LogFAQs > #934061334

41. When I Dream (2016)

Category: Team vs Team
Genres: Party game, hidden roles, clue-giving, separate hands
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 1
Game length: 2 minutes per turn, 30 minutes per game
Experience: 5-10 games with 5-9 players (2018-2019)
Previous ranks: NR/100 (2016), NR/80 (2018)

Summary - Each round, one player (the dreamer) puts on a blindfold and turns a timer. A stack of picture cards is in the center, with a hybrid image on it and a word. Each player is then secretly assigned either to help (fairy) or mislead (boogeyman) the dreamer in guessing the word. In turn order, each player says one word, and at any time the dreamer can guess the word, which gets sorted into the correct or incorrect pile. When the time runs out, points are awarded, and the blindfold is passed, and new roles assigned.

Design - When I Dream fits an unusual type of niche: one guesser, but lots of hidden traitors, and plenty of opportunity to try to discern who's on your team. I love the frantic pace of it; an entire circle of clues can happen in less than ten seconds (especially at lower player counts). Sometimes the guesser will guess after just one or two clues, while other times the guesser will wait until the entire circle has gone around.

Cleverly, the second image on the card gives the boogeymen a chance to present a untied front. For example, if you heard: "Raptor, Bed, Falcon, Fish, Atlanta, Metal," it would be pretty clear that the word was "hawk," because bed, fish, and metal don't make any sense. However, if the words were instead "Raptor, Rodent, Falcon, Cheese, Atlanta, Grey," then you'd have a more difficult decision as you tried to figure out whether it was "hawk" or "mouse." This actually forces hte cluegiver to figure out who to trust instead of just trying to form a single image and discarding the noise.

One of my favorite little details of When I Dream: the bed structure that holds the stack of cards. The blindfold itself is also pretty interesting - it looks innocuous (and brightly colored), but if you don't usually wear one to sleep, it's weirdly disorienting.

Experience - I discovered When I Dream at a meetup at a time when I hadn't discovered new and especially good party games in quite some time. It came as a very welcome surprise since I love clue-giving. Convinced a friend to get it, and it's appeared several times at our monthly game nights since. I've had dull rounds (when I couldn't figure anything out, or my guesser seemed to be disregarding me entirely), but never a dull game where nothing clicked at all. Reliable.

Future - Like I said, When I Dream is reliable. The one "problem" with it is that you can't really play it many times in one sitting; the deck of cards goes by very quickly. But given the time to breathe, it's highly engaging and fun as a party game.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness