How to Play
One Dreamer, one night. Build the dream, walk it, meet what waits, and wake up.
Wake up: Acquire Archetypes
| Daydream | 3 Archetypes | 3 Cycles |
| Nap | 6 Archetypes | 7 Cycles |
| Deep Sleep | all 12 | 15 Cycles |
1The shape of a night
A Dream card is drawn. Every Dream hurts: endure its effect, then play your phases.
The Cycle’s Dreambeast lands on a Landscape of its suit. It chases you and bleeds you every dusk until beaten.
Choose 1 of 3 Archetypes. It appears on its home Landscape. Reach it and Meet it to Acquire it.
2Every phase: your stat is free Actions
- Each Action places 1 Landscape from the Vault beside the dream.
- ★ marks the home of an Archetype you may call.
- First, every Dreambeast chases you 1 step.
- Each Action is 1 step to a next-door Landscape.
- Each Action: fight a Dreambeast, Meet an Archetype, use a Landscape action, or tap an Object.
- As Meet ends, Archetypes slip 1 Landscape away.
Want more Actions?
Spend 1 Psyche of the phase’s suit: + its value. Free Actions are used first. Paid-for Actions you leave unused become Glimmer ✧, which pays in the Lost & Found.
Example: The Rested
Lucidity 2 · Elasticity 1 · Willpower 0Places 2 Landscapes and walks 1 step for free. To fight, spend a Willpower card: a 3 gives 3 Meet Actions. Its Power (1 Power Token, in Reveal): each Landscape placed draws 1 Psyche.
3Fight: the dice battle
- Dream Forms add dice when your Spread makes the pattern, and they stack: 1-2-3 in three suits is a Ladder and a Trinity. Level them up in the Lost & Found.
- A Dreambeast’s Power is its printed Power + the Cycle. Each one wards one Form (that Form loses 1–5 dice against it).
- Aim for the beast’s Power + 2: you win about 3 times in 4.
Example: Cycle 1, the Winged Turtle
A Willpower beast, Power 3 + Cycle 1 = 4. You play a Willpower 2 and a Lucidity 2 (an Echo) with Willpower 1: 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 for the Echo = 6 dice against its 4.4Archetypes
The only goal. Collect enough and you wake.
- Meeting one costs 1 Meet Action on its Landscape.
- It opens with an Event: Bright costs Psyche and helps; Dim is free and hurts.
- Then a Spread that makes a Dream Form against Power 12.
- Win: Acquire it: +1 Archetype, +1 Power Token, and its power is yours.
5Psyche is life
Your hand is your health, your coin, and your dice.
- Start with 6. Draw 3 as each round begins and 4 more at dawn.
- At dusk, each Dreambeast still standing Represses 1 Psyche from the Waking Mind (your draw deck) to the Subconscious.
- Return brings Psyche back. If the Waking Mind empties, you never wake.
6Objects & Sets
The Lost & Found opens after every Dream.
- 3 Objects and 1 Insight (a Form level or upgrade). Pay with Psyche value; Glimmer ✧ pays first.
- Finish a Set (Body 5 · Elements 4 · Jewelry 3 · Sticks 3) to Acquire an Archetype.
- Started a Set? The shop shows a missing piece, a beaten beast can pay one, and The One Mimics one.
7Death & Power Tokens
You die… and wake back up on The Bed.
- No Psyche left? You die: lose your Objects, redraw a hand of 6. Keep tokens, Forms and Archetypes. The 6th death ends the night.
- Power Tokens: start with 2, hold up to 6. Each one activates a power: your Dreamer’s, or an Acquired Archetype’s. Each Dreamer has one Power for the phase of its best stat; no passives.
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About DM Zemo:
Real name Phil Carroll. Born and raised in New Jersey.
Acquired Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game boxed set.
Taught himself AD&D in 1999.
Couldn’t find a consistent group to DM.
Taught himself 3rd Edition in 2001 (good riddance THAC0!).
Still could not find a steady group.
Moved to Minnesota in 2014.
Organized a steady 5th edition group.
Has DM’d many 5th Edition games since
Stays sharp learning RPG systems and obscure lore.
Fan of multiple Live Play TTRPG shows.
Builds pantheon spreadsheets for fun.
Codes out a digital encyclopedia with emergent updates.
