and place it on your Workshop board so it covers the Monitor Screen printed on the board.

How to Play

Thanks to the content of the packages obtained from Delivery cards, as well as the activation of your workshop every Night phase, you can benefit from the new effect produced from your Enlightened Robot. This new effect featured on your Monitor Screen replaces the one printed on your board.

Description of the effects produced by Enlightened Robots:

• Earn 1 Dream point.

• Earn 1 Rainbow.

• Choose to activate either of the following effects:

  • Earn 1 Electric Flower and 1 Magic Ink drop.

  OR,

  • Earn 1 Electric Flower and 1 construction time boost.

• Earn the content of the package on the evening slot of the delivery dock without placing an Assistant there, nor paying the price.

• Choose to activate one of the following effects:

  • Exchange 1 Electric Flower for 3 Magic Ink drops.

  OR,

  • Exchange 1 Magic Ink drop for 3 Electric Flowers.

• Choose to activate one of the following effects:

  • Exchange 1 Rainbow for 4 Magic Ink drops.

  OR,

  • Exchange 1 Magic Ink drop for 1 Rainbow.

• Choose to activate one of the following effects:

  • Earn 1 construction time boost.

  OR,

  • Buy one new machine at its normal price, but without placing an Assistant on top of it. Then, place the tile on your conveyor belt, on the slot with 2 less hourglasses than indicated on the tile.

  Example: if you buy a new machine with a construction time of 3, place it without any Assistant, on the ① slot of your conveyor belt.

  Special case: you can add up these effects with a permanent power from a green Economical machine that you already own.

  Example: you buy a new machine with a construction time of 3. Thanks to the effect of your Enlightened Robot, you can place this tile on the ① slot (3-2). Furthermore, you already own a green Economical machine which allows you to put all of your machines on the slot with 1 less hourglass than indicated on the Machine tile. Thus, you move up this new machine from one more slot. This way, you move it past the ① slot of your conveyor belt: this machine is completed.

• You can spend 1 Electric Flower to choose one of the following effects:

  • reproduce the effect of a completed purple machine in one of your opponent's workshop,

  OR,

  • reproduce the effect of one of your opponent's robots.

  Special case concerning the playing order: if you choose to reproduce the effect of an opponent's robot which allows them to buy a new machine with a 2 hourglasses reduction, then buy your machine after the chosen opponent has bought their own.

Specialists Variation

The intervention of different specialists creates a commotion in the workshops and increases interaction between players. To play with this variation, take into account the following rules:

Set Up

• Put the Factory board in the center of the table with the face featuring the yellow calendar up.
• Take the 10 Specialist cards, shuffle them face down and take 4 cards randomly, or 3 cards for a game of less than 4 players. Place these cards face up in the center of the table and finish setting up the game normally. Put the unused Specialist cards back in the box.
• When you combine this variation with the Enlightened Robots variation, each player chooses their Monitor Screen tile after revealing the Specialist cards.
• Appoint the first player, and then, in anti-clockwise playing order, and beginning with the last player, the players choose the Specialist card they want to start the game with, in turn, and put it in front of them.
• Every player takes 1 Price token and places it on their Specialist card, with the 1 Rainbow face up.
  • In a 2-player game, place a Price token with the 1 Rainbow face up on top of the Specialist card not chosen, placed in the center of the table.

How to Play

As long as a Specialist card stays in front of you, benefit from its bonus permanently, each time you do the specified action. See the Description of the Specialists' Permanent Bonuses.

Work in the Factory:

When you place your morning or afternoon Assistant in the stock room, you can now choose to take a Specialist card:

• To take a Specialist card from an opponent, pay your opponent the Rainbow price indicated by the token placed on their Specialist card, out of your personal Rainbow stock.

  In a two-player game, to take the Specialist card that has not been chosen in the center of the table, pay the price by discarding one of your Rainbows in the common stock.

  • An opponent cannot refuse this transaction.
  • If you don't have the number of Rainbows necessary to pay the price in your stock, you cannot take a Specialist card.
  • If there is no Price token on top of a Specialist card, take it for free.

• Place the Specialist card you have just bought in front of you:

  • If the card did not have a Price token on top of it, take one from the stock and place it on top of it, with the 2 Rainbows face up.
  • If the card already has a Price token, keep it and place it on top of the card so the 2 Rainbows side is up.

There is no limit to the number of Specialist cards a player can have in front of them.

Night Phase

During the Night phase, once every player has completed the activation of their workshop, one last action takes place:

• Every player reduces the worth of the Price token on top of their Specialist card.
  • If the token has its 2 Rainbows face up, flip it over so that the 1 Rainbow face is up.
  • If the token already has its 1 Rainbow face up, remove it and put it away in the common stock.

Once this last action is done, the Night phase ends.

Description of the Specialists' Permanent Bonuses:

• As soon as you have finished the action of Buying a new machine or Building a machine, earn 1 Dream point.
• As soon as you have retrieved special packages at the delivery dock, you can activate either one of your Completed purple machines in your workshop, or the effect produced by your robot.
• As soon as you have finished the action of Buying a new machine or Building a machine, earn 1 construction time boost.
• As soon as you have retrieved resources from the stock room, earn 1 Rainbow.
• As soon as you have finished the action of Buying a new machine or Building a machine, earn 1 Electric Flower and 1 Magic Ink drop.
• As soon as you have retrieved resources from the stock room, choose to earn either 2 Electric Flowers or 2 Magic Ink drops.
• As soon as you have retrieved special packages at the delivery dock, earn 2 Dream points.
• As soon as you have finished the action of Buying a new machine, earn 1 Rainbow.
• As soon as you have retrieved special packages at the delivery dock, use 2 construction time boosts.
• As soon as you have finished the action of Buying a new machine, earn 2 Dream points.