Unconscious Mind: Nightmares — How to Play

Game Objective

In the Nightmares expansion for Unconscious Mind, players delve deeper into the dark side of the mind. You will encounter Uncanny Clients, explore a Haunted Location, and navigate surreal Nightmare Dreams. While you seek to treat your clients and gain Victory Points, you must balance your pursuit of Insights with the risk of gaining Madness. The goal is to maximize your score through treatments, research, and the strategic use of new tools, while managing the penalties associated with your Madness level.

Setup

Set up the base game as usual, applying the following modifications:

City Map & Location Goals

• Place the Madness Check token on the "6" space of the Reputation track.
• Place the Haunted Location Goal tile near the other Location Goal tiles.

Clients and Dreams Display

1. Routine Clients: Shuffle the Routine Clients deck into two equal stacks. Shuffle the Uncanny Routine Client cards into one stack, then place it on top of the other. Draw two Routine Clients and place them face-up to the right of the deck.
2. Case-Study Clients: Repeat the process above using Case-Study Clients and Uncanny Case-Study Client cards to create the Case-Study Clients deck.
3. Dreams: Shuffle the Latent Dream deck (place face-down above the Client display) and the Manifest Dream deck (place face-down to the right of the Latent Dreams). Draw three Manifest Dream cards and arrange them face-up.
4. Nightmares: Shuffle the Nightmare Dream deck, place it face-down to the right of the Manifest Dreams, and place the top card face-up.
5. Grief Layers: Shuffle the Grief Layer deck into two equal stacks. Shuffle the Metamorphosis Grief Layer cards into one stack and place it on top. Place the deck in the dispenser box to the left of the Routine Clients deck. Place a Grief Layer on top of each face-up Client.

Research and General Supply

• Research: Shuffle the Research cards deck into two equal stacks. Shuffle the Wild Research cards into one stack and place it on top.
• Treatises: Place the Treatise of the Dead tile near the other Treatise tiles.
• Supply: Place Dark Insight pieces and Madness tokens near the Bright Idea tokens. Place the Madness reference card face-up for all players.

Player Setup

• Take a Cracked Insight dial instead of a standard dial.
• Randomly deal one Mad starting Notebook tile in addition to your three starting Notebook tiles. Choose one to keep and remove the others.
• If you keep the Mad starting Notebook tile: place your Professor on the matching City Map Location, move a common Insight from your center reserve to any crack within the indicated dial section (which may cause you to gain Madness), and place the tile in your player board.

Game Flow

The basic gameplay remains unchanged from the base game; however, the expansion introduces new triggers and effects:

• Madness Accumulation: Effects that give you Madness are mandatory. Your Madness level is equal to the number of Madness tokens in your personal supply.
• Madness Effects: Your Madness level unlocks beneficial effects on the Madness reference card once you reach specific thresholds (e.g., 3+, 5+, 8+, and 13+).
• Madness Checks: These occur up to three times per game at the end of a turn if:
  • Freud’s marker reaches or crosses the Madness Check token on the Reputation track (the token is then discarded).
  • A player's Madness level reaches 13 or more for the first time (that player claims the Haunted Location Goal tile).
  • A final Madness Check is performed at the end of the game before Final Scoring.

Actions and How to Play

The Cracked Insight Dial & Mad Insights

The Cracked Insight dial allows for a new level of insight: Mad Insights (any Insight inside a crack).

• Gaining Mad Insights:
  • Generate Effects: Place an Insight from your center reserve into a crack. Small cracks (0 Madness, 1 Insight), Medium cracks (1 Madness, 2 Insights), and Large cracks (2 Madness, 3 Insights).
  • Transfer Effects: When you Transfer a Median or Major Insight, it moves into an adjacent crack. Clockwise increases level to Mad; counterclockwise increases level to Mad and changes its quality.
  • Elevate Effects: An Elevated Minor (moves to large crack), Median (moves to medium crack), or Major (moves to small crack) Insight may move directly into a crack instead of the next ring.
• Restrictions: You may not Elevate, Suppress, or Transfer Mad Insights once they are in a crack. To use a Mad Insight, remove it and place it in your center reserve.
• Overcompensating: You may use a Mad Insight instead of any Minor, Median, or Major Insight of the same quality.

Dark Insights

Dark Insight pieces function like common Insights, but you do not gain Madness when placing them into cracks. These are gained by reaching Catharsis with Uncanny Routine Clients.

Nightmare Dreams

You may choose a Nightmare Dream card instead of a Manifest Dream. These require one Mad Insight (plus other specified costs) to produce a Catharsis Therapy point. If the Client's Therapy marker is to the right of the specific icon, move it to that space and resolve Catharsis. Otherwise, it counts as a standard Therapy point.

Wild Research Cards

• Gray Volumes: Substitute for any color when Publishing Treatises.
• Location Tags: Some cards have two tags (gain 1 Madness), a wild tag (gain 2 Madness and one Minor Insight), or no tags (spend one Minor Insight to Generate one Mad Insight of the same quality).

Special Components

• Treatise of the Dead: To Publish this, gather two gray Volumes. Score 13 Victory Points. When other players Cite from it, you gain 1 Madness and a Bright Idea.
• Mad starting Notebook tile: Triggering this requires gaining 1 Madness in addition to the tile's effects.
• Pets Module: You may subtract 1 or 2 from your Inkpot’s movement to advance your Pet up its track to trigger specific effects (e.g., Return 2 Madness). You must move your Inkpot at least once.
• Gramophone Module: Spend one Heart-Shaped Box (Standard) or one Mad Insight (Nightmares) to take the Gramophone. While holding it, you may add +1 to any limited actions/effects showing the specific icon (e.g., placing 3 Ideas on the Meeting Table).

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends according to base game rules. Before Final Scoring, a final Madness Check is performed.

Madness Check Resolution

1. The player(s) with the lowest Madness level announces their number.
2. All players return that amount of Madness to the supply.
3. Each player with remaining Madness loses Victory Points equal to their current level (or twice their level in the Mad variant).

Final Scoring Criteria

• Uncanny Case-Study Clients: If they reached Catharsis, they score Victory Points based on specific Mad Insight qualities:
  • 6 Victory Points for each Mad Insight within the indicated dial section (max 18).
  • 6 Victory Points for each dial section with at least one Mad Insight (max 18).
• Haunted Location Goal: The first player to reach 13+ Madness claims this tile (providing a wild Location tag), but it does not provide a Reputation point.

Tips for Winning

• Leverage Madness: Use the Madness reference card to trigger beneficial effects, such as moving your Professor counterclockwise or Transferring Median Insights freely, to optimize your movement and board state.
• Strategic Overcompensation: Use Mad Insights to substitute for lower-level Insights, allowing you to fulfill Dream requirements more flexibly.
• Manage the Gramophone: Use the Gramophone to increase the limit of your actions, such as treating each of your clients twice in a single turn or increasing the number of Location effects triggered.