We have really enjoyed being part of the Blogger Board GAme Club as it has helped to introduce us to a variety of games that we would not have played otherwise. One of those games is When I Dream which was sent to us in our last Blogger Board Game Club delivery. When I Dream is a game played in rounds where each player gets a chance to become the dreamer. The other players on those turns are fairies, boogeymen or sandmen.
Inside the When I Dream box, you will find 11 Dream Spirit cards ( 5 fairies, 4 boogeymen and 2 sandmen), 110 double-sided dream cards (each side with two elements), 104 point tokens, 1 bed, 1 headboard, 1 sleep mask, a 2-minute sand timer and a rulebook.
The When I Dream game is for between 4 and 10 players and depending on the number of players will depend on the mix of dream spirit cards in play. Below is the mix of cards with F = Fairies B=Boogeymen and S = Sandmen
4 players = 1F, 1B, 2S
5 players = 2F, 1B, 2S
6 players = 3F, 2B, 1S
7 players = 3F, 2B, 2S
8 players = 4F, 3B, 1S
9 players = 4F, 3B, 2S
10 players = 5F, 4B, 1S
Each of the rounds is played in two parts, night and day. In the first round, the oldest player is the dreamer and they place the sleep mask in front of them. They then shuffle the dream spirit cards and deal one to each player. The players look at their cards without showing them to the other players. The remaining card is placed face down in the middle. The dreamer then covers their eyes with the sleep mask. The top card from the dream card desk is moved to the bottom of the deck (rotated or flipped to change its position). Flip the sand timer over.
You then enter the dream phase. The player to the left of the dreamer gives a single word clue to describe the element on the card. This continues in a clockwise direction until the Dreamer interrupts so they can guess the element. The dreamer gets one guess at the element. If they are correct the card is placed on the yellow side of the board. If they are wrong it does on the blue side. The dreamer can not know if they are correct or not so the other players must stay quiet and not give it away. This continues on to the next dream card until the two minutes are over.
You then enter the day phase. Before removing the sleep mask the dreamer has to try to remember all of the elements of their dream. They can elaborate to make this more entertaining but they should try to mention each element. When mentioned the players should slightly rotate the cards to make scoring easier. The dreamer can then remove the sleep mask.
This is where the game becomes complicated as it is time to add up all of the scores. I recommend having the rule book in front of you to make sure that the scoring goes smoothly. To give a quick overview Fairies get 1 point for each correct card in the yellow section. Boogeymen get 1 point for each card in the blue section. The dreamer scores 1 point for each card on the yellow section ad 2 extra points if they mentioned all of the elements when recounting the dream. The sandmen scores are more complicated, if there are the same amount of cards on the blue and yellow section they get 1 point for each card on the yellow section plus 2. If there is 1 card difference they score the greater of the two numbers. If there is a difference of 2 or more cards they score the smaller of the two numbers.
This ends the round. The dream cards are collected and rotated or flipped before being added to the bottom of the dream cards deck. The player to the left of the dreamer becomes the dreamer for the next round and they start again by distributing the Dream Spirit cards again.
The game ends when every player has been the dreamer. The scores are added together and the winner is the player with the highest score.
The When I Dream playing cards are beautifully illustrated and the game is great for families as it allows everyone to score points on each round. We really enjoyed playing this together, the wordplay for describing the cards is something we like doing so this game fit well with us and the sleep mask added another aspect to the game which was lots of fun.