Morpheus Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Resources
  • Essence
  • Chronite
  • Onirite
• Player's Pool
• Feathers
• Dreamweaving
  • Dream types
• Flow of the Game
  • I. Morpheus' travel phase
  • II. Morpheus' gifts phase
  • III. Dreamweaver phase
    • Harvesting resources
    • Performing actions
    • Other players' actions
• Locations
  • Court of Morpheus
  • Time Vortex
  • Dreamgate
  • Phobetor's Landing
  • Onirite Workshop
  • Bazaar of Phantasus
  • Essence Garden
• End of the Round (Month)
• Scoring
  • 1. Points for completed dreams
  • 2. Points for astrological amplification

Components

• (A) 8 board pieces
• (B) 4 Lunar phase tiles
• (C) 27 Dream tiles
• (D) 40 Feather counters
• (E) 14 Chronite counters
• (F) 12 Onirite counters
• (G) 84 Essence counters
• (H) 5 dice
• (I) 1 wooden counter

Setup

Before the first game, punch out all elements and segregate them.

1. Shuffle all lunar phase tiles and put them in a face-down stack – it will be a lunar stack (A). Then, take the top tile from this stack and place it in the middle of the table face-up (B).
2. Find "Castle of Hypnos" among 8 board pieces. Put it by the lunar phase tile so its star side connects to the full moon side of the lunar phase tile (C). Shuffle the remaining board elements and put them face-up by the lunar phase tile so they form a circle. After this, the game board is assembled (D).
3. Shuffle all dream tiles and place them by the board in a face-down stack – it will be a dream stack (E). Then, take 5 top tiles from it and place them face-up by the dream stack – it will be a dream display (F).
4. Shuffle all feather counters and place them by the board in a face-down stack – it will be a feather stack (G). Then, take 5 top counters and place them face-up by the feather stack – it will be a feather display (H).
5. Essence, onirite and chronite counters have to be segregated and placed by the board – they will form game's bank (I).
6. Put a wooden counter on a "Castle of Hypnos" location (J).
7. Choose starting player at random. This player takes the top tile of the lunar stack (A) and places it in front of them face-down – it will be an active player marker.
8. Each player, starting from the active player, chooses one dream from the dream display (F) and places it in front of them face-up. Whenever any player takes the dream from the dream display, they refill the display with the dream from the top of dream stack immediately, so player can always choose from 5 dreams.
9. Players get resources depending on the player order (going clockwise):
   • 1st player gets 1 onirite,
   • 2nd player gets 1 onirite and 1 chronite,
   • 3rd player gets 1 onirite and 2 chronite,
   • 4th player gets 2 onirite and 2 chronite.

After this, all players are ready to go.

Resources

There are three types of resources in the game.

Essence

Thank to it players can weave dreams. There are four types of essence: nightmarish, prophetic, fantastic and supreme. Supreme essence is a special type of essence and the rarest of the four. Players can use it instead of any other essence.

Chronite

Is used as currency in Oniria. It can be used for three things in the game:

• Rerolling a die. This applies to the dic chosen by the player during Morpheus' gifts phase or dice rolled by the player during the harvest. Player must accept the new value or pay again to reroll more times.
• Turning lunar phase tile 45 degrees in any way for each chronite paid. Player can do this only during their harvest.
• Currency at various locations.

Onirite

Is a very powerful item in Oniria and lets players perform actions in the opponent's turn.

The resource icons are: nightmarish essence, prophetic essence, fantastic essence, supreme essence, chronite and onirite.

Player's Pool

All resources, dreams and feathers are located in player's personal pool. Each player has unlimited access to everything in their own pool. Pools are visible to all players, that means that each player can inspect other players' pools. There are two exceptions: feathers and completed dreams, which players keep in their pool face-down. The only information about them available to the other players is their quantity. Players can freely inspect face-down tiles and counters in their own pool.

Player can have a maximum of 2 uncompleted, face-up dreams in their pool.

Feathers

While traveling the Oniria, dream gods lost lots of their feathers. They are valued among Weavers as they have the power of harnessing the power of astronomic objects. This energy can be used to amplify the oniric power of the dream.

During the game players will collect feathers, which will give players additional points at the end of the game. For each matching astrological symbol on the dreams woven by the player, this player gets 2 points for a feather. Additionally, there are feathers without astrological symbol on it, they have symbol of dream type instead: nightmare, prophetic dream or fantasy. If player has such feather, then they get 2 points for each dream of this type.

Dreamweaving

Each dream tile has some information on it:

• (A) Points for weaving this dream,
• (B) Essence needed to weave this dream,
• (C) Astrological symbols.

Players weave dream by assigning essence to it. Player can assign essence in two locations ("Court of Morpheus" and "Castle of Hypnos"). To do this, player places essence counters on the chosen dreams. Essence that has been assigned to the dream cannot be taken off it.

Player cannot assign more essence than printed on a tile, for example: if there are two fantastic essence icon on a dream tile, then there cannot be more than two fantastic essence on this dream at any given time.

If amount and type of essence on the dream match the type and amount printed on the dream tile, then the dream is considered woven (completed). All essence assigned to it must be returned to the bank and dream tile needs to be flipped face-down. Then, player can take a dream from the display and put it into their pool.

Players need to remember, that player cannot have more than 2 incomplete (face-up) dreams in their pool at any given time.

Whenever player weaves a dream, they can take another one from the display.

Dream types

• Nightmares: Dreams predating on ones fears and insecurities. Dreams woven mostly of nightmarish essence will be nightmares.
• Prophetic dreams: Dreams revealing possible variations of the future. Although they do not have any predictive power, they are however able to direct the mortal to actions, being a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dreams woven mostly of prophetic essence will be prophetic dreams.
• Fantasies: Dreams and yearnings of humans poured into the mortal minds by Weavers. These dreams are pleasant and absorbing. Their biggest load is fantastic essence.

Flow of the Game

Games is divided into 3 rounds (months), each round is divided into 8 turns.

Player's turn is divided into 3 phases:

• I. Morpheus' travel phase,
• II. Morpheus' gifts phase,
• III. Dreamweaver phase.

These phases are resolved in this exact order. Order of these actions cannot be changed and no phase can be skipped (with one exception listed below).

The active location and current lunar phase are marked by the wooden counter. (A) - current lunar phase, (B) - resource that can be harvested this turn, (C) - difficulty of harvest, (D) - wooden counter, (E) - active location.

I. Morpheus' travel phase

The active player moves the wooden counter to the next location in a clockwise order. If the counter was moved to the "Castle of Hypnos" location", then all other phases must be skipped and instead of this player proceed to the end of the round (month) section. This is the only exception from the rule that phases cannot be skipped.

II. Morpheus' gifts phase

Active player rolls dice in amount equal to the number of players plus one. Then, starting from the active player and going in a clockwise order, each player chooses one die and gets a bonus according to the symbols on the active player marker.

The active player marker shows six symbols, each with a die face printed beneath it. The bonus for each die value is:

Die face	Bonus
1	Fantastic essence (pink flask)
2	Prophetic essence (blue flask)
3	Nightmarish essence (grey flask)
4	Chronite (red crystal)
5	Supreme essence (orange flask)
6	Onirite (orange triangle)

The table above is read from the symbols illustrated on the active player marker on page 9 of the rulebook; the text itself states only that the bonus depends on the symbols on the marker.

EXAMPLE: In 4 player game player rolls 5 dice. The results are: 1, 3, 3, 4, 5. The active player takes the die with 4 and gets one Chronite. Second player takes 5 and gets supreme essence. Third player takes 1 and gets fantastic essence. The last player takes 3 and gets one nightmarish essence.

III. Dreamweaver phase

During this phase active player has to decide whether they want to harvest resources or perform action at the active location. Active location is a location with the wooden counter on it.

Harvesting resources

Resources that player can harvest in their turn depend on the current lunar phase and are depicted on the lunar phase tile.

Player can spend one chronite counter to spin the lunar phase tile 45 degrees in any direction, effectively changing the lunar phase and resource that can be harvested this turn. Of course, player can spend more chronite to spin the tile more than one time.

Next steps of resource harvesting:

1. Player must determine difficulty of harvest of the resource. The difficulty of harvest is equal to the number of stars in locations pointed at by the resource on the lunar phase tile. One of this locations is active location.
2. Active player ask other players if they want to help in the harvest. Each player who agrees to it pays one onirite to the bank.
3. Active player rolls two dice and adds number of helping players to the value. This value is harvest strength.
4. Active player divides harvest strength by the harvest difficulty. Active player rounds the result down. Active player and all players that helped the active player get number of counters of the resource that was harvested equal to the final result of the harvest from the bank. Players take resources starting from the active player and going in a clockwise order. It can happen that there will not be enough resources for a player. In this case, this player takes as many of that type from the bank as they are able.

EXAMPLE: Player wants to harvest prophetic essence. Difficulty of harvest is 4. One player decided to help the active player. Active player rolled 7 on 2 dice. They add 1 to the result because one player is helping them. So, the end result equals 8. Active player and helping player both get 2 prophetic essence.

Performing actions

Active player can perform action assigned to the active location.

General rules regarding performing action:

• If a player takes a resource from the bank, but there is no more of this resource left in the bank, then this player cannot take this resource,
• If player must spend a resource, they return it to the bank.

Other players' actions

When active player finishes harvest or action, other players, in clockwise order, can pay 1 onirite to the bank to perform one of following activities:

• Be able to perform action in active location, just like active player (If there are multiple actions available, they can perform different action than the active player)
• Be able to harvest essence, provided that active player did not harvest essence. Harvest goes exactly the same as described above, but other player cannot help in this harvest. Harvesting player can use chronite to spin the lunar phase tile.
• Player gets one chronite, one onirite and can take one dream from the display if they have place for it.

When all players finish their actions, active player passes the active player marker to the next player in a clockwise order. Turn now ends.

Locations

Court of Morpheus

Old residence of Morpheus. Regardless of departure of its master, the court still runs with life and oniric energy.

Action: Weave a dream.

Time Vortex

Place of the biggest time anomaly in Oniria. Probably because of the large chronite veins in this region. Morpheus frequently visited this place and because of this his feathers can be retrieved from here, with some help of time manipulation.

Action: Player gets 2 chronite or spends 1 chronite to get one of the feathers from the display or from the top of the feather stack.

Dreamgate

The one and only observed occurrence of spontaneous dream spawning, without the interaction of dream gods and weavers. Oniric energy here is as powerful as it is undirected.

Action: Active player gets 2 chronite or spend 1 chronite to get one dream from the display with one essence assigned to it. That means that the player can, after taking the dream, assign one essence from the bank to it.

Whenever player takes feather from the display, they can take it from the top of the stack instead.

Whenever player takes dream from the display, they can take it from the top of the stack instead.

Phobetor's Landing

This is the place from which Phobetor used to depart on his journeys. There are lots of his feathers in this location.

Action: Active player gets 1 feather from the top of the feather stack or spends 1 chronite to get a feather from the display.

Onirite Workshop

Main production site of onirite. It is produced here without a break and smiths will gladly sell it for chronite.

Action: Active player gets 1 onirite or spends 1 chronite to get 2 onirite.

Space and time in Oniria are unpredictable and full of anomalies. Well, "anomaly" fits better to the events that these two elements flow relatively similar to the normal, mortal world. Time can be manipulated with the use of Chronite. Space… Let's say that it is quite difficult to get to the same place twice while using the same route.

Bazaar of Phantasus

Phantasus loves life and crowds, no surprise that the biggest cluster of merchants and shops on Oniria bears his name. Everything has its price and everybody here knows that.

Action: Player takes a dream and exchanges non-supreme essence to other non-supreme essence as many times as this player likes and exchanges chronite, onirite or supreme essence into any other of these resources as many times as this player likes.

Essence Garden

Largest concentration of essence in the whole Oniria. Essence can be exchanged here for a profit, converting essence of one type into essence of two other types.

Action: Player can perform one of the following actions:

• a. Transform one of your nightmarish essence into one fantastic essence and one prophetic essence
• b. Transform one of your fantastic essence into one nightmarish essence and one prophetic essence
• c. Transform one of your prophetic essence into one nightmarish essence and one fantastic essence
• d. Transform any two non-supreme essences into one chronite.

End of the Round (Month)

If during the phase I player places the wooden counter on a "Castle of Hypnos" location, the round ends. Next two phases are skipped. Instead of them, players perform actions on the "Castle of Hypnos" in a clockwise order:

Actions are performed in this order by each player:

• Weave up to two dreams.
• You can pay one chronite to take on feather from the display or from the top of the stack.
• Player must discard essence until they have a maximum of three essence tokens. Supreme essence is not taken into account here.

When all players finish performing their actions, the active players discards current lunar phase tile to the box and places top tile of the lunar stack in its place. Remember that full moon icon has to be directed at the "Castle of Hypnos". Then, active player takes all locations except of Castle of Hypnos, shuffles them and places randomly around the lunar phase tile.

Active player starts next turn from the phase I.

If there are no tile on the stack when player has to draw it, then the game ends and players go to the scoring and end of the game.

Scoring

When game ends (there are no lunar phase tiles during the end of the round draw) player go to scoring. Each player gets points in 2 steps:

1. Points for completed dreams

Players add points located on their dream tiles.

2. Points for astrological amplification

Players reveal collected feathers. Each feather gives two points for each matching icon on the dreams woven by this player.

Players add points for dreams and for feathers. This is the final score of the player. Player with the most points wins the game.

EXAMPLE: The player gets summed value of their dreams, which is, in this case, 35. Then, player resolves feathers. Player has 2 nightmare feathers, which means that player gets 4 points for every nightmare. This is 8 points. Then, player gets 4 points for each Venus symbol on their dreams. This is 16 points. Then, because player has 1 fantasy feather, they get 2 points for each fantasy. This is 2 points. Player has 1 Uranus feather, which means 2 points for each Uranus symbol on their dreams. Unfortunately, player has no dream with Uranus symbol, so they do not get any points. Next, player gets 2 points for each Mars symbol on their dreams. This equals 2 points. Finally, player gets 2 points for each Luna symbol on their dreams. This also equals 4 points. So, adding that up, player gets 35 points for dreams plus 32 points for feathers, which summed up is 67 points. This is the final score of this player.

Note on the scoring text: the rules text gives 2 points for each dream of a feather's dream type, while the example awards 4 points per nightmare feather ("4 points for every nightmare"). Both are transcribed as printed; the example's arithmetic is reproduced as printed.